Tulum: Riviera Maya at its Best

On the morning of our check out, we decide to catch one of the early morning buses (not the expensive ADO but the cheaper second-class Mayab-40XMN/pp) to go to Tulum. Everybody we’ve met so far had nothing but great comments about Tulum sooo how could we miss visiting such an enchanted place ?

As the bus drop us off at Tulum bus station we can immediately tell this is nothing like Playa; no mass tourists are seen around, no big shops selling anything you can imagine and especially no tour operators hassling you every couple of minutes: Tulum is a very laid-back village ! The main road (and another “party” street with a handful of night-locals) is pretty much where everything happens in town; from banks to small shops that’s where its always at. Even if you need to buy grocery, the Chedraui supermarket its just a block down the road that leads to the beach !

Without a reservation in our hands, we start browsing through what’s available (thanks god the ADO station has free wifi once again) in both hostelworld and AirBnB and luckily at the last minute we manage to reserve a whole house just for us. With the weekly discount applied, booking Casa Azul through AirBnB (15€/night) ends up being cheaper than booking two beds in a hostel… and here we have a whole house with kitchen, laundry, private bathroom and outside yard just for us (bicycles as well) !

After a sweaty ride, there we are in front of the real treat of Tulum: the beach. Although the town itself is 4km away from it, with bicycles we can easily reach the beach area in just 15-20min and enjoy a full day of relaxation roasting in the sun. Unfortunately, there are not many public beaches (most of them have been privatised by the fancy-expensive resorts) but the few left are in great shape and offer the occasional traveller some of the whitest beach and crystal-clear waters of the Riviera Maya.

The “Las Palmas” public beach is probably the most relaxed / closer spot to town if you don’t have a car; there we also get offered a snorkelling tour that includes seeing the Tulum Ruins from the sea + 1hr ca. of reef snorkelling for just 200MXN per person. Be sure to catch that tour !!! Colorful fish, eels, corals and much more makes it a great half-day trip for those (like us) wanting to spice up a lazy day on the sand.

The next morning, its time for us to visit in person the same beautiful ruins that yesterday we were lucky enough to see from the ocean a.k.a Tulum Ruins. It doesn’t take us much time to get there with the bicycles (closer than getting to the beach) but once there the amount of tourists is crazy ! Dirt cheap entrance ticket (70MXN) which also include unlimited time at the beach at the site, easily accessible and only Mayan site in Mexico to be on the seaside, are all perfect ingredients for a cocktail of 24/7 tourists groups. Apparently, by going there early you might catch a few moments of less tourists (or at least thats what people working there tell us) but be aware of visiting the place after 9am !

Back on the bicycles and this time getting to the public beach is actually a pretty short ride. In less than 10min we’re already enjoying the same gorgeous sea with which we felt in love the other day but this time we’ve got the full day to enjoy it ! No reef snorkelling tours, no visit to archaeological sites, no planning on what to do next… just beach & cold beers. Tough life, uh ? And if that’s not enough, on top of the beautiful orange sunset, we also see a flock of pelicans fishing in the waters just in front of us. Amazing !

On the way home, we also decide to stop by for a drink in one of the many (tourist-ish) locals just outside our house. Attracted by the great live music, we end up in the “Batey Mojito & Guarapo Bar” tasting their great mojitos all featuring mint, sugar-cane and another fruit (passion fruit, papaya, manor, peach etc…) to your choice. The first round is so tasty like we’ve never tasted anything before that we HAVE to get a second round (our german friends would be proud of us) !

Incredibly enough, just before finally going home we even stop by the Budget Rental Car to ask for a fare… result ? We book a car for 3 days with all insurance included, unlimited kms and much more for the ridiculous price of 25€ per day !! Goodnight Tulum ! Chichen-Itza will be waiting for us tomorrow !!!

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