This post's overview:
- 1 Why go to Tulum for a honeymoon?
- 2 Is Tulum expensive?
- 3 Checking flights and insurance for your honeymoon in Tulum
- 4 Do you need a car in Tulum? Where to rent a car in Mexico & how to avoid scams
- 5 What to pack for your honeymoon in Tulum?
- 6 Where to stay in Tulum: different areas explained and the best resorts to stay for a honeymoon in Tulum
- 7 Best things to do in Tulum on honeymoon:
- 7.1 Visit the Sian Ka’an Biosphere
- 7.2 Walk the stunning Tulum beach, from Selena Hotel/Hostel to Hotel Rosa del Viento
- 7.3 Visit some of the fanciest restaurants in Tulum
- 7.4 Visit Tulum Archaeological zone
- 7.5 Explore the best cenotes in Riviera Maya
- 7.6 Visit one of the famous theme parks: Xcaret, Xplor, Xel-Ha or Xochimilco
- 7.7 Visit Chichen Itza
- 8 A perfect itinerary for a 7 day-honeymoon in Tulum
- 9 Other posts you might like / find useful:
Planning your perfect honeymoon in Tulum? In this blog post, you will find everything you need to know about planning an amazing honeymoon in Tulum: from the things you need to know before spending your honeymoon in Tulum to the perfect itinerary, the most romantic resorts and the best things to do in Tulum & its surroundings on honeymoon.
Hi, welcome to Tripsget! We are Liza and Jose, and we specialise in unique itineraries (including honeymoons) all around the world. Jose is originally from Mexico, and he used to go to Riviera Maya almost every year since he was a child! When we met, we decided to continue this tradition and since then, visited Riviera Maya and Cancun over 4 times despite living in Europe. We get a lot of questions about itineraries for honeymoons in Mexico and all around the world, so we decided to put our experience in writing (we had our own honeymoon in Cancun & Riviera Maya after all) and create this blog!
Here’s what you can find in this post:
Why go to Tulum for a honeymoon?
There are so many reasons to spend your honeymoon in Tulum! It has AMAZING beaches, great weather all-year-long, luxurious hotels, great flight connections to the US, Canada and Europe and plenty of things to do nearby, ranging from beautiful archaeological sites and stunning ruins to wonderful cenotes and themed parks. Tulum became trendy a few years ago and started transforming into the “Bali” of Mexico. It’s full of unique Instagrammable resorts, restaurants and shops! It also has one of the most beautiful beaches in the world!
Is Tulum expensive?
Since Tulum started to be on everyone’s radar a few years ago, it became much pricier. Most of these trendy Instagrammable hotels didn’t even exist before, so it’s logical that they are quite expensive.
However, Tulum can be as affordable as you want it to be. If you’re willing to compromise on a few things (e.g. staying in the town centre instead of a beachfront hotel) & eating in local restaurants in the city centre, then it can be pretty cheap! You can find hotels for less than $150 a night, and they will be actually super nice. If you rent some bikes (or perhaps your hotel will provide you with a bike free of charge), you can also easily cycle to the beach and save money on taxis and transport.
If you have a bigger budget, you can have a truly unforgettable experience in Tulum. Staying at a very trendy hotel like Delek Tulum or Azulik Tulum can cost between $400 and $800 per night, and that doesn’t include any food. Every meal would cost an extra $25-50.
Checking flights and insurance for your honeymoon in Tulum
Tulum is served by Cancun International airport. You can check the prices and availability of the flights to Cancun here. Once you arrive in Cancun, you need to take a taxi to Tulum or pick up a rental car (if you rented it beforehand). Getting a taxi at the airport is often a huge rip-off, so I recommend pre-booking your transfer in advance using GetTransfer.
If you’re looking for good travel insurance with great coverage for Mexico, I recommend using VisitorsCoverage – an aggregator of amazing travel insurance offers.
Do you need a car in Tulum? Where to rent a car in Mexico & how to avoid scams
If you plan on having a very active honeymoon and explore a lot of archaeological sites, cenotes and other spots, probably yes, it makes sense to have a car in Tulum. We always rent cars through Rentalcars.com or Expedia, where you can see the providers offering the most competitive prices. The earlier you book your car hire, the more competitive the price will be. The price really depends on the season; however, you can often rent a car for a week for as low as $90 (without full insurance). If you rent a day before your trip, that price can be already around $500-600, and it’s even more expensive on arrival. Make sure to avoid providers like Hertz and National as they are known to scam tourists in Mexico, not including the third-party liability insurance in their rental price and then asking their customers to pay two to three times more without giving them an option to opt-out of this insurance. We rented cars twice: once from Sixt and once from Avis, and it all went very well, so I can only recommend these providers.
However, if you’re planning to book a beachfront property and you mostly want to wake up late, relax and enjoy Tulum, in this case, you don’t need a car. In case you realise that you’d like to visit some locations, you can always get a taxi or buy a tour!
What to pack for your honeymoon in Tulum?
Not sure what to pack for Tulum? Well, as we mentioned before, the weather in Tulum is warm all year long. However, during the winter months, it can get a little bit chilly at night, so I recommend bringing a light jacket or a cardigan or something like a hoodie with you.
Overall, bring some cute swimsuits, a lot of different beach cover-ups, SPF50 to protect from the strong Caribbean sun. It should be ideally reef-friendly!
If you don’t have that many clothes, you can do a lot of shopping in Tulum. Most of the places, however, are a bit pricy, as they are mainly some boho-style independent boutiques.
Where to stay in Tulum: different areas explained and the best resorts to stay for a honeymoon in Tulum
Before we start with the best places to stay in Tulum for a honeymoon, let’s talk about all the different districts of Tulum because they can be a bit confusing!
Tulum isn’t a big town, but it is spread across a large territory. That’s why cycling from one location to another can take 40-50 minutes! (e.g. cycling from La Veleta to Zona Hotelera).
Tulum beachfront: Zona Hotelera and Playa Paraiso
There are two areas located on the beachfront: Playa Paraiso (close to Tulum ruins) and Zona Hotelera (on the opposite side – where most of the trendy hotels are).
Playa Paraiso is definitely quieter, as it doesn’t have so much nightlife and people generally don’t come here to party. That’s why, in my opinion, Playa Paraiso would be a better option for a honeymoon stay. If you want to know about different areas of Tulum in more detail, check this post out.
Some of the best honeymoon-worthy resorts in Playa Paraiso include:
Zona Hotelera is a very busy area, full of Instagrammable hotels, cafes, restaurants, nightclubs, shops and everything you can think of! It gets very busy at night and some areas of Zona Hotelera are really noisy! For example, you wouldn’t be able to sleep in some hotels before 2-3 am because there are always some very loud restaurants/nightclubs around every corner.
If that’s not an issue and you would enjoy partying and sleeping late, then some of the best places to stay would be:
Tulum town: Aldea Zama, La Veleta and Tulum centro
Another popular part of Tulum is Tulum town. Tulum town consists of an upscale neighbourhood called Aldea Zama (it’s the closest to the beach, but still 15-20 minutes cycling away from it), a cheaper neighbourhood La Veleta (circa 45-50 minutes away from the beach) and Tulum Centro, which is quite spread and has fancy and very humble parts.
The honeymoon-worthy hotel that immediately comes to my mind is Hotel Bardo – located in Tulum Centro, this designer property has a stunning design and feels luxurious.
The rest of the options in these areas are more budget-friendly:
Best things to do in Tulum on honeymoon:
Alright, now let’s talk about the BEST things to do in Tulum on your honeymoon! There are plenty of things to do in Tulum, ranging from visiting archaeological sites to swimming in cenotes. Here are some of the things to do that can be considered honeymoon-worthy:
Visit the Sian Ka’an Biosphere
Sian Ka’an is a huge nature reserve (over 1 Mio acres of land) that is also protected by UNESCO. Visit Sian Ka’an is an unforgettable experience as you will have a chance to meet local fauna, snorkel, drive through a stunning forest and discover Muyil ruins – one of the earliest inhabited Mayan sites.
While you can visit Sian Ka’an yourself if you hire a 4×4 and get a map of the area, the best [and probably the easiest way] is to get an organised tour. Here are some of the best-rated tours to Sian Ka’an & some of them even include a safari, swimming in a stunning lagoon and even a lunch:
Sian Ka’an and Muyil Archaeological Site Tour
Walk the stunning Tulum beach, from Selena Hotel/Hostel to Hotel Rosa del Viento
Tulum beach is gorgeous! Turquoise water, white sand (seaweed could be a problem at times, but hotels generally clean their beaches), what else could you wish for? One of the best things to do is to go for a walk (or perhaps even a morning / evening) run through the largest stretch of Tulum beach. On your way, you would be able to see some of the trendiest hotels and beach clubs in Tulum and well as some of the most Instagrammable locations in town!
Visit some of the fanciest restaurants in Tulum
There are plenty of amazing restaurants in Tulum. Some of them are located inside hotels, e.g. Kin Toh is located inside a hotel Azulik that was an Instagram sensation of 2020. One of the best ways to see Azulik from the inside (besides staying there, of course) is booking a dinner in one of the hotel’s restaurants.
Some other great places to have dinner in Tulum include:
Visit Tulum Archaeological zone
One of the best things to do in Tulum is to visit the famous Mayan ruins! They are the largest Mayan ruins in Mexico, besides, they are located on a small cliff and you can only imagine how beautiful the views are!
You will also be able to see thousands of iguanas. For some reason, they really love the ruins and they can be seen sunbathing around every corner!
Getting to Tulum Archaeological zone is also super easy – just get a taxi there, as the ruins are only a short drive away.
Explore the best cenotes in Riviera Maya
My personal favourite activity near Tulum is exploring different cenotes. Cenote is basically a natural sinkhole and there are so many of them around the entire Yucatan peninsula! The easiest way to explore various cenotes is to drive there yourself, however, you can also buy a tour that brings you to some of the best cenotes near Tulum.
Here are some of the best cenote tours starting from Tulum:
Private tour (the best cenotes)
If you decide to drive there yourself, here are some of our favourite cenotes that are pretty close to Tulum:
Cenote Dos Ojos
Gran Cenote
Visit one of the famous theme parks: Xcaret, Xplor, Xel-Ha or Xochimilco
As of 2021, there are currently 4 theme parks in Riviera Maya: Xcaret, Xel-Ha, Xochimilco and Xplor. Each of them has a different theme, for example, Xplor is all about zip-lines, underground rivers and adventure, Xcaret has underground rivers, a large zoo and an incredible show; Xel-Ha is all about snorkelling and Xochimilco is basically a gondola ride with live music, show and food!
You can either visit one of them or some of them or even all of them if you have enough time! The parks are located all around Riviera Maya & it would take you from 20 to 80 minutes by car to reach some of them. You can either buy tickets and go there by yourself or buy one of the tours that would bring you there and back!
Here are the tours you can pick from:
Visit Chichen Itza
Chichen Itza was voted one of the new wonders of the world, and it’s one of the travel bucket list destinations. This archaeological park is located circa 2 hours away from Tulum (each way). You can either drive there yourself and pre-book tickets for Chichen Itza in advance here, so you don’t need to stand in the queue for 30-60 minutes. Read our post about driving to Chichen Itza here.
Alternatively, you can take one of many tours that will bring you to Chichen Itza! Depending on your budget and preferences, you can either take a group tour (check the availability here) or a private tour to Chichen Itza (check the prices here).
A perfect itinerary for a 7 day-honeymoon in Tulum
Alright, let’s talk about the perfect itinerary for a 7-day honeymoon in Tulum! Let’s assume you will stay all the 7 days in one place (resort or hotel) and you will also need some proper relaxation time (it’s your honeymoon, after all). For proper relaxation, you can get a spa package at your resort, as there aren’t many places outside resorts where you can get some proper spa procedures.
Here’s how I would plan an optimal itinerary for a 7-day honeymoon in Tulum (if your honeymoon is longer, you can relax for more days or add more places to the itinerary):
Day 1: Arriving from the airport and relaxing at your resort / hotel
Day 2: Relaxing at your resort + getting a spa package. Having dinner in one of Tulum’s trendiest restaurants (see “things to do section” for more detail)
Day 3: Going on a tour to Sian Ka’an Biosphere
Day 4: Relaxing at the resort, walking the Tulum beach
Day 5: Visiting Chichen Itza
Day 6: Visiting Tulum ruins & 1-2 cenotes nearby
Day 7: Relaxing in the morning and flying back
Any questions? Give us a shout on Instagram (@lizatripsget)!
Other posts you might like / find useful:
Honeymoon in Cancun: what to expect & the best itinerary
Tulum on a budget – how to enjoy Tulum without that much money
How expensive is Tulum? The budget you need for a week in Tulum