A Week in Tulum

On a Beach Down in Mexico

I finally made it out to Mexico recently in mid-August with my high school best friends. It was such a great trip but as they say, every rose has its thorn. We had A LOT of mishaps on this vacation, I cannot stress enough how many issues we ran into flying in and out of Mexico. However, everything we did in between was so beautiful and fun, so I’ll focus on that. 

DAY ONE: FLIGHT

My flight was delayed 4 hours so I didn’t get into Cancun until much later than anticipated, but I finally made it and picked up my rental car from City Car Rental. It was $250 for a small automatic car for 6 days and it definitely got a lot of use. The guys at the rental place were very kind, they waited until my delayed flight landed with a City Car Rental sign to shuttle me to the rental place. I was the sole reason they stayed open so late, so for that I was grateful. 

I made the 1 ½ hour drive to Tulum by myself since my friend Kim got there much earlier and took the shuttle down and my other friend April wasn’t getting in until Saturday. The drive from Cancun to Tulum is pretty easy and a straight shot on the highway. This was our Airbnb for two nights. It is a beautiful Spanish-style condo but it’s kind of out of the way from Tulum Town center. We chose to stay in Tulum Town over the Hotel Zone because we wanted to save money on accommodations and Tulum Town is a great option for that.

DAY TWO: PLAYA PARAISO

Kim and I went to get brunch at DelCielo before heading back to Cancun to pick up April from the airport. DelCielo is a cute, health-conscious brunch spot that I highly recommend. Get the açaí bowl!

After driving back from Cancun, we got ready and took a taxi to the beach so we could drink without worrying about driving home after. The taxis from our first Airbnb to the beach were around $20 USD each way since it was out of the way of Tulum town. 

We got dropped off at Playa Paraiso - it’s a public beach with nice white sand. It is seaweed season in August but that didn’t bother us much. 

I didn’t catch the names of the beach bars we all went to but I know they had alcohol in coconuts and that’s all that matters. There are a bunch of bars and beach clubs to choose from on that particular beach! 

When the sun started to set, we got a taxi to the Airbnb and walked to a cute hookah bar called Mistico Tulum down the street. I didn’t realize hookah was such a big thing in Tulum, but it’s everywhere. We got appetizers to share and sat outside in the bohemian-vibe garden area. 

DAY THREE: CENOTE & CINCO BEACH CLUB

I had done extensive research on the cenotes in Tulum and narrowed it down to two of them. Gran Cenote is probably the most popular cenote and for good reason. It’s open 8:10 am - 4:15 pm and great for swimming, playing mermaids and snorkeling. I highly suggest getting there early because it will fill up quickly. The entrance free was around $18 USD a person and you can rent snorkel gear for MX $80 and a  locker for MX$30. We brought our own snorkel gear and got right to playing mermaids with the turtles. 

The other cenote that looked gorgeous but we didn’t get to on this trip is Dos Ojos. It costs about $18 USD per person to get in and opens at 8 am. 

We then drove to the Hotel Zone to walk around and see the cute boutiques and restaurants. There are a bunch of parking lots that are $10 per car, so we picked one and walked to get overpriced, overrated drinks at Matcha Mama. We took photos on the swings and then walked past the famous Raw Love statue and saw the 20+ people in line to take photos. 

For lunch we went to La Zebra on the beach and got some bomb tacos and guacamole. The avocados in Mexico are next level so we had guacamole essentially everywhere we went. 

After lunch, we checked in early to our next Airbnb. It’s in the Aldea Zama area, which I highly recommend for its relative proximity to the beach and Tulum town. 

I had made reservations at CINCO Tulum Beach via email for the afternoon. It’s a $25 minimum consumption per person and the reservation got us a day bed with shade and towels. 

Eventually we made our way back in a taxi to the Aldea Zama area for dinner. Mamazul is a cute mezcaleria with really great ceviche and great service.

DAY FOUR: PAPAYA PLAYA BEACH CLUB

This was collectively one of our favorite days in Tulum. We got something light for breakfast and got a taxi to Papaya Playa Beach Club. I researched most of the beach clubs in Tulum and this seemed like one of the best ones. Monday-Friday it’s a $1,000 MXN per person spending minimum and includes access to a beach bed with shade, beach, pool, towels and yoga class. Weekends it’s a little more, so we opted to go on a Monday. We got there in time for the 11 am yoga class in the chapel overlooking the beach before making our way to our beach bed. 

We spend hours there and our bill definitely proved it, but it was worth it and so much fun. It’s turtle season in August and they had little boxed off areas where turtles buried their eggs to protect them from visitors. We asked our waiter and he said they have a turtle expert that walks the beach every night to watch for turtles laying their eggs so he can conserve their nest.

Once the tide started rolling in and the turtles were about to start showing up, we were escorted to the pool where we met a group of girls that were in tulum for a birthday. We ended up hanging out with them for a bit before going our separate ways and ending up at a restaurant that became a dance club.

Some of the other beach clubs that looked fun throughout my research but we didn’t get to go to are Rosa Del Viento, Ziggy’s Beach Club, Gitano Beach, and Taboo.

DAY FIVE: SCUBA DIVING

Then came our favorite activity of the vacation - scuba diving the Mesoamerican Reef! It’s the second largest reef in the world next to the Great Barrier Reef and makes for a great scuba location. I looked into a lot of scuba places and came across a blog recommending a private dive instructor named David. I got his contact info from the blogger and booked a diving trip with him. 

I cannot recommend David enough, we had such an amazing experience with him and it was inexpensive compared to the dive schools in Tulum. He’s a private dive instructor that works out of a dive center 20 minutes north of Tulum and offers a Discover Scuba Diving program. I am open-water certified but my friends are not, so this was mandatory for them to be able to scuba dive. He taught them a short theory class and had them practice in shallow water. Then we all went out in a boat together and dived to a maximum depth of 40 feet. The Discover Scuba Diving program was $95 USD for one dive and $130 USD for two dives. As a certified diver, my cost was $70 USD for one dive and $90 USD for two. We opted for two dives and went to two separate dive locations with a break off the boat in between. The price of these dives also included full gear rental equipment, fees, boat, David as our private instructor, water and a snack. 

The reef was phenomenal and featured a ton of exciting sea critters and fish. We saw huge puffer fish, lobsters, a big sea turtle, a stingray, a barracuda, brightly colored schools of fish living among the reefs and so much more. If you are considering scuba diving, go to Tulum and dive with David! Get in contact with me on Instagram or email and I will pass along his info.

After diving, we drove back to Tulum, washed the salt water out of our hair, got our COVID swabs in preparation for our flights home and had dinner. We decided last minute to get a taxi to the hotel zone for one last hoorah and met up with the girls from the beach club pool again since we were all leaving in the coming days. 


DAY SIX: MAYAN RUINS

I woke up to a notification that my flight home the next morning was cancelled and a tropical storm was coming right for Tulum and subsequently turning into a hurricane. It was a rude awakening but we got it all figured out and tried to make the most out of our last day before the hurricane. 

We got lunch at the famous Burrito Amor in Tulum Town. Here are a few more restaurants we didn’t get to that were recommended

Last on the trip itinerary but certainly not least was the Tulum Archaeological Zone in the Parque Nacional Tulum. It’s about 15 minutes from the town center and costs MX$80 per person to enter,  MX$200 to park a car and is a must-see when in Tulum to learn about the Mayan culture and see the unique oceanside ruins. 

Eventually we made our way back to our Airbnb where we got the news that Grace might actually touch down in Tulum as a category two hurricane. We decided to make the drive to Cancun that night instead of the following morning to be safe instead of risking the drive in the morning. We dropped off the rental car, checked into a hotel and charged our phones in preparation for the storm. 

DAY SEVEN: HURRICANE GRACE 

The power went out when it hit and it was so loud it sounded like a semi was driving over the roof of the hotel. We all woke up to it and had a hard time sleeping. The power didn’t come back on before we checked out, so we had to navigate the hotel in the pitch black, couldn’t flush the toilets or use the sink and had to carry our luggage down the stairs instead of the elevator. Our flights had gotten delayed by 2 hours due to the lingering wind and rain but we decided to just go and wait in the airport.

The hotel shuttled us through the flooded streets to the airport and we waited there with all the other vacationers who had their trips ruined by Grace. Eventually we all made it back to the states and I got to New York just in time for Tropical Storm Henri. 

In conclusion, I definitely recommend going to Tulum, just maybe not during hurricane season. 

Travel, Itineraries, AdventureKortney Marshalltulum, mexico, tulummexico, cancun, mayanruins, cenote, grancenote, scubadiver, scuba, beachclub, beachparty