The Riviera Maya: soothe your spirits with a seaside adventure

I’m perched on a cliff top in Tulum, floating in a wooden bathtub filled with flowers. The setting sun throws jagged orange flames across the turquoise sea as a woman gently pours water over my head. This is part of the ‘Mayan Bath’ treatment offered by the Maya Spa Wellness Center – a spa serving three rustic hotels in the former hippie haven of Tulum. Although development and luxury hotels have come fast to the Riviera Maya, including Tulum, hotels such as Azulik, Copal and Zahra offer a back-to-nature option: the thatched beach cabañas have no electricity, there is no noisy nightlife and nudists enjoy the beach.

Image:Sue-Ellen Mason

Sian Kaan Biosphere in Tulum, Riviera Maya.

Once I have been exfoliated with honey and sugar, covered in Mayan mud and washed clean again, it is time to gather up the flowers from my bath and toss them out to sea in a ritual meant to free me of the toxins and stress harbored in my body.

Unfortunately, they don’t seem to want to go away. A high wind whips around the cliffs, picks up the flowers and hurls them back at me. I giggle self-consciously at the irony of it and pick bits of wet flower out of my hair. My therapist is not quite so amused. Spa treatments are serious affairs here.

Along the Riviera Maya, the spa business gets bigger by the day. Whether you are looking for low-key and rustic, all-inclusive and enormous, or exclusive boutique, the Riviera Maya offers hotels and spas to accomodate all tastes and pocketbooks. Taking advantage of the area’s Mayan heritage, most of the spas offer treatments that are, or purport to be, based on ancient Mayan traditions.

On the Xpu’Ha Beach far from what seems like anywhere, you need to be looking out for the sign marking the Hotel Esencia or the highway will whisk you right on by. This delightful boutique hotel, designed like a colonial house with cool, white walls and dark wood furniture is a haven of style and simple elegance. In the Aroma Spa I undergo a Mayan cleansing ritual and visit the kitchen where therapists prepare their products daily with herbs plucked from the nearby garden. Everything smells fresh and earthy.

The Riviera Maya is the place to relax and unwind. It boasts the same turquoise seas and white sand beaches as Cancun, without the big town hustle and bustle. Major -- if that is the right word-- towns in the Riviera Maya include Playa del Carmen, Tulum and Puerto Morelos. But many of the beach hotels are outside these towns and the night sounds you are most likely to hear include chirping insects and lapping waves.

Having spa-ed my way to relaxation, it was time for a little action. The Tulum ruins are one of the best-preserved, coastal Mayan archaeological sites. Although they are structurally less impressive than some of the bigger sites, they are worth visiting if only to experience the sweeping ocean vistas they offer.

Entering the site feels a little like entering an amusement park – stalls selling T-shirts and other souvenirs battle for your attention and the voladores perform their hypnotic, upside-down flying descent from towering poles. It’s definitely laid on thick for the tourists, but there is something fascinating about these men scaling tall poles and spinning downward in time to an incessant drum beat.