Flights

Main port of arrival is Cancun but Tulum now has its own airport with flights starting soon so keep an aye on this.

Transport

Options from Cancun Airport: Taxi, Hotel transfer or Car Rental. We chose car rental. It was value for money and gave us freedom to come and go as we pleased.

Renting a car in Mexico

Is it safe? In the Yukatan/Tulum/Cancun area there is a big emphasis on tourists and making sure the tourists are happy so yes it’s safe.

Are car rental companies fair/safe? From my research absolutely avoid the really cheap offers, so many bad reviews, it’s not worth the risk. We chose Alamo and they were great, no issues at all. Make sure to get car insurance (its mandatory to get in Mexico, even if you have a credit card or policy from elsewhere that is meant to cover it)

Do cops stop people for no reason/ask for bribes? In my experience, again in this region, no they don’t. We passed several police checkpoints and never got stopped. I’ve also read that if you do get stopped it’s better if you just instant taking the ticket to pay the fine and not giving them anything.

Is there any petrol station scams? I’ve read that if you pay by card they might try over charge you so I always paid by cash and they attendants were always very friendly so I had no issues.

Are road trips safe? We drove from Cancun to Tulum and back, Tulum to Chitzen Itzá and back and had no issues at all, again these touristy areas are well looked after.

Hotels

If you are planning on doing Tulum cheaply (maybe staying the town itself away from famous beaches/clubs/restaurants etc. my advice is just be aware that you are probably not going to have the same experience as you might expect from Instagram etc.

We stayed in Ruby Tulum for 2 nights in the Forrest area away from the beach. It was a really cool experience with a 3 floor room for bedroom, living area and private rooftop but some of the rooms facing the road/parking don’t live up to the expectation. We complained about being in one of these rooms as it wasn’t as described on the website and thankfully got changed. With that change we really enjoyed but without it I’m not so sure. The pool, bar, restaurant area is really cool and it’s like you are in a world of your own. It’s worth noting that it’s probably halfway between the beach and the town, which was no issue for us as we rented a car but I heard taxis in Tulum itself can be expensive FYI.

We then moved to the beach area and stayed 3 nights in Playa Tulum. This was a really cool beach resort area. Rooms again were great. Reviews had some people complaining about noise from restaurants nearby at bed time but it was a bit like white noise to us, didn’t bother us and didn’t go on all night anyway. We also had issues here unfortunately though, a little cockroach infestation in our room led to us getting a free upgrade to an amazing room but the cockroach thing really wasn’t acceptable considering the price of this place! The beach club was great because they had private tables, beds etc. for those staying in the hotel so we always had a great spot. The beach was nice but the front of these beaches (as in the part near the water) is pubic so people not in the hotel lay there ruining the view a bit sometimes and a lot of people trying to sell stuff during the day (from weed, to pictures with animals, to models modelling clothes for you to buy) – I didn’t expect all that for such a well known ‘high end’ place.

Chitzen Itza

It’s about a 2 hour drive from Tulum to Chitzen Itzá. It’s a nice drive and straight forward too.

You can either get a bus tour (you will arrive later than others and it will be busy) or get a private tour (expensive) or if you have rented a car like us, you can drive yourself. We downloaded an app that used GPS to talk you through the ruins as you walked around. Really enjoyed that.

Cenotes

If you get a tour to Chitzen Itza they will undoubtedly bring you to a cenote as part of the tour but generally it will be the same cenotes that all the tours go to and they can get crowded. So as we were driving ourselves we asked our hotel for some recommendations and picked based on that: Cenote Suy Tun, Cenote Saamal, Cenote Ik Kil or Haicenda San Lorenzo Oxman

Cenote Suy Tun is a very famous one but the reviews from google suggests it was all about the picture and not really worth visiting otherwise. We chose Haicenda San Lorenzo Oxman as it looked nice, and not so busy. We really enjoyed it and would recommend it.

Fun fact: the famous asteroid that hit earth and the dinosaurs impacted around this region and the cenotes formation is as a result from that event.

Tulum to do

Playa sunset – You queue up here and just pay for some happy hour drinks to get into sunset rooftop area. Its the only way to visit this famous hotel without staying there.

Mayan ruins – Tulum has its own Mayan ruins and its worth visiting but it’s nowhere near as impressive as Chitzen Itza. Its cash only entry (although there are ATMs nearby).

Cenotes – There are serval cenotes near Tulum itself also, we went to one of the most famous (and most expensive) to check the hype but it was cash only, and we didn’t bring cash this time so we just left and didn’t bother going back.

Tulum Beach Gym – The famous gym was near our hotel but we didn’t use it.

Tulum Statue – This was close to our hotel also, you can just queue up for a couple of minutes and take turns getting pictures at it. The queues aren’t that big and its cheap so when in Rome…

Food

There are lots of options for food and drink in Tulum, from more affordable places in the town to more up market places by the beach. For our first couple of nights we stayed in the hotel (Rubi Tulum) and ate there because the setting was pretty impressive.

We grabbed lunch in town at raw love cafe too it was nice reasonably priced spot.

For the next few nights we ate (book ahead just incase, everywhere was busy when we were there) at higher end places down by the beach (Ilios, RosaNegra, Casa Banana)

Tips and Prices

Rent a car if you want the flexibility to come and go as you please. We had a great experience doing it. 50 USD per day

Taxi from airport- 110 USD One-way

Hotel transfer – Approx. 150 USD one-way

When paying for hotels in USD/Local currency make sure you check the conversion rate first because hotels like to try make a little profit for themselves on this.

Rubi Tulum 2 nights – 533 USD (total)

Delek 3 nights – 1226 USD (total)

Beer – You can get a beer for about 5 USD no problem but cocktails and food are more expensive in restaurants

Chitzen Itza app – 8 USD for self guided tour on your phone, worth it.

Chitzen Itza entry – 614 Mex peso

Avoid going to Chitzen Itza on Sunday if you can because its free for locals on this day and gets verrrrrry busy.

Haicenda San Lorenzo Oxman – 150 Mex peso

Tulum Mayan Ruins – 60 Mex peso park fee and 95 mex peso entry fee