10 jul 2007

*HOT SPOT. If you are sick & tired of the same beaches.

YOU KNOW WHAT WE ARE TALKING ABOUT.

+++Always a traveler, never a tourist
Playa del Carmen, Mexico


It's a brave concept for a hotel: modeling the entire aesthetic on the industrial oil rigs of 1950's Mexico. Especially for one that's "moored" at the hedonistic Caribbean adventure playground that is Playa Del Carmen. But Hotel Basico - the chic offering from boutique hoteliers Grupo Habita pulls it off with unapologetic conviction.click thumbnail for a full-size view

The gist is as follow. The building, perched on Playa del Carmen's exclusive Fifth Avenue shopping and restaurant strip, references Mexico's rustic petroleum industry, with the rooms looking out onto a central mess hall-like restaurant area (note: best fish tacos in the 'hood). Above is a rooftop cocktail bar that features luxurious cabanas made from the back of old trucks with inbuilt mattresses and white-as-white cushions, two concrete petroleum tanks that serve as swimming pools (note: from the pool you can sip old-school margaritas and look down on the crowds below and out to the Caribbean, one block away). Breezy house music and handsome hotel staff waft throughout the building all day. Effortlessly surreal.



In the rooms, no detail is left un-themed. Exposed pipes with fire hydrant-style taps run along the walls. An industrial-strength bath and the king-sized, multi-purpose bed (perched on an elevated palate) sit in the middle of the room. Everything is exposed and raw; the toilet is the only thing in the room concealed. There are rubber curtains on the floor-to-ceiling window and pulley chain detailing throughout. The signage around the hotel references the typography of Mexican taxis from the 1950s. Superbly construction-worker chic!
CHECK:
*www.hotelbasico.com