Tulum Travel Guide
I think we can all agree that March is the worst month of the year, right? Yes, January and February are pretty dreadful, but March is when we’re all at the end of our rope dealing with the dark and seemingly endless days of winter. It has always been the month that I dread the most…which is exactly why we decided to get married in it. With a wedding anniversary in March, we’d always have a fun occasion to look forward to during a not-fun time of year—and an excuse to take a trip someplace warm.
To celebrate our anniversary for the past few years, we did hiking trips in National Parks in the southern US, but this year Dan pretty much demanded a beach vacation so we could actually relax (I wasn’t mad, I love the beach). I knew I wanted to go somewhere new and not too far away, and since I’ve traveled quite a bit through the Caribbean, I set my sights on Mexico.
It’s a big country with a ton of beautiful places to explore so I had a hard time narrowing down what our maiden Mexican voyage should be. Initially I was pretty dead-set on doing Mexico City and a little town called Zihuatanejo on the west coast that I had read about in Condé Nast Traveler (my favorite aspirational reading), but after seeing about a billion people post about Tulum, I started looking into that part of the country as an option.
Now, Tulum is no sleepy, off-the-beaten-path town that is waiting to be discovered. It is very popular, very touristed, and holy hell, very trendy (beautiful, perfect-looking, 22-year-old models abound). But…it’s amazing and 100% lived up to the hype. I loved it.
There are a few things that sold me on Tulum for this particular trip:
It is super easy (and pretty cheap) to get to from Michigan. We took a non-stop, 3.5 hour Delta flight from Detroit to Cancún (the closest airport) and from there it was just a quick hour and a half shuttle-ride to Tulum.
It’s in the eastern timezone—which isn’t a huge deal, but it was nice that we didn’t lose time on either leg of the journey or have to deal with jet lag.
The town is very walkable so there’s no need to rent a car. I pretty much always rent a car when I travel domestically, but it’s a bit more of a hassle when traveling internationally. Since it was my first trip to Mexico and our primary objective was relaxing on the beach, I didn’t feel like navigating renting and driving a car in a foreign country where I didn’t speak the language (Dan’s high school Spanish only got us so far, sorry Dan), so I was glad I didn’t have to.
The yoga & wellness scene is amazing—it’s basically boho-yoga-hipster heaven. I would love to go back sometime for a yoga retreat.
It’s a foodie town. Anytime I’ve been to the Caribbean I’ve been pretty disappointed with the food, but I could tell from my research that Tulum was going to be different. I can now confirm from personal experience, that yes, the food everywhere in Tulum is very, very good.
I had seen enough friends/friends-of-friends/influencers I follow travel to Tulum and rave about it that I felt pretty confident I would love it too—and also be able to steal their notes and do everything they did.
Here’s a summary of our trip highlights:
Where We Stayed
Tulum is split into 2 main areas: Tulum Town & Tulum Beach. It’s definitely a little cheaper to stay in town, but if you’re looking to spend most of your days by the water, it’s worth it to splurge and stay at a place on the beach road. A good portion of Tulum Beach is private so it isn’t necessarily easy to just cab/bike in from town and find a place to park it for the day (you can always pay to rent a chair for the day at a resort, but then that starts to eat away at the money you’re saving by staying in town in the first place). And while Tulum town is relatively close to the beach, it’s not that close, and taking a cab in everyday will end up costing you over the course of your stay. Biking is an option, but it can be really miserable when it’s hot out (which is pretty much all the time) so keep that it mind.
Staying on the beach felt right for us so we booked a little resort on the water called Luv Tulum that was heaven (the pics above are all from there). There are only 12 rooms on the property so it was perfect for a couple of 30-somethings who weren’t in town for the party scene—which is definitely a scene in Tulum. It’s worth reading reviews of any hotel you’re considering to get a sense for the vibe because it varies from place to place. We were looking for a small, sleepy, private-feeling spot sans little kids and party people and Luv Tulum was perfect. Our room had a view of the ocean, the private beach is on the main strip but they’ve done an amazing job of making it feel secluded, and there is a tiny restaurant and beach bar on-site that serves great food & drinks. You basically don’t have to leave if you don’t want to…and sometimes we took advantage of that.
What We Ate & Drank
Because the hotel let us charge food and drinks to the room, we did that…a lot. There were many orders of shrimp tacos, chips and guacamole, and hibiscus mezcal cocktails placed over the course of our stay (we were a little nervous to get our bill at the end of the week, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as we were anticipating). We did leave the hotel to check out the local restaurants and bars though and these were the standouts:
Food We Loved: I saw everyone and their mom posting about the Real Coconut before our trip, so I knew I wanted to check it out. Let me just say this: we went 3 times during our 6 days in Tulum—it was that good. The whole menu is gluten, grain & dairy free but you’d never know it because they do such a good job. If you have food allergies or if you’re just trying to not go completely off the rails with your diet on vacation, this place is a must. For our fancy dinner night we went to Arca, and my god, was it delicious (I ate mamey fruit for the first time here and loved it, it was like if an avocado and a date had a baby) and in the most dreamy setting, highly recommend. For less expensive/more informal eats, Matcha Mama was so freaking cute and delicious for breakfast bowls and refreshing non-alcoholic drinks. We ate a few times at Tulumunchies, a charming little food truck park & bar that was cheap, tasty, and close to our hotel. If you head into Tulum town, Taqueria Honorio is legit and their guacamole was the best I had anywhere in Tulum.
Bars We Loved: Gah! The bars in this town. One of the coolest things about Tulum is that it’s a beach town…that’s right next to the jungle. So yes, two of my most favorite things ever together in one magical location. The bars we went to were straight out of my teenage jungle fantasy dreams (I had a major tiki-culture/exotica-music phase in high school, I was a weird kid). Gitano was absolutely beautiful in every way and their mezcal cocktail menu was second to none. I also loved the vibe at Meze Aegean Taverna and Casa Jaguar. Heaven! All of them—and I’m sure there are so many more amazing spots too.
In Summary, I consumed avocado, pineapple, and mezcal every single day on this trip. Yes. Yes. Yes. 🥑🍍🍹
What We Did
We laid on the beach—a lot. Like I mentioned before, that was our primary objective for this vacation. The hotel was on a beautiful little section of Tulum Beach and that’s where we spent most of our time. p.s. I read The Dutch House in its entirety while sunbathing and really enjoyed it.
We took a yoga class at Sanará—the yoga studio of my dreams that has the most incredible view. It’s on the same property as the Real Coconut so I suggest taking a class and then heading over for a bite after.
We went on a guided tour of Sian Ka’an Biosphere. This was a trip highlight for sure. Our tour guide Alex was amazing (I’m still kind of mad I didn’t find him on Instagram, I wanted to be friends), we saw ancient Mayan ruins, hiked through the jungle, and took a boat trip and float through the mangroves. Dan even accidentally stepped in quicksand and survived to tell the tale, true story. ‘Twas a day.
We biked to Tulum Ruins. I took an art history class in college called “The Ancient Art of Mesoamerica” and I’ve wanted to visit the ruins in this part of the world ever since. Someday I’ll make it to Teotihuacan and Chichen Itza (it’s relatively close to Tulum—next time!) but I was excited that Tulum had ruins to explore that were so close. Note: Don’t bike the 12 miles there and back in the middle of the day, it was so hot that I think I actually got sun poisoning, it was bad. Also, there is an entrance fee at the ruins and they only take cash…which we didn’t have…so learn from our mistake and make sure you have some on hand.
We swam in a cenote (underwater cave), which there are a ton of in the Yucatán. We went to Gran Cenote which is the big one, and I did enjoy it, but honestly, it was pretty crowded so I definitely want to check out some of the other less touristed ones next time.
We explored Tulum town for an afternoon. We ate tacos, I bought a pompom keychain (for some reasons pompoms are everywhere in Tulum and I was all for it), we found a cute little boho cafe and I accidentally ordered plain almond milk on ice, and we just generally had a good time walking around and taking photos.
General Tulum Tips
Have cash, a lot of places don’t take cards. I read too that it is always better to pay in pesos than US dollars (a lot of places will allow you to pay in either) because you get a better rate that way. The ATMs in Tulum town are also more reliable than the ones along the beach (so many just didn’t work or would only dispense dollars).
Don’t worry about drinking the water. Everyone tells you not to in Mexico and it’s good to be cautious, but because Tulum is such a highly touristed area, everywhere we went had potable water and we never had any issues. I even bought one of those stupid water bottles with a built-in filter before we left and I never ended up having to use it.
Bring some warm clothing. Unlike places I’ve been in the Caribbean, it does get chilly at night and I wish I had brought a few warmer articles of clothing for the evenings.
Bring bug spray and anti-itch something or other. The beach has a great breeze pretty much all the time so it’s mostly safe from mosquitos but everywhere else we went I got eaten alive (which is pretty typical for me). I was basically covered in mosquito bites that turned into giant welts the entire time—not to mention a really cool sun/heat rash. I am so gross on tropical vacations. So gross.
Don’t bother spending any time in Cancún (apologies to any diehard Cancún fan out there, it was not for me). Since we were flying in and out of there we thought we might as well check it out…but I wouldn’t do it again. Yes, the beaches are beautiful, but otherwise it felt like we were in some bizarro, Mexican, beach-side version of Las Vegas—and you know I love Vegas—but not in this context.
The only saving grace of Cancún was getting to see my friend Vinny who serendipitously happened to be in town at the same time. We ended up talking and drinking 40s in me and Dan’s weird hotel room until late on our last night in Mexico and it was the perfect way to end the trip.
Overall, I loved Tulum. I loved Mexico. I loved mezcal (it’s the only thing I bought besides the pompom), and I absolutely plan to return someday.
p.s. Oh, and for the record, since it’s 2020 and traveling isn’t a thing, I should mention that we majorly lucked out timing-wise and took this trip 2 weeks before the entire world shut down. I feel very grateful that I was able to take a big vacation in 2020 when I know that so many people had to cancel their trips. Our timing was pure luck and I’m so glad to have this bright spot to look back on during such a dark year.
p.p.s. The bartender at our little hotel beach bar had this song playing on repeat pretty much the entire week and I will always think of Tulum when I hear it now.
p.p.p.s. Apparently I only shoot in vertical format now? Not sure when this started but I’m wondering if the iPhone and Instagram stories are to blame?
