“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all” – Helen Keller
Tulum, Mexico
Because when the rest of the world turned their back on us, Tulum was there with open arms. Mexico was one of the few places with no entry requirements that was available to U.S. citizens to travel to during the global pandemic. During such global pandemic, Tulum quickly gained notoriety as a popular vacation spot so we had to see what all of the hype was about. It was four of us during this trip so we opted to fly out of our respective cities and met up at the airport in Cancun. For time sake, we will go with the most expensive plane ticket. For a roundtrip ticket using American Airlines, to Cancun, Mexico, the cost was $420.00. The cost was $30 each way for a checked bag, which included a free personal item and carry-on bag. Once in Cancun, we used a car service, set up through our Airbnb, to get to Tulum. The commute was about 1.5 hours long and cost $105 each way, since it was four of us, we split this cost evenly.
Sleeps
For our accommodation in Tulum, we opted for a pretty dope Airbnb. It was located about 15 minutes from the beach and the hotel zone where plenty of restaurants, spas, and boutiques were. The Airbnb was open concept and large enough for 10 guests as it encompassed an oversized living room with an attached balcony, three bedrooms, six beds, and three full sized bathrooms. The Airbnb also had a private, fully furnished, two-level rooftop that provided stunning jungle views and an outdoor shower. The host was very responsive and assisted with excursions and taxis. The cost for a 4-night stay was $1009.00, we highly recommend this Airbnb for group travel!
Fun In The Sun
Yax Muul – This excursion included a 1-hour ATV ride tour and access to four beautiful cenotes. We booked this activity though our Airbnb host for $50pp including roundtrip transportation.
Villa Aquimia Beach Club - We enjoyed an hour long full body massage, which included an oceanfront cabana for $30pp.
Good Eats
Loco Restaurant ($1 tequila shots)
Encanto Cantina
Aldo's Gelato
Mulata Hookah Lounge and Pizza
The Hot Wheels
Prior to us vacationing in Tulum, we researched the best method to get around town. Since our Airbnb was about 15 minutes away from the main path, we knew that we would need some kind of transportation, and public transportation was not an option. After looking into car rental service and reading reviews on driving through Tulum, we opted to use taxi services; little did we know we were about to get our pocketbooks shaken down. NO LIE, each time we hopped in the taxi, it was $20-$25. You can read more about this in our Tulum blog post. Long story short - bring extra cash for transportation. As far as renting a car, the prices are cheap however, the roads are extra bumpy and you will have to take into consideration parking, which was scarce near the beach and main strip. If we had to do it all over again, we would still choose the taxis.
The Mula
Ladies let us be the first to say that between food and transportation, you are going to blow a bag in Tulum. As mentioned before, there was no public bus system in Tulum thus; the cost of the taxi rides really put a dent on the money that we had allocated for other things. To give you an idea, we stayed for four days and spent about $400 most of which went to transportation.
The exchange rate in Mexico is 1USD=20pesos, however, we found that many businesses posted their own conversion which ranged from 1USD=17pesos to 1USD=20pesos. For this reason, we highly recommend exchanging your currency for Mexican Pesos to maximize the value of your money. We were able to exchange our money, fee free, through our banks.