Calm, contemporary rooms peer over mangroves, dense foliage and milky white sands. Beyond them lies the second largest coral reef in the world, teeming with life. Above it, a generous Mexican sun douses the sea in glitter and gold. It’s hard to believe this grade of serenity and untouched beauty is a mere 15 minute transfer away from Cancun international airport – a welcome surprise after a transatlantic flight. Add to this a plugged-in wellness programme, staggeringly delicious food and a calming Mayan and Mexican design fusion to stow away in, and it’s easy to see why this Yucatán Peninsula resort is popular with discerning honeymooners.
From its private, mangrove-flanked beaches to adventures into its otherworldly landscape, here are 7 reasons to honeymoon at NIZUC Resort & Spa in Mexico.
For modern, Mexican design with Mayan spirit
Aside from its objective good looks, NIZUC’s history is quite compelling. Mayan astronomers used this as a base before it became a retreat for world leaders. They came here to subsume pressures of office in this paradisiacal backdrop of turquoise sea lapping impossibly white sand, much like honeymooners can embrace its sense of isolation today, slowly surrendering to its natural rhythms.
The interiors work to the same brief with a calming synthesis of Mexican and Mayan design. Dark woods and stone abound, providing an Zen-like, restrained canvas for the sea’s ethereal streaks of turquoise and blue. Vast rooms with sky high ceilings swallow up couples fresh from the beach and recall a Mayan temple with soaring timber and intricately carved wooden screens. Couples can glide through smooth, warm water to the pool bar where the sunlight is sieved through contemporary style wooden slats. Greenery and a natural-looking pool in the larger suites’ private gardens soften an otherwise more modern picture than the rest of the resort.
For wellness wonders
The contemporary riff on traditional Mayan and Mexican design agenda is echoed in NIZUC’s wellness ethos. Eighteen treatment rooms an Asian therapy room and private spa villas for couples with pool and outdoor decks. A ‘together’ and ‘romance’ menu lures couples into element-inspired massages a deux, followed by a healthy spa lunch, or a more hedonist Champagne one. Guests float from their Mayan-inspired treatments (expect warm stone healing and meditative scalp massages) to thermal loungers, perhaps via the steam room, sauna or vitality pool. A new NIZUC MedSpa (with a list of non-invasive aesthetic procedures), allows guests to make the most of its professional, licensed team, as well as the spa’s serene, nature-first setting.
A list of wellness activities to peruse in the rooms also takes full advantage of the surrounding beauty, with everything from paddle board yoga to Mayan mindfulness rituals to keep couples busy, in Zen speak.
For exquisite natural beauty
With its location on the Yucatán Peninsula, there is a sense that NIZUC Resort & Spa has been cast adrift from the rest of the world. It’s the sort of seclusion and proximity to nature that honeymooners dream of. The resort’s smooth, contemporary exterior is softened by flushes of green. This foliage spills onto the beach, which is lapped by calm, inviting waters that seem to stretch for eternity.
All 274 rooms make the most of these knockout views – the Garden Suites with balconies overlooking the mangroves, the Ocean Suites with terraces and freestanding baths and the Ocean View Junior Suites with deep-cushioned sun loungers lining photogenic plunge pools. NIZUC’s layout and schedule lets the romantic surroundings do the talking, from three vast, sea-facing pools to sun-downer cocktails along the beachfront with only a warm, light breeze to contend with.
For ultimate privacy
Honeymooners after some peace and quiet will revel in the various layers of privacy NIZUC Resort & Spa cleverly offers, while still nurturing a sense of atmosphere and place. With easy access to the beach, Garden Pool Villas are encased in stone walls, creating a sense of privacy but with more than enough natural light. An adult-only beach and adult-only Ocean Suites guarantee a level of tranquillity most honeymooners expect, as well as the privacy to fully indulge the free standing baths, plunge pools or balconies for lazy breakfasts gazing out to sea.
And with 29-acres to roam or zigzag to-and-from lunch, spa treatments and yoga classes in, there can be days where couples may choose not to encounter another soul. The Master Suite, with its glorious infinity pool and spacious sitting room, offers the sort of privacy you’d expect from a private villa, just with the Resort’s delicious menus, ESPA treatments and seafaring activities at honeymooners’ fingertips.
For staggeringly delicious food
Foodies will delight in NIZUC’s collection of six elevated restaurants, all showcasing cuisines from various corners of the earth, all worthy of an evening. Ramona is the standout – a modern spin on Mexican classics
Breakfast at the relaxed main restaurant, Café de la Playa, is a colourful spread of tropical fruits, juices and pastries, with beautifully presented made-to-order dishes to roll out of bed for. Couples conscious of their eco-footprint should pull up a chair at swanky Ramona where local ingredients guide a refined Mexican menu and views across the bay are romance personified.
A cavalcade of vibrant Peruvian plates roll out at the alfresco Ni, much like the Asian-inspired plates of Sashimi, Peking Duck and Black Cod at Indochine, or Seafood Fettuccine and wood-fired pizzas and at Mediterranean-inspired Terra Nostra (its open-air second floor is one of the best seats in the house for sunset). Couples can recline along La Punta Grill’s pool, an area wrapped in a tangle of green vines and palms, and the go-to spot for fresh seafood and light bites. The best part? Couples relishing the privacy and a particularly beautiful sun-worshipping spot need not move for lunch, they can simply have lobster ceviche and another margarita brought straight to their loungers.
Wedding and honeymoon combined
The Wedding Edition team have clocked a growing appetite to combine weddings and honeymoons in one. Why? Because it can remove stresses often associated with larger weddings, it enables couples to fully lean into somewhere special and get to know their team, and, above all else, tying the knot in an otherworldly landscape only adds to the euphoria.
This is also where NIZUC’s 15 minute transfer truly comes into its own – guaranteeing couples, their families and guests a smooth journey to paradise. The resort’s wedding concierge team reflects its high standards of design, food and service, as well as leveraging them to choreograph an unforgettable wedding and honeymoon for couples. Its tailored approach is truly remarkable: from a Mayan shaman performing vow blessings on the beachfront to tables of flowers tracing natural-like pools for a magical reception setting, the team can turn their hand to anything, keeping the resort’s refined, barefoot luxury spirit in mind.
Those important trimmings around the nuptials are just as important to them – the private, candle-lit suppers with toes dipped into a warm, evening sea, afternoons in the cellar sampling the resort’s impressive collection of wines, and Champagne breakfasts á deux, inhaling the morning coastal breeze over slices of papaya and Motulēno eggs. Just save diving and snorkelling expeditions to the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef, as well as the sunrise kayak, for the honeymoon, both of which will stay etched in shared memory for many years to come.
To explore NIZUC Spa & Resort as a honeymoon option, visit NIZUC.com
