Renaissance Cancun Resort & Marina ★★★★★

Xibalba by the Marina, Where Kukulcan Begins

Most of Cancun makes you drive to reach anything that is not a hotel. This one sits at kilometre 1.5, on the Puerto Cancun side, where the boulevard has not yet become a wall of frontage and the water on view is a working marina rather than open sea. The building is a high rise, unapologetically, and its interiors take their cue from Xibalba, the Mayan underworld: dark stone, carved screens, a lobby that reads as a descent rather than an arrival. It is a resort that behaves like a city hotel, which in this district is the rarer thing.

Why It Works

We chose it for what the address unlocks. A guest here can walk to a shopping marina, take the ferry towards Isla Mujeres, tee off on a Tom Weiskopf course next door and be downtown in minutes, none of which is true from the middle of the strip. Every one of the rooms faces water. And the design commitment is real: the Xibalba theme is built into the architecture and the public rooms, not applied as decoration, which gives the place a point of view that a beach tower rarely has.

Why This Location

Kilometre 1.5 is the hinge between Cancun the city and Cancun the strip. Puerto Cancun is the newest quarter of the Hotel Zone, built around a marina, a golf course and a shopping centre, and it is the one stretch where walking somewhere is a normal thing to do. The beach is a few steps from the resort. Marina Puerto Cancun, with its restaurants and shops, is on foot. The ferry docks for Isla Mujeres are close by, and the restaurants and markets of downtown Cancun are a short drive inland rather than a half hour along the boulevard. The airport lies roughly thirty kilometres south.

Fast Facts

• Price: Premium

• Vibe: contemporary, marina side, design led, sociable

• Rooms: 180 rooms and suites in a high rise, in ocean, marina, skyline and panoramic view categories

• Best For: golfers, couples who want a base rather than a compound, travellers mixing city and beach

• Our Favorite Thing About the Hotel: the Xibalba theme, carried through the lobby and the public rooms as architecture rather than as decoration

• Dining: Kaajal for international cooking across three services, Nuup Deli Cafe for breakfast and coffee, Zek Bar for cocktails

• Amenities: outdoor pool, whirlpool, fitness centre, private marina with slips for small boats, adjacent Tom Weiskopf golf course, event space, electric vehicle charging, Green Key certification

• Attractions: Marina Puerto Cancun on foot, the beach a few steps away, the Isla Mujeres ferry docks close by, downtown Cancun a short drive inland

All Water Views, from Ocean to Marina

The 180 rooms and suites are sorted by what they face rather than by size: ocean, marina, skyline, panoramic. The marina categories are the quieter side and the ones that make the setting legible, boats below and the golf course beyond; the ocean and panoramic categories trade that for the Caribbean and the length of the strip. Accessible rooms are part of the inventory. The suites are the ones to book for a longer stay, and the Navigator programme, a member of staff whose job is to send guests to the right neighbourhood address, is more useful here than the concierge desk of a self contained resort.

Three Rooms for Eating and Drinking, and a Marina Beyond

Kaajal is the main dining room, open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, with an international menu that leans on regional produce. Nuup Deli Cafe handles the morning, buffet and counter, for guests who would rather not sit down to a full service breakfast. Zek Bar is the evening room, cocktail led and built for company. Beyond the terrace, the marina takes slips for small craft, and the Puerto Cancun golf course laid out by Tom Weiskopf runs alongside the resort. The pool, the whirlpool and the fitness centre complete the picture without pretending to be a spa resort, which is honest.