Located on a sandy, clothing-optional beach directly south of Tulum, the adults-only Azulik Tulum is one of the most visually stunning and unique boutiques in the region. This place is deeply connected to the Earth. Its name is Azulik Uh May, and it’s described by its founder, the environmentalist and self-taught architect Jorge Eduardo Neira Sterkel (known simply as Roth), as a “city of the arts”. Upscale property merges gorgeous Mayan architecture, beautiful views, and close proximity to nature to create a rustic-luxe off-the-grid experience. Electricity and Wi-Fi are in short supply here (including in rooms), and everything is made of wood and local natural materials. With candlelit rooms, a spa with yoga, meditation and healing sessions, and gorgeous restaurants with lounges on wooden platforms above the canopy, Azulik draws mostly couples.
Suspended among the trees on Tulum’s dramatic coastline, Azulik is no more a hotel than it is part of nature. Connected by a maze of hand-crafted wooden walkways, the 48 villas are barely distinguishable from the jungle, while the body of the hotel is absorbed by tropical plants. It’s been carefully designed to preserve and embrace the local ecosystems. Not a single tree has been cut to make space for the buildings here. This explains the trees threading their way through the various pavilions – each edifice was simply adapted to accommodate their presence – and the uneven floors, which have prompted a no-shoes policy.
The villas of AZULIK Tulum were designed to create an atmosphere for rest, where limit of technologies (no air conditioning, television, Wi-Fi or electric light) is reducing its impact on the environment and our ability to get in tune with our surroundings.
Furniture formed from fibreglass and woven vines. The dome is crowned with a “flower of life” – a group of circular structures that overlap like petals – and the main structure unfurls according to the proportions of the Fibonacci sequence (a gradually increasing series of numbers that’s reflected in all kinds of growth patterns, from plants to animal populations).
Azulik Uh May can become the 21st-century equivalent of her Venetian paradise, with environmental activism accompanying a visionary approach to abstract art.
