There are a lot of standout golf courses South of the Border—and a lot of luxury resorts—but when the PGA Tour decided to add a tournament in Mexico for the first time, they went to Mayakoba. When the rival LIV Tour decided to go to Mexico for the first time, they also went to Mayakoba. If you want to play golf in Mexico, you might want to join the best players in the world and choose Mayakoba.
But unlike many top golf resorts, this one is about more than golf. Much more.
Mayakoba is home to 28 Forbes Stars (four 5-Star and two 4-Star). I have been several times, and even got the unique chance to visit a couple of years before it opened. The developer held an event to outline what seemed like an outlandish vision—turning roughly 600-acres of challenging terrain into a forward thinking, environmentally sensitive, sustainably focused, luxury resort with four different hotels, each with a significant spa, plus multiple beaches and dozens of bars and restaurants. Shared amenities include 3-miles of nature trails, bike paths connecting it all, a stunning Greg Norman designed golf course, dedicated golf academy (with Jim McLean golf school), and El Pueblito, a village center modeled after the historic colonial plazas of Mexico. In addition to the many shops and eateries within each of the hotels, El Pueblito has a mix of sidewalk restaurants and shops surrounding a parklike Plaza. It hosts art exhibitions, craft markets, live entertainment and cultural activities throughout the year and has a family friendly arcade and dedicated cooking school.
The scope of Mayakoba is highly unusual in North America, most similar to the mega-resorts of Hawaii (Kapalua, Wailea, Waikoloa, etc.) which couple multiple hotels with golf courses and other amenities on a large parcel of land. But unlike Hawaiian resorts—or any resorts I know of anywhere—the hotels, beaches and facilities at Mayakoba are all linked by a series of navigable canals/lagoons. These in turn host a fleet of electric boats and greatly reduce the need for cars within the property. For guests who want to move about under their own power, all of the hotels have loaner bikes, and the path system allows for easy exploration. When you do need a four-wheel lift, such as to the golf course, shuttles are on demand and very responsive.
The minimization of vehicles is part of the ongoing effort to preserve the lush water and jungle ecosystem. There are more than 300 species of birds and native wildlife, plus mangrove forests, and among the first employees of Mayakoba were the team of naturalists who started mapping habitat and planning for sensitive development before ground was even broken. Biologists worked with the architects, and while each hotel has a beach and some have beachfront villas, the hotels were all intentionally set back to lessen waterfront density and minimize coastal environmental impact. Almost a third of the entire property is protected acreage, including the mangrove forests—which have grown and improved in health since the resort opened—and all four hotels hold notable environmental certifications. Mayakoba has won many awards for sustainability, including the Ulysses Prize from the United Nations World Tourism Organization.
I say challenging terrain because most of the Riviera Maya and the Yucatan Peninsula on which it is located is topped with a thick layer of limestone—about70,000 square miles of the stuff. It is costly and difficult to excavate and build on, especially when digging out massive canals and infrastructure. With little top soil, even the simple act of growing grass is difficult. I’ve seen many proposed hospitality projects over the years that sounded great until reality set in, and the logistics behind the creation of Mayakoba suggested that its completion might be unlikely. But a couple of years later, the resort opened, I returned, and it was everything they had hoped for and more. In the years since, it has only gotten better. In the past three years alone, there was $120 million in improvements, which are highly visible.
One of the big pushes has been the expansion of “Mayakoba Experiences,” which include offsite tours and transportation. The resort operates its own fleet of luxury SUVs with full-time employee drivers, uncommon in the industry. Airport transfers include onboard coolers stocked with beer, soft drinks and food (the arrival experience is hard to beat!) and off-site tours include local highlights such as Mayan ruins. They also added the $1.7 million VanDutch Yacht, equipped with Sublue underwater scooters and offered for charters from a two-hour snorkeling trip to full-day cruise with chef-catered meals. The resort has a variety of other watercraft, with fishing, diving, sunset cocktails and all sorts of ocean excursions available.
One of the most interesting experiences is the opportunity for guests to participate hands on in the coral reef restoration project Mayakoba launched a decade ago. Working with two non-profit foundations, there are three coral nurseries in the Puerto Morelos National Park, from which healthy coral fragments are transferred to the offshore reef restoration sites. Guests can snorkel the farms, help with the relocation, and since 2015 more than 2,000 corals have been added.
One thing that I love about Mayakoba is that all of its four hotels have a distinct personality and all are owned by the same local ownership (a Mexican hotel group) as the resort itself, which is very unusual. In most cases a hotel lot is sold to a developer who then contracts with a management brand. This unique setup has allowed the owners to control the quality, reinvest regularly and provide an exceptional consistency of service and products across the entire property. I can think of two different resorts with golf and multiple hotels that opened with Ritz-Carltons as their flagships, then repeatedly downgraded over the years to less and less luxurious brands. But while many hotels flip flop and change management every few years, Mayakoba has stayed the course, and repeat visitors know what they are going to get. The past three years have seen the owners invest $120 million in improvements that range from new beach clubs, restaurants, spas and luxury villas at individual hotels to a brand new dive and watersports center for all resort guests. The golf course also got a major facelift in 2023.
The lodging array also gives travelers addicted to loyalty programs a couple of options, Hyatt’s World of Hyatt (28 brands including luxury names such as Miraval, Alila, Park Hyatt and Thompson) and Accor’s Live Limitless (Fairmont, Delano, Raffles, Banyan Tree SLS, Sofitel, OneFineStay, Swissotel, etc.)
On the other side of the country, Cabo San Lucas is home to multiple luxury hotels from many of the world’s best known brands, and it can be very hard to choose. But in the Riviera Maya, the vast majority of larger resorts are all-inclusive, with a slim handful of small luxe boutique properties thrown in. If these are not what you are looking for, there is little competition outside Mayakoba, making it easily top pick in the large region. There’s even less to choose from for golfers not seeking all-inclusive, and in any case, the Greg Norman designed El Cameleon is the region’s best (I have written extensively on golf in the Riveira Maya and played the other nearby courses). It means The Chameleon, and is so named because it changes character every few holes, with sections that are oceanfront, in mangrove forest, in jungle, and even featuring rocky cenote canyons. It’s like a tour of the region’s ecosystem while enjoying great golf.
Mayakoba is also home to the first and only Jim McLean Golf Academy in Mexico. McLean is one of the world’s top golf instructors (ranked number four by Golf Digest). The school has two-bays equipped with the latest instructional technology, and Mayakoba also has a state-of-the-art practice facility.
In addition to golf, Mayakoba has a full dive and water sports center with SCUBA, jet skis, kayaking, stand up paddleboarding, snorkeling, sailing, fishing and more. You can also kayak or hydrobike on the six miles of crystal-clear canals and lagoons through the resort’s protected mangrove forests. The tennis and racket sports center has regular courts, pickleball and fast-growing padel.
Mayakoba’s lodging pre-eminence in the area is even more important because the Riviera Maya itself is one of the world’s greatest tourism regions, a place I frequently recommend to inquiring friends, with something for almost every taste. It is home to the world’s second longest barrier reef (after Australia), while inland it is full of cenotes, holes in the limestone filled with water that offer great diving and snorkeling. The watersports are world class, from diving to fishing, and the region is full of the most famous Mayan ruins and pyramids (too many to list but highlights include Tulum, Coba and Chichen Itza). There are miles and miles of beautiful beaches, the charming anchor town of Playa del Carmen, the offshore island of Cozumel, many cultural attractions, and excellent food all over the place.
Whether you want to golf, lay at the beach, dive, fish, sail, indulge in culinary exploration or travel back in time, this is the place. The gateway airport of Cancun (south of Cancun itself, as is the Riviera Maya) is a modern airport with a lot of flights from all over the U.S., and a new international airport just opened at the region’s southern end, Tulum. Mayakoba sits pretty much in the center, and while it has always been easy to get to, now it is even easier.
The four hotels within Mayakoba are all excellent but span a nice variety of price points. They are easy to move between but separated enough so that you feel like you are in one individual resort wherever you stay. This is not one of those spots with hotel after hotel lined up along the beach, and nothing is high-rise. Each is self-contained, spread out, and has a feeling of immersive privacy. In past visits I have stayed at all except the Rosewood. Most recently I visited this year and stayed at the Banyan Tree. There are also residences for sale within the Rosewood and Fairmont properties, and some of these are in the rental pool in addition to hotels rooms, suites and villas. Owners have access to all of the facilities across the four hotels.
The two most luxurious are the Rosewood and Banyan Tree, both of which earn the highest possible Forbes 5-Star rating. Both also have Forbes 5-Star spas attached. Rosewood is one of the best U.S. based luxury hotel brands, and I have never been to one that disappointed. The Rosewood Mayakoba completed a $20 million renovation in 2019, and has nothing but 129 suites and lavish villas, and even the smallest suite, the Lagoon Studio Suite, has a private plunge pool and outdoor shower and spans 788 square feet inside and over 1,000 in total. Units have private docks and the check-in experience includes arrival at your room by boat. There are even overwater suites, and the hotel sits on a mile-long stretch of white sand beach. The 5-Star spa, Sense, has eight “island suites”, and a sensory garden. There are seven bars and restaurants with an emphasis on varied Mexican cuisine, as well as a chef’s garden.
Banyan Tree is likewise one of the top Asian luxury brands, based in Singapore but launched in Thailand. It is known for its villa-based architecture, excellent cuisine, and emphasis on spa and wellness, and the Mayakoba location does not disappoint, with villas from 3,153 to 5,511 square feet. The hotel was massively renovated in 2022, adding the expansive new Sands Beach Club, 34 new beachfront pool suites, and 7 new floating rooftop pool lagoon villas. Every unit has its own private plunge or full-sized pool and private garden-style outdoor living area, and some have full outdoor bathrooms with showers and soaking tubs. It has a large and elaborate private beach club, beachfront villas, and an exceptional spa—every therapist comes here from Thailand.
For its number of rooms, the dining options are unbelievable, with a dozen bars and restaurants, and a varied, eclectic selection. They even have live cigar rollers in the lobby bar on weekends. In addition to Mexican there’s a Latin steakhouse with South American flair and open fire cooking, a high-end Italian eatery, an immersion cultural experience serving Mayan cuisine with entertainment, an adult-only tapas and paella spot and even a Kosher restaurant. But the signature is the waterfront Saffron, serving Thai cuisine in honor of the brand’s roots, and this is the most popular eatery within all of Mayakoba, drawing guests from every hotel. Specialized dining options include romantic canal dinners on the resort’s electric boats and private in-villa barbecues, cooked in your garden.
The Forbes 4-Star Fairmont Mayakoba is the largest hotel here, with 401 rooms and suites, including a collection of larger beach and lagoon casitas. Sitting right on the course, it was the first to open and the most golf-centric. It also got a resort-wide renovation in 2022, adding the new Maykana Beach Club, home to a whopping five new dining concepts, plus a new rooftop bar, El Cielo, and updates of its 188 suites. The 37,000-square-foot newly renovated Spa also gets Forbes 4-Stars and features 20 treatment rooms, mineral pools and steam rooms.
The Andaz Mayakoba (Hyatt) is technically the entry level choice, and the only one without Forbes stars, but I stayed here and absolutely loved it. The food was great, and while all of the beaches at the hotels here are exceptional, with gently sloping shallow water stretching far from land, sandy bottoms and protective outer barriers, this was my favorite—and one of the best hotel beaches I’ve seen in the world. The central pool complex spills down to the sand, and there’s just an escapist, tropical flair to the low rise resort. The Andaz features 214 guestrooms, including 41 luxury suites with private plunge pools, multiple restaurants and bars, and of course, a large spa and state-of-the-art gym.
While the lodging choices are very varied, the good news is that there is no wrong choice. You could go to Mayakoba over and over again, stay in different places, do different things and eat at different restaurants, and it would take a lot of vacations to see and do it all. You’re not likely to fit in every great experience available here, but it would be fun to try.