Una Vida
Medicinal compound
Tranquilo Tulum Town
Mexican sunshine is transformed at every turn at laid-back leafy retreat Una Vida: you’ll find it streaming through rustic wood slats, tickled by palm-thatch roofs and mellowed by abundant tropical planting. Mid-pool is where you can really soak it up – and with R’n’R your only calendar commitment, you’ll have oodles of time to perfect your preferred lounging spot, disrupted only by the urge for refreshing Mexican plates from the hotel’s open-air kitchen or cooling cocktails from the palapa bar. Convivial evenings that end around the fire pit are a fittingly contemplative footnote to blissful poolside days.
Facilities
Rooms
20.
Checkout
11.30am; earliest check-in, 3pm. Earlier check-ins are free but subject to availability; there’s a 50 per cent room charge for late check-out, which must be agreed ahead.
More Details
Rates are room only, but you can buy breakfast à la carte from $10.
Also
Una Vida welcomes guests with disabilities: some ground-floor rooms and suites are wheelchair accessible, as are the restaurant and bar; you’ll just need wheels sturdy enough to handle the ‘breezeway’ paths around the grounds.
Free Internet Access
Laundry
Pet Friendly
Pool
On-Site Restaurant
Room Service
Spa
At the Hotel
Yoga shala; temazcal (sweat lodge); bikes to borrow; laundry service; concierge; free WiFi in rooms and some communal areas (not property-wide). In rooms: air-conditioning and ceiling fan; coffee maker, and free bottled water.
Our Favourite Rooms
We love Jungle Studios, with their private courtyards and outdoor bath tubs. If you opt for a one-bedroom suite, request a ground-floor one, as these come with an outdoor tub and indoors, a double shower. Three-bedroom Villa Jacinta is Una Vida’s home-from-home option, sleeping up to seven, with a full kitchen, private garden and pool.
Poolside
A heated, chlorinated pool is at the heart of the hotel: picturesque walled plant-beds jut into its oblong footprint, providing privacy between stretches of cushioned single- and double-day-beds at its perimeter; a family-friendly shallow area at one end is divided (underwater) from the main swimming space. The pool is beside a shaded outdoor living room and handy for the hotel’s palapa bar. Further dips are available in a private pool for Villa Jacinta guests, and in trough-like plunge pools with some of the Tropical King rooms.
Spa
There’s an unheated pool at Una Vida’s spa, plus therapy rooms for a choice of massages, including couple’s treatments.
Packing Tips
Let the hotel’s look inspire you: textural pieces in neutral hues, made from natural fabrics (bamboo, linen, hemp), are complementary.
Also
There are free-to-borrow bikes for cycles to town or the coast. And the hotel can arrange shuttles to the beach for a surcharge.
Children
Welcome: one-bedroom suites each sleep two and a child, and three-bedroom Villa Jacinta is family-friendly. The hotel can arrange babysitting, too. Our view, however, is that there’s more of an adults-only ambience at this laid-back stay.
Gallery
Food & Drink
Top Table
There are no let-downs at Ananda; Villa Jacinta stays come with a private dining palapa in the garden that’s sure to make every supper convivial.
Dress Code
Anything floaty or flowing suits the ambience of this laid-back stay; accessorise with sculptural jewellery, or throw in a vibrant-print sundress to shake things up.
Hotel Restaurant
There’s a healthy steer to plates at Ananda restaurant, where the cuisine is recognisably international and features Mexican favourites: start the day with baked-egg-topped chilaquiles; perfectly pink grilled tuna and salad for lunch, and poached chicken in a seafood broth for dinner. Even the lime-stuffed margaritas manage to look wholesome… Mirroring the indoor-outdoor design of the hotel’s rooms, the restaurant space is thatch-ceilinged and open to the grounds for lantern-lit dinners alfresco.
Hotel Bar
The thatched palapa bar at Una Vida faces the pool and has high stools beside its polished-wood counter, as well as lounge seating and takeaways to your poolside day-bed. As you’d expect of a Tulum stay, cachaça and tequila feature in its cocktail line-up, and by evening the scene is transformed with ornately paned pendant lights, counter-top candelabras and tea lights twinkling their welcome.
Last Orders
Breakfast is served from 8am until noon; other service times vary by season.
Room Service
There’s no room service at Una Vida, but the kitchen kit in studios, suites and the villa give you the option to dine a casa – and Ananda’s all-day welcome is only a barefoot saunter away.
Planes
Tulum International is the closest airport, around a 40-minute drive from the hotel; shuttle or private transfers can be arranged through Una Vida at extra cost.
Automobiles
There’s free parking on site at the hotel, including wheelchair-accessible spots.
Worth Getting Out of Bed For
You may find Una Vida’s relaxing superpowers detrimental when it comes to exploring beyond the tassel-count on your hammock… Yoga sessions, a temazcal sweat lodge and sound healing are all on offer a casa. For forays beyond the hotel, Una Vida’s concierge is happy to arrange customised tours of archeological sites such as the Tulum Ruins or the iconic Mayan pyramid at Coba, a 45-minute drive away. Accessible from Tulum Pueblo, sunbleached sands lapped by the aquamarine Caribbean Sea run south from Playa Ruinas to Playa Las Palmas. Inland, nearby snorkelling and scuba spots include a choice of cenotes: the turquoise pools and caverns of Gran Cenote; nearer Calavera (which has a rope swing), and L-shaped Cenote Azul, which has pools of different depths, and is 30 minutes north of Tulum Pueblo by road. Take a kayak tour through the teeming-with-life lagoons of Si’an Ka’an Biosphere Reserve. Or experience Mexico’s natural wonders as immersive installations at Mystika, where Mexican heritage – Mayan culture, wildlife wonders and healing traditions – is celebrated through visual art.
Earn or Redeem Points with World of Hyatt
This Mr & Mrs Smith hotel participates in the World of Hyatt loyalty program. As a member, you can earn and redeem points and enjoy exclusive benefits for qualifying nights. .
