The Family Boutique

HOTEL ESENCIA

When a hotel's address is a dirt track off an unnamed highway, you know you've hit upon a true hide. away—the kind frequented by Mexican soccer stars and pop singers. Formerly a private estate (the Italian duchess who owns it is still occasion ally in residence), Esencin, which opened last year, has 29 exquisitely spartan guest rooms and suites with all-white bed linens, white floors, and baIconies, most of which look out over the sea. Families might be more camfortable colonizing one of the 10 garden Suites, each with out door showers and private plunge pools, or the two two-bed room cot tages, which have kitchens(includ ing chef services), media rooms, and their own full-size pools where kids can frolic when they're not at the hotel's family pool or on the bliss fully empty beach.

Many of the amenities are undeni ably geared toward grown-ups—the new organic spa with massage tables by the sea. and Sal y Fuego, the area's befit restaurant (which serves Mayan style steamed sea bass and tiny local bananas in spicy chocolate sauce un der palm-roffed palapas hung with hammocks). But the resort has re cently also begun to cater to kids. The expanding roster of children's activi ties, available on request, includes yoga sessions, cooking classes with the resident pastry chef, horseback riding, senba instruction, and choco late massages (usingcacao bean oil); na nnies are also on call full-time. Plus there's always the beach to comb for toenail shells and coral. and in a pinch, the restaurant is ready with enough chocolate ice cream in home made waffle bowls to quiet the must truailent toddler.