Fairmont Heritage Place Mayakoba

Each residence here is a full house, not a room. The three-bedroom villas run from 285 to 427 square metres, and the four-bedroom penthouse spans 560 square metres, each with a private terrace, a barbecue and a plunge pool of its own. Floor-to-ceiling windows pull in the morning light and the green of the garden view. Inside, a fully equipped kitchen, a washer and dryer, a dining room and a separate living room let guests keep their own rhythm rather than a hotel one. The resort around the villas holds ten pools and a mangrove forest the property has worked to preserve. Golfers can walk the adjoining El Camaleón course, an 18-hole design by Greg Norman that runs through jungle, mangrove and along the Caribbean shore. Beyond the greens, the estate offers catamaran trips, snorkelling, paddle boarding and kayaking on its network of lagoons and canals. Pets are welcome, a detail families travelling with dogs will note. It is a stay built for time rather than a night or two: cooking dinner in, watching the light change over the lagoon, then walking down to the reef the next morning.