Cancun's New Luxury

A resort complex just south of the spring break destination aims to meld posh amenities with eco-friendly development.

- Nikki Ekstein

In the final weeks of 2021, even as the omicron variant scuttled many holiday vacations, travel specialist Zachary Rabinor was busy “stuffing a couple million dollars” worth of clients’ bookings into a brand-new hotel 35 minutes south of Cancun.

Etéreo, a 75-room Auberge resort, was an easy sell: Its casita-style rooms are built on wooden platforms that look out on a pristine shoreline. And it had opened just in time for the festive season, making it one of the only places with inventory for a last-minute trip.

“Here’s the thing about the Riviera Maya,” says Rabinor, the founder and chief executive of Journey Mexico, from his home across the country in Puerto Vallarta. “Everybody is ending up there right now no matter how far down it starts out on their travel wish list. I mean everybody.”

Chalk that up to two things. First, Mexico is the rare destination without the usual Covid-19 entry requirements. You don’t need to show proof of vaccination or a negative test, or to quarantine. Second, the stretch of coast that lines the Yucatán Peninsula from Puerto Morelos to Tulum has easy access: U.S. airlines saw such a pronounced spike in demand early in the pandemic, they reassigned their large transatlantic aircraft to fly direct to Cancun from airports across the Eastern Seaboard. From the New York area alone, there are an average of 57 direct flights each day.

“It’s helped people finally realize all the things that are so great about Mexico: the culture, the food, the hospitality,” says Rabinor, who’s worked in the country’s tourism industry since the 1990s. “The pandemic did my work for me. Now Mexico is having the moment of moments, the year of years, the decade of decades.”