TULUM · MEXICO
Mayan stones, cenotes, the Caribbean and the jungle behind.
The clifftop ruins, the underwater caves, the UNESCO biosphere and the day trips out to Coba, Chichen Itzá and the rest of the Yucatán. Reviewed tour by tour.
Only in Tulum
Three things you can’t do anywhere else.
Beach clubs, snorkelling and sunset cruises exist in every Caribbean destination. These three don’t. The cenote, the clifftop city, the biosphere. Each is specific to this stretch of the Yucatán. Plan the rest of the trip around them.
Underwater
Swim Inside the Cenotes
Sinkholes in the Yucatán limestone, fed by the longest underground river system on the planet. The Maya called them gateways to the underworld. They exist almost nowhere else on earth. Daylight pours through openings in the rock, the water is the colour of glass, and the deepest galleries run for kilometres.
- 1 Tulum Guided Tour, Magical Cenote, Lagoon Snorkeling and Beachside Lunch
- 2 Tulum Ruins, Turtles in Akumal and Cenote tour
- 3 Selva Maya Eco Adventure Park: Ziplining, Hanging Bridges, Rappelling and Cenote
On the cliff
The Clifftop Mayan City
Tulum is the only walled Mayan city built directly above the Caribbean. The pyramids sit on a 12-metre cliff, the iguanas outnumber the guards, and the beach below the temples is the one in every postcard. Eight hundred years old, twenty minutes from the hotel zone, open at sunrise.
- 1 Tulum Archaeological Site & Sian Ka’an Muyil Tour from Tulum
- 2 Tulum Ruins Guided Tour from Cancun and Riviera Maya
- 3 Tulum: Mayan Ruins & Sian Kaan Tour with Boat Ride and Lunch
On the doorstep
Sian Ka’an Biosphere
A UNESCO biosphere reserve the size of a small country, starting where the Tulum beach road ends. Ancient Mayan canals, mangrove channels, dolphins, manatees, 350 bird species. You ride the canals in a small boat, then drift through them in a life jacket. No second example of this anywhere on the Caribbean coast.
- 1 Sian Ka’an Adventure Full Day Trip to Punta Allen
- 2 Riviera Maya: Sian Ka’an Reserve Ancient Maya Canals Tour
- 3 Kayak Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve Sunset Tour
If you only do one day
The Tulum day everyone books.
If your trip is short, this is the one that earns the day. A combination of the three things Tulum is known for in a single itinerary.
The classics
Tulum's Most Popular Tours
Cenote swims, the clifftop ruins, Sian Ka’an, Chichen Itzá. The day trips most travellers come to Tulum to do.
By place
Pick a stop on the Tulum map.
Each place is its own day. The ruins for the postcard. The cenotes for the swim. Sian Ka’an for the wildlife. Akumal for the turtles. Coba for the jungle pyramid. Chichen Itzá for the Wonder.
By activity
Or pick how you want to spend the day.
Cenote if you want the swim. Catamaran if you want the open water. ATV and zipline if you want the jungle. Cooking, mezcal, wellness and bikes for the rest of what Tulum does well.
The Mayan Trail
A thousand years of pyramids in one week.
Coba in the jungle, Chichen Itzá behind the cenotes, Ek Balam to the north, the painted halls of Valladolid in between. The Yucatán is the most concentrated stretch of major Mayan ruins on earth, and from Tulum you can reach four of the biggest in a single trip. Three day tours we’d send a first-time visitor on.
Up and down the coast
Beyond the Tulum hotel zone.
North to Akumal for sea turtles in the bay. Out to Cozumel for the reef. Up the Riviera Maya for whatever’s a half-tank away. The three coastal day trips we’d book first if Tulum town starts to feel small.
When you’ve had enough beach
The other Tulum.
ATVs into the jungle, scuba into the cenote galleries, horseback through the trees, cooking and mezcal in town. Three picks for the half-days that aren’t about lying in sand.
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