New York to Cancún = 4 hours
Booze-addled spring breakers represent just one facet of this seaside city’s transcendental tourism; on the flip side are the beatific body-as-temple types, here to worship the sun and om with the tides just as they might in Tulum or Puerto Vallarta. A twenty-minute ferry ride from the city center, the 32-room Na Balam on Isla Mujeres (from $110; Zazil Ha 118; nabalam.com) hosts yoga classes in its garden and beach studios; guests who stay the night can swing themselves to sleep in a hand-woven hammock. Back on the mainland, visitors at Live Aqua Cancun (from $250; Kukulkan 12.5; feel-aqua.com) can do t’ai chi or yoga outdoors, cool off with a dip in one of eight temperature-variable pools, then lunch at the resort’s Michelle Bernstein–designed restaurant, MB. The nearby Gem Spa at the Fiesta Americana Grand Coral Beach (Kukulkan 9.5; 998-881-3200) spans 40,000 square feet and specializes in healing-rock treatments using amber, jade, and obsidian (from $120). The Kayantá Spa at the Ritz-Carlton, Cancún (36 Retorno del Rey; 998-881-0808), meanwhile, tempts with papaya-melon body wraps ($180 for 80 minutes) and a menu that’s detox without being diet (local-catch ceviche washed down with chaya water made from an iron-rich local shrub). It takes major Zen to brave downtown, but pockets of peace do exist for more intrepid souls: B.Org Deli & Organic Boutique (Gladiolas 16; 998-200-1244) is a must for organic veggie wraps and smoothies, and Ashtanga Vinyasa classes at the It’s Yoga Cancún studio (Av. Nichupte 16; 998-889-9927) start at just $8.