Tulum
A walled Maya port on a limestone cliff, a road of beach hotels running south into Sian Ka'an, cenotes in the forest behind, and a new runway nineteen kilometres inland.
- Arrival
- Tulum International · TQO
- To the town
- About 35 minutes by car
- Private jets
- GA-only FBO with customs at TQO
- Best time
- December to April
The city
Ruins above the reef.
Tulum was a Maya trading city, walled on three sides and open to the sea on the fourth, and Spanish sailors saw it still alive in 1518. Today the town sits a little inland, and a single road runs south along the shore past hotels built among the palms, towards the protected coast of Sian Ka'an.
From December to April the afternoons are around 30 °C and the rain is light. From May the wet season sets in, heaviest in September and October, when the sea is at its warmest, close to 29 °C.
Arriving
A runway of its own since 2023.
Tulum International opened in December 2023, about twelve miles south-west of the town, with a runway of some 12,100 feet. Before that, every visitor came through Cancún, roughly seventy miles to the north, which still has the widest choice of flights.
- Miami 1 h 35
- Palm Beach 1 h 40
- Atlanta 2 h 20
- New York 3 h 45
- Munich 11 h 55 long-range jet
When to go
December to April.
Warm in every month, with highs of 29 to 33 °C. The dry season runs from December to April, when March sees under 40 mm of rain. From May to November the showers build, peaking in September at over 220 mm.
- 29° J 71 26°
- 30° F 53 26°
- 31° M 37 26°
- 33° A 45 27°
- 33° M 108 28°
- 33° J 187 28°
- 33° J 130 28°
- 33° A 145 29°
- 32° S 226 29°
- 31° O 202 29°
- 30° N 103 28°
- 29° D 92 27°
What to see and do
Days in and around Tulum.
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Landmark
The Tulum ruins
El Castillo on its cliff twelve metres above the water, with a small beach below reached by a wooden stair.
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Landmark
Sian Ka'an
A coastal biosphere reserve on the UNESCO list, beginning just south of the hotel road.
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Landmark
The cenotes
Freshwater sinkholes in the forest, Gran Cenote ten minutes by car and Dos Ojos about twenty.
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Culture
Cobá
A Maya city that covered some 70 square kilometres at its height, where the stair of the 42 metre Nohoch Mul pyramid reopened in December 2025.
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Culture
Muyil
Ruins of an older Maya settlement, with a castle about 17 metres high, from where boats cross the lagoon for a slow float down an ancient canal.
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Culture
Museo Regional de la Costa Oriental
Opened in September 2024 inside the Parque del Jaguar, this museum shows Maya ceramic and stone vessels, axes and tools, with a room on everyday life.
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Wildlife
Akumal Bay
Green turtles graze the seagrass of this sheltered bay, and snorkellers follow guidelines set by the Centro Ecológico Akumal, whose certified local guides carry official cards.
Official site -
Nature
Xcacel Xcacelito
A state protected area of 905 acres with no bars or hotels, where green and loggerhead turtles nest and a freshwater cenote lies just inland.
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Golf
PGA Riviera Maya Golf Club
Robert Trent Jones Junior laid out this course in 2010 on the site of a former limestone quarry beside the coast road at Akumal.
Where to stay
On the sand, by the cenotes, and up the coast.
Shown for information. We have no arrangement with any of these hotels.
- Hotel Esencia A duchess's former house on the beach at Xpu-Ha, up the coast towards Playa del Carmen, and the only hotel in Quintana Roo with three MICHELIN Keys.
- Wakax Hacienda – Cenote & Boutique Hotel Forty-eight rooms laid out like an eighteenth-century hacienda, with a lake and three cenotes, one of them open for swimming at night.
- La Zebra, a Small Luxury Hotel Fifty suites and casitas set directly on the sand, with a rooftop bar and tortilla workshops for children.
- Sana Tulum Twenty-four adults-only rooms around a courtyard of carved arches and brass lanterns, laid out like a Moroccan riad.
- Be Tulum Beach & Spa Resort Suites among gardens and palms, some with plunge pools, at the southern end of the hotel road beside Sian Ka'an.
- MILAM Curving plaster walls, local clay and swim-up drinks for adults only, away from the beach on the edge of town.
- NABOA Hotel Tulum Ten garden suites by the architects Jaque Studio, some with bathrooms open to the sky, between the town and the beach.
Where to dine
The best tables in Tulum.
Tulum has no MICHELIN star. These are its upscale restaurants in the MICHELIN Guide Mexico 2026 selection; prices are MICHELIN’s bands.
- ARCA MICHELIN Guide Contemporary $$$$ Tulum beach road
- Hartwood MICHELIN Guide Mexican $$$$ Tulum beach road
- Autor MICHELIN Guide Contemporary $$$$ Tulum
- Wild MICHELIN Guide Contemporary $$$ Tulum
Elsewhere in Mexico
More reasons to come.
- Mexico City Polanco, Roma, and the murals of the historic centre.
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Los Cabos
The arch at Land's End, the golf courses, and the Sea of Cortez.
- Punta Mita Two golf courses and a handful of resorts, at the northern tip of Banderas Bay.
- San Miguel de Allende The pink spires of the Parroquia, and an art scene in the highlands.
- Mérida Restored haciendas around the old capital of the Yucatán.
- Oaxaca The cooking of the seven moles, and the craft villages of the valley.
Flying to Tulum?
Choose how you arrive.
A Business or First Class seat on a scheduled airline, or an aircraft of your own. Tell us the date and how many are travelling, and we reply with one final price, our margin included.