Tulum Mexico pros and cons – Crazy sexy fun traveler

Advantages and disadvantages of Tulum Mexico

Tulum Mexico pros

• Good street food in the city center.

• Many restaurants with vegan options. Tulum is supposed to be a vegan paradise and being a vegan myself since 2013, I really enjoyed having so many options all around.

• Some vegan shops are spread around town. You can easily buy different cruelty-free cosmetics and other vegan products. Rather expensive, but you can find them if you need to.

• Tulum Mexico is full of places where you can practice yoga

Tulum vegan tacos

Tulum Mexico mediterranean vegan meal

• Many like-minded people who are into yoga, veganism, spirituality, traveling etc. visit Tulum or live there

• You can find many different yoga lessons, tantra workshops, temazcal, breath work and other interesting ceremonies

• One of the Tulum Mexico pros is that a bunch of concerts take place there. I went to Estas Tonne’s concert at Ikal hotel on the beach. It was at Full Moon, with breeze playing with my hair and seagulls chirping in the background. Such a magical night! Still have goose bumps when thinking about it.

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• Unforgettable Mayan ruins can be seen in Tulum as well. You have two options close-by: or the popular Tulum ruins close to the beach and downtown. Or the less-known Muyil ruins a few km further from Tulum.

• The main street Avenida Tulum is not too busy which is something I liked. It’s a lot less busy than for example the main 5th Avenue in Playa del Carmen.

Tulum ruins and beach

• Tulum Mexico is a very stylish place where you can feel like in a big city but with a small town charms

• There’s many nice places to take photos of/at, e.g. different signs and statues

• I truly loved all the stunning street art around Tulum downtown.

• Nice sunsets can be seen on the beach or in downtown.

Tulum Mexico cons

• Overpriced. So many things are getting ridiculously expensive, e.g. accommodation, food, events… Tulum area is definitely the most expensive part of Mexico. To be honest, it’s a shame to see how Tulum is becoming NOT budget-friendly at all. Many things in Tulum are even more expensive than in Playa del Carmen and Cancun.

• Sometimes there’s big waves in the sea which I am not a fan of. I prefer beaches where I can go into the sea to cool down and go for a swim but I don’t enjoy doing so in big waves. I know that this might be an advantage for some of you, but it’s not for me.

• Beaches are located a few km away from downtown and it’s a nightmare to get there. The closest public beach is located 5 km from Tulum city center so you need to walk/cycle/take a taxi/car/scooter to get to the beach. There’s always too much traffic on the Avenida Coba road which is connecting Tulum downtown with the sea. And just a part of the road has a sidewalk for pedestrians and cyclists.

Tulum Playa de los pescadores beach

sunset walk on the Tulum beach

• Not as safe as it used to be. Tulum can be dangerous, especially for women at night. Unfortunately, I’ve heard many upsetting stories about people getting robbed, or even killed in Tulum Mexico. And yes, it has happened to tourists, too. Sadly, Tulum Mexico has become a battlefield for drug gangs.

• Hotel zone can get pretty loud in the evening and at night due to live music or DJ’s. The same goes for downtown and the surrounding streets. If you don’t like to go to sleep very late, it might not be a good idea to stay in the hotel zone or in Tulum downtown. Better to book a room a few streets further from downtown or somewhere in Aldea Zama or La Veleta neighborhoods.

• There’s many “fake spiritual people” in Tulum who are permanently getting drunk, taking hard drugs and smoking weed, yet still pretending to be the most spiritual of all. Maybe I am wrong, but to me spirituality does not go hand in hand with drugs, alcohol nor smoking. Shouldn’t spirituality be the opposite energy to addictions? Honestly, I did not enjoy this energy in Tulum at all. 

trash in Tulum

• Sometimes, the Tulum public beaches are not clean enough. There’s too much sargassum (seaweed) and also rubbish (because of people who can’t behave). When I visited in February 2022, the seaweed situation was still bearable. But it got worse in the following months. I was told that the summer of 2021 people couldn’t even get into the sea because seaweed was absolutely everywhere. Unfortunately, the same thing happens on other Riviera Maya beaches, too (e.g. Puerto Morelos, Playa del Carmen, Akumal etc.). Too much seaweed in certain months makes it unpleasant to spend time on the beach. Both walking along the beach and swimming in the sea can be challenging with loads of seaweed around. After a while the seaweed starts to smell bad, which makes it less enjoyable, too.

Tulum Playa Paraiso beach

• the main public beach Playa Paraiso is overcrowded. You can walk a bit further to Playa de los Pescadores (Fishermen’s beach) which has less people but more boats, and thus it’s not so pleasant for swimming. Even further is the Santa Fe beach which is the closest beach to the Tulum ruins. When I visited the Tulum ruins back in 2014, you could walk from the ruins directly to the Santa Fe beach. However, going from the Tulum ruins down to the beach was not allowed in the first half of 2022 any more.

• Generally speaking, public beaches in Tulum are usually packed with people. The beach back in 2014 was amazing, just a few people, rather clean, nice sea… Not much is left from that any more. I mean the ocean is still pretty and quite clean, but the beach itself is not my cup of tea any more. Yet, I have to admit that many people are looking exactly for that vibe that it’s there now. Music everywhere, loud people, drinking, smoking etc. I have to be open and say that I go to the beach to relax, and not to spend time in noise. I’d go to a bar or a disco if I wanted that. 

Tulum beach waves

• If you’d like to avoid public beaches in Tulum, you could do so going to the hotel zone. The beaches there are definitely less crowded, but you need to pay. It’s impossible to even get close to the beach without paying entry fee to a bar/restaurant or hotel. That’s something I am not a fan of… especially because officially, all beaches in Mexico should be open to the public.

• There were many street dogs around downtown and on the public beaches. I truly do love animals, but I never know what to expect from wild street dogs so I try to stay away from them when possible.

• If it’s raining, the downtown streets get flooded making it difficult to walk through.

• Taxi drives try to rip you off money, especially when you don’t speak Spanish, you travel alone or you need a taxi at night.

• The energy of Tulum can get very dark, so people who are highly sensible to energy can feel tired, sad and have a headache while in Tulum. There’s very strong dual energy visible and felt in Tulum (dark vs light). At the same time it’s a place where things can manifest faster. I’ve heard that these Mayan lands accept people with good heart and honest intentions, but at the same time your karma will be paid very quickly there. Not sure what’s true about that, but I did feel the dark energy there a lot.

crowded Tulum ruins

Here’s some of my Instagram photos from Laguna Kaan Luum close to Tulum:

Have you been to Tulum already? If yes, do you agree with what I said? If you haven’t visited Tulum yet, do you think you’d like it there after reading my article? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.