GO to Cancun with its newly refreshed high-rise resorts lining powder-soft beaches and its renowned nightlife, or Riviera Maya the coastal resort area located just to the south but a world away in terms of ambience. While Cancun pulses with a 24/7 party vibe, Riviera Maya retains its feel for the past: unspoiled beaches washed by the turquoise Caribbean, eco-parks perfect for snorkeling and Mayan ruins (such as a Tulum and Chichen Itza) to explore.

STAY In Cancun, five-star luxury is on offer at The Ritz-Carlton Cancun an art-filled palazzo-like resort with 365 ocean-view rooms and suites, six restaurants and a Culinary Center for cooking lessons, all set on a 1,200-foot-long beach. For New Age ambience, try 371–room Aqua Cancun where soothing modern design, mood-setting music themed to specific areas of the resort, eight pools and a sanctuary-like Spa Aqua tempt the senses. On Riviera Maya, boutique property Maroma Resort & Spa offers 66 rooms and suites with Mexican hacienda decor, a fabulous white-sand beach backed by lush gardens, and the atmospheric Kinan Spa. The new Mayakoba resort complex, 30 minutes south of Cancun, houses both the 240-acre Fairmont Mayakoba with 401 rooms, five restaurants, five pools, the El Camaleon golf course and the Mayan-inspired Willow Stream Spa, and Rosewood Mayakoba with 128 strikingly modern suites set on natural limestone lagoons in a mangrove jungle; it’s Sense Spa is on its own private island.

EAT at one of three celebrity-chef helmed eateries in Aqua Cancun: MB by noted Miami chef Michelle Bernstein for avant-garde French-Latin-Asian fusion; Siete by one of Mexico’s top chefs, Martha Ortiz, for modern takes on traditional Mexican cuisine; and poolside Azur by Milanese chef Franco Maddolozzo for Mediterranean dishes infused with Asian flair. Casitas at The Ritz-Carlton Cancun, is the region’s only restaurant situated right on the sand; grilled seafood specialties are served in private cabanas. Open-air Punta Bonita at Rosewood Mayakoba offers delicious tapas-like shared plates. For authentic Mayan cuisine, reserve a table in the courtyard at Yaxche in Playa Del Carmen, Riviera Maya’s main town.

EVENT SITES The Ritz-Carlton Cancun offers 27,000-square-feet of meeting and event space and a wide array of “themed” event settings—from Sea Serenity to Mayan Jungle—for either a business or social gathering. Aqua Cancun has 16,500-square-feet devoted to meeting space, with 17 rooms that can be configured to hold anywhere from 10 to several hundred. Fairmont Mayakoba is ideal for corporate gatherings or social events. It has 40,000-square-feet of meeting/event space (27,000 indoors and 13,000 outdoors), plus a Greg Norman-designed golf course for hosted tournaments. Smaller groups (executive-level retreats/board meetings and intimate to mid-size destination weddings) will feel at home at Maroma Resort & Spa which can accommodate 50 people in its multimedia meeting room and has ample dining/entertainment space for receptions.