As a sort-of birthday present to myself this year, my boyfriend Glenn and I took a quick trip to Tulum, Mexico. I say “sort-of” because I was born on Leap Year Day and most years I don’t have a birthday so I take as much of February as I want to celebrate.

Tulum is a town on the Caribbean coast of Mexico. Known for its Mayan ruins, jungle, beaches, cenotes, and just overall georgousness, I was really excited to experience the nature and unique culture. I even started using Duolingo to brush up on my high school-level Spanish. Spoiler alert: knowing how to say, “the library has eight books” in Spanish did not come in handy on this trip.

Tulum has become a super popular vacation spot since the pandemic and they are trying to keep up with the crowds. They’re improving the roads, septic system and even building an airport and railway to Cancun. I really hope the development doesn’t jeopardize the natural beauty of this place but I’m sure it’s no worse than the strain that is being put on the current infrastructure to keep up with demand. The vibe of Tulum is organic, open-air and beachy and I think that’s what draws so many people in. It was definitely a younger crowd and it was clear who was there just to take Instagram photos.

Our Resort: Habitas Tulum

We stayed at the boutique resort Habitas Tulum. It was in a quiet part of Tulum, situated in the jungle but right on a secluded beach. Our room was basically a glamping yurt with electricity and air conditioning but the toilet and shower were outside. Every night, we had monkeys running around on our roof. Some people might have hated that, but I thought it added to the experience.

The resort had a beautiful outdoor restaurant and bar and an infinity pool overlooking the ocean. They offered lots of wellness opportunities like meditation, yoga and massages.

One thing to note is that we booked our airport transport through Habitas and we had a private ride to and from Cancun which was SO nice. Traffic was pretty bad on our way back to Cancun so we really glad we had given ourselves extra time.

The Beaches

Tulum has some of the most beautiful beaches in the world. Unfortunately, because of climate change and the rising temperatures of the ocean, a TON of seaweed was washed up on shore. We heard that it usually comes much later in the year and it’ll be a huge (and expensive) undertaking to get rid of it.

Even though it was technically winter in Tulum, it was in the 80s every day so we just climbed over the seaweed to cool off in the ocean.

Cenotes Tour

Another service we booked through Habitas was a private tour with Xaman-Ha Connections to explore some cenotes. A cenote is a natural hole in the limestone bedrock that exposes the underwater rivers and caves caused by rainwater. Our guide Carlos picked us up in an SUV and drove us around to 3 different cenotes in the area but apparently there are hundreds of various sizes. We swam in one pool that was above ground and two that were below. I’ll let the pictures do the talking…

As breathtaking as the caves were…it was a whole other world below the water with even more stalactites and caverns and river openings just below the surface. I wish I had an underwater camera to show you guys!

The Food

You guys know we love to eat, so of course we had some amazing food in Tulum. We devoured fresh fruit and seafood! Some of the highlights included:

Moro

Moro, the restaurant at Habitas had wonderful dishes for breakfast, lunch and dinner and the atmosphere was awesome.

Arca

Our cenotes guide recommended Arca (apparently the #29 best restaurant in Latin America) so we went there on our final night for my birthday dinner. The dishes were so unique and the presentation was excellent.

Mateo’s Mexican Grill

Mateo’s Mexican Grill is an Americanized Mexican restaurant that had surprisingly good food, amazing service and 2-for-1 margaritas!

Berna

We walked up to Playa Del Palma for a day at the beach and ended up hanging out in a cabana at Pocna Tulum where I read and worked on my sunburn and Glenn got a massage. We ordered ceviche from their beach restaurant and it was AMAZING. We later learned that octopus is one of the best things they get out of the gulf so that’s probably was it was so great.

El Rincon Del Jaguar & Delicia De Mi Tierra Tulum

There were two restaurants in the city of Tulum that we checked out, and both were to die for. We had an amazing breakfast (served all day!) at El Rincon Del Jaguar and right next door is Delicia De Mi Tierra Tulum that was owned by a friend of our cenotes guide and serves homemade and authentic Mayan dishes.

Mayan Ruins

There is an archeological zone right along the ocean where you can walk around the Mayan Ruins of Tulum. We were able to walk there from Habitas, bicycling would probably have been the best way to get around Tulum but as we learned from our time in South Carolin and Mississippi, my boyfriend’s bike riding skills need work. (We’ll see if he reads this and kills me for telling you all that haha)

The ruins were by far the most crowded part of our trip. Apparently they bus people in from Cancun to visit them. You can pay for a tour guide but we just walked around on our own and felt like we got a lot of good information by reading the signs throughout.

There is a reason Tulum has become a hot vacation spot. There’s really no place like it in the world!

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