In this travel post, I’m going to talk about the things to do (and eat) in Tulum, Mexico! I’ll run through some of the good eats we enjoyed, and run through various travel tactics you need in Mexico, like dealing with taxi drivers.

This post will be updated with more information as we visit this city more in the future.

Things To Eat in Tulum, Mexico

Unfortunately, this is a short list. Not because the food in Mexico isn’t good, but because I got food poisoning and had to deal with diarrhea for half my trip. Read the linked post to mitigate your food poisoning risks and also this post on travel accessories to pack for this trip, and for any trip.

Please note that during your visit to a 3^rd world country such as Mexico, you’ll always run the risk of food poisoning and diarrhea.

Does this mean you shouldn’t ever eat outside your hotel/resort?

I don’t think so. This is more of a personal risk-tolerance and philosophy, but I feel like I’m going to travel to a country I want to eat the street foods and the most authentic cooking possible. Y’know, eat what the locals eat – even if it means risking my life a little bit.

But anyway, with that disclaimer in mind, here are some of the memorable food places we went to before I got food poisoning.

Taqueria Honorio: Amazing tacos. They’ve got a crispy pig skin taco that’s to die for. They’ve got some intensely diverse flavors and texture contrasts, and they manage to shove all this goodness into one very generous taco. Also, it’s very inexpensive. It’s like 22MXP (~$1 USD) per taco. And it’s authentic: the locals come here to eat in the mornings.

Las BBQ Tulum: Really good BBQ. As good as anything you’d get in any of the southern states. Moist, flavorful meat coupled with their cilantro sauce = yum. Their sides are surprisingly good as well. They’ve cornbread to murder a small child for. Reasonable prices, but not as cheap as Honorio.

Casa Sofia: Great Italian restaurant. And I know what you’re thinking: “What a gringo thing to do – go to Mexico to eat Italian food.” And you’d be right. I own it. That said, they’ve got really tasty ceviche where the raw meats are super well-dressed, and the egg yolks they use actually have an incredibly intense eggy flavor to it. Their pasta’s also good, but not as good as Mi Amor hotel’s restaurant, as I’ll discuss below. This place is a bit expensive and touristy. But good food is good food.

Safer food at Mi Amor hotel. Since this is a fairly expensive establishment, you won’t get the same risks of food poisoning you’d get from, say, a street vendor. The tradeoff is: 1) it’s less authentic, and 2) it’s much more expensive. The last 3 days of our vacation we spent at this hotel. My stomach was recovering from the diarrhea already at this point, but we found no need to actually venture out to eat ‘authentic’ foods. Their restaurant has a diverse set of foods, ranging from bougie western brunches (they’ve got a famous Sunday brunch menu) to Italian pasta. You’d think because their menu covers such a wide range of foods (from acai bowls to octopus squid ink pasta to French fries), the food would suck. Surprisingly, it doesn’t – the food is executed superbly. Their pasta rivals pasta I ate in Italy (blasphemy, I know, but in Italy’s defense, their pasta is 2X less expensive than this hotel). Their acai bowl’s yogurt is cold/creamy and one of the best fruit bowl’s I’ve ever eaten. Their French fries with jalapeno cream sauce is so good we order it literally every time we eat there. Short rib croquettes are perfectly lightly fried outside and instead of shoving it with potatoes, they shove it with short ribs so you aren’t getting ripped off. Their fish tacos also are lightly fried so it’s not super greasy – and is coupled with tasty herbs and sauces. About $30-$50/meal.

Though I’d say even though they’ve got such a diverse menu at Mi Amor hotel – eating their food for 3 days straight makes me miss NYC chinatown food.

Hopefully, the above will give you enough things to eat in Tulum, or at least demonstrate the variety in cuisine, authenticity, and pricing you’ll have access to.

Things To Do In Tulum (Cenotes)

The thing to do in Tulum is to visit their cenotes, since that’s what Tulum’s known for. Cenotes are basically freshwater that’s pooled underground. Here’s some cenotes we’ve visited.

One additional thing you’ll need specifically for this trip not mentioned in our travel accessories post are waterproof pouches for your phone so you can film underwater footage like the clip below. These waterproof phone cases is what we’ve been able to use to film underwater without having to purchase something expensive like a Go-Pro. I was able to film for an hour straight without a single drop of water getting into the packaging, so this product seems to work in lengthy, real-life dives.

Gran Cenote. This one’s great because there’s tons of fish and small turtles you can swim alongside. Along the edges of cenotes are also fruit bats. Apparently, the aquatic life in the cenote can only exist because they eat the bats’ droppings. So if a cenote has no bats, there’s also going to be a lack of aquatic life. This is a self-booked cenote that does not require a tour guide. So you should go early so you can avoid the crowds.

Nohoch Cenote. This was booked through a private tour, through hotel Mi Amor. If you’re casual like us, a tour guide here will be immensely helpful. This cenote features a semi-open area and a cave area. The latter is quite hard to navigate because it’s very dark. A good tour guide will give you flashlights to swim through the dark cave areas and will lead you through the maze. Very easy to get lost if you’re going by yourself, which is why this place requires licensed tour guides to visit. The upshot is that there’s less people that come here due to this restriction. The cave area is amazing. They’ve got tons of limestone formations that take a long time to form. A piece of limestone grows in height at a pace of around 1cm/decade. Check out the below clip to see just how long these limestones could get.

Xux Ha Cenote. This is a quaint little cenote that was the final stop of a public Viator tour. It features a diving platform so you can dive for fun. The holes in the roof also lets sun rays to penetrate the cave in a really beautiful way. There’s fish (I believe catfish) in the cenote as well. The local family uses this cenote’s water as their grey water source. This cenote was quite enjoyable despite its modest size due to its privacy.

In general, because of COVID and the desire for privacy, if I had to do this trip again, I’d just book private tours for cenotes as opposed to self-booking or going with a Viator tour. It’s not much more expensive (maybe $50/person for a half-day trip) and it’s nice to have a van where you can leave everything in and not have to worry about anything being stolen.

There are thousands of cenotes that are available in Mexico, and the above is just some of them. Keep in mind there’s generally going to be tradeoffs here between privacy and accessibility.

Things To See And Experience In Tulum

Wonder Of The World

First, you should book a trip to see Chichen Itza. This Mayan ruin is one of the new 7 wonders of the world. It looks like the below and apparently when you clap, the echo that this thing generates is supposed to mimic a bird call. Allegedly. This building is also used to denote seasonal changes, based on if/when the shadows of one side of the pyramid is cast exactly to the backside of the pyramid in the shape of a snake.

The Thing To “See” In Tulum, If You’re An Influencer

If you go on TikTok and search for Tulum, you’ll 100% see this place show up, all the time.

And this place is Sfer Ik in Tulum. The place looks like a blend between modern construction and an all-natural jungle interior. It costs $10 USD/person to visit this place.

Personally, I don’t think this place is all that impressive. I mean – it’s nice, but it’s not like “wow, my mind is freakin’ blown” because they put wood and stone indoors.

However, if you like flexing and taking photos for the ‘gram or the Tok, you should definitely visit.

I’ve found that I got the most entertainment value not in the actual place, but watching Instagram influencers with ~800 followers spending 30 minutes doing multiple takes trying to impress upon the world how great their life is.

In short, this place is exactly what you’d expect it to be: a place to take pictures and no more. The pleasant surprise in this Tulum attraction is that the thing to see here are the people taking pictures, as opposed to the place itself.

Pablo Escobar’s Former Mansion

Next, if you have the means, you should most definitely check out Casa Malca. This was Pablo Escobar’s former mansion. And now, it’s a high-end beach resort that’s highly decorated with expensive art everywhere.

From swing sets where the seat is a full-sized sofa, to sculptures and art by Kaws and other world-renounced artists, the whole hotel really has a art gallery vibe to it – kind of like K11 Musea in Hong Kong, if you’re familiar. All of these art installations is sprinkled onto the property’s jungle and beach landscaping, so it’s like a fusion of modern art with nature.

Not only that, their service is impeccable as well. Upon arrival, you’ll get a welcome drink and will be given a tour of the property. You’ll then be led to a restaurant if you’re hungry where you can order some food before you check-in. After you’re done with your food, just chill at the beach front until they’re ready to check you in. Their staff also knows you by first name when you walk around the property – some would find this creepy, but I find this to be great service as I haven’t really experienced this since Singapore Airlines First Class.

And pro tip: if you’re traveling as a couple and they ask if you’re celebrating anything, always tell them it’s for an anniversary. In our case, they put rose pedals on the floor around the bed and gave us a bunch of free chocolates.

We stayed in their cheapest room, and it’s incredibly spacious. You really do feel like a king when you stay at Casa Malca.

Cons: They don’t have evening turndown service and their food is grossly overpriced. I’d just venture out to eat if I stayed here again.

All in all though, great experience, especially for the art and the vibe. And going to their beach club costs $150 anyway, so you might as well just stay at the hotel.

Best Hotel Ever

Another hotel you should experience in Tulum is Mi Amor, as mentioned previously.

Even though the décor and vibe isn’t as beautiful as Casa Malca, the pricing and the service and the intangibles make me prefer this place over Malca. Don’t get me wrong – Casa Malca is great, but I feel like Mi Amor is more my speed. Let’s see why.

First, their service is even more incredible than Casa Malca.

You get a welcome drink, property tour, and their food is actually good and isn’t grossly overpriced. Just pamper yourself until you’re ready to check-in!

One thing that Mi Amor does better than Casa Malca (but at half the price of Malca) is that they’ve got evening turndown service. I love evening turndown service! They provide herbal tea and chocolates for every evening turnover service. The herbal teas are different each night, and I love drinking tea so this is a huge win for me.

Lastly, I think their service is even more impeccable than Casa Malca because they really notice and take care of tiny details, like:

• For our welcome drink, they asked us if we wanted alcoholic or non-alcoholic. Most gringos would pick the former. However, we don’t really drink that much and I was still recovering from diarrhea. So I picked non-alcoholic. Other fancy places like Casa Malca just gives you free mimosas and other alcoholic drinks without asking.
• In terms of charging things to my hotel room: they kept all the receipts so I can cross-check every single charge on check out! And the receipts stapled to the invoice is in order of the line items, for easy checking!!! This alleviates any concerns I have as a customer for being ripped off. Most places will just give you a tab, with line items, but there’s not any real way you can verify each transaction against receipts. Huge win in my books, pun intended.

A couple other things this hotel has: they’ve got a lot of connections with local tour guides, so they can get you a private tour for like $150/person for a half day trip. We booked one and was able to go see the Nohoch Cenote (see above) and was able to swim with turtles and stingrays on coral reefs. They also covered lunch, but we skipped it due to diarrhea issues.

They’ve also got connections with taxis, which means you’ll get the lowest rates possible AKA you won’t be ripped off.

Which leads us to the next point…

How To Not Get Ripped Off By Taxis In Tulum

Tulum is terrible. Hotel staff has described taxi drivers in Tulum as “cancer” and tour guides have expressed that Tulum taxi drivers copulate with their mothers.

The reason for this is because taxis will charge you a ‘gringo price’ if you use their services. Below are some tips on how you can avoid being ripped off.

First, manage your cash properly. We got ripped off a few times because our bills were too big and the taxi drivers “don’t have change” to give us. Your taxi driver will never have change, and you’re always “their first ride of the day”. Here’s how to manage your cash properly.

• Use your debit card (preferably Charles Schwab because debiting is free and there’s no extra fees associated with getting cash with your Charles Schwab debit card internationally) and repeatedly withdraw money. So instead of withdrawing 9000 MXP at one time, just do multiple transactions and withdraw 1000 MXP at a time. This is because a lot of ATMs will give you 500 MXP, 2 x 200MXPs, and then 1 x 100 MXP. If you withdraw a large amount of cash, you might end up with too many 500 MXP bills, of which no taxi driver will give you change for. This is why you really should use a Charles Schwab debit card, because you will need to swipe multiple times for a small sum to get change – using some other card will incur tons of fees.
• If you don’t have a Charles Schwab debit card, make sure you go eat at some place where they’ve got a lot of change. Like a street vendor or some restaurant. Pay in 500s so you can get a lot of 100s in change.
• Your aim is to get as many 100s in MXP as possible, because most taxi drivers charge in units of 100 MXPs, as opposed to 50.

When you talk to taxi drivers, insist on getting a price list. Taxis have a price list of how much they charge. You can tell them “I am going to XYZ, but I need to see your price list.” This’ll keep them accountable on how much they can charge you. Unfortunately, a lot of taxis will refuse to give you a price list. If they do, keep pushing for the price list and take a photo of their license plate, posturing that you’ll report them. If they don’t yield, you have 2 choices: tell them to fuck off and find another taxi driver or use the tactics below to keep pushing.

Second, keep the following pricing in mind: a fair price is per 7 minutes’ taxi ride, you should look to pay anywhere between 150-200MXP. Example, a 36 minute taxi ride (as indicated by Google maps) should cost you between 800-1000MXP. Anything outside of this range is a taxi driver trying to rip you off.

Third, always ask the taxi how much it’ll cost before hopping in the taxi. Don’t ask for the price before you leave the taxi, because that’s just giving them a blank check to take advantage of you. Always ask and agree to a price beforehand. And since most taxi drivers will go outside of the pricing range I talked about above, you should be prepared to negotiate hard on every transaction with taxi drivers.

You might think this is a lot of hassle just to ride a taxi. And you’d be right. But this is a 3^rd world country, so it’s not surprising there are people that want your money.

Still, I’d say riding taxis and negotiating hard and threatening them is a much better deal than renting a car. This is because renting a car will incur a lot of extra costs, such as:

• Rental company claiming you ‘broke their car’ when you returned it in the original condition.
• Municipal Tulum police pulling you over for no reason and taking your passport for ransom. And they won’t give it back to you unless you bribe them with cash.

These extra costs of renting a car is hefty and far outweighs taxi drivers ripping you off and/or even booking a private driver.

Wrapping Up Things To See, Do, And Experience In Tulum

Tulum is a great place. It offers a variety of things to see – from an ancient wonder of the world to cenotes that took millions of years to form to coral reefs with tons of aquatic life you can swim with.

But as with any 3^rd world country – travel has some risks. In particular, the risks here are:

• Food poisoning, which my diarrhea post should help you avoid / minimize any damage resulting from that.
• Being ripped off – which my taxi advice above should help you mitigate.

As long as you remain diligent, you should be able to enjoy Tulum while balancing out the negatives and yield a memorable vacation traveling to Tulum.

PS: Yes, there’s been a couple of shootings in Tulum near the time of this writing. However, when I visited, there’s tons of national guards patrolling the streets every 5 minutes which makes it feel quite safe. You’ll also find that the national guards are a lot of times, very close to the municipal police. They’re not working together – the national guards are monitoring the Tulum cops for corruption and trying to keep them in line.