3 Best Hotels in Costa Esmeralda (Emerald Coast), Veracruz

Azúcar specializes in barefoot luxury, and many of the guests are honeymooners. Thatch-roof bungalows gather invitingly around a sunken pool overlooking waves crashing 20 feet away. Private open-air seating allows you to take in the ocean view from a daybed of plush pillows or a colorful hammock. Private outdoor showers, straw hats, and whimsical furniture lend a sense of fun, while flat-screen TVs and pristine white rooms provide touches of elegance. An optional package for a minimum of four people includes two nights, one dinner, airport transfers, and round-trip travel from Mexico City on a Cessna 206. The hotel also arranges trips to El Tajín.

As it's beyond the strip of hotels along the highway, this sprawling property is more private, with wonderful gardens to explore, a small area with crocodiles that you can study from behind a fence, and a pleasant beach that few other than fellow guests hang out on. The hotel can arrange bike and horseback rides.

This well-designed, whitewashed hotel is the most elegant along the strip. Each spacious room has a TV, DVD player, and balcony overlooking the hotel pool, which is just off the beach. White walls and white linens contrast with a few pieces of dark-colored furniture. The hotel has a DVD library and a palapa with video games, a pool table, and board games like chess and Scrabble. The small third-story bar, overlooking the water, hosts karaoke on Friday and Saturday.