HotelChatter

With just five rooms total—a separate one-bedroom casita, two deluxe suite king rooms, and two adjoining studios with double twin beds—the resort is an intimate experience meant to be shared by small groups. That’s a good thing, because thanks to its open-air rooms (no windows, no curtains), privacy can be a little hard to come by.

Though deluxe, the experience is still a bit like glamping, with open-air showers in the en-suite bathrooms, as well as mosquito netting around the beds (which is a good thing since there are some ravenous insects around), no televisions, and low-watt bulbs which make grooming a secondary concern. That said, there’s still WiFi in the common area, and the point of coming here is to reconnect with nature, so we just relaxed into it and fell asleep each night, lulled by the sound of the phosphorescent waves crashing in the distance.

Some of the other amenities we enjoyed while we were there included the saltwater pool, prearranged morning yoga classes, home-cooked meals made with local organic ingredients served family-style, bottomless beers and refreshing micheladas (in addition to those inimitable margaritas we mentioned earlier), “movie nights” projected against a white wall on the patio, and nature hikes through the resort’s estuary and archaeological sites on the property.

We were also keen to check out the much-hyped turtle sanctuary at Playa Viva, and over the three days that we were there, we released nearly 3,000 newly hatched baby sea turtles.

Among the other environmental initiatives that earned Playa Viva a Verde Ventures grant from Conservation International include rigorous conservation efforts in the two local estuaries, like the planting of over 10,000 indigenous trees, developing “permaculture” or self-sustaining organic agriculture with farmers in the local watershed, building with renewable materials like bocote and bamboo woods and palapa roof leaves harvested right on the property, water conservation through recycling and advanced filtration, and the fact that the entire resort is powered by a single small solar array.

Who knew a beach vacation could be a great way to help the environment? If you want to do your part, rates start at $195 for the studios, $295 for the deluxe suites and $350 for the private casita.

Full disclosure: Eric Rosen spent three nights as a guest of Playa Viva on assignment for another publication, but all views expressed are entirely his own.