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If your idea of paradise is a beach where the only hotel in sight is the one you’re staying at, the Riviera Maya is not for you. While property used to be sold in rectangular lots, the long edge facing the sea, land is now marketed in narrow slivers, making for a somewhat crowded beachfront. Some resorts are luckier than others: Paraiso de la Bonita is adjacent to protected mangrove land, so it has no neighbors on one side, and Maroma was built early enough to encompass acres of jungle and a long stretch of beach, although a 410-room Secrets is being constructed minutes away. The just completed Mayakobá and soon-to-open Mandarin Oriental are within walking distance of each other on the busy stretch of beach between Punta Maroma and Playa del Carmen, and it will be interesting to see how these luxury giants stake out separate identities in such close quarters. In Tulum, the thatched-roof palapas are clustered together but because most of them only have a few rooms, the grouping generally feels like an easygoing village.

You may not be alone on the beach, but each of the resorts covered in this report is unique and makes the most of its location. To help you choose the one that best suits your sensibilities, expectations and desired activity level, we’ve included a short guide indicating who should and should not stay at a particular property, as well as which rooms to get, at the end of its entry. All rates listed are for the high season, typically from November through Easter.

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This residential and hotel development between Cancún and Playa del Carmen has been in the works for a decade, representing a $1.5 billion investment by Spanish construction company OHL (Obrascon, Huarte, Lain). Eventually, the 1,600-acre complex will encompass four luxury hotels, including a Fairmont, Rosewood, Banyan Tree (opening in 2008) and Viceroy (opening in 2009). From the outside, Mayakobá looks like many other Riviera Maya resorts—a gated community with groomed paths, manicured landscapes and a big-name golf course—but this project is ecominded. It was designed not only by architects and construction companies but also by teams of biologists, who studied the fragile environment before suggesting how it might be developed in a sensitive and sustainable manner.

One result of this approach is the site’s relatively restrained occupancy: density rules would have allowed up to 3,900 rooms to be built on the site; Mayakobá will have “only” 1,200. The hotels and residences are gathered around an elaborate system of freshwater canals and lagoons, and guests get around using electric boats. During the building process, thousands of native trees and other flora were transplanted. Still, judging from my conversations with several locals, not everyone is thrilled with the massive Mayakobá, which also includes a Greg Norman–designed golf course. Time will tell how it develops once all the hotels are up and running. For now, guests can book only at the Fairmont, which has received mixed reviews, and, the Rosewood, which opened in December 2007, but is already almost booked completely for next Christmas.