Posted on

Notes from Mexico — Cancun and Tulum

Scroll down to see more content

I got to spend about a week in Mexico traveling with my brother, we did a few days in Cancun and a few days in Tulum. Here are a few notes from the trip and some places to go.

We stayed both in the Cancun centro and in the hotel zone– the hotel zone is very resort-y. In Cancun centro, it’s more of the culture. But I found Cancun was not very walkable (or we didn’t know the places to go) compared to Tulum, where both the centro and the hotel area seemed more walkable.

Some photos from walking around and food in Cancun

at Rooster in Cancun for breakfast
walking around cancun

on the beach

  • cenote Suytun

In Tulum we checked out several cenotes, which are like caves with pools. They are very unique, the one bummer we had with the time that we were traveling is that they were so packed with tourists. I imagine if you are there at a quieter time it is a bit easier.

We saw these cenotes:

  • Cenote Suytun (near Chichen Itza)
  • Gran Cenote ( near Tulum)
  • Cenote Calavera

When we were in Tulum, we took a day tour to Chichen Itza, one of the 7 “new” wonders of the world – and now the last wonder of the world I hadn’t seen. We took the Spanish tour, which was fun but challenging. Chichen Itza is really a mayan site all about time and the calendar. There are 91 steps per side, representing 364 days in the year. And lots of vendors, many of them selling mayan calendars. The main structure is the Temple of Kukulcan, which is the main iconic “pryamid” structure.

  • Chichen Itza

We biked around Tulum, it seemed a pretty common way to get around. We biked to Gran Cenote and Cenote Calavera.

On the tour we stopped by Valladolid on one of the day tours just for a bit in the main plaza, there were lots of little stands and the churros stands and marquesitas (like crepes) were very popular.

We biked also to the Tulum beach area, which seemed to be a lot of private hotels, but we ate at one of the beach restaurants around there.

Had lots of tacos along the way, probably the most common food I ate, and most were very good.

It was also nice to walk along the Tulum centro area, on Avenida Tulum, it’s very walkable and there are lots of shops and restaurants. You could get tacos in some places for maybe 3 for 45 pesos, about $2-$3 USD. The main exchange rate was around 20 MXN to 1 USD, but could be from 16 to 18, 16 at the airport, 18 was really the best rate.

Overall, a nice trip, and would go back to Tulum again.

List of some places to go:

Leave a Reply