Bacalar

Just north of the Belize border, far from the resorts of Cancún, Bacalar wraps a small colonial town around one astonishing thing: a 60-kilometre freshwater lagoon that shades from clear turquoise to deep indigo over a white limestone bed — the Laguna de los Siete Colores, the "Lagoon of Seven Colors." Because it is a lagoon and not the sea, the water stays glassy and the sargassum that plagues the Caribbean beaches never arrives. Days here are spent on the water — sailing, kayaking or floating the Pirate Canal — and dropping into deep cenotes like the indigo Cenote Azul. Along the shore grow stromatolites, living reefs among the oldest life forms on earth, so the rules are strict: no sunscreen in the lagoon, and no boats at all on Wednesdays, when the water rests. A laid-back Pueblo Mágico now reachable by the new Maya Train, Bacalar is the slow, soulful antidote to the Riviera Maya.

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