Tulum, Mexico - What a Treat!
Oh Mexico, we meet again! My first time in Mexico was back in January 2017 for a much-needed life changing trip with my boo Marissa. This time around, I hit Tulum with two of my favorite people, Patrick and Natalia!
Tulum was exactly the breathtaking aesthetically pleasing tropic vacation I was craving. After many Instagram stories later, I’m here to tell you my favorite Tulum spots to hit from my 3 day trip.
Transportation:
After landing in Cancun, we knew that it would be an hour and a half of commuting before we got to Tulum so we ended up renting a car, this made it so much cheaper for us because just one way to Tulum with a private Taxi service would have cost us $100 US dollars. Lest us not forget to mention all the taxi’s you’d need to go to and from all the Cenotes and food adventures. You could take an ADO bus to Playa Del Carmen, but you’d still need to hop on a local bus to get to Tulum. And because we were only staying 3 full days in Tulum, we wanted to land and get there ASAP so renting a car made the most sense for us. There is also plenty of parking options when you hit the hotel/restaurant strip so don’t let that stop you from renting a car.
Places to stay:
We and by we I mean me because I did most of the planning (no shade :P) went with Playa Paraiso for only $120 a night. It was close to everything and it was such a gem! Of course, other hotels looked more luxurious, but truth be told I didn’t want us spending $300-500 a night for a hotel room especially when most of these hotels had bars/restaurants where the public could enjoy aka me waltzing in for a photo without paying for a room. Playa Paraiso had great reviews, the people were friendly and there was a hella strong AC unit. One thing I will say is, their hotel restaurant was not the best so I’d recommend skipping out on that.
Places to eat:
OMG okay, this was my favorite part of the trip! Despite their hotel prices being a little over my budget I was going to take full advantage of their restaurants for all the photo opportunities. Don’t sleep on yo girl!
Habitas– AMAZING food and the service was also equally as great. This place as a Instagrammer’s dream spot for photos! We used their pool twice during our time in Tulum and all we had to do was order drinks at their bar, no problem!
Azulik- We came here for breakfast and it was gorgeous, the way they built this place is truly a work of art. After breakfast, we hit the shops and museum near the entrance, just ask the front desk person for the exact location.
Mamasan- Dinner time fine! We hit this gem after a friend recommended us to come for drinks and yummy food. Since we came early in September the restaurants weren’t as packed, which worked in our favor. The food was delicious here and the ambience was super trendy and fun.
Gitano- A little more expensive than the other places we went to, but worth it! The food was BOMB!! There is now a Gitano in NYC so y’all already know I’ll be visiting it again here.
Things to do:
Cenotes Dos Ojos- This Cenote was priced out to be more of an excursion with 3 cenotes in one. We were told by a local that there was a private cenote behind this one owned by a local and to just pay him 200 pesos per person to spend a day there. Instead of being in a Cenote full of people we opted for the more private one. It was truly a sight to see, we were completely alone! I didn’t get the name of it, but if you’re interested in finding it, head over to Dos Ojos and ask about the cenote behind it and tip that man well.
Cenote Grand– If you go early you’ll beat the crowds, but again because we came during off season the crowd wasn’t too bad. This cenote was more open which allowed for some much-needed sun bathing which was extremely appreciated because cenote water is quite cold.
Tulum Ruins- What a sight! We unfortunately came on the hottest day of our trip! Lawd! But despite being drenched in sweat, it was an amazing experience.
And that concludes my Tulum guide, I wish I stayed longer, but for 3 full days I think we saw a lot and ate a LOT. My suggestion for converting USD to Pesos would be to look up the conversion and to shop around. At the airport they gave us 14 Pesos for each USD (the conversion was 19 Pesos = 1USD), but when we hit Tulum, there was a place by the main street offering 18 Pesos so we definitely got jipped because of poor planning, so plan ahead!
