Hotel Profile: Las Palapas

One of Playa’s original hotels, Las Palapas is still one of its most revered. It’s a bit north of the main strip (34th Street, near Playa Mamitas), so the beach is a touch more secluded, and there are no rocks, making it a great place to play in the water.

There is a shady pool, Mayan-inspired lawn art, and an interpretive walking trail through the jungle. The hotel’s 75 rooms are housed in spacious individual cabanas near the beach or in two-story villa-like buildings with palapa roofs and private porches, built around a pair of grassy courtyards.


The beachfront rooms don’t have air-conditioning, but most of the rest do. Rates: range from $160 for a standard room up to around $200 for a beachfront cabana.

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Las Palapas Info & Reservations
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Airport Transportation
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Riviera Maya Guidebook

Hotel Basico - Playa's Most Unique Property

Básico is a concept hotel owned by the same company that runs Deseo, just down the road. It has 14 rooms, including three suites, housed on three floors and built above Quinta with an entrance on 10th Street.

The beige facade owes its unusual color to the Caribbean sand that was mixed with concrete to form its solid walls. The design was conceptualized by a well-known avant garde design firm in Mexico City called Omelet, since, as management says, it takes “huevos” to do the kind of design they do. The theme is rooted in 1950s Mexico and Latin America, when oil production and construction boomed and beach vacations were a sign of prosperity.

The building shines with creative use of tile (imported from Mérida), glass, rubber, and latex. Rooms have high beds with built-in minibar and lighting system, exposed plumbing, a corner rain shower, TV with DVD player, and colored neon accent light, plus air-conditioning and a security safe. The ground-level juice bar doubles as the front desk. The patio level features a Veracruz-style seafood restaurant, and the visually striking rooftop terrace features canopy sunbeds, a trendy bar, projection movie screen, ocean views, hammocks, and two smallish plunge pools, modeled after holding tanks commonly found at Mexican oil fields.

Guests have complimentary use of the hotel’s three-wheeled bicycles during their stay. Rates range from around $150 (patio view) to $235 (ocean view) and are slightly more in high season.

More:
Info & Reservations - Hotel Basico
Info & Reservations - Hotel Deseo
Riviera Maya Hotels
Airport Transportation
Tours & Activities
Riviera Maya Guidebook