Heyhey! It’s been two weeks since my holiday to Tulum and I’d love to share with you how it all went down… When I researched this vacation I haven’t found as much information as I’d have liked so my hope is that this might help some of you planning your perfect mexican vacation, because you should definitely go!!! 🙂 I absolutely loved Mexcio and Tulum, you all know I’m a chronic wanderluster, but there are only very few places I’d go back (vs trying out a new location) and Tulum is certainly one of these! We only spent 8 days under the mexican sun, but here is everything I’ve seen and learned along the way:
Tulum is a place to visit if you’re in for an active vacation! There are so many things to do, but you can also be perfectly content not doing anything at all if that makes sense. The Caribbean sea is just gorgeous and the sand has this unreal white color to it. Tulum is often called the Ibiza of the Caribbean and I can certainly see why! (and no, it’s not because of the parties! there isn’t much of those… 🙂 ) Juice bars, yoga retreats and healthy new age restaurants are all the craze in the fitness conscious fashion crowd here, while at night the jungle side snizzles with lights and exotic, megacool restaurants. If not Ibiza, it could also be the Williamsburg of the Caribbean. We traveled there early February and had some beautifully sunny days, some crazy windy days and a few cloudy ones too… I hear April/May is the best time to go in case you’re wondering! 🙂
Where to stay
Luckily Tulum has something for everyone and mass tourism is relatively still unknown here. There are no huge hotels here, only small chic beach cabanas and bungalows.
We stayed at Rosa Del Viento which is at a quiet part of the beach. Pros would be the amazing views from our ocean view bungalow, the super friendly staff and the prettiness of the beach here as its just on the edge of the Sian Kaan nature reserve. Negative would be that you have to walk a few kilometres to get close to the bars and restaurants, but if you rent a bike its all very easy peasy and taxis are cheap too.
A few other hotels that caught my attention were Be Tulum, Sanara (amazing health food restaurant and yoga room) and Mi Amor.
Where to eat
Here comes one of my main cons of Tulum, eating out every day can be very very expensive (compared to Spanish standards at least) and finding authentic Mexican food can be a challenge. We went all the way to Tulum town to try the real Mexican flavours at Don Cafeto… NOTHING fancy, just great food and authentic barrio feeling, we also loved spending time at a live music concert in the garden of Batey.
On the beach we loved the atmosphere of Cenzontle, Casa Banana and Gitano but spent one of the coolest evening in the small taco beach shack of La Eufemia.
What to do
One of the reasons for me to go back will be to go diving, which I didn’t get a chance to do this time, although it’s supposed to be amazing.
We did visit one of the cenotes (underground river) which was one of the highlights of the trip by far. These fresh water lakes and caves are part of an almost 7000km underground river network, parts of which they are just discovering now, prehistoric rock formations and cool animal life… we visited Sac Actun which was amazing and I’d very highly recommend. It was just me & mr with a guide, no other tourists so it was a very unique experience!
One day we rented bikes and rode all the way to the Mayan ruins on the beach which is a must, after which we climbed the pyramid of Koba and bartered with the sellers on the little artesanal shops on the side of the rode for an amazing black dream catcher! 🙂
For shopping I’d definitely recommend getting into Tulum town as the selection and prices are much better than that on the beach.
Don’t miss out on the amazing yoga classes either, I had one in Yaan in a treehouse in the jungle, pure bliss!
Apart from that our run in on the beach in the sunrise was a definite highlight that set the tone for the whole vacay. 🙂
That’s it! Now pack and go! 🙂 Any questions just let me know in your comments
p.s: here is a teaser of an engagement session I photographed while in Tulum… 🙂 can’t wait to show you the rest!
p.p.s: anyone getting married in Mexico? TAKE ME WITH YOU! 😀
