Casa Malca

Casa Malca began as a private mansion on the beach south of Tulum, a house whose earlier life the hotel prefers to keep in the background. In 2012 the Colombian born collector Lio Malca bought it, and two years later he opened it as a hotel built around his own art. The entrance is hung with floor to ceiling curtains sewn from wedding dresses, a red Kenny Scharf figure grins by the pool, and works by Keith Haring and KAWS appear in the corridors and stairwells between the suites.

The seventy odd suites are white, cool and generous, and all of them sleep at least three. Junior and Master Suites on the beachfront open straight onto the sand, while the garden rooms sit among palms behind. Family Village Suites and the duplex Townhouse Labyrinth Suite, wrapped in a hedge maze, are the ones to ask for with children. Dogs are welcome throughout the house, and the beach club treats them as guests rather than exceptions.

The position matters. The hotel sits at the southern end of the beach road where the asphalt gives way to the Sian Ka'an biosphere, so the evenings are quieter than in the club strip further north. Four restaurants cover the day, from the all day Philosophy to Ambrosía for sushi and Head of a Madman for wood fired pizza, and Calma Spa occupies the roof with a view over the Caribbean. A grotto with a waterfall and cold plunge pools hides beneath the gardens.