Tulum, México
Please refer to the bottom of this page for the cost of two people.
Cancún & Tulum México
February 20 - 26, 2020
So many people joke about sorority girls, but it isn’t every day that you can call someone last minute and ask if they want to go to Mexico with you. But here I am, sitting beach-side with one of my sorority sisters as if we were real sisters on vacation after eleven years. It was our paradise for a mere five days.
All beginnings should start in Cancun
This trip got started off the right way, with a Cerveza. The first part of our trip was to celebrate one of my best-friends weddings at Secrets the Vine Resort on Cancun beach.
During our time at the all-inclusive resort, we had our fair share of meals, laughs, and sun. We spent the Friday on a catamaran in the middle of the ocean and danced the night away.
Saturday had come, and the wedding was one to remember! From the bridal party pictures, watching my best friend walk down the aisle holding her dad's arm, the tears her husband shed, to the after-party that had everyone on the dance floor left it a day to remember for years to come.
… and all endings should end in Tulum!
Tulum was our next destination while in Mexico, and for a good reason (besides the Instagram hype), it was peer magical with its lush greenery, tropical vibes, and of course the bluest of beaches. In Tulum, you always feel like you are in some far off fairy tale land.
Day 1 of Tulum Adventures
- Coba Ruins
- Airbnb
- Dinner at El Pescador
We had to get up very early Sunday morning (the morning after the wedding, yawn) to get to our rental car and get on our way to Tulum.
Rental Car Note: The rental was reasonably cheap, about $55 for three days and that included insurance through Hertz, I recommend the insurance for a couple of reasons. 1. Mexicans drive wild 2. Mexico is a foreign country, anything can happen, and 3. our credit card company did not provide it.
The trek is around two hours to downtown Tulum; we bypassed Tulum to head straight to Coba Ruins. After a long drive, we decided to eat at the ruins and let me tell you!! SO GOOD and SO CHEAP. It was $14 for both of us, we got a large plate of guacamole and chips, two bottles of water, and chicken rolled tacos (which were amazing and are making my mouth water now). Coba is an ancient Mayan city that covers enough land that we opted to rent bikes for $6 each beyond the $10 entry fee, but it was well worth the money.
The path to the main ruins was simply breathtaking with tropical trees covering the dusty trail. We parked our bikes and started towards the ruins, these are one of the last ruins you can climb, and that was our plan. The climb is very steep, and some of the stones are not very deep to place your foot, but there is a rope in the middle of the path to hold on to if you feel uncomfortable.
We made it to the top after a few short breaks and were not disappointed. You can see the tops of green trees for miles. The top of the ruins was packed with people, and the air was dead, so we didn’t stay long and headed back down on our butts after a few pictures. We went to get our bikes, but they were gone along with most of the bikes, so we ended up taking different bikes; we figured if you came on a bike, you leave on a bike. We stopped at a few other ruins on the way back. Coba was close to closing time, so we felt we had most of the park to ourselves after we climbed the main ruins.
After Coba ruins, we decided to check-in to our Airbnb (Tulum downtown: Amazing jungle view Penthouse Studio with hot tub). I highly recommend booking an Airbnb rather than a hotel/resort; you get more amenities for a much lower rate. Our Airbnb was tucked away down a side street where there were multiple short term stay places, so it felt very safe but also secluded. We were located on the fourth-floor penthouse suit (trust me it was cheap) with views as far as I could see and sunsets on repeat. The unit had 180 degrees of windows, a bathroom that over-looked the hot tub, outdoor dining, and a giant hammock to relax in.
After settling in, we washed the Coba dust off and dashed to dinner. It didn’t take us long to find food, and we didn’t even have to travel far, Tulum beach and downtown have an endless amount of great food options beyond Mexican food. El Pescador was directly down the street and was mostly empty, so we were sat right away. There is a bar located center of the outdoor dining area, and the kitchen is also open and located outside, so it was fun to watch them cook our meals. This restaurant serves mostly seafood.
The food was quick but hot, gorgeous, but tasteful, and the atmosphere was perfectly quiet for our first night on the town after a long day.
Collectively we ordered some of the freshest ceviche, shrimp stuffed avocado, and two shrimp entrees. I was most impressed by the appetizers. I could have picked from those and a glass or two of wine all night. The cost was around $55.
The first nights’ dinner was a start to Mandi’s dog friendships in Tulum. Dogs run the streets in packs here, and it is impressive to see how many are homeless, and it is hard not to take them home.
Day 2 of Tulum Adventures
- Breakfast at Del Cielo
- Casa Malca
- SFER IK Museum
- Dinner at Kin Toh
Day two was full of planned adventures after we ate breakfast at Del Cielo…. after breakfast, all of the plans went out the window when we hit our first stop. As for breakfast, we wanted to ensure we got to appreciate the many breakfast places that serve organic fresh food. Del Cielo is located downtown and has outdoor seating that is very Instagramable. We arrived around 9 am and at 9:30 am, a line started to form. The food was beautiful and relatively cheap, Mandi ordered chilaquiles (her go-to), and I ordered the acai bowl and fried plantains, any of their coffee’s and bowls are a must order!
The next stop was Casa Malca, aka Pablo Escobar’s mansion. No, the haunts of Pablo were not felt while we were there, and there were not any remnants that he had ever been there, but this property was pretty amazing. Lio Malca is now the owner, and he is an artist who has art sculptures on the property. There are many rooms and places to seek in this newly established hotel that it was easy to get lost. Life-size art sprawled the guest entrance and the beach to keep you entertained. If you are an Instagrammer, this is your paradise; just be prepared to pay $60 to enjoy it all, which includes a towel, giant beach sac, and a server. The money you spend on drinks and food is taken from that $60 though.
Casa Malca was a treasure chest of fun, this was supposed to be our first stop of many along the beach but ended up being our only stop until dinner time (note: don’t forget your bathing suit as I did). The drinks kept coming, tacos were served, and the beach was sunny. If you are in Tulum, stop by this magical place and take it all in.
Some dramatic posing…
A few favorite pictures from Casa Malca.
Afternoon on Tulum Beach
Dinner at Kin Toh
After Casa Malca, I had made 6 pm reservations months in advance to have dinner at Kin Toh (this was my bucket list item on the trip). We arrived at the restaurant around 5 pm to see if we could get in early to take pictures, but they told us to come back at 5:30 pm, in the meantime, to go to their free entry museum next door, so we did… let me tell you; this was an experience. SFER IK is a handmade all-natural museum, not your typical art or history museum. I will let the pictures speak for themselves…
It was easy to spend our thirty minutes in SFER IK before dinner, and you can see why it is drop-dead gorgeous, and that giant round window is the front door.
On to my favorite part, dinner! When you walk up to the front desk you tell them your name; then you get to walk past everyone who is TRYING to get a table (hehe). The host leads you from the front of the hotel through a winding wooden pathway covered with trees, past the front desk that does not resemble anything I have seen at any hotel before, across a man-made creek on puddle jumper stones, and finally up a spiral staircase to another host desk.
Once we landed on the main dining floor, I look around and notice everything I have been waiting for. 6 pm is the first reservation, so we were the firsts ones in the restaurant (Book the 6 pm reservation, for many reasons). We were sat right away and told that we had the best seat in the house because we would get the sunset. After sitting another server walked up to us and asked if we wanted our picture and showed us all over the restaurant, here are a few of the photographs…
Kin Toh had many hidden places to take pictures. The entire place was made out of wood as you can see in the pictures and all tables, hallways, and bathrooms were lit by candlelight; they only had one small light so the server could see their ways (pictures get darker as the night gets later).
After all of the pictures, we went back to our table and decided that we would order as much as we thought we could eat so that we could try a few of the options. We started with lionfish ceviche, corn truffle mushroom dip, and octopus. Every appetizer was like nothing we had ever tasted before and left us speechless, which is a feat for both of us. For our entrees, we split homemade fettuccine and a large steak; both were very differently prepared than how it would have been prepared in the states. For dessert, we ordered a flower ice cream with honey biscuits, lemon peel gel, caramel, and a brown buttercream. The dessert came out on a large log, a real log. Kin Toh even added a to-go dessert of a small portion of cotton candy. Everything we ate just melted in our mouths and left us wanting more. The portions were perfect and easy to share. Overall, our bill was $180, and we ordered two large cocktails. I would 100% return and do it all over again.
It was late, and the mosquitoes were coming out, it was a great day on Tulum beach but day three brings more adventures. Tulum (or any beach) will take your hours away, so relax and let the day do its thing as we learned.
Goodnight
Tulum,
until
tomorrow
Day 3 of Tulum Adventures
- Gran Cenote
- Breakfast at Farm to Table
- Experience downtown
- Tulum Beach
- Dinner at La Popular of Nomade
Day three is our last real day in Tulum before we had to leave early the next morning, so we got up early to beat the crowd and made our way to Gran Cenote, which was only 20 minutes away. We planned to jump from cenote to cenote to see a variety of different ones, but Mandi was not feeling it due to her sunburn pain and I wasn’t feeling it due to the $10 a person it takes to get into each cenote. So Gran Cenote was our only one for the day.
Grand Cenote
A cenote is a sinkhole that holds the bluest of waters, and typically, all cenotes have around the same perfect temperature water, these cenotes were also used for Mayan rituals way back in the day. You can find animal and human bones if you snorkel or dive in them. I didn’t look or even want to think about it.
Let’s start by saying that I am terrified of fish, yes those tiny little creepy creatures in the blue waters. I wanted pictures in a cenote, but I was so scared until I realized I had only seen one small fish in this large cenote, I ended up jumping in anyway. Mandi took my pictures until I was asked to leave the cenote because I did not wash my hair before getting in (I did wash my body but was not getting my hair wet or swimming, so I didn’t follow the rules, and I know why they are in place, calm down). I gladly got out and ventured on to other sites on the land to take pictures of the crystal clear water.
Gran Cenote is large; you can swim through a cave of bats and come out through the other side.
Breakfast at Farm to Table
We were at the cenote for close to an hour and started to get hungry. We made our way back downtown to grab brunch at Farm to Table, this was the one place I was the least impressed with. The service was slower than the normal slow service (in Mexico service is slow just about everywhere), and the food was lackluster, although it was decently busy and the vibe was cute. The prices were average brunch prices; I think we spent around $25 for both of us. Mandi ordered chili rancheros and I had avocado toast, both were bland and missing something.
After brunch, we walked downtown for a little to stop in shops, pet dogs, and check out some street art before heading to the beach for the rest of the day.
Over-sized hats, street art on every corner, cute restaurants, and of course, dogs!
So many handmade items. Even though it is Mexico, I did not find things to be as cheap as I thought they would be. I bought an over-sized dream catcher for $40 after bargaining from $60 (That is all the cash I had).
Beach R&R
Back through the streets and to our rental car and then off to the beach for our next adventure. Since we opted out of paying for cenotes all day we decided that some beach R&R would be ideal. I wanted to check out COCO Tulum, but when we got there it was bustling. There was nowhere to sit, right next to COCO Tulum is a spa that had ample seating and servers for only $50 for two people (they liked us so much they ended up not charging us in the end), they provided cabanas and towels along with a steady flow of drinks. We spent the majority of our day here relaxing on the beach and jumping through the waves.
Our last stop while in paradise
I had planned to go to Nomade to get a few pictures and check out this new hotel, from what I heard it was pretty amazing. Come to find out this is where we would spend our last moments on Tulum beach and found ourselves eating dinner here. As we walked from the parking lot, we noticed there were not any gates or desks that you had to stop at to get access to the property, that was a pleasant surprise after having that every time we wanted to check a place out. As you walk toward the beach, you pass through a restaurant and a lot of jungle trails that lead you out to the beach. Every sight of this place was breathtaking, and we wanted to explore. If only I could afford to stay here when I go back (I will keep dreaming).
The decor was very bohemian with lots of woods and dark grey. Both restaurants were vastly different. One restaurant you sat on the ground on poofs and the other you sat beach-side in overly stuff chairs watching the waves. Every room had a large balcony and big sliding glass doors in the same fashion as the guest walkways. On the beach, they had these large hammock beds that fit almost ten people. Each detail was perfectly laid out.
The beach-side restaurant La Popular is where we both agreed that we would have a small bite to eat and order just from the appetizer menu and jump somewhere else to have dinner. The food was so good here, and the portions were so big we stayed late into the night people watching, sunset viewing, and eating until we couldn’t anymore. We shared elote (corn) with garlic mayonnaise, grilled tomato and sweet peppers with mozzarella and basil, grilled salmon, and tuna salad. To drink, I ordered the fresh watermelon drink and Mandi had a Corona. The bill came out to $120, but it was worth every penny. We both determined this to be one of those meals at the top of the list and that we would happily return to La Popular and eat again.
As we were walking out, we got a little lost and found ourselves in wonderland (they named it that). The picture shown is a room you can book, we just sat there with our jaw on the ground looking at this architecture. When we saw this, we realized we needed to snoop around more, and I am are sure glad we did. I wish it had been daytime when I saw this so I could have shared the gravity of this place. As I said, everything was perfectly planned out at Nomade.
A few notable things:
Mandi is from NYC and I am from Pittsburgh, so we live in large cities and found the prices to be similar to where we are from; I was expecting Tulum to be much cheaper, and it was not.
No matter where you are eating, the service will be much slower than what it is in the states, so prepare wisely on time and relax; it is paradise anyway. Also, if you make reservations for a late dinner after the sun goes down, bring bug spray (even if its a 5-star restaurant), some places will have it to use.
Learn some Spanish before going, they appreciate it and will help you learn more. Everyone is very nice and will try to accommodate you the best they can, but knowing some Spanish will help you get around and will also help you not get ripped off by the not so nice people.
Mandi and I did not exchange USD to MX Pesos. We realized a few things, 1. if you were paying with pesos it came out to be cheaper; you easily got ripped off when paying USD because they always highball the conversion rates. 2. In the end, we realized that not exchanging money didn’t matter too much because we would lose money either way, with a percentage being taken during the exchange. 3. They will highball you because they are charged a rate to exchange as well, so keep that in mind. When I go back, I will exchange half of what I have for local fares, as you get a better deal.
Talking about getting ripped off, besides local fares, you need to watch out for gas stations as well. Someone will pump your gas for you (it is their law). Be prepared to have your PASSPORT if you are using a card; a driver’s license did not work for us. Make sure that the gauge says 0 before they start pumping and check the price when complete fueling. I have seen where people will not monitor the pump and they will tack on the last persons’ bill to yours.
Be courteous and tip; I can’t say this enough. We were tipping anywhere from 15-20%, even when the service was slow. I have seen where most people tip 10%. We realized that is how things are done in Mexico, and we just needed to roll with it. We tipped servers, anyone who brought us a drink, and anyone who touched our luggage or carried it up four flights of stairs. Pay is meager, and all we can do is help while we impeded on their lives.
Don’t be scared, we felt very safe everywhere we went and that was one of our concerns. We packed pepper spray in our check luggage just in case. We also heard many horror stories about driving and I felt as if I was driving in the US with no issues.
Buy water bottles for your room at the gas station if you only need a few, they were very cheap there.
Thank you for checking out my post on Tulum, Mexico. I hope you found something of interest or useful. Please use the comment section for more ideas, but please don’t be rude, as always travel on and get lost in a jungle.
Kudos to Mandi my photographer through this jungle adventure!