Hotel Esencia

The hotel boasts immaculate rooms, exceptional service, and a convenient location. Guests appreciate the well-maintained amenities and serene atmosphere. However, some might find the decor too minimalist.

While the grounds are immaculate, the rooms are impeccable, and the food is sensational, the standout feature at Hotel Esencia is the staff. Everyone is personable, charming, attentive, and simply delightful to be around. We are a family with young (under-11) children who spend very full days at the beach — building sand castles, snorkeling, kayaking, stand-up paddle boarding, and riding ‘seabobs’. The staff helped us navigate between activities and did so with genuine smiles and laughter throughout. Plus, the hotel arranged and guided us on a fantastic excursion that included snorkel and swimming with the manatees at a nearby lagoon (highly recommended!). We would encourage everyone to ‘wake up starving’ because breakfast is phenomenal with pancakes, eggs, smoothies, French toast, and breakfast sandwiches to rival the very best otherwise offered in Mexico City. We will be back and sincerely recommend the Hotel Esencia experience!

Hotel Esencia is the perfect blend of elegant, secret and chic. If you are driving north on the 307 you will miss it if you blink. It is a nondescript green sign on the side of the highway. But if you are lucky enough to pull off in time, a secluded paradise awaits. Apparently it was the private villa of an Italian duchess (part of the Ferrari family?) in the 90’s to early 2000’s before being turned into a boutique hotel. She must have been quite the partier because the place is sick. You walk along a narrow jungled path until you reach an open plaza with perfectly manicured St. Augustine grass, peacocks and a well designed restaurant patio, adorned with hammocks and chic loungers. Continue along the path and you eventually get to the main house which is a stunning white and terracotta building with a beautiful salon where they have an afternoon tea and coffee service. Step out onto the patio and you are looking at the most perfect pool and just beyond that, the Gulf of Mexico. Everything is perfect. The colors the smell, the iguanas and the faint but repetitive lapping of the small waves. While the set and setting are perfect it is the quality of service and friendliness of the staff that stands out. I have a natural aversion to being waited and doted on, it makes me uncomfortable and aware of the unfairness of our economic system, think White Lotus. But at Esencia while the service is absolutely impeccable the staff was easy to talk to, funny and it wasn’t long before I was practicing my Spanish and making jokes. Everyone was personable and attentive; Kennedy, Alfonso (Poncho), Francisco (Pancho), Apollo, Willy, Daniel, Elias, Marcos, and others who I can’t seem to remember (I blame the Palomas Xatics, best drunk out of a cold coconut). By day two it felt like we were surrounded by friends more than staff. The attention to detail was also impressive. At 4pm everyday they switch out the pool lounge chair cousins from white to black. It took a decent amount of effort and had they not done it I probably would not have noticed, but once they did do it I understood why. It changed the whole vibe from “pool day” to “romantic cocktail hour”. Another detail that I absolutely loved is that during the turn down service they wrap your cell phone code in a little embossed leather band. One of the coolest parts of Esencia is that they have access to a private cenote/mangrove lagoon that is home to a family of manatees. Unfortunately we did not get lucky enough to see them despite taking the tour twice (thanks Marcos). The beach is picturesque, although there was a decent amount of seaweed, which is unavoidable this time of year. We had 2 different rooms over the course of the stay. Both were big, airy, super white and clean which gave them a modern yet refined feel. Both rooms had personal plunge pools that we sat in each night enjoying the sunset. Over the course of the four days we barely got a chance to experience the amenities. We did