Best Places To Stay In Tulum Beach
There are two main parts to Tulum, Tulum Beach and Tulum Town. While Tulum town is much more inexpensive to stay at, if you are going for a week (or less) vacation, I highly recommend staying on Tulum Beach if you can swing it. As much as my husband and I like to visit the town for a day trip, we are always ready to get back to the beach. Nothing beats that beach feeling along with the incredible jungle and Bohemian scenery found everywhere.
Best Places To Stay In Tulum Beach
Alaya Tulum
My husband and I have stayed here 3 times because we love it so much. It’s a quieter, more private hotel that does not have a restaurant or beach bar open to the public so it feels extra relaxing here. The setting is extra jungle-like and oh so beautiful and magical feeling. It’s also located on what we think is the best stretch of the beach (further from the more clubby bars that have popped up in Tulum), and it’s a great location to easily walk to many restaurants as well.
The best rooms are one of the two oceanfront upper level treehouse rooms. They are incredibly special and unique. It feels like a dream waking up in the treehouse looking at the ocean. You can get a delicious meal from their restaurant (that has great healthy options) delivered right to your beautiful balcony if you wish. Waking up and sitting out there with coffee or tea is like no other.
Between the jungle setting, beautiful rooms, the quietness, the onsite restaurant with healthy food options (for guests only), the great service, and the location of the beach, this one is hard to beat. As in most Tulum hotels, there are yoga classes and occasional wellness retreats that happen here as well.
Ahau Tulum
Alaya is actually part of the Ahau Collection of Tulum hotels, although it feels like it’s own boutique hotel. Ahau was the first mainstay one in their hotel collection. It’s also where the amazing Raw Love is located. Although this hotel would not be my first pick, I want to mention it here for those who may be traveling with children. I wouldn’t say that Tulum is kid friendly, but if you are coming with the kiddos no matter what, this is a good one to check out.
Casa Violeta
My husband and I just came back from staying a week at Casa Violeta. We knew of the hotel since it’s just a few hotels down from Alaya and we would come here to eat dinner at their restaurant in past trips. We booked here since our usual beachfront room at Alaya was already booked, and we could not stomach the larger beach front room’s higher cost. Thankfully Casa Violeta had the perfect beachfront room available, so we felt it was meant to be.
A huge perk to this hotel is the large beach front beds, tables, and umbrellas here. If you walk the entire beach, it’s one of the best beach setups. If you plan on spending most of your days at the beach and want a more quiet spaced out setting, Casa Violeta is a great one.
Our specific room was called Violeta and if we ever go back, we would want the exact same room. The room, the view, the small chair set to sit out front, was absolutely perfect. We were hesitant to book the room due to no air conditioning, but besides one hot night, it worked out more than fine. If you book this room, leave the front window open and the back bathroom window open and you’ll get a good breeze going through. The bed also has a mosquito net to put down while you sleep, because, well …Tulum. It’s a buggy place.
What I did miss from Alaya was the many healthy food options at their private restaurant. Casa Violeta has quality organic food, but if you are gluten-free, corn-free, dairy-free, or egg-free, the options are much more scarce. You do get a free continental fruit plate, juice, coffee, and homemade bread/croissant which is nice, but the fruit plate is not enough to fill you up if you don’t want the bread. They do have a breakfast menu that you can pay for, but it is a heavy gluten, egg forward menu.
Also, although they will deliver food to your beach chair and you have beach service, you can’t bring your small continental breakfast to your room depending on who you ask (one sweet girl did it for us without hesitation). So if you want to have breakfast at your room, this is not the hotel for that. For the most part though, our service was amazing here.
All in all, it’s a really beautiful property and I would highly recommend it. It’s also extra attractive as it’s more reasonable than many hotels on the beach and it’s on the best stretch of the beach (away from more of the clubby bars). Note: If you book a back room to many of the hotels (including this one), you’ll hear a good amount of street music that might make it hard to sleep. For that reason, I would stick closer to the front if you can.
Casa Violeta Website
Sanara
Sanará means ‘you will heal.’ This hotel has a world-class Wellness center, an ocean front Yoga studio, and the famous Real Coconut Kitchen that serves some of the cleanest, if not the cleanest healthiest food in Tulum. If you’ve got the means to spend, check this one out for sure. It’s an easy walk from Alaya or Casa Violeta so we have come to eat at the Real Coconut Kitchen many times. It’s our favorite place to eat brunch. Oh, & you get the best coconut here too. Not surprising by the name. 😊
This hotel is a little more refined for Tulum, so depending on your style, this may be an extreme draw for some and may not be a draw for others.
Note that because it’s a more popular hotel and has a busy restaurant, it feels a bit busier here during the day. At night it’s really quiet though.
Sanara Website
Nômade Tulum
One of the more famous rustic luxury hotels in Tulum. It’s serious eye candy galore and it’s Boho luxury at it’s finest. Although we have never stayed due to the price tag, I’ve heard it is worth every penny. If you’ve got it, I highly recommend this hotel. However, if you are not spending it like we aren’t, you can still enjoy their two public restaurants – La Popular and Macondo – both of which have live music many nights. You’ll get all of the magical feelings and then some. I wrote about the restaurants here.
Note: This is located at the far south end of the beach so it is not as convenient to walk everywhere. It’s also extra dark at night since you don’t have much nearby. Pack a small flashlight when visiting Tulum.
Nômade Tulum Website
Be Tulum
If you are looking for another luxury Tulum hotel, check out Be Tulum. It’s located right next to Nômade and has the same owner. While I wouldn’t consider either hotel clubby, just note that they both have more action due to it’s popularity and restaurants.
Both Nômade and Be Tulum offer a large free breakfast spread, free activities, and I believe free bike rentals for their guests. Nice perks considering you are spending a chunk to stay at these places.
Side Note: Car service to your beach hotel typically costs around $135 each way plus tip. It’s about 90 minutes to 2 hours from Cancun airport depending on who you get for a driver and what time/day of the week it is. Email your hotel to set up your airport transfer.
Habitas Tulum
Habitas feels like your own private sanctuary as it’s located at the far north end of the beach and does not connect to the full main beach strip. “A sustainable sanctuary immersed between the Mayan jungle and Caribbean Sea.” This is a huge draw if you just want a beautiful and serene place to relax and unwind. They also have numerous wellness offerings on site that sound incredible.
It seems to be very quiet here unless a small concert is happening on the grounds, but even then I’m sure it would still be enjoyable. We actually saw a concert getting set up, and it looked insanely beautiful. Rugs, small candlelit tables to sit at, and all amongst a jungle setting.
They have beautiful ocean front rooms, but even walking past their jungle rooms (less expensive) would be absolutely fine with me here. They looked like a spiritual retreat in itself.
We came to eat at their amazing restaurant- Moro At Habitas and it ended up being our absolute favorite meal in Tulum. Another reason to check out this place. Everything from getting into the more private hidden door in the front to getting back to restaurant was top notch service. I can only imagine the service would be great if you stayed here.
This one is a serious contender for us if we return to Tulum again.
Tips:
- I saw breakfast and a 20 minute massage included in some of their bookings which is a nice little perk.
- The downside is that you have to cab or take a super far walk to most places as it’s pretty much by itself. It was a 1 1/2 hour walk from Casa Violeta – walking part beach and part street along the way.
Habitas Website
The best time to travel to Tulum: The first few weeks of November is always our favorite time to travel to Tulum. It’s generally quieter, usually less humid, and the hotel prices are a bit more reasonable (reasonable for Tulum that is). If you can, booking a hotel last minute in November can save you a chunk of money. You run the risk of losing out on a specific room, but due to the slower time, you’ll still find some availability.
If we stayed an extended period of time, we would probably look to places further from the beach to save money, but with just a week’s time, we feel we get the best experience at a beach resort. With that said it would make it more feasible to travel here more often with a more affordable trip, so I will update any hotels, homes, or more affordable places here if we ever try some out.
I hope you gained some good insight from this post! Comment below if you have any questions at all or just want to say hello! 🤍
Thanks for being here with me! Xx Riane
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