I promised a blog post on Tulum so here we go. This was a last minute trip as my husband was already in another part of Mexico surfing and I wanted to get away for a few days, so we decided on Tulum because the flight is quick and easy from Florida, and the prices weren’t bad at this time of year. Let me know in the comments if you have any questions I can answer on Tulum.
What I Packed: We were only going for four days and it is tropical so I typically pack bikinis, sarongs, jeans shorts, wrap skirts and light-weight dresses. You never need heels unless eating at a fancy restaurant, so I only packed flip flops for this trip. I check the hotels beforehand if they have a hair dryer or shampoo/conditioner so I don’t have to lug my own around which saves room in your luggage. I usually bring my own black washcloth to remove makeup and not mess up their towels, my own non-toxic toothpaste, body lotion, makeup remover and skincare products.
What I Ate: Before the flight I picked up a green smoothie and brought cold bar food from Whole Foods; I typically get kale salad with grilled tofu and some veggies, which makes for a filling meal to eat at the airport or on the plane so you aren’t forced to eat empty pretzels or sad airport food. I didn’t know this for years, but you can bring any food with you into the airport and onto the flight, you just have to throw out fruit before entering into another country. One time I tried to bring vegan cream cheese and capers into the Bahamas (you aren’t supposed to bring liquids) but they let me take it through.
There are SO many healthy and plantbased places to eat at in Tulum, we had limited time but here are a few places we checked out:
Raw Love Cafe (got the Acai bowl and it was 9/10)
Liefs Vegan Food Truck (got the Better Than a Burger and the Coconut Iced Coffee)
Humo Tulum (loved their food! we got Grilled Cauliflower and Black Bean Tostadas. This might have been my favorite dinner)
Casa Malca (overpriced in my opinion – we shared grilled Snook which was good and a salad)
Where We Stayed: After searching on Booking.com and Google, I booked us at Una Vida / Hotel Bardo which was the highlight of our trip. It is not on the main trendy beach strip, but I wanted to stay away from the crowds and some of the hotel prices were insane for what you were getting. At Una Vida the grounds were amazing, food was good, staff was helpful and they have complementary bikes you can ride to the Central area or to eat dinner. The two hotels are sister properties so you can walk between them to either pool and restaurant, as well as do yoga in the morning at Hotel Bardo which is donation based and excellent. The food at Una Vida was also really good and easy to eat plantbased, they had: almond milk for coffee, green juice, chia pudding, avocado toast, salads and more.
Cenotes: The verdict is still out on these tourist traps, but you can’t go to Tulum and not visit a cenote. There are many to choose from but some were over two hours away and we didn’t have a car so we chose one about 15 minutes away and took a taxi. We were recommended Cenote “Car Wash” but ended up at Cenote Santa Cruz, which has beautiful turquoise water but a little theme park inspired. Get there early when they open at 10am to avoid the crowds and to get the best pictures.
Overall I really enjoyed our trip, I loved how easy of a trip it is from where we live, it was easy to eat healthy and our hotel turned out to be an amazing pick. I highly recommend visiting Tulum, let me know if you end up going! xx