In the 15 years since we'd last visited Maroma Resort and Spa^THC, our lives had become more chaotic, largely due to the addition of three children and their busy schedules. So, as we contacted Hideaways to book our trip back to the idyllic resort of Maroma, it was with great hope that little had changed at the quiet, charming, and oh-so-restful Riviera Maya resort.

We knew Maroma had doubled in size to 63 rooms since our 1998 visit, and we'd heard that the area's pristine beaches had fully recovered from Hurricane Wilma in 2005. But would Maroma's elegant isolation and delightful staff still be intact? The new entrance to Maroma from the highway was clearly upgraded with a carved sign, guard stand, and crushed-stone driveway—a complete contrast to the intriguing wooden gate tended by a local Mayan in a plastic chair that we had encountered a decade and a half earlier. As we made our way down the mile-long road through the coastal jungle, we found ourselves missing the former rutted dirt track and were apprehensive that Maroma might have gone glitzy and surrendered its understated appeal.