The city of Tulum on Mexico’s Riviera Maya coastline has been dazzling visitors since the Spanish arrived 500 years ago.
For £7 you can visit its temple ruins and altar where human sacrifices were once made. There's also the cool bliss of Cenote Calavera – cave pools with bats flitting in and out.
Wildlife is also on show, with iguanas standing like a prehistoric army guarding the clifftop Mayan temple.
Locals tell me Taqueria Honorio serves the best tacos in Tulum and I’m soon glad that I listened.
My hotel, Motto by Hilton Tulum, features a rooftop terrace with two infinity pools overlooking the immense jungle of Jaguar National Park.
I sip on the signature Clementine cocktail – a mix of tequila, Aperol, agave syrup and habanero bitters, £16 – while watching pelicans fish the surf.
Rooms are compact but stylish, but the hotel has teamed up with luxe beach club Bagatelle, a 15-minute taxi ride away, to offer free entry and seafront loungers to guests.