These “Magic Towns” Have Some of Mexico’s Most Exotic Hotels

Tepoztlán

Tepoztlán, just over an hour outside of Mexico City, is a world away from that metropolis’ busy pace. A universe, even. The tiny town is a mecca for the mystical, with the dramatic Tepozteco ridgeline, capped with a stone pyramid, emitting energy from above. On weekends, its colorful cobblestone plaza and winding backstreets are crowded with visitors — Mexican and foreign alike — enjoying the capital region’s most popular day trip.

Amomoxtli is Tepoztlán’s crown jewel hotel, a lush, luxurious retreat in the town’s quiet outskirts. An eye-catching pool in the shadow of the mountains is a centerpiece, and its spa, with a menu of ancient treatments, is the best way to tap into Tepoztlán’s healing properties.

Bacalar

They say that the Bacalar lagoon shines in seven colors, a palette of blues and greens that stretch calmly through the thick Mayan jungle. This is a remote destination, home to rarely visited ruins, unspoiled nature and the kind of quiet hard to find in many Mexican resorts.

The growing hotel offerings that ring the lagoon reflect that diamond in the rough quality, with Boca de Agua a standout example. The property’s stylish villas, filled with light and clean contemporary lines, were designed by leading Mexican architect Frida Escobedo to tower amid the jungle canopy. Follow the wooden pier out into the water itself to explore the lagoon, by paddle board, kayak or sailboat.

Tulum

It’s been some time since Tulum had the charm of a dirt road small town, but outside the beachside raves and pricey green juices, there’s still magic in this spot along the Caribbean Sea. This is a storied area — the only city the Mayans built along the coast — and in its more remote reaches, the tangling jungle and sacred cenotes are a reminder of a resplendent past.

Wakax Hacienda belongs to that ideal of Tulum. The hotel sprawls over nearly 400 forested acres, 15 minutes up the coast from the city’s crowded hotel zone, with a freshwater lagoon weaving throughout. At its center is an elegant barn-red hacienda, an architectural callback to the region’s history of landed estates lost today in the palm frond design style du jour.

Todos Santos

If Los Cabos is a high-end galleria, full of glitz and glam and desirable big name brands, Todos Santos, an hour up the Pacific coast, is the cool pop-up bazaar. The quiet beach town is an if-you-know-you-know favorite, a low-key community with stylish and historical finds amid the stunning desert and beach.

The Todos Santos Boutique Hotel — to continue the metaphor — is the oil painting you snag that turns out to be an Old Master. The stately brick property, set in the small patch of downtown, is beautifully composed, with eye-catching furnishings and a unique full-wall mural in each of the rooms.

San Cristóbal de las Casas

High in the mountains of Chiapas, Mexico’s southernmost state, San Cristóbal de las Casas is the picture of a charming colonial pueblo. Around the Baroque yolk-yellow cathedral, stone streets lead out in a grid, by a row of arched arcades and the storybook two-tiered gazebo. It’s a familiar setting in small towns across the country, but San Cristóbal’s is the peak of the form, as its Pueblo Mágico status makes clear.

Hotel Bo is an outpost of modernity within all that history. Rooms are set in bright colors and handsome woods, with woolen accent throws that are very welcome in the high-altitude chill. Its restaurant is a gathering place for refined locavore dishes and live music.

Zihuatanejo

There’s an aura of intrigue around Zihuatanejo, a speck of a beach town on a hook-shaped bay along the Pacific. Local legend says La Madera and La Ropa beaches got their names (which translate to wood and clothing respectively in English) from the debris that floated ashore from merchant ships scuttled by 18th-century pirates. When Tim Robbins’s and Morgan Freeman’s characters make it out of prison in “The Shawshank Redemption,” they reunite along the Pueblo Mágicos’ lapping blue waves.

That sense of escapism lives at La Casa que Canta, a rustic collection of suites built into a cliff crowded with palm trees. The hotel has a look that’s straight from an adventure tale: winding stairways, hanging gardens and curving pools all carved into the rocks.

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