Tulum

I dreamt of visiting Tulum for months before our trip! I had imagined this little sleepy village in my head but was surprised at how big it was once we got there. It was different to what I had expected but I still loved it!

So what I didn’t realise was how spread out the town is. There is a main town which is based on a busy main road with bars, restaurants and shops lining either side and then there is the beach hotel zone. About 4km from the centre of town are the ruins and the public beach – this would take about 5-10 minutes in a taxi or 40 minutes walking. About a 10-15 minute taxi from the centre of the town is the fancy hotel area (zone hotelaria). Looking at it on the map doesn’t quite make you realise the distance everything is from each other. The beach road is lined with boutique hotels, shops and restaurants and would take you about 1.5 hours / 7km to walk to from Tulum central. So be prepared to get taxis and expect to pay about £5 each way for a ten minute journey which we thought was quite expensive compared to the 3 hours buses we had been getting for the same price.

How did we get there?

From the Bacalar main road bus station, we caught an ADO bus to Tulum town centre which took about 2.5 hours.

Where did we stay and for how long?

We had 4 nights in Tulum which was a really good amount of time to relax. For the first 2 nights we chose to save some money and stayed in the main town centre at a place called ‘Posada Malix Pek’. This was the cheapest accommodation we stayed in during our entire trip but was just what we needed. It was very clean and comfortable and in a great location so I would definitely recommend it if you are happy with something basic.

After this we splashed out on a luxury beach hut for 2 nights and it was definitely a highlight of the holiday. The hotel was called Hotelito Azul, a collection of beach huts, some in the trees others right on the beach with an undisrupted view of the ocean. We managed to get a really good deal and stayed right on the beach with a private balcony and hammock and it was probably the most amazing place I’ve ever stayed. You could hear the waves crashing onto the sand all night, so peaceful! The breakfast was also incredible!

What did we do whilst we were there?

With a pretty jam packed 2 week schedule in Mexico, we knew that Tulum would be a place to really relax. Whilst we were staying in the beach zone we just had a few days of sunbathing, swimming, eating and drinking as we wanted to make the most of being right on the beach. It was nice to walk along the beach and stop at different bars and take in the scenery, there was however a tonne of seaweed when we were there. And when I say a tonne I mean so much they had people from the hotels raking it up into huge mounds every day so compared to Holbox, Tulum wasn’t a very nice place to swim. This could have been just the season that we were there but we heard from others they have a big problem with seaweed in this area!

A must do whilst you’re in this area is to go to Kin Toh restaurant and bar which is part of the famous Azulik hotel you have no doubt seen all over Insta! It really is incredible. A wooden treehouse structure with nest like pods where you can sit and take in the stunning sunset view across the top of the jungle. It is best to book ahead even for drinks as it gets pretty booked up but 100% worth it.

We also ended up going to a full moon party at Papaya Playa Project which was really cool. Pretty expensive to get in but definitely cool to go if it is on whilst you are there.

For the first few days whilst we were based in the centre of town we did the more active activities including visiting the ruins and cenotes and doing a spot of shopping.

Tulum is the perfect base to visit Coba ruins. We got up early and just round the corner from our accommodation in the town centre was a mini bus (collectivo) stop. However the collectivo we tried to get was waiting to fill up and we were the only ones there for about half an hour so we wandered onto the side of the main road and flagged one down at some traffic lights that was happy to let us hop in with just 2 other people in. The journey was really quick, about half an hour to Coba Ruins. 

Similarly to Chichen Itza, I would definitely recommend going early in the morning as we were some of the first people there and beat all the tour buses that turned up with hundreds of people. Upon entering the ruins you will try to be sold bikes to ride round on and they tell you it’s really long to walk. Luckily I had my Lonely Planet book with me and it said the walk actually isn’t that long so we walked through the jungle and easily found our way to the main ruin. We actually preferred this to Chichen Itza as you could climb it. There are a lot of steps and a big rope to pull you up and the view at the top is amazing, King of the Jungle kind of feeling!

After the ruins we headed to some cenotes. Right outside the entrance to Coba are a couple of little huts selling soft drinks and offering bike rental! We hired a bike from here and using our offline map to navigate, we cycled a good few miles to get to the cenotes but it was really fun being the only ones on the road surrounded by jungle. 

The first cenote that we visited was Tankach-Ha which we had to ourselves. At this cenote you can climb up a wooden tower and jump from either 5m or 10m! Not all of the cenotes have areas to jump so this was really fun! From here we got back on the bikes and cycled to Multum-Ha cenote. This was the clearest water we saw in any cenote so really  nice for swimming. After a busy morning we caught the collectivo back to Tulum for a relaxing afternoon and a bit of shopping.

Tulum main town centre has lots of shops selling the traditional Mexican gifts – think baskets, pom pom accessories, painted china, hammocks, leather bags etc. Definitely do some bartering here to get a good deal!

Restaurant recommendations:

The main town centre has a lot of good restaurants to choose from. All serving similar food and they are quite cheap too. For breakfast one day we went to El Cielo, a new swanky brunch place. We got there ten minutes before it opened and a queue was already forming so plan ahead for this!

Down on the beach front, all the hotels have nice restaurants and bars, many right on the beach. Also along this main road are lots of swanky restaurants such as Hartwood, Arca, Casa Jaguar, Posada Margherita and cafes like Matcha Mama and Raw Love serving insta-worthy smoothies and acai bowls.

It might sound obvious, but a lot of these restaurants are open air so bear this in mind. When we arrived, there was a torrential rain storm for about an hour just as we had gone for dinner so a lot of the restaurants weren’t accepting any customers because all tables and chairs were soaking wet, so check the weather!!