Maya Riviera - Esencia
Frank's view 
Beware of the 'Smith' Mexican rave
Imagine a hotel that does not have a bar.
The bar is the heart and soul of a hotel, the epicentre where people meet, mix and chat – where singles hope to make new friends, and where the shy simply 'people watch'.
Esencia, on the Mexican Yucatan Peninsula does not have a bar. It claims to have a bar, but it doesn’t.
Not being familiar with the region, I decided to trust the judgement of an expert, well, Mr & Mrs Smith, actually, the Internet booking agent. Even allowing for the bias of the Mr & Mrs Smith review (chunky booking fees at stake!) I decided that their ‘anonymous’ reviewer was so full of praise for Esencia, the place must really be special.
Camel and companion arrived in anticipation of meeting our ‘personal assigned butler’, just as the Smiths had promised. The receptionist, behind the desk, asked for my credit card “to cover extras” whilst one of the hotel management team looked on. A golf buggy was on standby to transport us along a path to the first of Esencia’s 29 rooms, suites and cottages.
Esencia, like so many of the hotels and resorts on the Yucatan Peninsula, is built on a long narrow strip of land stretching from the main road to the beach. A consideration for potential guests is where you wish to live during your vacation. Most of the rooms and suites are a long way back from the ocean, hidden in vegetation with no view. Some might find this claustrophobic.
I had reserved an Ocean view suite, which turned out to be ‘La Rosa’, the main suite of the hotel and once the domain of the Italian Duchess who built Esencia as her private home.
La Rosa is special. It is effectively the penthouse, claiming the upper floor of the main house. A huge private terrace with private plunge pool has views to both the ocean at the front and gardens at the rear. Inside there is a large bedroom with a desk, and beyond, a spacious bathroom with two washbasins, bath and walk in shower.
The bedroom has a huge window, which looks out over the hotel’s two swimming pools to the beach and ocean beyond. The view out is uninterrupted, but unfortunately, so is the view into the room from the pool area. As occupants of La Rosa, we very quickly learned to be carefully modest when walking around the bedroom. (Nudity is specifically discouraged at Esencia). The window does have a motorised blind, but no middle position. It is either open or closed.
The lack of a doorbell creates a further threat of invasion of privacy. The entrance to the suite is at the far end of the terrace. Maids, minibar-men and room service waiters all pop up, unannounced, from the doorway stairwell.
It was 4.30pm. We had left The Montage, Beverly Hills, almost 9 hours earlier. A wash, then food was required. By 5.00pm we had taken care of the outer body. Now it was time for the inner part and the Hotel Bar Mr & Mrs Smith had raved so enthusiastically about:
‘Sip drinks in the chill-out lounge in the main house, by the pool or on the beach up till 11pm’, teased Mr & Mrs Smith.
The beach bar (by the pool) actually closes at 5.30pm. Indeed access to the beach is strongly discouraged after dark and a guard is present all night to ensure the hotel’s security.
“The restaurant bar opens at 6.00pm”, informed the man in the management office.
“That’s odd”, I thought, but by now it was approaching 6.00pm so we wandered to the restaurant with the challenge of persuading the barman to open a little early.
“The restaurant opens at 7.00pm”, he said.
“But what about the bar?” I enquired, looking around for the bar.
He looked puzzled. “That opens at 7.00pm also”.
Two stools were squidged between a small serving bar and a dining table.
That was the bar.
Compromise was reached and we ordered two margaritas and a seafood ceviche to be delivered to a small table on the verandah where Mr & Mrs Smith had been star struck by Uma Thurman. The ceviche was fabulous and became part of our staple Esencia diet.
We didn’t see a living soul in the chill-out lounge during our entire stay.
Mr & Mrs Smith reported that the restaurant was a subdued family affair in the early evening, becoming more grown up as the night took hold. We experimented with various dining hours during our stay. Families arrived early and made camp for the duration, whilst grown ups gradually emerged during the evening.
One couple, with two young children, each day shared a bottle of wine at lunch and a bottle over dinner. Before retiring to their room they would discreetly pass a ‘nightcap’ bottle to their cutesy 6-year old daughter to carry from the restaurant; a cunning plan, but necessary as the resort was deader than a stuffed Dodo after around 9.30 each evening.
Each day commenced with pre-breakfast beverages and a breadbasket delivered to the room between 7.00am and 8.00am. I had requested English breakfast tea and fresh lemon with additional hot water. On the first morning at around 7.05am a tray emerged from the stairwell followed by a waiter.
Day 2 and the pre breakfast tray appeared at 7.20am, without lemon. On day 3 the clock passed 7.30am, then 7.45am. No sign of the tray. I called room service – many apologies followed, and the tray arrived just before 8.00am with a selection of tea bags, but no English breakfast and no lemon.
What had seemed at first a fine touch had become an irritant. Why not agree a delivery time within a 15-minute period, rather than a random one-hour window? Worse still, not monitoring guest preferences was very sloppy.
Mr & Mrs Smith promised ‘miles of lush tropical beach’.
The Esencia web site was marginally more modest, promising ‘a mile long stretch of Mexico’s best beach.’
The beach is actually around a mile long and very public.
There is a small hotel directly next to Esencia and several more, further along, all with their own crowded sections of sun loungers. The sand may be powdery white but that’s as 'lush and tropical’ as it gets. Don’t bring your desert island discs.
This coast of the Yucatan Peninsula attracts world class kite surfers who provided compelling extreme sport entertainment.
Esencia has two swimming pools, one of which is child-free. The adult pool has nine pairs of loungers and the children’s pool has six. There are also a number of cabanas on the beach. During our stay the hotel was running at around 60% occupancy, which felt about right. I would not want to be a guest when it was full.
The food at Esencia was very good, particularly the various ceviches and other local dishes, and the waiting staff were attentive and friendly.
And so, back to Mr & Mrs Smiths' report of their stay at Esencia:
‘I am so happy and relaxed, I just can’t believe it,’ we (Mr & Mrs Smith) overheard a lithe blonde woman at the next table on the patio (not Uma) say later on our final afternoon, before she tumbled onto the lawn with her Mr Smith for a round of tickling. We watched with the satisfaction of those who knew what she was talking about.'
The Camel and companion’s experience was an altogether more subdued affair. There was no exuberant frolicking on the lawn fuelled by elation and floppy relaxation.
Perhaps we were missing the additional tonic of big booking commissions.
Hotel Esencia
Playa del Carmen
Maya Riviera
Mexico
+52 9848 734830
http://www.hotelesencia.com/
The Private Terrace of La Rosa Suite
The bar is the heart and soul of a hotel, the epicentre where people meet, mix and chat – where singles hope to make new friends, and where the shy simply 'people watch'.
Esencia, on the Mexican Yucatan Peninsula does not have a bar. It claims to have a bar, but it doesn’t.
Not being familiar with the region, I decided to trust the judgement of an expert, well, Mr & Mrs Smith, actually, the Internet booking agent. Even allowing for the bias of the Mr & Mrs Smith review (chunky booking fees at stake!) I decided that their ‘anonymous’ reviewer was so full of praise for Esencia, the place must really be special.
Camel and companion arrived in anticipation of meeting our ‘personal assigned butler’, just as the Smiths had promised. The receptionist, behind the desk, asked for my credit card “to cover extras” whilst one of the hotel management team looked on. A golf buggy was on standby to transport us along a path to the first of Esencia’s 29 rooms, suites and cottages.
Esencia, like so many of the hotels and resorts on the Yucatan Peninsula, is built on a long narrow strip of land stretching from the main road to the beach. A consideration for potential guests is where you wish to live during your vacation. Most of the rooms and suites are a long way back from the ocean, hidden in vegetation with no view. Some might find this claustrophobic.
I had reserved an Ocean view suite, which turned out to be ‘La Rosa’, the main suite of the hotel and once the domain of the Italian Duchess who built Esencia as her private home.
La Rosa is special. It is effectively the penthouse, claiming the upper floor of the main house. A huge private terrace with private plunge pool has views to both the ocean at the front and gardens at the rear. Inside there is a large bedroom with a desk, and beyond, a spacious bathroom with two washbasins, bath and walk in shower.
The bedroom has a huge window, which looks out over the hotel’s two swimming pools to the beach and ocean beyond. The view out is uninterrupted, but unfortunately, so is the view into the room from the pool area. As occupants of La Rosa, we very quickly learned to be carefully modest when walking around the bedroom. (Nudity is specifically discouraged at Esencia). The window does have a motorised blind, but no middle position. It is either open or closed.
The lack of a doorbell creates a further threat of invasion of privacy. The entrance to the suite is at the far end of the terrace. Maids, minibar-men and room service waiters all pop up, unannounced, from the doorway stairwell.
It was 4.30pm. We had left The Montage, Beverly Hills, almost 9 hours earlier. A wash, then food was required. By 5.00pm we had taken care of the outer body. Now it was time for the inner part and the Hotel Bar Mr & Mrs Smith had raved so enthusiastically about:
‘Sip drinks in the chill-out lounge in the main house, by the pool or on the beach up till 11pm’, teased Mr & Mrs Smith.
The beach bar (by the pool) actually closes at 5.30pm. Indeed access to the beach is strongly discouraged after dark and a guard is present all night to ensure the hotel’s security.
“The restaurant bar opens at 6.00pm”, informed the man in the management office.
“That’s odd”, I thought, but by now it was approaching 6.00pm so we wandered to the restaurant with the challenge of persuading the barman to open a little early.
“The restaurant opens at 7.00pm”, he said.
“But what about the bar?” I enquired, looking around for the bar.
He looked puzzled. “That opens at 7.00pm also”.
Two stools were squidged between a small serving bar and a dining table.
That was the bar.
Compromise was reached and we ordered two margaritas and a seafood ceviche to be delivered to a small table on the verandah where Mr & Mrs Smith had been star struck by Uma Thurman. The ceviche was fabulous and became part of our staple Esencia diet.
We didn’t see a living soul in the chill-out lounge during our entire stay.
Mr & Mrs Smith reported that the restaurant was a subdued family affair in the early evening, becoming more grown up as the night took hold. We experimented with various dining hours during our stay. Families arrived early and made camp for the duration, whilst grown ups gradually emerged during the evening.
One couple, with two young children, each day shared a bottle of wine at lunch and a bottle over dinner. Before retiring to their room they would discreetly pass a ‘nightcap’ bottle to their cutesy 6-year old daughter to carry from the restaurant; a cunning plan, but necessary as the resort was deader than a stuffed Dodo after around 9.30 each evening.
Each day commenced with pre-breakfast beverages and a breadbasket delivered to the room between 7.00am and 8.00am. I had requested English breakfast tea and fresh lemon with additional hot water. On the first morning at around 7.05am a tray emerged from the stairwell followed by a waiter.
Day 2 and the pre breakfast tray appeared at 7.20am, without lemon. On day 3 the clock passed 7.30am, then 7.45am. No sign of the tray. I called room service – many apologies followed, and the tray arrived just before 8.00am with a selection of tea bags, but no English breakfast and no lemon.
What had seemed at first a fine touch had become an irritant. Why not agree a delivery time within a 15-minute period, rather than a random one-hour window? Worse still, not monitoring guest preferences was very sloppy.
Mr & Mrs Smith promised ‘miles of lush tropical beach’.
The Esencia web site was marginally more modest, promising ‘a mile long stretch of Mexico’s best beach.’
The beach is actually around a mile long and very public.
There is a small hotel directly next to Esencia and several more, further along, all with their own crowded sections of sun loungers. The sand may be powdery white but that’s as 'lush and tropical’ as it gets. Don’t bring your desert island discs.
This coast of the Yucatan Peninsula attracts world class kite surfers who provided compelling extreme sport entertainment.
Esencia has two swimming pools, one of which is child-free. The adult pool has nine pairs of loungers and the children’s pool has six. There are also a number of cabanas on the beach. During our stay the hotel was running at around 60% occupancy, which felt about right. I would not want to be a guest when it was full.
The food at Esencia was very good, particularly the various ceviches and other local dishes, and the waiting staff were attentive and friendly.
And so, back to Mr & Mrs Smiths' report of their stay at Esencia:
‘I am so happy and relaxed, I just can’t believe it,’ we (Mr & Mrs Smith) overheard a lithe blonde woman at the next table on the patio (not Uma) say later on our final afternoon, before she tumbled onto the lawn with her Mr Smith for a round of tickling. We watched with the satisfaction of those who knew what she was talking about.'
The Camel and companion’s experience was an altogether more subdued affair. There was no exuberant frolicking on the lawn fuelled by elation and floppy relaxation.
Perhaps we were missing the additional tonic of big booking commissions.
Hotel Esencia
Playa del Carmen
Maya Riviera
Mexico
+52 9848 734830
http://www.hotelesencia.com/
The Private Terrace of La Rosa Suite
Be Frank: agree or disagree? What do you think?
