Should I go Tulum Mexico?
Tulum is about 80 minutes South of Cancun. We flew into Cancun Airport, but there are some airlines that have flights into Tulum now, so check you options. A Cancun ticket may be cheaper, but you do have to hire transportation down to wherever you are staying in Tulum. We pre-arranged transport online. I highly recommend that you always do this! It's a great way to get a better deal and to avoid getting scammed. When we arrived, we simply found a Rep from the company that we hired, and they had our names on a clipboard and showed us right to a clean and well air conditioned van within 10 minutes of arrival.
On the way to Tulum, you will pass through Playa de Carma, which is also a nice place to visit, and they have a lot of great shopping. More about that later.
We arrived at our all-inclusive resort just around lunch time. The resort that was chose was the Grand Oasis Tulum Riviera. If golf is your thing, there is a course right across the road from there. There are plenty of resorts in the area, we just chose this one because we got a great deal on the 5 day package.
We had purchased a VIP package, so we were escorted straight to the VIP checkin, where we enjoyed champagne while the staff arranged for our room. Since we were early, our room was not quite ready, but they went ahead and gave us our wrist bands so that we could go get some lunch while we were waiting.
The lunch buffet was fantastic and the staff were pleasant, polite, and came around frequently with mimosas or cervezas. You could also order on drink that you like, but they would just have to go to another area on the resort to get it, since most of the bars do not open until 2pm.
The food was very good, with a great mix of tradional Mexican dishes, local fruits and veggies, and a huge amount of cold cuts, cheeses, and other fun things to try.
After lunch we got a map, and explored the resort a bit. One thing that we regretted was not packing swim trunks in our carry bags. We definately will next time! Since we were coming from cold weather, we were wearing shoes, pants, t-shirts, and hoodies still. It would have been nice to be able to change into swimsuits and get in one of the pools or head down to the Ocean.
The resort was very nice and was kept very clean. It had two family pools with play areas for kids, as well as an adult-only infinity pool overlooking the beach, with a swim up bar. The beach access is also very nice, and they keep the beach quite tidy, despite the never-ending battle of removing seaweed as it washes up. As we were exploring, a staff member came and found us around 1:30, saying that our room was ready early!
The room was spacious and clean, with tile floors throughout, a fantastic view of palm trees and ocean, a nice rain head shower, toilet in a separate area for privacy, an Nespresso machine and stocked mini fridge with drinks and snacks that were included in our package. Enjoy the video walkthrough above.
We immediately got changed and headed out to the infinity edge pool, and to explore the beach. The pool was clean and there were plenty of large beach towels available, as well as plenty of lounge chairs.
Funny story about this picture: We had just gotten drinks and headed down to get our feet in the Ocean. (this pic was taken just before wading out). Tina has a fear of fish from a childhood incident where someone stuck a fish in her bathing suit and she got stabbed with the spines. We were both in the water knee deep taking video and pictures, when she screamed behind me. I turned just in time to see her drink go flying, cup and all, as she scrambled to the shore. I tried to grab her, but she fell into shallow water with her phone still in her hand. Fortunately it survived, but her drink did not. As I looked down to see what could have startled her, I saw that we were surrounded by a school of smaller brightly colored fish. There must have been 150 of them!
What we learned later, was that we were near the buffet, and a lot of people would take crackers and bread down to feed the fish. We got plenty of laughs from that incident as did the onlookers!
The beach was fun, and we spotted a couple of iguanas, but they usually stayed in the bushes or rocks and never bothered anyone the whole time we were there.
I think our favorite feature was the view from the edge of the infinity pool. We spent plenty of time there relaxing and taking in the view, the smell, and sound of the Ocean.
The pools were lit up at night and they were gorgeous! It was so nice to get a refreshing shower, go to a lovely sitdown dinner at one of the many restaurants, and then walk out to this view! You may have read in another Blog about us staying at a similar resort in Cancun that was very lively, exciting, and quite the party with entertainment, dancers, music, and more. By comparison, this one was quiet and relaxing. In coversations with others, they made the same obersevations. Tulum is better for rest and relaxation, and Cancun is more of the party scene. We enjoy both, so it was nice to experience this atmosphere as well.
The next morning, we got up early, made a couple of Irish coffees (we had a nice bottle in our room that we got from the duty free shop in Cancun), and headed down to enjoy the sunrise. It was magical! You can see here some of the seaweed that washed up overnight, but they had a crew raking it up and hauling it off before sunrise, and by 7am most of it was gone.
For the rest of the day, we lounged around, enjoyed the restuarants and drinks, and just relaxed. It was great to unwind and enjoy our time together. This was the week before spring break, so there wasn't many people around. They did start to arrive in bigger numbers on Saturday, as we were getting ready to leave, but it still was not very crowded.
This concludes days one and two of our trip. Stay tuned for the next Blog, and I will tell you about an incredible experience that we had visiting the famous Chichen Itza, touring a local Cenote (undergroud pool), as well as a shopping trip to Playa de Carma.
We hope you enjoyed this article. If you have any questions, please comment below or contact Tina by visiting avoyatravel.com/experts/tina-olson
Comments
Post a Comment