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The Riviera Maya unfurls along 81 miles of Mexico's Caribbean coast, a ribbon of sun-drenched white sand visited by almost 3 million travelers a year. Over the last decade, development has spread at lightning speed, and the area now has 37,000 hotel rooms (a number expected to double by 2025), ranging from rustic hideaways to boutique hotels and from sprawling luxury resorts to budget-friendly all-inclusives. Don't know the difference between Xpu-Há and Xel-Há or Maroma and Mayakobá? No problema. Getting the lay of the land is as easy as heading south from Cancún International Airport on highway 307, the thoroughfare that leads directly to all the Riviera's best-loved beachy spots. 

PUERTO MORELOS

The gateway to the Riviera is Puerto Morelos, one of the area's few remaining fishing villages, 12 miles south of the airport and a world away from the high-rise glamour of nearby Cancún. Although the beach here isn't as impressive as others farther south – the salt-and-pepper sands don't glisten quite as brightly, and seas sometimes have turtle grass underfoot – there are plenty of advantages to staying in or near the small, sleepy town, not least of which is that visitors can arrive at the airport mid-morning and be relaxing on the beach here by lunchtime. On Sundays the strand is popular with a local crowd, but it's otherwise quiet, and part of the world's second-longest barrier reef lies less than a mile offshore in a protected marine reserve. Best of all, the village offers an authentic, small-town Mexican experience. South of town, the undeveloped beach just past El Cid Marina is one of the best spots for sandy seclusion (but beware the quicksand-like road).