Casa Tortugas Boutique Hotel – Sustainable Accommodation in Cancun

This post shares our experience staying at Casa Tortugas Boutique Hotel, a small-scale, locally owned boutique hotel in Cancun.

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About Casa Tortugas Boutique Hotel

Hidden amongst a sea of mega-resorts in Cancun’s Hotel Zone, Casa Tortugas Boutique Hotel is a Mexican owned and operated boutique hotel. Offering an authentic and tasteful alternative to the stock standard hotel chains Cancun is known for, staying at Casa Tortugas felt like being a guest in someone’s (very beautiful!) home.

And that’s because it is, someone’s home. Casa Tortugas Boutique Hotel gives meaning to ‘family-owned’ and is managed by a Mexican family. The house is their home too, and you will encounter Alejandro, his wife Cristina and their son Alex throughout the property daily. Management of the hotel has recently been passed on to Alex. And after growing up in the house and watching the property continually transform and improve, he knows a thing or two about it.

His grandfather was the architect who designed the hotel, and he proudly showed us details, such as the intricate stone balustrades, he watched his grandfather labour over. His grandmother is a sculptor, and all of the sculptures you see around the property were created by her. And most of the paintings hanging on the walls were painted by his uncle, including the large and unique mural in the reception. Talk about a creative family!

Casa Tortugas Boutique Hotel is truly one of a kind in Cancun’s Hotel Zone. With just 27 rooms, you won’t be an anonymous guest, and you can be comfortable in the knowledge you are supporting a Mexican family-owned business, not a faceless international hotel chain.

Getting to Casa Tortugas Boutique Hotel

Casa Tortugas Boutique Hotel is located in Cancun’s Hotel Zone. The property is orientated towards the Nichupte Lagoon, offering stunning waterfront views and the perfect place for sunset. But just steps across the road and you will be at one of Cancun’s most popular beaches, Playa Tortugas. The hotel is easily accessible from the airport or Downtown Cancun via taxi or Uber. And if you have a rental car, there is parking available on site.

The rooms at Casa Tortugas Boutique Hotel

There are just 27 rooms at Casa Tortugas Boutique Hotel. But even if all of them were occupied, the property wouldn’t feel crowded. Each room comes with a fully equipped kitchen, giving you the opportunity to cook, or simply make a coffee in the morning. Rooms are incredibly large and spacious, with plenty of storage space meaning you can unpack your bags and really feel at home.

The different room types can cater for a varying number of guests. Ranging from their Studio Suites, Junior Suites and Master Suites which are perfect for 2 adults. All the way up to their large and spacious Ocean Villa which caters for up to 9 guests, and their One Bedroom Suites and Two Bedroom Suites catering for 3 or 4 adults respectively.

We stayed in a Junior Suite, and our jaws hit the floor when we walked in to see the incredible view we had. The sliding doors are fully retractable, and opening them up gives you the feeling of an indoor/outdoor space. After a busy few months of travelling, we had no problem spending a few quiet days at Casa Tortugas. The views from our room were so stunning we didn’t want to leave!

The second thing we noticed was the size of the room. It was large and spacious, with plenty of deliberately open areas. This is often forgotten in hotels, and we find a lot of our time is spent in cramped spaces with no consideration taken of how to move around the room. Well, we can assure you this is not the case at Casa Tortugas Boutique Hotel. The lounge area in our suite was large enough for us to do our morning yoga enjoying the stunning lagoon view!

A split level design, the bedroom was elevated over the lounge area, orientated towards the water view. This is where we really noticed the small design elements that add another level of comfort. Both sides of the bed had power adaptors, and switches for overhead lights. The bed was large and comfortable, with two huge plush pillows each. There were multiple empty shelves and an abundance of hanging space (thank you!). And even though we were just staying for three nights, we felt compelled to unpack our bags, and really get comfortable. The room is inviting, and you instantly feel at home.

We knew our room came with a kitchen, but we have become accustomed to a ‘kitchenette’ which really doesn’t include many amenities. But the kitchens at Casa Tortugas are fully equipped. We had a fridge, stove, sink, microwave, coffee machine, toaster, glasses for every occasion and all the required utensils to prepare meals. We hadn’t cooked for months throughout our travels in Mexico. But we were delighted to stock up the fridge, and enjoy some home-cooked meals. When the view from your room is as good as anywhere in town, we didn’t feel we were missing out on anything staying home! And I have to say, the Smart TV with Netflix was an amazing touch, and we may have enjoyed some Netflix and chill on a particularly rainy day in Cancun!

No matter what room you stay in, you can expect a bright, light and airy space. Every detail has been considered for a comfortable stay. Space, storage and comforts have taken priority in the design, but the style has not been sacrificed with artful touches sprinkled throughout the rooms. Considering the location of Casa Tortugas Boutique Hotel in the heart of the busy Hotel Zone, you won’t hear a thing at night and feel completely secluded.

Communal amenities at Casa Tortugas Boutique Hotel

Inconspicuous from the outside, except for the unique peach tone of the house, once you enter the front door of Casa Tortugas Boutique Hotel your eyes are immediately drawn to the unique and tasteful details. An informal reception area acts as a communal lounge and sitting area for guests, which leads out to the pool area. Beautiful patterned tiles line the floor and walls, and I don’t know about you, but I have big-time tile love and was in heaven! (The tile theme continues all throughout the property FYI fellow tile lovers!). But the real feature in this area is the vibrant orange wall, decorated with cutouts of abstract shapes, animals and plants. Tortugas in Spanish means turtle, and if you look closely you can even spot the trademark turtle logo.

Without a doubt, the hero piece of Casa Tortugas Boutique Hotel is its infinity pool. Set right on the shore of the Nichupte Lagoon, you couldn’t ask for a better view. The pool sits in a manicured lawn area, featuring loungers, hammocks and a small palapa, shaded by swaying palms. The perfect place to relax with a book at any time of the day, the water views will make it difficult to draw yourself away! Unfortunately during our visit, the weather was not on our side, with constant grey skies and clouds. But when the view still looked that great on a dull day, I can’t even imagine what it would have been like with blue skies and sunshine!

The Sunzet Rooftop is another communal space that you can’t miss! Open most days (excluding Fridays and Sundays at the time of our visit) from 5 pm, the rooftop is a relatively new addition to the hotel. We expected a nice view. But when we walked in to find a fully stocked bar with a smiling bartender waiting to take our order, an impeccably designed and decorated space, and incredible sunset views over the lagoon – we were blown away! Alex and his family have done an amazing job converting what was formerly an unused rooftop into the stunning space that it is today. Conserving and recreating the design of the rest of the hotel, you will enjoy the same peach tone, patterned tiles and architectural details.

You can choose from a range of standard and specialty cocktails, or traditional beer, wine or spirits to enjoy while watching the sun go down. Complimentary bar snacks and a carefully curated playlist create the perfect atmosphere. Being on the east coast of Mexico, seeing the sunset in Cancun isn’t actually that easy, but Casa Tortugas has this problem solved. I would plan on wanting to be at the Sunzet Rooftop every night of your stay!

Dining at Casa Tortugas Boutique Hotel

There is no restaurant on-site at Casa Tortugas Boutique Hotel. However, all rooms include fully equipped kitchens. We absolutely love enjoying our morning coffee in bed, and with the view from our room, it was perfect that we had everything we needed to do this. If you want to cook, there is a supermarket just a few minutes drive from the hotel to stock up on supplies. Or if you prefer to eat out, you can walk to many different styles of restaurants, and Alex and his family will provide some fantastic recommendations. As mentioned above, the hotel serves cocktails and drinks at the Sunzet Rooftop in the evenings.

Sustainability at Casa Tortugas Boutique Hotel

The first thing I want to point out is that Casa Tortugas Boutique Hotel does not specifically advertise itself as a sustainable or eco-friendly hotel. But, sustainability goes beyond just the physical environment – a fact that is often forgotten. Society and economy are the other two key components of sustainability, and this is what drew us to Casa Tortugas in the first place.

🫶🏼 Choosing local is one of the best things you can do when you travel. Many even consider this the most important factor of sustainability, above any environmental initiatives a tourism business or hotel might have in place. The need to choose local is amplified in resort towns such as Cancun. Specifically developed for tourism, the Hotel Zone in Cancun is lined with international hotel chains and all-inclusive resorts. Without getting too technical, the problem with this is that most of the profits generated in these businesses do not stay within the local Mexican economy, and do not support Mexicans. Many of these chains are owned and headquartered internationally, and the money generated within establishments in Cancun does not necessarily stay in Cancun.

Casa Tortugas Boutique Hotel is owned by a Mexican family that lives on the property. You can’t get much more grassroots than that. They employ local Mexican staff, and the profits from the hotel are spent in the local economy. Ensuring your tourist dollars have a beneficial flow-on effect in the destination you are visiting, not to an international corporation.

Smaller, boutique hotels such as Casa Tortugas, by their very nature, are also more ecologically sustainable. Physically smaller buildings mean less energy consumption. Maintaining a regular-sized swimming pool, compared to multiple lagoon-style pools you find in large resorts, requires a lot less water. And you’re unlikely to find a golf course on the grounds of a small hotel, which also consumes staggering amounts of water, a very scarce resource in Mexico.

Although you won’t see it advertised, Casa Tortugas Boutique Hotel has a number of great environmental initiatives in place. Each room has a 20 litre filtered water dispenser, to avoid the use of small plastic water bottles that are so common in hotels. Rooms are not cleaned every day unless you request it. Rather it is provided every third day to reduce unnecessary energy and water use (and you can always request any hotel to clean even less than this if it’s not required!). You won’t find any plastic straws in the Sunzet Rooftop bar, and you can enjoy your cocktails with stainless steel straws instead.

We had some great discussions with Alex about his plans for the hotel in the future, and implementing more eco-friendly initiatives is definitely something that is in the works. But I truly believe even without an ‘eco-label’, Casa Tortugas Boutique Hotel is the best choice you can make in Cancun.

Our experience at Casa Tortugas Boutique Hotel

The words I would use to describe our time at Casa Tortugas Boutique Hotel would be comfortable, cosy and homely. The day we arrived, a hurricane had hit land in southern Mexico, and brought with it severe rain and storms all the way to Cancun. The bad weather hung around our entire stay, but we were in the perfect spot to wait out the storm.

We spent three nights at the hotel, and to be honest, we only left for a few hours throughout the course of our stay. I’m not normally one to opt-out of exploring a new destination. But the weather was so miserable and our room was so appealing… I was more than happy to sacrifice sightseeing in the rain in exchange for some home-cooked meals, a bit of Netflix and chill, and enjoying the lagoon views. We really did feel so at home in our apartment-style room, and we were fully equipped with everything we needed. And despite the rain, we still made good use of the pool in the tropical weather too!

Alex and his family were so welcoming but never overbearing. They were on-call for anything we needed via Whatsapp and provided us with plenty of information about the hotel, and surrounding area. We loved that we had our privacy throughout the days. But heading up to the Sunzet Rooftop in the evening was a great chance to connect with the staff and fellow guests. Whilst I wish we had a few more sunsets and fewer grey skies, we were treated to one really colourful evening, and we thoroughly enjoyed ending the day with the cocktail in hand on the rooftop.

If you’re looking for somewhere to stay in Cancun, we highly recommend Casa Tortugas Boutique Hotel. Offering an authentic, Mexican experience in a destination that is not highly regarded for its culture, Casa Tortugas is a sustainable option for the conscious traveller.

🌿 Looking for more eco-friendly hotels in Mexico? We loved our stay at The White Lodge in Baja California Sur, and if you’re in Mexico City, you can’t miss El Patio 77, a sustainable bed and breakfast.