What's Tulum Really Like?

We contacted Juan Rojo, a Canadian traveler/expat/Mayan Riviera guru, who allowed us to use his fantastic comment with permission. 

Q: What’s your opinion about Tulum?

Juan: Tulum is a hard place to pin down and classify.

Tulum is getting well-known worldwide and yet I can’t think of a hotel in Tulum with more than 50 rooms. It’s touristy… but not in a garish way. The beach is long and wide and handles crowds easily and so it doesn’t seem crowded to me even in high season. The nearest all-inclusive resort is several miles to the north and none in any other direction. The south beach road, goes all the way to Punta Allen and becomes a muddy dirt road heading south.

The people there have done the same things in the same place for centuries. Present-day Tulum has grown and developed with tourism in mind, but the city has stayed “TIKI” and “ECO” in its approach. Cancun has gone for a touristy, “slick” feel. Tulum would be the opposite. 

There’s mostly low-rise development on the beach and in town, Tulum is still quite small and so the downtown neighborhoods are closer to the tourist area, but everything is walkable or accessible by bicycle.