Tulum Mexico Travel Guide

If you follow me on Instagram, then you already know that I went to Tulum, Mexico for my Honeymoon last month! I had been hearing a lot about Tulum lately and had to check it out for myself, and well, it totally lived up to the hype, I definitely want to visit again! I have so many photos it was impossible to narrow it down even this much! While it’a all fresh in my brain I wanted to write a guide of our favorites things from the week we were there!

There are really two separate areas to Tulum, the town and the beach/jungle. The beach area is one long road with small boutique hotels, yoga, spas, swanky restaurants (with $100 dinners), shops and a bohemian feel.

Then there’s the town, which is more authentic with local hole in the wall restaurants (with $10 dinners), dogs roaming around, hostels and gift shops.

 

Food + Drink Tulum – In Town

Batey – Our first day in Tulum we stumbled into Batey after seeing that they had wifi – we didn’t really know our way around so needed to look a few things up. After we ordered our drink, they brought us some little bruschettas which were amazing, then our cucumber and basil mojitos arrived, complete with a fresh piece of cane sugar, oh, my – so good! They have an awesome courtyard, live music, movie nights and Zander became besties with our waiter. We found ourselves back at Batey a few time on this trip including for Halloween night!

Pollo Bronco – A little casual corner spot with yummy whole chicken with rice, cole slaw and cokes. They are all “Mexican Cokes” in Mexico!

El Tacoqueto – It felt more like I was walking into someone’s home, rather than a kitchen and that made it even more intriguing! No one was speaking English so we stepped up to the counter to see what they were serving. There were huge serving dishes full of juicy, delicious options. We pointed to the one that looked the best, pollo en adobo, and moments later they brought a huge plate to our table. Sooo amazing and authentic.

One Tulum – If you want mezcal, this is the spot. They had unique cocktails and such nice bartenders.

Antojitos La Chiapaneca – You have to go here! It was full of locals and they had the BEST el pastor tacos! Zander and I ordered a bunch of different tacos and they have all kinds of topping out to add whatever you like to your dish!

El Camello Jr. – When we sat down they brought out chips, pico de gallo, habeero salsa and “special beans”. We ordered a small shrimp ceviche for an appetizer but even with two people we didn’t finish it. I’ll admit, I was scared to order the whole fried fish, but that’s what everyone said to get, so we did it, and it was surprisingly easy to eat and was so amazing!! It came with rice, beans and steamed veggies. Zander and I split everything and had a few beers for a total of about $15, that’s my kind of meal!

 

Food + Drink Tulum – Beach/Jungle

While in the beach area, we mainly just relaxed at spots and grabbed cocktails as we slowly wandering down the road, so I don’t have much to say about the food along the beach road.

La Zebra – we didn’t think it was the best food but it was a nice view on beach and had good cocktails, I heard it’s a good place to go dancing at night!

Taqueria La Eufemia – grabbed a quick beer on the beach, loved the casual, relaxed atmosphere

Zamas – Nice atmosphere and view of the water. Good drinks, awesome guacamole and nice people. Will definitely go back.

 

Things to do in Tulum

Beaches – I’m totally a beach girl, I can lay there for hours listening to the waves. Along the beach roads each hotel has there own area with lounge chairs and some even have fancy beds! Unfortunately, the water was not very nice when we were there, so we didn’t get into the water as much as I’d like.

Cenotes – Guys, I want to go to ALL of the cenotes. A cenote is a natural fresh water pool and they are gorgeous! We only had time to go to one, but if I ever go back, it’s on the top of my list to go to more. We went snorkeling in Dos Ojos and the Bat Cave through a local dive shop that we found in town. Truthfully, the bat cave was scary! We had to snorkle through this tiny tunnel with only a few inches of air above our heads. I almost didn’t do it, but after the fact, it’s a fun story and a great experience! We borrowed a GoPro and took a ton of photos but unfortunately couldn’t get in touch with the dive shop after we left to retrieve them, total bummer.

Tulum Ruins – The Tulum ruins were nice and had a really cool view down to the water. But it was SO hot on the day we want it was hard to take our time and read all the info.

Wander – One of my favorite things was to wander around with no destination. When walking around the small streets of the town we found markets, soccer games, teenagers fishing, local music, cool building, restaurant prep, kids going to school, Chihuahuas on roofs, men making tortillas and the local Halloween… we would have never seen these cool local things if we were sticking to a strict itinerary.

I really loved everything about Tulum, but in the end, I preferred eating in town. I liked the more hole-in-a-wall spots and the homemade style of food. And I liked the beach area for a nice breeze and for fancy cocktails on the beach. Hope you enjoyed this Tulum Mexico Travel Guide and let me know if you have any questions or favorites from your trip to Tulum! And don’t forget to pin this post if you are thinking about traveling to Tulum in the future!