Food and drink
Guests need not venture far for breakfast: each morning, the Hotel Esencia team delivers hot coffee or tea on the outdoor table of each guest room, as well as a basket full of pastries. For larger meals, there’s an on-site café with orange muffins and buttery croissants, a juice bar serving up fresh smoothies and acai bowls, and three restaurants: an omakase, a beef bar, and a Yucatán eatery offering dishes with a Mediterranean flair, from a green gazpacho topped with fresh crab to grilled octopus layered with a creamy garlic mole. For evening cocktails, there’s also a split-level, palapa-style beach bar where the property hosts mezcal and tequila tastings.
Hotel Esencia
The spa
When guests first enter the property’s circular spa compound, they’re greeted by an altar with a figure of the goddess Ixchel at its centre, the Maya deity of love, the moon, and fertility. The statue is surrounded by glowing lanterns, palm fronds, and plumes of copal smoke billowing from a clay cup, which practitioners use to cleanse guests upon arrival. Myriad spa treatments inspired by traditional Maya healing rituals are on offer, as are facial therapies from the all-natural skincare brand Tata Harper. Before or after a treatment, guests can also enjoy the spa’s many amenities: steam rooms, jacuzzi-style plunge pools, swiss showers, an infrared dry sauna with jungle views, and a relaxing waterfall pool. There’s also an on-site temazcal, which guests can book with advance notice to experience an ancestral healing ritual that offers deep detoxification through a hot steam bath created by pouring herbal infusions over hot stones.
Hotel Esencia
