Selva Sal, Tulum

We arrived in the thick green heat of a Tulum afternoon, having chosen, deliberately, the town side rather than the beach road with its bumper-to-bumper taxis. Selva Sal hides behind a plain concrete wall on a side street off Avenida Tulum, and reveals itself slowly: a path of rough limestone pavers winding through banana palms and rubber trees, the drone of cicadas, then a low monolithic building of board-formed concrete, its grain still legible in the grey. Reception is little more than a shaded desk open to the garden. Someone pressed a cold hibiscus water into our hands, the planting closed in around the path, and the town beyond simply disappeared.

The room

Our room was a study in restraint: bare concrete walls, a polished chukum floor in pale putty, a platform bed under a sweep of white mosquito netting. A single large window framed nothing but jungle, and the only colour came from a woven hammock and a stack of rough cotton towels. There was no air-conditioning by design; instead a quiet ceiling fan and the cross-breeze through louvred shutters kept the room surprisingly cool, helped by the concrete's mass. The bathroom was open to a tiny private garden, with a rainfall shower under the sky and a slab of local stone for a basin. Amenities were minimal and good: coconut soap, a clay carafe, beeswax candles for the evening.

It is Tulum with the volume turned down, which is the only way Tulum should be done.The Suite Edit

Service & food

The team is small, sincere and runs on island time, which is mostly a virtue and occasionally a test of patience. The open-air kitchen sends out a short, sharp menu built around the day's catch and the garden's herbs: grilled fish tacos, a ceviche bright with sour orange, charred sweet potato with chiltepín. Breakfast brought tropical fruit, huevos motuleños and strong coffee taken at a long communal table. There is a tiny bar, but the real centrepiece is the plunge pool, spring-fed and genuinely cold, the temperature of a cenote, ringed by palms. We ended each day there, then drifted to the yoga deck as the light went amber through the trees.

The verdict

Selva Sal is for travellers who want Tulum's jungle calm and design credentials without the beach-road circus or its prices, and who are happy on a bicycle. Couples and yoga-minded solo travellers will love its hush. Two honest caveats, really one: the rooms have no air-conditioning, and while the design manages the heat cleverly, anyone who wilts in tropical humidity should test a night before committing to a week. It is also in town, a ten-minute cycle from both the ruins and the sea, so beach-from-your-door purists should look elsewhere.