Tulum = Paradise.

Think pure white sand, warm turquoise water, good food, and some Mayan ruins thrown in the mix. It’s the complete opposite to the mega-resort of Cancun with it’s eco-friendly and low impact approach – most accommodation is in small cabañas made from local materials with no air conditioning, surrounded by sand and palm trees. It’s just lovely.

We spent three days in Tulum and stayed at Playa Mambo, a small collection of cabañas right on the beach. Our room, Cabaña Verde, had a beautiful view to the beach which was just ten steps away. The owners, Natalia and Federico, were lovely and very helpful.

Tulum’s beach is picture perfect – the soft white sand that never gets too hot and the warm water that you can stay in forever.

Along the beach are many different hotels with their restaurants open to the public. We had some yummy fish tacos at Ahau Tulum – can’t beat that view of the beach!

One of the main attractions in Tulum is the Tulum Ruinas, the Mayan ruins situated on 12 m cliffs above the ocean. Tulum is one of the best-preserved coastal Mayan sites, and it’s pretty impressive! There were A LOT of tourists there though – and we were there in the lowest part of the low season, so I’d hate to think how many people go there in the high season. It was sad to see people disregarding the many ropes and clearly labelled signs asking them to stay off the ruins. There was one couple taking awful selfies and posing on the ruins themselves – they evidently didn’t care about the preservation of these important historical sites.

One thing we didn’t anticipate about Tulum was how expensive food would be. We got a huge shock when we realised that most dishes were over $25 USD – ouch! In the hotel zone along the beach there are limited options for food (primarily beachfront hotel restaurants and a couple of places on the inland side of the beach road) so it’s all expensive. Once we got over the sticker shock we had a couple of delicious meals at Casa Banana, a cute place with lots of candles and cocktails in jars on the inland side of the beach road. A whole locally-caught fish cooked over coals and a beetroot salad with goat’s cheese, anyone?

We thoroughly enjoyed our time in Tulum, it was great to relax on the stunning beach and see the ruins, and to get away from the internet for a while. We also swam in an amazing cenote.

The cenotes of Tulum, Mexico

The Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico is filled with holes. Sinkholes that is, or cenotes (pronounced say-note-ays) in Spanish. Cenotes are collapsed limestone cave sections filled with crystal clear water, that were used by the Maya for sacrificial offerings and easy freshwater access. They’re rather popular these days for a refreshing dip to escape the heat of Mexico! While we were in Tulum, we made a beeline for the Gran Cenote. The GoPro had another outing too! See our latest video at the end of the post…

This beautiful cenote is only five minutes from Tulum Pueblo (Tulum town) so it’s the easiest and cheapest to get to. That means it’s also the busiest, but fortunately we were there on a quiet day so only about 20 others were with us – and it’s a relatively big cenote so you can get have some peace and quiet.

The entrance fee is 120 pesos, and you can also pay to hire snorkels and lifejackets if you so desire. We had stopped off at a supermarket on the way and purchased cheap swimming goggles – either a mask or googles are a must for seeing all the fish and turtles in that clear water. There are lockers available at the facility, but as it wasn’t too busy we just left our bag down by the water where it was perfectly safe.

The cenote is amazing! The crystal clear water is so cool and refreshing, the stalagmites and stalactites of the caves are phenomenal, and the wildlife just tops it off – fish, turtles, bats, and birds all call the cenote home. We spent a few hours languishing in the lovely cool water, and enjoyed swimming through the dark caves (apologies for no photos inside the caves, the GoPro doesn’t cope so well in the dark!).

One thing that would have been fun to do (and is highly recommended on TripAdvisor) is to SCUBA dive inside the cenote. You can ‘cavern dive’ with an Open Water Diver certification (which we have), but to go deeper into the caves and ‘cave dive’ you have to have additional training – which you can do while in Tulum. While we were at Gran Cenote a couple of divers were there, and it was crazy seeing them under the water.

It was a great way to spend the hottest part of the day while in Tulum – we highly recommend a trip to Gran Cenote!