What's New

Mexico City

Starwood Hotels and Resorts plans to open the first St. Regis Hotel (www.starwoodhotels.com) in Latin America in 2007, on Paseo de la Reforma in Mexico City. Owned by Mexican real estate investors Grupo 1818 and developed by Ideurban Consultores, the St. Regis Hotel, Mexico City, will have 189 hotel rooms and suites, as well as 100 private residences.

The Angel de la Independencia (The Angel of Independence Monument, often referred to simply as the "Angel") completed an extensive renovation in 2006, as did the roundabout surrounding it on Paseo de la Reforma, the city's main thoroughfare.

Silver Cities

San Miguel de Allende--The Casa de Sierra Nevada (tel. 800/701-1561; www.casadesierranevada.com), under the ownership of Orient Express, is step-by-step doing an extensive makeover of the guest rooms. For several months this year the section in Parque Juárez will be closed for remodeling.

Bill Levasseur, owner of the B&B Casa de la Cuesta (tel. 415/154-4324; www.casadelacuesta.com), and a long-time collector of masks, has opened a jewel of a museum featuring his treasures. It's located behind the B&B and called La Otra Cara de México (The Other Face of Mexico). It's open by appointment by calling the B&B.

Guanajuato -- This city's tourist information office has changed phone numbers, as it is apt to do every 3 years. The new number is tel. 473/732-1574, ext. 1437.

A small property called Hotel Antiguo Vapor (tel. 473/732-3211; www.hotelavapor.com) adds to the variety of lodging available downtown. It has some pretty rooms and will soon be opening a restaurant and a bar.

A new Hotel Camino Real (www.caminoreal.com) will open by the summer of 2007 on the site of the former Hacienda San Javier (where the old Parador San Javier was). It's downtown, above the Alhóndiga.

The new restaurants in town include the following: El Abue (tel. 473/732-6242), for Mexican with an Italian slant. El Midi (no phone) for fresh salads and light lunch fare, with a Mediterranean touch. México Lindo y Sabroso (tel. 473/731-0529) for good honest Mexican food. There was one notable loss--Chez Nicole has closed its doors.

Querétaro -- The tourism office has provisionally spun off its city bus tours to private concessionaires. These companies have set up tourist information kiosks in some of the downtown plazas, but up until now, they don't offer very good information. Their real function is to sell tickets for the tours. For visitor info, go to the regular office on Calle Pasteur just off the Plaza de Armas.

Gran Hotel (tel. 442/241-8050; www.granhoteldequeretaro.com.mx), which had stood vacant for years, has been reopened. It's the first 50-room hotel I've seen in provincial Mexico that is all nonsmoking. The rooms are luxurious, the location stellar, and the character of the old place singular.

Another property that looks to be an attractive and well-priced hotel should open sometime in 2007. It's in the historic center and has a swimming pool. But it doesn't yet have a name, much less a website. Ask at the front desk of Hotel Posada Acueducto (tel. 442/224-1289).

San Luis Potosí -- The city is better looking than ever now that it has finished an extensive renovation of the historic center, which includes the illumination of several of its most remarkable buildings.

The tourism office has moved. It's now at Manuel José Othón 130, and faces the side of the cathedral.

The National Mask Museum remains closed until sometime in 2007.

Michoacan

With Continental offering nonstop service between Morelia and Los Angeles, AeroMéxico has decided to offer competing service from southern California's Ontario airport.

One of the first acts of the new president was to send 8,000 troops to Michoacán to root out the drug gangs, which are enmeshed in a brutal turf war that has killed over a hundred gang members and police officers. I was recently in the state, and everything appeared quite normal. There seems to be no disruption, and the army's campaign wasn't even the most common topic of conversation.

Guadalajara

There's another lodging option for downtown Guadalajara: Hotel Morales (tel. 33/3658-5232; www.hotelmorales.com.mx), was a landmark hotel in Guadalajara until it closed many years ago. It's now quite a comfortable, well-located place to stay.

Puerto Vallarta & the Central Pacific Coast

Punta Mita will welcome the St. Regis Resort (www.starwoodhotels.com) in early 2008. The resort will include 100 guest rooms--each with private outdoor shower, as well as 65 luxury villas, a spa and fitness center, two restaurants, and the second Jack Nicklaus Signature Golf Course to be located in Punta Mita.

Acapulco & Southern Pacific Coast

By early 2006, over $5 billion was spent on improvements for Acapulco, with an additional $2.5 billion planned in the following 3 years. The city's newest hotels and investment projects are in Punta Diamante (the "Diamond Acapulco" section of town), between the airport and Las Brisas, heading toward Acapulco Bay.

Oaxaca

After the civil unrest that practically closed down the city for half a year, things are returning to normal. Tourists are returning in growing numbers. Businesses have reopened, but a few have closed or changed owners. This was the case with El Naranjo. Chef Iliana de la Vega sold her restaurant and has left the city.

Veracruz & Puebla

There are new hotel options in both cities. In Veracruz, the Gran Hotel Diligencias (tel. 229/923-0280; www.granhoteldiligencias.com) has completely refurbished an old building on the Zócalo that had been abandoned for years. It's now the place to stay when visiting the downtown port area. In downtown colonial Puebla, an unrepentantly modern hotel, the NH Puebla (tel. 888/726-0528; www.nh-hotels.com), has created an attractive space where there was once only an old office building.

Cancun

On October 21, 2005, the Category 4 Hurricane Wilma came ashore Mexico's Yucatán peninsula with winds reaching 242kmph (150 mph). It toppled trees, washed away portions of Cancún's famed white beaches, and damaged the majority of the resort's hotels, restaurants, and attractions. However, relief came quickly, and by 2007 most of the city resort had been rebuilt to look even better than before.

Foremost among Cancún's renewal and restoration projects was the recovery of 14km (9 miles) of beaches. The $21-million beach restoration project used the same silky white sand that the area is known for, dredging it from the sea floor not far from Cancún's coastline to create miles of new beach along the hardest-hit areas. The project, centered primarily on the southernmost stretch of the city's famous hotel strip, is now complete.

The majority of damaged hotels took the opportunity to upgrade their facilities and redecorate their rooms, which has led to a new and improved Cancún. Other enhancements included the replanting of thousands of palm trees, as well as new gardens and sidewalks for the hotel strip's main thoroughfare, Bulevar Kukulcán.

Highway 307, which services the Riviera Maya, is being expanded. Currently the highway has two lanes south and two lanes north from downtown Cancún to just south of Playa del Carmen. The expansion project extends this configuration all the way to Tulum.

At Cancún's International Airport, construction on a second runway and third terminal will be completed by mid-2007. These steps should greatly improve logistics at the airport.

Accommodations--ME (tel. 866/436-3542; www.mebymelia.com) brings to Cancún a new level of minimalist chic by the Spanish Meliá hotel group. This new hotel includes trendy bars, sensual artwork, and chill-out music in the public spaces; guest rooms have distinctive contemporary furnishings and modern amenities like plasma TVs. The stylish Yhi Spa overlooks the ocean and offers every type of facial and body treatment. If you're looking for a hotel to see-and-be-seen, ME is the place to go.

The Ritz-Carlton Cancún (tel. 800/241-3333; www.ritzcarlton.com), reopened on December 15, 2006, after a multimillion-dollar repair and refurbishment project that generated new facilities and expanded services, including a culinary center. The resort also added a tennis program, operated by former pro and ESPN commentator Cliff Drysdale, and upgraded and expanded its fitness center.

Opened in early 2007, the Royal (tel. 800/760-0944; www.realresorts.com.mx) is an over-the-top, all-inclusive, adults-only resort. Luxury abounds, from the stunning infinity pools and gorgeous beach to the gourmet restaurants and sophisticated spa. The elegant marble lobby looks out one side to the Caribbean and the other to the lagoon, and the guest suites offer every conceivable amenity, including two-person Jacuzzis. Guests in the top-category suites have access to BMW Mini Coopers. The all-inclusive package includes gourmet meals, premium drinks, and evening entertainment.

Cozumel

The Presidente InterContinental Cozumel (tel. 800/327-0200 in the U.S.; www.intercontinentalcozumel.com) reopened in November of 2006. It was the final hotel to reopen after the hurricane. The company decided not just to refurbish the hotel, but to also make some serious changes and upgrades. There's a new pool, just for adults. There are several new amenities, but the change is most noticeable in the guest rooms, which are far more comfortable and attractive than they used to be. The hotel is now a member of Leading Hotels of the World.

A new condo development on the south side of town, El Cantil Condominiums (tel. 954/323-8491 in the U.S.; www.elcantilcondos.com), offers handsome studio and multi-bedroom condos for lease by the night or the week. The developer is the owner of Prima Restaurant, a favorite restaurant on the island. He also has plans to open another restaurant on the top of one of the condo towers and has brought a chef from New York to run the show. It's called The Wynston (tel. 987/869-1517). It had not yet opened when I was last there.

There are a few other new eateries in the town. One that might be particularly convenient is Le Chef (tel. 987/876-3437) a gourmet grocery store and deli where you can get all the fixings for a picnic on the beach. Another is Capicúa (tel. 987/869-8265), a tapas bar with an ample menu of main courses.

The Riviera Maya

Playa del Carmen -- Playa is still growing fast. Most of the new growth is residential and condos. But the core part of Playa has remained largely the same.

Acanto Hotel and Suites (tel. 631/882-1986 in the U.S.; www.acantohotels.com) is a lovely little property in a great part of Playa, just off Avenida La Quinta. The property was originally small condos, but it makes a lot better sense as a hotel.

Puerto Morelos & Environs--All the exclusive spa resorts have reopened after recovering from Hurricane Wilma and are more luxurious than ever. Ikal del Mar has changed hands and has a new name: The Tides Riviera Maya (tel. 800/578-0281 in the U.S. and Canada). Maroma (tel. 866/454-9351 in the U.S.) has added some new suites that are beyond any suites it had before. Ceiba del Mar (tel. 877/545-6221 in the U.S.) has invested a great deal in its suites and added penthouses to the top of each of the seven buildings. It has also added another restaurant.

Mayakoba (www.mayakoba.com) is a new golf course resort development between Playa and Puerto Morelos that has attracted a stellar lineup of resorts including The Fairmount, Rosewood, and Banyan Tree--all have spas and border a grand golf course designed by Greg Norman. At present only the Fairmount has been completed. The other resorts will be completed in 2008.

Tulum--The highway to Tulum is under construction. It is being widened to four lanes. When I was last there, construction was completed as far as Paamul.

In the Tulum hotel zone, one of my favorite properties, Sueños Tulum, was closed because of a legal challenge to the property deed. Several properties along this coast have clouded titles, and I suspect a couple more may close.

Merida, Chichen Itza & The Maya Interior

Mérida--A new U.S. consulate was built at Calle 60 #338-K, just north of the Hyatt hotel. The new number is tel. 999/942-5700.

Amate Books(www.amatebooks.com), the English-language bookstore in Oaxaca, has opened up a branch store in Mérida at the corner of Calle 60 and Calle 51.

Campeche--My favorite restaurant in Campeche, La Pigua (tel. 981/811-3365) now stays open until the evening to accommodate visitors (locals don't believe in eating seafood at night). It also enlarged the dining room to accommodate more guests, which will make it a lot easier to get a table now.

Los Cabos & Baja California

SeaWatch, a La Paz-based organization dedicated to exposing and stopping destructive fishing practices in the Sea of Cortez for the past 15 years, is launching a public awareness campaign in Southern Baja to stop commercial fishermen from wiping out reefs and snaring hammerhead schools in nets. Despite promotional materials constantly quoting Jacques Cousteau's claim that the Sea of Cortez is the "world's aquarium," fisheries have declined between 70% and 90% since the 1960s, and nothing is being done to ensure future generations will have fish in the sea. The Bay of La Paz Project, under the auspices of SeaWatch, hopes to limit commercial fishing in various high-pressure areas, thereby allowing fish populations to reproduce. To find out more, visit www.seawatch.org or call tel. 503/616-4421.

Accommodations--Sol Meliá rolled out its new brand, ME by Meliá, this year, transforming The Meliá San Lucas into ME Cabo (tel. 624/145-7800; www.mebymelia.com), a chic resort for young-at-heart travelers looking to party in an ultrafabulous setting. New rooms, new style, a new V.I.P. floor called "The Level," and the creation of Passion, already one of the most popular nightclubs in Cabo, all contribute to ME Cabo's new reign as the flagship of hip in Cabo San Lucas.

Desire Resorts opened Los Cabos' first couples-only, clothing-optional luxury resort in the hotel zone of San José del Cabo. Call it decadent, hedonistic, and even downright racy; there's a thriving market that's willing to pay top-dollar for exotic encounters at the all-inclusive Desire Resort & Spa, Los Cabos (tel. 888/201-7551 in the U.S.; 624/142-9300; www.desireloscabos.com)

Attractions--A new, 18-hole Jack Nicklaus-designed championship golf course is open for play at Club Campestre (tel. 624/142-5327; www.clubcampestre.com) in San José del Cabo. Grupo Questro, the masterminds behind Cabo Real and Puerto Los Cabos, are the developers of this new golf course and residential community.

Canopy Costa Azul Xtreme Tours (tel. 624/105-9311; www.canopycostaazul.com) may not be your typical "canopy" tour--there's no canopy--but you will feel the thrill of sailing across the void of the Costa Azul Canyon. Nearly 5km (3 miles) of zip lines crisscross the canyon at varying lengths and heights, all of which elicit gleeful squeals from zip liners of all ages.

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Note: This information was accurate when it was published, but can change without notice. Please be sure to confirm all rates and details directly with the companies in question before planning your trip.

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				Frommer's Mexico 2008 Author: David Baird Pub Date: October 08, 2007 Price: $21.99				Related Titles: Cancun & the Yucatan For Dummies, 3rd Edition Frommer's Cancun & the Yucatan Day by Day, 1st Edition Frommer's Cancun, Cozumel & the Yucatan 2008