If you have ever cut a holiday short because a hotel was not ready for your child’s needs, or skipped booking one altogether, a new resort brand launching in Mexico was built with exactly that frustration in mind.
On 14 September 2026, hospitality company Solo Vive announced Saint Charlie Resorts, a new chain aimed squarely at families raising children with disabilities or additional needs. The flagship property, a renovation of an existing resort in Mexico’s Riviera Maya, is aiming for a soft opening in 2027 with roughly 60 rooms plus a dedicated activity centre of its own.
Why This Exists
The idea traces back to one father. Before medicine, Dr. Charlie Powell spent time in the Army and Navy, including a stretch as a combat medic, then went on to grow a small Dallas-area medical practice into Healthcare Associates of Texas, a regional health system he eventually sold in 2022. The resort brand carries his son’s name: a boy with a chromosomal condition affecting the 7th and 11th chromosomes that is so unusual, none of the specialists the family saw had treated a case quite like it.
That experience showed Powell how few holiday options genuinely worked for families like his. Powell backs that up with his own research: out of the parents he surveyed, 87% currently go without a family holiday altogether. Whether or not that figure holds up across the wider market, it echoes something we hear from our own clients too, that a trip can start to feel out of reach rather than simply inconvenient.
Saint Charlie Resorts sits under the parent brand Solo Vive, Spanish for “just live,” and wants guests to relax without having to explain their child’s needs at check-in, at the pool, or at dinner. Its own tagline puts it simply: “Where Special Is Normal.”
What You Can Expect, and What We’re Still Waiting On
The company says staff will be trained to notice sensory triggers and adjust activities on the spot, with dedicated support on hand so parents can actually get some downtime of their own. What we do not yet have, and what we will be watching for as the opening gets closer, is a detailed breakdown of specific accessibility features. Room adaptations, on-site equipment, and staff-to-guest ratios all matter enormously to the families we work with, and those details have not been published yet.
Beyond Mexico, the company has its eye on a further site in the Dominican Republic, and says it has drawn interest from backers in Bahrain who could help fund the next phase of growth. It also points to its own estimate that Mexico alone could support roughly 11,000 more rooms built around this kind of need, a figure worth treating as a directional claim from the company rather than an independently verified one.
Why We Are Watching This One
We have seen a steady stream of individual hotels adding ramps or roll-in showers over the years. What is different about Saint Charlie Resorts is that it is being built from the ground up around one audience, rather than adapted for it afterwards. That is a meaningfully different starting point, and one we think other operators across Latin America and the Caribbean will be watching closely too.
As always, we will hold off on recommending any property, including this one, until we have seen it for ourselves and had the chance to speak with staff on the ground. A resort that promises inclusion on paper still has to deliver it in person, and checking that gap is exactly what our team does before we ever put a destination in front of you.
A 2027 opening might feel like a long way off, but that also means there is time to plan ahead. We will keep you posted as more details on Saint Charlie Resorts emerge.
Sources
Saint Charlie Resorts Announces 2027 Flagship Opening in Riviera Maya, Mexico, GlobeNewswire: globenewswire.com
How Dr. Charlie Powell Is Building Saint Charlie Resorts to Give Special-Needs Families the Break They Deserve, The Good Men Project: goodmenproject.com
Saint Charlie Resorts, official website: saintcharlieresorts.com
