Mexico · Riviera Maya
Tulum
A walled Maya city on a Caribbean cliff, a jungle full of cenotes behind it, and a beach road that turned barefoot bohemia into a global address.
Tulum is a beach town on the Caribbean edge of the Yucatan, built around the only walled Maya city that still stands on a cliff above the sea. Behind the sand the jungle is riddled with cenotes, flooded limestone caves and sinkholes holding cold, glass-clear freshwater, and the Sian Ka'an biosphere spreads south into mangrove, lagoon and empty coast. In two decades the beach road has gone from hammocks and candlelight to a strip of design hotels, yoga decks and late DJ sets, while the town inland stays cheaper, scruffier and more Mexican.
Suggested stay
3–5 days
Language
Spanish
Currency
MXN
Timezone
UTC-5
Why you'll love Tulum
The ruins the one Maya city built to be seen from the sea, small enough to walk in an hour and set above a cove you can swim in
Cenotes hundreds of flooded caves within a short drive, from open swimming holes to the cathedral chambers of the longest underwater cave systems on earth
The beach road barefoot luxury done at scale, all wood, rope and firelight, with yoga at dawn and music until it is light again
Sian Ka'an a UNESCO biosphere starts where the hotels stop, all lagoon, mangrove channel and empty sand running south to Punta Allen
Best time to visit
Dec-May
28-34° days
20.430° N, 87.653° W
UTC-5 · America/Cancun
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Weather & when to go to Tulum
Month by month: typical highs and lows, rainfall and rain days.
✓ Best Dec-May
Watch for Jun-Nov cyclones & hurricanes risk · Jun monsoon flooding risk
Cards tinted by calculated verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
When to avoid Tulum
June is the weakest month of the year here, hot and wet as the rains set in, and the hurricane season that follows peaks around September and October. Sargassum seaweed can blanket the beaches through the warm months, worst around Apr-Aug, and how bad it gets is unpredictable year to year. Christmas and Easter fill the beach road and price it accordingly.
Top things to do in Tulum
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Tulum ruins - the Maya city on the cliff
history scenic 👍 PopularA small walled port called Zama, laid out on a low limestone bluff with the Castillo looking straight out to the reef. An hour covers it, iguanas included, and the stairs down to the cove let you swim under the walls.
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Gran Cenote - swim the collapsed cave with the turtles
nature wildlife adventure 👍 PopularTwo clear pools joined by a swimmable cavern of stalactites, just up the Coba road. Small freshwater turtles and shoals of tiny fish share the water, and snorkel gear turns a swim into a proper cave float.
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Dos Ojos - dive or snorkel the cave system
diving adventure ⭐ Highly recommendedTwo round eyes of open water leading into one of the longest flooded cave systems in the world. Snorkellers follow guide lines through the shallow galleries; certified cavern divers get the Bat Cave and the Barbie Line.
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Sian Ka'an at Muyil - float the Maya canal
nature wildlife adventure ⭐ Highly recommendedFrom the small Muyil ruins a boardwalk runs through mangrove to the lagoon, where boats drop you into a channel the Maya cut for trading canoes. You drift it in a life jacket, feet up, for close to an hour.
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Playa Paraiso and Playa Ruinas - the public beaches
scenic 👍 PopularThe stretch below the ruins is the postcard: white sand, palms leaning over turquoise shallows, no hotel gate to pass. Paraiso just south is the wider, busier version, with sunbeds and boat operators along it.
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Cenote Calavera - jump through the skull
adventureThree holes in the ground that look like eye sockets and a mouth, with a ladder for the cautious and a straight drop into deep blue water for everyone else. Small, close to town and best early.
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Casa Cenote - snorkel the mangrove channel
nature wildlife divingAn open, winding cenote at Tankah that runs under the road toward the sea, so fresh and salt water layer and blur. Mangrove roots, tarpon in the channel, and a resident crocodile the guides all know by name.
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Laguna Kaan Luum - the green lagoon with a blue eye
scenic nature wildlifeA shallow, warm, jade-coloured lagoon a few minutes south of town, with a roped-off cenote plunging to great depth in the middle. Docks and hammocks around the rim; the deep centre is off limits to swimmers.
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The beach road - yoga decks, design hotels and long nights
wellness nightlife musicA single sand-edged lane of thatched hotels, boutiques and open-air bars where a jungle-party scene grew up around it. Morning classes on the sand, sound systems after dark, and a lot of it visible without booking a room.
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Tulum Pueblo - eat where the town eats
foodInland on Avenida Tulum the cooking gets Yucatecan and cheap: cochinita pibil that sells out by lunch, panuchos and salbutes, marquesitas from evening carts, and taco counters that run long after the beach road has gone quiet.
Best areas to stay in Tulum
$ Budget $$ Mid-range $$$ Premium
Beach road north
First-time visitors $$$Design hotels between jungle and sand
Explore hotels in Beach road north →
Beach road south
Seclusion $$$Quieter, wilder, closer to Sian Ka'an
Explore hotels in Beach road south →
Tulum Pueblo
Value and local food $Working town, taquerias and hostels
Explore hotels in Tulum Pueblo →
Aldea Zama
Longer stays $$Planned condo district, new and tidy
Explore hotels in Aldea Zama →
La Veleta
Digital nomads $$Jungle-edge apartments and cafe culture
Explore hotels in La Veleta →
Live nightly prices from Booking.com, Agoda and others, centred on Tulum
Getting to & around Tulum
Getting there
Fly into Tulum's own airport, about half an hour out, or into Cancun and come down the coast by coach, train or car
Flight
Tulum International (Felipe Carrillo Puerto) (TQO)
The airport sits in jungle southwest of town, roughly 30 min by road. There is no public bus in from it, so arrivals run on pre-booked shuttles, taxis and hire cars, and most beach-road hotels will send a driver.
Coach
ADO terminal, Avenida Tulum
Frequent buses from Cancun airport and city, Playa del Carmen and Merida, plus southbound runs to Bacalar and Chetumal, landing in the middle of town
Train
Tulum station
The Tren Maya calls here between Cancun, Valladolid, Merida and the south; the station is out of town, so you still need a taxi at the end
Drive
Highway 307 runs straight up the coast, about an hour to Playa del Carmen and two to Cancun
Getting around
Bicycle
The standard way to cover the few kilometres between town and the beach road, on a flat and very busy bike path
TBC
Colectivo vans
Shared vans run Highway 307 all day to Playa del Carmen, Akumal and the cenote turn-offs, flagged down at the roadside
TBC
Taxis
No meters. Agree the fare first, and expect beach-road runs to cost several times the same trip in town
TBC
Car or scooter hire
Worth it for cenotes and Coba, though the beach road is one slow lane with almost nowhere to park
TBC
Walking
Fine within the town grid or along one stretch of beach; the two are too far apart to walk between
Free
Day trips from Tulum
Coba
Half dayJungle Maya city
A sprawling inland city linked by raised white roads, still half swallowed by forest, with bikes and pedicabs to cover the distances between groups. Nohoch Mul, the tall pyramid, is no longer open to climb. Three cool, dark cenotes sit on the road just south of the village.
Getting there
car | bus | tour
45 min by car, colectivo or tour
Akumal
Half dayTurtle bay
A sheltered bay where green turtles graze the seagrass in waist-deep water. Access is regulated now, with a licensed guide, life jacket and a marked zone, which has made the snorkelling calmer and the turtles less harassed.
Getting there
bus | car | tour
30 min by colectivo, car or tour
Punta Allen
1-2 daysSian Ka'an fishing village
The road into the biosphere is rough, slow and worth it: a sand spit of lobster boats and beach shacks at the end of it, with flats fishing, dolphins in the bay and reef snorkelling offshore. Too long to enjoy as a day return.
Getting there
car | tour
2-3 hr by 4WD along the coastal track
Chichen Itza
Full dayMaya capital
El Castillo, the great ball court, the observatory and the sacred cenote. Hot, busy from mid-morning and lined with stalls, and still the site everyone should see once. Most trips fold in a cenote swim and lunch at Valladolid.
Getting there
car | bus | tour | train
2.5 hr by car, coach, train or tour
Valladolid and Ek Balam
Full dayColonial town and ruins
A low colonial town of pastel streets and a cenote in the middle of it, paired with Ek Balam nearby, where you can still climb the acropolis to a stucco frieze of winged figures over the doorway.
Getting there
car | bus | tour | train
2 hr by car, coach, train or tour
Bacalar
1-2 daysLagoon of seven colours
A freshwater lagoon banded in every shade of blue over a white limestone floor, with cenotes dropping off its edge and a small fort above the water. Sailing and paddling country, far quieter than the coast.
Getting there
bus | car | train | tour
3 hr by coach, car, train or tour
A little history of Tulum
Tulum is late Maya, not classical. Its own name was Zama, and it rose in the thirteenth century as a walled port on the cliff, part of the coastal trade that moved obsidian, jade, salt, honey and cotton by canoe between Honduras and the Gulf. The wall faced inland; the sea side needed none. When Spanish ships coasted the peninsula in 1518 the city was still lived in and painted, and they remarked on its size from the water. Disease and conquest emptied it within a couple of generations.
The ruins were drawn for the outside world by Stephens and Catherwood in 1842, then taken over again during the Caste War, when rebel Maya of the Talking Cross held this coast for decades. For most of the twentieth century it was a fishing hamlet at the end of a bad road. Sian Ka'an was protected in the 1980s, backpackers found the beach cabanas, and from the 2000s the strip turned into the barefoot-luxury scene it is now, with a train station and an airport arriving in the 2020s.
Zama grows into a walled trading port on the cliff, at the height of the coastal canoe trade
A Spanish expedition coasting the Yucatan sights the painted city from the sea
Disease and conquest empty the site; the coast is left to small fishing settlements
Stephens and Catherwood survey and draw the ruins, making them famous abroad
The Caste War begins; rebel Maya hold this coast and treat Tulum as a sacred place
The coast road reaches Tulum and the first beach cabanas open
Sian Ka'an is declared a biosphere reserve, and a UNESCO World Heritage site the year after
The beach road turns from hammocks to design hotels, yoga retreats and party venues
Tulum's own airport and a Tren Maya station open, cutting the coast transfer out of the trip
Know before you go
Payment
Cards & cash mixed
English
Widely spoken
Wifi
Workable
Power
Type A / B
127 V, 60 Hz
Dialing
+52
Cyclones & hurricanes risk in this window; check current conditions before you go.
Monsoon flooding risk in this window; check current conditions before you go.
The months our climate read flags to avoid: the wettest, lowest-rated weather of the year.
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FAQs about Tulum
▸ When is the best time to visit Tulum?
The dry, brighter stretch runs roughly December to May, and those are the dependable months. June is the year's weakest, hot and wet as the rains arrive, and the hurricane season that follows runs into November, with September and October the stormiest.
▸ How many days do you need in Tulum?
Three days covers the ruins, a couple of cenotes and real beach time. Five lets you add Coba or Sian Ka'an and still have days where you do nothing, which is what most people came for.
▸ Should you stay in town or on the beach road?
The beach road is the Tulum of the photographs and costs accordingly, with weak power and wifi at the far south end. Town, Aldea Zama and La Veleta are much cheaper, better for eating, and a bike ride or short taxi from the sand.
▸ Which cenotes are worth it?
Gran Cenote and Dos Ojos are the famous pair, one an easy swimmable cavern, the other a cave-diving system with snorkel lines. Calavera is the jumping one, Casa Cenote the mangrove channel. Go at opening time; by mid-morning tour vans arrive.
▸ Is Tulum expensive?
By Mexican standards, very, on the beach road: the hotels, restaurants and beach clubs there are priced for an international crowd and taxis are dear. Step inland and it drops sharply, with town food and rooms costing a fraction of the strip's.
▸ Is Tulum safe for visitors?
The ordinary risks are petty theft, unlit roads at night and taxi overcharging rather than anything worse, and the tourist areas are patrolled. Quintana Roo does have organised-crime violence, occasionally in nightlife spots, though it very rarely involves travellers.
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