The Buzzy New Riviera Maya Edition at Kanai Boasts the Largest Penthouse Suite in North America

Destination resort The Riviera Maya Edition at Kanai officially opened with a kick-off party over the weekend of Feb. 23-25 attended by guests including Alessandra Ambrosio, producer Ryan Good, Karrueche Tran, Lucien Laviscount, Gia Coppola, Ella Balinska, models RJ King and Sophie Sumner and fashion designer Prabal Gurung.

The first Caribbean property in the Edition hotel portfolio (a partnership between hotelier Ian Schrager and Marriott International), The Rivera Maya Edition is located on a 620-acre nature preserve next to the St. Regis Kanai Resort, another Marriott property that debuted in March 2023. Room rates start from $729  (excluding tax and fees) per night at editionhotels.com or through Booking.com.

In anticipation of A-list guests and their entourages, the Riviera Maya Edition offers a super-sized 27,000-square-foot penthouse suite — the largest in North America — with five guest rooms (each with its own plunge pool, jacuzzi and private terrace), a catering kitchen and guest kitchen and a landscaped entertainment area with an infinity pool, two DJ booths, hammocks and cabanas for $40,000 a night. An elevator leads to the basement, connecting to a service walkway below the public palm-tree-lined walkway to the ocean, allowing VIPs to be whisked privately to the beach in golf carts. CAA television agent Ben Levine stayed at the property in December.

“When you go into a nightclub and there’s an excitement in the air, you can all feel it,” said Schrager, who famously co-founded Studio 54, in a Zoom conference with press. “You might not be able to pinpoint it or define it, but we all feel it. That’s the magic spot. That’s what we’re out for when we do a hotel. Being in the nightclub business gave me a leg up when I went into the hotel business, because I’m not selling a bed; I’m not selling food at a restaurant. I’m selling that same magical experience that I sold in a nightclub … that same immersion and experience and zeal.”

The upscale 182-room resort, designed by architect Michael Edmonds of Edmonds International, was built with an eye to reducing environmental impact, situated within a mangrove forest and featuring design elements inspired by the sacred Mayan underworld. “All the buildings are on stilts, allowing water to circulate underneath, and every tree you see on site has a concrete pylon under it,” says Edmonds. “There are over 3,000 pylons in the development.”

The resort has a conservation and sustainability program, with two biologists on site, to help protect the surrounding mangroves, sea turtles and other local plants and wildlife, as well as to manage sustainability practices on the property.

A sculptural bamboo yoga-events deck designed by Tulum artisan and bamboo specialist Eduardo Neira is the heart of the property, perched above the spa, where there are hydrotherapy pools, a Turkish hammam and an infrared capsule room. A lagoon-like swimming pool with floating cabanas flows from the lobby, while an ocean-side infinity pool sits adjacent to a pier with ten cabanas at SO’OL Beach Club.

Interiors were designed by the Ian Schrager Group in collaboration with New York-based architecture and design firm Rockwell Group. One wall is filled with 80 black-and-white film stills by Mexican cinematographer Gabriel Figueroa as a tribute to the Golden Age of Mexican cinema, while another showcases Mayan sculpture and vases. Throughout the interior and exterior are bold pops of vibrant color, from gardening pots to pillows, flowers to furniture.

Dining is led by two award-winning Mexican chef-restaurateurs. Francisco “Paco” Ruano helms KI’IS (a Mayan word meaning “zest”) with a tasting menu focused on regional ingredients, as well as Kitchen, offering all-day comfort food with highlights such as ceviches, Yucatan pork stew and cochinita pibil. Tomás Bermúdez runs the more casual SO’OL Beach Club (“so’ol” translates to “oyster” in Mayan), where the Mediterranean meets Mexico with local seafood offerings. Ruano’s and Bermúdez’s Guadalajara restaurants, Alcalde and La Docena, were recognized, respectively, on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list and Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurants list. The Lobby Bar serves up regional wines and agave spirits.