Cenote Del Mar Tankah Bay Tulum

Cenote del Mar is specified closer to a hotel than to a rental, and the detail is where that shows. Hypnos mattresses in the bedrooms, Dyson and GHD equipment in the bathrooms, and a level of finish that most private houses never attempt.

Eight bedrooms spread across eight thousand six hundred square feet on a completely private run of Caribbean beachfront in Tankah Bay.

The split matters. Six double suites fill the main villa and two four-person apartments occupy the guest house, so twenty guests travel together without living on top of one another. Families with young children in particular tend to take the guest house.

The interiors are elegant and organised around a wellness core drawing on Mayan heritage. There is a gym and treatments can be arranged in the villa.

Terraces and loungers face the private sand, with an outdoor kitchen for meals by the water, and housekeeping runs daily.

The effect is a five-star resort reserved for one group at a time.