Originally the private home of an Italian duchess, Hotel Esencia is a place where the traditions of the past blend with the cosmopolitan art of living well today. This secluded oasis sits where the Yucatán jungle dissolves into the pristine sands of the Xpu-Ha bay, one of the remaining undeveloped shores of the Mayan Riviera.
DIVE INTO ESENCIA
In 2024 Hotel Esencia was honored with two of the highest distinctions awarded to hotels worldwide: The inclusion on The World’s 50 Best Hotels list for the second consecutive year; and the coveted Three Michelin Keys, given by The Michelin Guide to the best of the best in all hotel categories. We are extremely honored and proud that our team has been awarded such recognitions.
Hotel Esencia is also the first and only independent hotel in Mexico to be awarded The Forbes Travel Guide Five Stars, four consecutive years, in 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025.
Awards
Michelin Guide
Three Key Winner 2024
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One of 3 honored hotels in Mexico, and one of 10 in North America
The Telegraph UK
September 2024
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The Telegraph Hotel Awards - Ranked #34 Worldwide
The Goop List
Winner 2024
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26 Exceptional hotels to stay at this year
The World's 50 Best Hotels
2023
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Ranked #19 Worldwide
Forbes Travel Guide
Five Star Rating
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2025, 2024, 2023, 2022 - Forbes Travel Guide Global Luxury Rating
Condé Nast Traveler
Gold List 2023, 2019 & 2018
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The Editor’s all-time favorite hotels 2023
The 23 best places to go in 2023
Quotes
"Magazine worthy interiors mix Mid-century treasures with Mexican antiques; three restaurants include an excellent Japanese Omakase; and service is pitch-perferct, with spoiling extras."
The Telgraph UK
"The area’s chicest beachside retreat, beloved by tastemakers"
Condé Nast Traveller
“The most heavenly hotel on Earth”
The Sunday Times
"...one of the most stunning hotels in the world.."
Goop
"One of the 23 best places to go in 2023"
Condé Nast Traveler
"A holiday at Hotel Esencia is truly an unforgettable experience"
AD Italia
"Gold List 2023"
Condé Nast Traveler
"Hotel Esencia earned the 2021 Wellness Star of the Year awards in 2021 for spearheading an inspiring a wellness initiative, focusing on design and amenities that enhance wellbeing: introducing the Rooftop Wellness suites."
Forbes Travel Guide
“Hotel Esencia has secured its reputation as one of the world’s premier beach resorts—a spot that prizes quintessential service as much as it does the embrace of privacy.”
Architectural Digest
"Mexico's best Spa"
Forbes
"Hotel Esencia's Presidential Bungalow, crowned with a private beachfront: a potent cure for serious cases of cabin fever"
Robb Report
"The jewel of the Riviera Maya... It is extraordinarily well done, refined and understated – a place to relax, disconnect and sip margaritas all afternoon."
The Telegraph UK
"Esencia is a beautiful, well-run, relaxing hotel,
sitting on a 50-acre estate that once – fittingly – belonged to an Italian duchess. This is where you come to escape, relax and rejuvenate next to the turquoise ocean, under sunny skies."
The Telegraph
"An anomaly among the mega resorts between Cancun and Tulum."
Forbes
“Hotel Esencia…feels like your most stylish friend’s beach house”
Virtuoso
“Heavenly…our own little slice of paradise…one of the coast’s most fabulous boutique hideaways.”
Evening Standard London
"If there is a lovelier spot in the Caribbean, it is hard to think where."
Conde Nast Traveller
"The best Margaritas in Mexico."
Condé Nast Traveler
"…the best of the best in the Yucatan Peninsula, the ultrachic Esencia is the hard to find beach hotel that Hollywood has inevitably found..."
Vanity Fair Italia
"Hotel Esencia is #1 - Top Resorts for a Destination Wedding in Mexico."
Brides Magazine 2018
"Hotel Esencia offers intimate luxury of the most elite kind, and an alternative to the vast five-star resorts."
The Telegraph
"If there’s any place on earth where Mother Nature waved her wand with extra gusto, it’s Mexico’s Riviera Maya."
Robb Report 2017
“Only 40 highly coveted keys at this mainstay of the New York movida...along gleaming-white Xpu-ha beach and in the dense palm forest.”
Financial Times 2017
"Even at capacity, one seldom notices other guests. It’s the supremely intimate ambiance and the naturally serene environs that set you at ease and ultimately convince you that the place is all yours."
Black Book
"Relax at Hotel Esencia where the pristine powder-white sand beach is semi-private and flanked only by private homes. With the brilliant blue of the Caribbean sea, and your own private tiki hut to take in the views this beach is paradise."
Fox News
"Be spoilt in the organic spa, sunbathe on miles of tropical beach and order tequila cocktail after tequila cocktail."
Harper’s Bazaar UK
"Hotel Esencia sits on the eastern tip of the Yucatán Peninsula as the pinnacle of unpretentious refinement and luxury.”
Drink Me 2018
"The hotel’s white-sand beach, complete with turquoise waters and thatched cabanas, is the nesting ground for sea turtles, and the hotel’s staff alerts guests when the eggs are hatching."
ABC News
"An emblem of luxury beach holidays in the Mexican Caribbean"
Vogue Mexico
