Sunday, March 16, 2025

The next level of glamping: bubble hotel concept arrives in Mexico

Mexico will soon have three “bubble hotel” options for tourists looking for the next level of “glamping.”

Two such hotels – whose “rooms” are described by travel guidebook publisher Lonely Planet as essentially inflatable, transparent domes designed to allow guests to cocoon themselves in nature without quite leaving their material comforts behind – have already opened and a third will begin welcoming guests sometime toward the end of this year.

One of those that is already operational is Alpino Bubble Glamping in Mexico City while the other is the Campera Bubble Hotel in the Valle de Guadalupe wine region of Baja California.

Located in the Cumbres de Ajusco National Park in the south of the capital, the former has just two “bubbles,” a 40-square-meter deluxe one that goes for 4,500 pesos (about US $220) a night and a 25-square-meter standard where

A standard bubble located at Cumbres de Ajusco National Park in Mexico City.
A standard bubble located at Cumbres de Ajusco National Park in Mexico City.

a stay costs a slightly more affordable 4,000 pesos.

Both have views of the Pico del Águila, the highest point of the Ajusco, or Xitle, volcano, and come equipped with telescopes that guests can use to get a better view of the surrounding scenery and night sky.

 

Guests can also enjoy a range of activities during their stay, including trekking, horseback riding and mountain bike riding. In addition, they can watch films at the hotel’s outdoor cinema and warm themselves around a cozy campfire.

Thousands of kilometers away in Mexico’s northwest, tourists can enjoy another glamping experience at the 12-bubble Campera, which is a 45-minute drive from the coastal city of Ensenada.

Apart from having the unique experience of sleeping in a French-made bubble set amid a working vineyard, guests can play golf at the Docepiedras course, which is located on the same property, dine at the Doce @ Campera restaurant and sample the best whites and reds of the famous Valle de Guadalupe wine region at scores of nearby wineries.

On its website, Campara invites would-be guests to spend “an epic night under five million stars, with a clear view of the heavens and vineyards.”

A night in a bubble suite starts at US $180 while a bubble room starts at $145.

Mexico’s third bubble hotel, Bubbotel, will open on the Gulf coast in Campeche in late 2021. Currently under development, the hotel is located at Playa Mundo Maya, a self-described sustainable hotel zone near Isla Aguada, a new magical town in the municipality of Carmen.

Bubbotel will have couple-sized and family-sized bubbles and guests will be able to enjoy the white sand beaches and clean Gulf of Mexico water, which sometimes glows bright blue at night due to the presence of bioluminescent plankton. Day trips will also be on offer to nearby cenotes (swimmable natural sinkholes), mangrove swamps and archaeological sites.

A night at the hotel, which will have three separate kitchens serving seafood, Mexican and Italian cuisine, will cost US $445 for a three-dome luxury beach bubble that sleeps six, $375 for a two-dome bubble that sleeps four and $294 for a single-dome couples bubble.

Source: El Universal (sp), Forbes México (sp) 

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