I saw a meme on the internet (below) that made a joke about how everyone is in Dubai or Tulum right now. If you follow me, you probably are on the side of the world that is looking at Tulum as their next escape. 

Traveling to Tulum during COVIDf2020: here’s everything you need to know. Or, at least the answers to questions that a lot of you had.

Was it annoying to get there from the airport?

There is no airport in Tulum, you have to fly to the Cancun (CUN) airport. Then, you can take a bus or cab to Tulum, which should take about 1.5-2 hours depending on traffic (and there is a good chance there will be traffic).

Personally, when I heard it was going to be a 4 hour flight, plus a potentially two hour drive, I was like, “can’t we just go to Cabo?” But it wasn’t actually that bad. We ended up getting a really nice cab driver who stopped at a grocery store so we could get food (they made me throw out my sandwich at customs—tip: make sure to eat all your food on the plane) and take pesos out from an ATM. 

How are they handling COVID?

I would say that Mexico, or at least Tulum, is handling COVID at about the same level that the US is (or at least in LA, where I’ve spent most of my time since last March). You have to wear masks inside taxis, while walking to your table at restaurants, and many people wear them while walking down the street (but some people don’t, or don’t wear them properly, just like in the US). However, nightlife is open in Tulum, and the one night I did go out to a party, nobody was wearing masks and people were dancing together instead of congregating at tables (again, this is no different than what I experienced in Miami last fall). 

The one thing that Mexico seems to be doing better than the US is testing, which brings me to the next section regarding traveling to Tulum during COVID.

Did you have to take a COVID test to fly to mexico?

You don’t have to take a COVID test to fly to Mexico, although I did just to be responsible. And also, because I didn’t want to get to Mexico and then come down with COVID, that would’ve sucked. 

However, you do have to take a COVID test to fly back to the US. You have to take your test (and obtain a negative result, of course) no more than three days before your flight. 

Taking a test in Tulum was super easy. There are walk-up testing centers all around, and there generally isn’t a long line because they make the process very simple. Mine cost about $40, it was the traditional nose test (the one that hurts), and I got my results within a day. 

I took mine exactly three days before departure, just in case it took long for the results to get back to me, and the woman at the airport who checked my digital results noted that if I had taken it any earlier, it wouldn’t have been valid. However, there appeared to be testing centers at the airport as well, which I imagine you could use in a pinch and just pay more money for a rapid test. 

Best food?

The food in Tulum was hit or miss, so definitely do your research! Once I settled down and looked into what spots to check out, I had a bunch of great, veg-friendly meals and some great fresh seafood as well. 

I’m going to do a separate blog post on my favorite spots, but here’s a quick list:

• Norita (super inventive menu with lots of veg options, my favorite food in Tulum)
• Azulik (expensive treehouse restaurant, but the food was as good as the atmosphere)
• Kitchen Table (more expensive, but really inventive menu + yummy)
• Burrito Amor (cute, trendy, and cheap with lots of vegan options)
• Lief’s (fully vegan)
• The Pitted Date (fully vegan)

Where to stay?

Although there are resorts in and around Tulum, and I do love resorts, I don’t recommend staying in one on your trip to Tulum because there’s so much to see and do in town. If, like me, you’re boujie, I recommend staying in a hotel on the beach in what is commonly referred to as the hotel district. Everyone recommended Be Tulum, but it was unfortunately a bit out of my current budget. 

Instead, my friends and I went the cheaper route and stayed in two nice, but affordable Airbnbs.

The first place we stayed was in a neighborhood called Aldea Zama, which is a quick bike ride or cab to the hotel district/beach area, and it’s a sort of gentrified, up and coming neighborhood. 

The apartment itself was one bedroom with a pull-out couch in the living room, which worked for three of us (but was definitely a little crowded IMO). It had a really nice rooftop pool area that was usually empty and great for tanning. It was also in a gated community so you can feel extra safe. 

The second place we stayed was in a neighborhood called La Veleta, which is more in the center of town (and less tourist-y). But, this building was literally in the middle of the jungle. When we first took a cab to get there, he drove so damn slow on the dirt roads that a 5 minute drive turned into a 15 minute drive. 

Even though I wouldn’t normally choose to stay in the wilderness, I actually loved this building because the one bedroom apartment was so nice and the pool area was so nice too. It was also super quiet and the pool was usually empty. We ended up renting bikes so we didn’t have to deal with annoying Taxi drivers who couldn’t navigate the dirt roads with their cars. 

Of course, Mexico is a developing country, so even in the nice-ish Airbnbs, there were hiccups. Neither Airbnb seemed to give us enough towels—the first one didn’t even give us any pool/beach towels. In the second Airbnb, there was a sign to tell us that we couldn’t flush anything in the toilet (this was common at a lot of restaurants too). The second Airbnb also has a lockbox out front with the key to get into the complex in case the door man wasn’t there, and it kept breaking and there were times we worried it wouldn’t open for us (thankfully we always found a way). I never really felt unsafe while staying at either property,  or in Tulum in general, but I’ve also traveled a lot and lived in a lot of cities, so I would understand if someone else may feel nervous. 

At the end of the day, if I could have my dream Tulum trip (or dream anywhere trip), I’d choose a hotel, but sometimes you have to work within you and your friends’ budgets. 

How to get around?

While staying in our first Airbnb, we walked or took Taxis everywhere. Taxis weren’t very expensive, but you needed to negotiate every time (don’t take the first price they give you). The most expensive one we took was probably $20 (split between three of us). But, sometimes it was hard to get a taxi, and of course if you’re a female traveling alone you want to be careful of taking them late at night.

What my friend Brandy did is she got the numbers of the drivers that we liked so we could call them personally when we needed rides. She made friends with one from her last trip who ended up taking us out to a Cenote excursion and waiting with us all day. 

At the second Airbnb, we rented bikes, which was an amazing way to get to know the city and feel a bit more independent (I personally hate having to rely on drivers and spend money every time I want to go somewhere). Again, you want to be careful about biking too late at night and you want to make sure to always lock your bike as they get stolen regularly. We rented our bikes from Ola Bikes for about $8/day. They’ll even deliver it to your hotel/Airbnb if you’d like! 

You can also rent a car, which one of our friends did toward the end of our trip. Driving in Tulum is a little crazy (we ended up getting pulled over by the police because we were on the wrong side of the road once, oops), but it made things easier for the longer excursions we wanted to do like Chichen Itza. Parking was pretty easy too in most places. 

Anything you didn’t expect?

Mexico is still a developing country, no matter how boujie your favorite Instagrammer’s trip looks. Unless you’re staying on a resort (and I didn’t), you will probably have to deal with toilets that can’t handle toilet paper, reservationists that don’t seem to respect anyone’s time, and restaurants that are randomly out of half the menu items. By the end of our trip, anytime anything “bad” happened, we would just sigh and say, “Mexico,” because we were used to it at this point. The US is shitty at a lot of things, but they are pretty good at service, and most other countries are not on our level (especially because they don’t live off of tips). 

Other things to know about traveling to Tulum during COVID (or whenever)

Don’t bother bringing your heels (or bring a change of shoes)

Tulum really has the rustic chic vibe through and through. Even the most expensive restaurants tend to have sand, pebble, or dirt floors where heels aren’t the best idea. What I ended up doing was bringing sandals in a bag so that I could do a quick change if the terrain looked questionable.

Bring cash!

A lot of ATMs didn’t work in Tulum, which was a pain in the ass because taxis only accepted cash, and you typically got charged more if you used a card or USD. That being said, most places will accept USD because it’s so touristy, so better to at least bring a good bit of USD with you so you have something to work with.

On & off season

Tulum’s most popular season is October to January, which means it’ll be a little cheaper outside of that season (but also, hotter). However, traveling to Tulum during COVID is probably a little different because everyone’s just trying to get away and they have less options. It was still very crowded and relatively more expensive in February than it was when my friend visited the previous summer.

My final verdict on traveling to Tulum during COVID?

Like I said above, I’m a boujie beach vacationer. I tend to stay at resorts and lounge by the pool with a good book and a waiter that brings me food. My trip to Tulum was not that at all. It probably could have been if I had gone alone and had a bigger budget, but I’m glad it wasn’t. Instead, visiting Tulum was more like visiting a cool new city that you want to explore. I tried tons of restaurants, co-worked in lots of cute coffee shops, biked around to explore, saw one of the wonders of the world, and found some pool and beach time in between. I also didn’t go out and party, which is why a lot of people go to Tulum, so I can’t really comment on that.

By my second week in Tulum, I felt like I was really getting to know the city, and there was still so much to explore that I didn’t want to leave! There were parts of Tulum that just felt like LA, which was weird, but made it kind of feel like home. If someone had paid me to stay in Tulum for longer (or just paid for another week of my Airbnb), I totally would have considered staying. Although, I found a new appreciation for the LA-pace of life once I returned home.