Our Habitas Bacalar

The Yucatán is prized by travelers for its engagement with nature, but even here there are degrees; just a few miles from the border with Belize, Bacalar is so wild as to make Tulum look like Los Angeles by comparison. The spectacularly colorful lagoon is the main natural attraction, and as luxurious as Habitas Bacalar may be, its tented A-frames are extraordinarily environmentally friendly, built using traditional low-impact methods, on raised platforms to protect the local flora and fauna.

They face either the lagoon or the jungle, and all of them combine boutique-hotel stylishness with safari-camp proximity to the outdoors. The wellness program borrows heavily from Maya tradition and modern spa treatments, as well as yoga and meditation. A wide variety of outdoor adventures are available, including many ways to experience the gentle waters of the lagoon, beginning with a sunrise paddle board excursion.

Habitas’ arts and culture programming brings local music and traditional crafts to your doorstep. And the restaurant is, partly by virtue of the hotel’s remoteness, strict about its locally sourced ingredients, which are hand-selected by the restaurant’s chefs from nearby farms — here the plant-based cuisine is prized not just for flavor but for its medicinal effects as well.