Tulum Travel – November 2018

After Albert & Kati’s wedding in Playa Del Carmen, we extended our Mexico stay by taking a taxi straight to Tulum.

Tulum was exactly what we needed after a stressful October and an incredible wedding. All of the hotels, bars, and restaurants are on one road that is off the beaten path. It’s sometimes faster to bike than drive because of all the potholes in the road.

This area is so far off the beaten path, that there aren’t many street lights. We walked a few nights with using our iPhones as flashlights, and wouldn’t recommend it. Taxis should be easy to find, and they charge a fixed price of 100 pesos.

You could probably negotiate them down, but we felt weird negotiating down from $5. Especially because the largest bills we had were 100 pesos.

Where to Stay in Tulum

We stayed at Los Amigos Beach, which was a roll of the dice because they had very few reviews. We picked Los Amigos for the price. Tulum is expensive, with most resorts charging around $500 – $600 per night. Los Amigos was closer to $200, and it ended up being a great place to stay.

The resort was as nice as it was small. They only had 8 rooms, and all of them seemed to have an ocean view. The porch had a hammock, with Michelle may have enjoyed a nap or two on. The beach also had more than enough lounge areas for us to hang out at.

With that said, the beach had a TON of seaweed. The entire coast was loaded with seaweed, which made you not even want to go in the water. It seemed like the nicer resorts paid people to remove this, and Los Amigos was not one of those nicer resorts.

It was hard to beat the value Los Amigos gave. The people were really nice, they had free bikes, and it was incredibly affordable relative to the alternatives.

Tulum Ruins

We rode bikes up to the Tulum ruins, and it was a workout! It took roughly 40 minutes to bike up.

The Tulum ruins are one of the best preserved Maya sites in Mexico. Some of the ruins were in great shape considering they were built around 1200 and 1450.

Tulum’s entrance fee is really cheap. Just make sure that if you have any type of camera, including a GoPro, that you pay a ticket for that as well. If not, you’ll be caught when you enter. They’ll give you the option of leaving the camera, or going back and buying the ticket. Since this area is not secure, we recommend buying the ticket for peace of mind.

Aside from the ruins, there were quite a few animals hanging out as well. We saw multiple iguanas hanging out, as well as a coati.

As fun as the ruins are, it does not cover much real estate. We took as long as we could to walk around, and were done in 40 minutes. We wonder how many people could have actually lived here. As you can see in our photos, there just aren’t many buildings.

Tulum Restaurants

Tulum has several bars and restaurants down in a small space. We were surprised initially surprised that the prices were just as high as what we would pay in San Francisco. After having some of the food and drinks, we can definitely say that it’s all worth the price.

RosaNegra

RosaNegra is on another level. The food, drinks, and service were all on point. Make sure you stay until 10pm, where they will give everyone sparklers and light up the restaurant.

Make sure you save room for dessert, and order the Baked Alaska. Feel free to thank us later.

Arca

Arca served amazing cocktails, and we’re kicking ourselves for not having dinner there as well. The bartenders were incredibly nice, and even gave us samples of some drinks off menu.

The bartenders gave us amazing recommendations of bars and restaurants to visit. We never would have found one of those places if it wasn’t for him.

Gitano

Gitano was a little weird. The lighting is very low, so you can barely see what you’re eating.

We used our iPhone flashlight to read the menu, and were worried that the brightness of the flashlight may be bothering others.

The service was also tricky. We had a tough time finding our server, and drinks took a while to arrive. This could have been because of how low the light is. They actually made a mistake on Rome’s first drink, which Rome realized after ordering another drink. The server was kind enough to give another drink for free!

Ziggy Beach Bar

Ziggy’s was awesome. They have cabanas you can lay out in for free as long as you spend $30 on food and drinks. The beaches are also seaweed free. This is a great area to swim and hang out, but beware of big rocks in the water.

Make sure you arrive before 10am. Unfortunately everybody else knows about this place, and people don’t leave once they take a spot. We were lucky enough to find something at 3pm. The person who left and gave us an opening was the first to leave all day!

Clan-Destino

Clan-Destino was courtesy of our bartender in Arca. The bar has a cenote inside!

On top of the awesome cenote that you can swim in, the drinks were super cheap. They served delicious margaritas for half the price of any other bar in Tulum. Granted, these were blended, but they were exactly what we needed after an exhausting bike ride from the Tulum ruins.

Tulum Travel

Michelle and I had a blast in Tulum. It was exactly what we needed after a hectic October and an incredible wedding. The area is super relaxing thanks to being off the beaten path.

Our only regret was that we didn’t stay long enough. We wish we had one more day to see the pyramids in Chichen Itza, as well as a real cenote.

Either way, we’ll definitely come back, and know exactly what we’ll add to the itinerary!