Welcome, in coloured rice grains
Belmond Maroma Resort & Spa is the different luxury Riviera Maya hotel. It looks what it is, or was, namely a Caribbean-set private house, established by architect Jose Luis Moreno and his wife Sally Shaw. The 26 acres of land, now mostly covered with gorgeous trees and dense undergrowth, are dotted with 65 casitas in Mexican style. Once again the gal was in #65, downstairs in a two-floor block. Those upstairs had a private rooftop, but #65 was reached via a private terrace with both a shallow decorative pool and a heated plunge pool. From here, it was five steps over grass to the sandy beach – or go straight inside, to find a delicate personalised welcome, in coloured rice pearls, on the bed.
Entrance to the spa
Behind my bed was the ablution area, indoors and out. From the bed, I had a superb 180° view of the beach. through my fan-shaped salon. As well as having my own coffee maker, wake-up coffee, in a thermal pot, was placed outside my main door at the requested time. This way I could watch the sunrise – see above. Since I had my own gym there was no need to head for the main gym, which is remarkably well equipped (there are also bicycles for exploring the locale). After watching the charming taco maker at breakfast on an outside terrace, I headed for the spa, for a real treat. The director, Claudia Enriquez, truly understands the economics of making spas work.
Room service lunch
Claudia cannot practise yield management as unlike her colleague selling bedrooms she cannot change prices once they are published but what she can do is offer incentives at low times, special add-on prices, so to speak. I dined with her, off burrata followed by a kurabata pork chop, with Saeta Cabernet Sauvignon Malbec 2016 Baja California: in room, I had a bottle of Belmond Maroma Resort & Spa Selección Privada 2012 Valle de Guadalupe Baja with, thoughtfully, a note suggesting I call the sommelier to come and decant it here hours before drinking. In fact, the following lunchtime I merely ordered in that great speciality, now of the entire continent, guacamole.
Rainbow on tthe beach
There are so many things that make this luxury hotel memorable. Adelita, the ageless parrot, still deigns to run along her tightrope in front of the hotel’s entrance – see a video. The printed map of the estate has exact opening hours of all the facilities. My room comes with a cashmere throw and a beach bag. You can have Temazcal Mayan healing on the beach, you can help release miniature turtles into the ocean and hope it is not too unforgiving, you can just opt to spend more time here… and then, just before I left, there was a perfect rainbow, for good luck. WANT TO SEE SUITE 65, AND LISTEN TO ADELITA?
