PORTFOLIO

During this strange and uncertain time when travel is limited I thought it would be a good time to reflect on my last holiday which was in October 2019. It feels like a long, long time ago now but I remember it well and dream about travelling to another country as equally beautiful to Mexico in the future. This post will be mainly about the design of the hotel but I’ll also include some thoughts on Mexico and the experiences I had there. The hotel I stayed in was the Platinum Yucatan Princess in Playa del Carmen and putting the disclaimer out there that I went with my parents and they payed for most of the holiday.

This was my first time to Mexico but my parents third time and they had already done a lot of the main tourist activities and trips in the area and I had just finished my Masters degree so we wanted a holiday to chill and relax. This is why we ended up going with this hotel as it was a smaller resort and adults only, the words I love to read in a hotels description, but the design of the hotel was one of the big factors when deciding to stay here. Its a fairly new hotel and in person it looked exactly like the pictures did.

Some of the features I loved about the design was the use of white for the buildings which created a perfect backdrop for all of the greenery, palm trees and vibrant textiles. As there wasn’t an abundance of colours and decorations it definitely felt relaxing and clean, the place was spotless anyway but that was highlighted by the simple design. Simple design does not mean boring though, the use of symmetry, repetition and shadows create subtle patterns that don’t distract the eyes too much and keeps it relaxing.

The nature at this resort was wonderful with lots of trees and bushes that are vibrant green. This also meant there was plenty of animals around including coatis, racoons, iguanas and lots of birds. They weren’t a problem for us and were actually nice to watch in the early morning as they went about the business and I recovered from the tequila.

My favourite part of the hotel for me was the room. I stayed in the rooms away from the main pool so it was always pretty quiet in the pool connected to my room although towards the end of the week more guests arrived who were a bit louder than the previous ones. That is the one downside to this kind of room that backs onto a pool but everything else made up for that. I always had a place to sunbathe, could relax by myself and our waitress Rosie kept the frozen mango margaritas coming all day. The rooms had a similar design to the rest of the hotel in that they were pretty minimal and predominately white with the palm trees and pool framed beautifully. The rooms were always very clean and the pool was cleaned daily with the pool done before most of the guests were awake. This type of room cost extra but in my opinion is worth it.

On a more personal note and less design related, the staff at this hotel were lovely, polite and always spoke to us, giving me the nicknames Princess and Bambino as I was one of the younger guests and there with my parents, which I quite enjoyed as it was usually said as they handed me more tequila. The food was great and I haven’t actually talked about the design of the restaurants that were at the resort as I was too busy eating to remember to take pictures so you’ll have to take my word on that one. This is a lively hotel with many activities on so if a completely relaxing stay isn’t what you are after you can always go to the foam party and join in with the games, or laugh at the people playing the games. I would definitely return to Mexico, and go on more trips, and eat more food, as its an amazing country that I didn’t get to see much of this time round.

I also have to give a special mention to the beach area. I went to watch the sunrise one morning and wished I had gone every other morning I’d been there. The sea wasn’t too strong and there is often a lot of seaweed in this part of Mexico but it wasn’t a problem whilst I was there. There was quite a lot of litter though that had been washed up by the sea but there aren’t many places in the world where this isn’t a problem.

To conclude, I loved my time in Mexico and the design of this hotel was one of the reasons why along with the accompaniment of glorious sunshine of course. I can’t wait till I can go back to travelling but for now I will remain inside and continue staring at my pictures of the places I have been. I hope everyone is safe and can find a little bit of joy from reading my blog, which I promise I will update more frequently.

Pashe