Mexico

By coast: Rosewood Mayakoba on the Riviera Maya for lagoon serenity — all-suite, boat-accessed, superb for families; and One&Only Mandarina on the Pacific for cliff-top drama and privacy. Each leads its category; the right answer depends on the trip you want.

November through April for dry, reliable sunshine on both the Caribbean and Pacific sides, with Christmas–New Year booking many months ahead. Hurricane season (roughly June–November) affects the Caribbean side more; rates soften accordingly. Wine-country trips peak at harvest, August–October.

For food-and-wine travellers, yes — Baja's wine valley has become Mexico's culinary engine, and the cooking at the better bodegas stands up against anywhere in the country. One caveat we would rather give you now: there is no hotel in the valley at the level we normally book, so treat it as a day or an overnight out of Ensenada or San Diego rather than a base. We arrange the driver, the tastings and the tables that need booking.

It comes down to the water. The Caribbean side gives you a warm, flat sea you can see your feet in, cenotes inland and Maya ruins within reach — the easier swim, and the easier trip with children. The Pacific is a different coast altogether: jungle running down to the sand, real surf, cooler water, humpbacks in Banderas Bay from around December to March. You look at that sea more than you float in it. Nayarit is also less built up. And sargassum is a Caribbean problem only.

Sargassum is a brown seaweed that drifts onto the Caribbean coast in mats, broadly April to October and heaviest between June and August. It smells as it rots, and no hotel can promise you a clear beach. Volumes swing wildly from year to year and week to week, and wind direction decides most of it. Serious hotels rake at dawn and some run offshore barriers. If clean water matters more than anything else, travel between November and March, or look at sheltered spots such as Isla Mujeres or the western side of Cozumel. The Pacific coast is unaffected.