JW Marriott Los Cabos Beach Resort & Spa, Los Cabos, Mexico

For a while now, the Marriott brand has come to be synonymous with business travel; one of many in a line of corporate, faceless hotel chains.

Yet in recent years the group has been making an effort to change this perception, most visibly through its luxury arm, JW Marriott Hotels & Resorts. In January 2015 this was boosted with the launch of Los Cabos Beach Resort & Spa, a sprawling property designed by Jim Olson/Olson Kundig Architects that sits amongst the dunes of Mexico’s Baja California Sur.

In addition to 299 rooms with ocean views, the resort includes the new concept of a hotel within a hotel by way of The Griffin Club, an exclusive 45-room boutique property for guests seeking extra privacy, which includes a cinema and private beach. All guests, however, may enjoy the expansive art collection, which includes paintings, sculptures and drawings by artists such as Jaume Plensa and Angel Otero. These are housed in buildings designed by Olson to look as though they “grow out of the environment”. As such, the structures are carved from concrete and stucco to blend in with the surrounding sand, while travertine marble-covered corridors merge with soil aggregates and blur the lines between interior and exterior.

Elsewhere, high-traffic areas like the lobby are open-air and framed by the horizon; outside two infinity pools appear to converge and meet the ocean in the distance, a optical duality that only strengthens the resort’s connection with its environs. For local flavours, margaritas and the like are mixed to perfection at P’yote Rooftop Bar, and the seven restaurants include the Mexican fine dining Café des Artistes. Solace of the holistic kind can be found at the Jasha Spa, which features a modern interpretation of the temazcal, a steam bath developed by ancient Aztecs.