Both first opened less than two years ago. Both are minimalist in name and style… but you do need fairly deep pockets (doubles at the Básico start at US$150; US$170 at Mezzanine).

Básico has just scooped the best "small hotel" accolade in Travel + Leisure magazine’s second annual Design Awards. The T + L jury singled out the Básico (pictured, right) as "small-scale and casual, slightly unkempt and very chic".

The kind of hotel where "you can throw your flip-flops anywhere."

Further down the coast, the ecologically-sound Mezzanine labels itself the "hippest little boutique hotel" in Tulum, and who am I to disagree. It is certainly intimate, with four contemporary suites.

Antipodean owners Brendon Leach and John Kendall installed a self-sufficient system for recycling ‘grey’ waters (from showers, sinks and the kitchen), which are filtered through pipes then pumped out to water the gardens throughout the property.

All electricity used at Mezzanine (pictured below) is generated on site. The Caribbean sun and sea breezes charge a large battery bank that powers the restaurant, lights, stereo system, water pumps and even the pool pump (which runs at least six hours a day).

To supplement natural sources of electricity, a small propane generator runs three to four hours each night, when all the lights are on.

Back in Playa, the 15-room Básico is one of a quartet of Grupo Habita properties – the others being Deseo (just steps away), Habita, and Condesa df, both in Mexico City.

Last April, I shared coffee and pastries with Rafael Micha – managing partner and all round nice-guy – in the resin-tabled restaurant at their sleek flagship hotel located in Mexico City’s swish Polanco district.

I recall Rafael waxing lyrical about the Básico – the new kid on the block at the time.

Two stylish gems on a turquoise sea.

Marsha and Adam Smith painted a serene picture of a recent trip to Cabañas Ana y Jose in Tulum to attend a friend’s wedding.

"The hotel was beautiful (although the restaurant was a little expensive)," Marsha wrote, "but otherwise we really enjoyed our stay there… the beach, the friendly staff, towel art… and best of all, our friends who we don’t see often."

A short distance further south, Jenn saw orange at Amansala, the self styled "bikini boot camp and eco chic resort".

"They had fixed almost everything [by January 3rd] Jenn emailed.

Elsewhere on this blog I’ve written that Wilma actually gifted a few more metres of talcum-white sand to the beaches around Tulum. Still not convinced? Check out these dreamscapes taken by the LocoGringo.com team just two weeks after the October hurricane.

Meanwhile, Jon Chew and family stayed at the Hotel Ojo de Agua in Puerto Morelos from January 23rd to February 3rd. Jon reports that "it was business as usual, including the restaurant and pool." This was good to hear, as the hotel was one of many in the fishing town to suffer a lot of hurricane damage.

"e" pictured the Viva Wyndham Maya resort at Playacar (Playa del Carmen) during her New Year trip.

Finally, I couldn’t resist posting journalist Jon Clark’s jaw-dropping photo (that’s the one above) taken at Playa del Carmen on February 15th. Thanks, Jon.

Ms. Sizzle and her party clearly had fun frocklicking in the turquoise Caribbean Sea and relaxing with a good book and a chilled beer on a perfect white powdery Tulum beach.

I’ve also just caught up with Derbyshire couple, Jason and Vicky Bytheway who flew into Cancún on the first post-Wilma Thomson flight out of Birmingham (UK), just three weeks after the hurricane.

Jason had great things to say about their fortnight at the Riu Tequila (Playacar).

"Whenever we recall our time in Mexico, following such a destructive act of nature," he wrote in an email, "we think of the local people getting on with their lives, wearing a smile on their face and just being so pleased to see us!"

In fact, the beaches even gained a few more metres of white powdery sand.

A good place then to escape the mid-winter freeze for a long weekend. 

Towle and Cassie Neu stayed at Cabañas Copal earlier this month; a couple of nights in a "Garden View" cabaña (#29), "not the best", according to Towle… followed by a switch to a "much better" "Sea View" cabaña (#17).

A maintenance crew was (still) resurfacing the Boca Paila Road (pictured) on February 6th – the day Towle and Cassie rented bikes.

The Neu’s have since returned to Minneapolis… and six inches of snow.

"The region is recovering," Celso writes, "suffering but recovering."

"The Cabañas el Mirador is one of those little paradises, where one can get back to basics (a hammock, sand floor, no electricity or running water). US$10 dollars a night for your own hamaca. The owners, Maria and Humberto, also hail from Monterrey.

"In short, a great place to encounter some very interesting people."

The beach looks in pretty good shape, too. Many of the beaches around Tulum actually gained a few more metres of white powdery sand with the passage of Wilma.

In downtown Cancún, Celso stayed at The Mayan Hostel.

They report in their blog that they stayed at the Hemingway resort, "a lovely little collection of casitas" right on the beach 3km from Tulum.

Italian owner Paola Sbrizzi lost her beach restaurant in the hurricane, but has already started to rebuild.

Hemingway Eco Resort, Carretera Boca Paila km 2.5, Tulum
Tel +52 984 114 2321
calimbo@libero.it

Nathan Hebenstreit has just returned home to Colorado after a week spent on the beaches of Akumal on the Riviera Maya.

"Akumal and south was looking great," he told me. "A lot of work has been done and things are looking good.

"In Tulum you could hardly tell a hurricane had just been through, although Cancun was still pretty bad; many of the trees were stripped and brown…

"Cancun airport was much quieter than usual but the tourists were still arriving."

See more from Nathan’s Flickr photo set