Zamaya is the most ambitious fitness resort ever built: a purpose-designed training campus in the jungle outside Tulum, on Mexico's Caribbean coast, with room for up to 200 guests across a boutique hotel and 48 private three-bedroom villas. It opened in 2026 and nothing else in the fitness-travel world comes close to the scale or the finish.

This is a luxury bootcamp in the true sense. The days are serious: two coached sessions a day across CrossFit, HYROX, HIIT, Muay Thai, boxing, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, Olympic lifting, Pilates and yoga, run by a resident coaching team. The facility is on a scale nothing else in fitness travel approaches. At its centre is a massive covered, fully matted gym. Beside it, a huge indoor matted hall built for Brazilian jiu-jitsu and the combat arts. Above it all, a Pilates studio with glass on every side that looks out over the entire resort. A running track is built into the grounds, winding between the pavilions, the pools and the villas, so a morning run is part of the architecture rather than a trip to the road. Jungle, water and training spaces run into one another without a fence or a car park in sight, and the Recovery Block sits a short walk from the restaurant, which is built around performance nutrition. Recovery here is a department, not an afterthought: a sauna, a jacuzzi, three ice baths, a sensory deprivation chamber and eight massage rooms.

It all sits in the jungle, yet some of the best beaches in the world are a short drive away. Then you walk back through the jungle to your villa. Every villa is 240 square metres with three bedrooms, three bathrooms, a full kitchen, a private pool and garden, and floor-to-ceiling doors that open the whole living space to the outside. Hotel suites, for those who prefer them, are 56 square metres with a private roof terrace. Housekeeping, concierge and room service come as standard.

Our week runs 10 to 17 January 2027 with ten places, hosted by Book Fitness Retreats, with a fitness assessment and personal plan on arrival, a Tulum ruins excursion, a cenote trip, three deep-tissue sports massages and airport transfers from Cancún included. It suits anyone who trains and wants a week that is both the hardest and the most comfortable they have had: all levels are coached, group sizes are small, and the setting does the rest.

Tulum itself is the other half of the week. This is the stretch of the Riviera Maya that the rest of the world copies: a long white-sand beach on turquoise Caribbean water, backed by jungle rather than high-rises, with the Mayan ruins standing on the cliff at its northern end. The beach road is a line of open-air restaurants and beach clubs built from wood and palm, where afternoons drift from a swim to a late lunch to a sunset with your feet in the sand. Inland, the cenotes, the freshwater sinkholes that riddle the limestone under the jungle, are the coolest swim you will ever have after a hard session, and the Sian Ka'an reserve begins just south of town.

The atmosphere is the point. Tulum is barefoot and unhurried by day and lively by night, somewhere between a surf town and a sanctuary, and it attracts people who train and eat well without making a fuss about it. Zamaya sits in the jungle on the uptown side, a short drive from the beach, so you get both: a campus built for serious training, and a town built for the hours in between. January is the dry season, warm days, cooler nights and clear water, which is why we chose it.

What's included

Two coached training sessions a day across CrossFit, HYROX, HIIT, Muay Thai, boxing, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, Olympic lifting, Pilates and yoga Fitness assessment and a personal training plan on arrival Suite accommodation inside the training campus Breakfast and lunch daily at the resort restaurant (performance nutrition) Welcome and farewell dinners Three deep-tissue sports massages Full use of La Cima gym, the Main Pavilion, the pool and the Recovery Block (sauna, jacuzzi, three ice baths, sensory deprivation chamber, eight massage rooms) throughout your stay Tulum Mayan ruins excursion and a cenote trip Airport transfers from Cancún International Airport Co-working space and cinema room

What's not included

International flights Travel insurance Dinners other than the welcome and farewell dinners Extra massages and specialist physio treatments Alcoholic drinks Villa upgrades (on request) Excursions outside the programme