Tulum and to hold…

Time for my #FinalCyn! I'm so thankful my sister planned my entire bachelorette to Tulum and so happy that all of my friends took the time off to join me! Last year, I planned my sister's bachelorette to Sayulita and I loved it so much, I knew I wanted to come back to Mexico for mine. I chose Tulum for my bachelorette destination because I had seen so many amazing photos of this place all over social media. Yes, everyone and their moms are now coming here, but I had to see what all the hype was about. Everything in Tulum is goregous! This place has really outdone itself. The vibe of Tulum is very free spirited, everyone's super friendly, dressed freely and here to unwind and relax. If I had to describe the people and the atmosphere here, it would be "boho chic", everyone's dressed as if they came straight out of Burning Man or Coachella: very lively, free spirited, yogi-like. This entire trip was a surprise, I only knew the destination but everything else my sister planned!

Day 1: Arriving in Tulum

This was an extremely long travel day for most of us. With seven of us flying from Seattle, two from the east coast, and two from California, it was HECTIC trying to get everyone together once we landed. The Cancun Airport has 4 different terminals, so we had planned to all meet at baggage claim and quickly found out that we were all in different terminals too far to walk to each other. Luckily my sister setup a car service to pick us up through USA Transfers and they were super helpful calling all of their guys at each terminal and finding my friends and cousins. Tulum is about an hour and a half drive from Cancun and we made a quick at the grocery store to buy water, alcohol… TONS OF TEQUILA, my favorite, and food of course.

FINALLY, we got to the AIRBNB. A chef was waiting at the house for us and served us amazing fish tacos, fajitas and blended watermelon slushies (which we spiked with tequila, of course). Chefs are the way to go after a long travel day! The airbnb was the best, there were enough rooms for all of us to share with one other person, each room had its own bathroom and our host was a superhost! She arranged reservations for us, called taxis for us, and was very attentive and responsive whenever we needed something. It’s in a great location, more in a local area rather than the heart of Tulum and is easy to catch a taxi. One downside of this place is that cab drivers could never find the house; we had to put it in our phones and show the drivers the directions. Thankfully all of us had working phones in Mexico!

Day 2: Ruins, Cenotes, and snorkeling

A whole fun-filled excursion planned by my sister! A driver and tour guide came to pick us up and we started off the day sweating in the heat. Its tough coming from Seattle rainy weather and your first day is 90 degrees with humidity. We started off the day touring the Mayan Ruins, then we snorkeled through a coral reef in the Caribbean Sea, walked through a cave and jungle (beware of the mosquitoes… they’re everywhere), and ended the day going for a swim in the Cenote Caracol.

“A cenote is a natural pit, or sinkhole, resulting from the collapse of limestone bedrock that exposes groundwater underneath”

By far the coolest thing I’ve ever done so far - the highlight of my trip! I had no idea what a Cenote was before this trip. It’s a little spooky at first, in the middle of the jungle was this hole in the ground and when you looked down its super dark. There were stairs leading down from the hole, once we walked down and looked up, we were standing in the middle of this cave and the only light that came in was through the hole we came through. This cave was massive with so many different chambers you can swim to. The tour guides had us all put on our snorkel gear, and jump in in pairs. A little scary since you can’t see how deep the water was and it seemed like it was never ending. Once we were in the water, it was amazing! We swam through so many different chambers looking at all the rock formations, there were bats hanging up above and little fishes swimming around us. I highly recommend doing this tour! You even get your own personal photographer following you around all day to capture photos.

For Dinner, we went to a fancy steakhouse called El Asadero. There’s a cute swing set there for photo ops and they even have a mariachi band singing to us during dinner. My go-to drink is the Paloma, of course tequila!

Going Out- we barhopped at a few bars after dinner in the area. We ended up dancing at a club/bar called Santinos. The only downside is that random people would come up to our group and offer us weed, cocaine or acid… yikes, be careful out there!

Day 3: Yoga and Sunset Bar

Namaste asleep….. but when in Mexico do yoga! Good thing I’m an early bird; I like to squeeze in a yoga session especially in Mexico. Where all the main resorts are in Tulum, theres a long beautiful road you drive along with cute and chic restaurants, straw hut structures, and swings, SO MANY swings. Our yoga spot was at one of the resorts along this road at the Amansala Eco Chic Resort. The yoga palapa is gorgeous! A great way to awaken your soul and relax.

IK Lab is right next to the Azulik hotel, which I have to talk about later. Ik Lab is this very interesting gallery created to capture the Yucatan peninsula’s nature and rich spiritual heritage. We randomly found this place waiting for our reservations, and I’m so glad we stumbled upon this place. We walked around this gallery space for awhile and just took in the amazing architecture. The ultimate instagram spot for all you instagrammers.

Next stop, Tunich for some mid-day smoothies. A few people recommended to come here and get their food but we weren’t exactly hungry yet and just got some green and fruit smoothies. A mid day refresher is always nice in the Tulum heat!

Drinks at Kin Toh - so in a perfect world where I had all the money, I would’ve loved to grab dinner here. Google it… its BEAUTIFUL! This place is built on stills 39 ft above Tulum’s Mayan jungle. But if you want to drop $3k USD minimum for dinner, this is your spot. I was baffled when I found out that was their minimum.. I thought they meant pesos. Instead, we got the same view, similar experience for way cheaper at the sunset bar at Kin Toh. However, it opens at 5pm and we started lining up an hour before because they only allow up to 30 people during sunset.

Dinner at Tseen Ja, this is also at the Azulik Hotel. We stopped here because I get really hangry and I was getting close to that point; this was the closet thing in sight after the sunset bar. This place is a Japanese-Mexican fusion, and it was just okay food for me. Don’t get Shabu Shabu here… it is not your typical Shabu Shabu and the meat was swimming in hot broth with no flavor. The restaurant was also built on stilts with handcrafted wood surroundings, traditional Japanese-style floor-level seating and amazing floating nests and hammocks overlooking the Caribbean sea. BEWARE of the mosquitos here, all of us got attacked during dinner even after numerous sprays of repellent. I got over 50 mosquito bites that night…..

I would’ve loved to stay at Azulik. I’ve seen numerous photos through Instagram of this place and I’ve been dreaming to go. The next time I come back, I definitely will have to stay at this hotel for a few nights. Its a little on the pricier side. Great for a romantic getaway. My cousin did a spa day here while we were on the boat (she gets really seasick unfortunately) and she absolutely loved it!

Day 4: Day out on the Boat

My sister setup a 4 hour boat excursion about an hour away from Tulum through Riviera Elite. The shuttle came and picked us up and took us to our own private yacht! Open bar, and little bites of food were provided. The crew offered to take us snorkeling but we had a full day of snorkeling on Day 2 that we just wanted to lounge around, eat ceviche and listen to music.

Happy Hour- we headed to Coco Beach. Part of the Beach Club is Coco Beach Bar, a white pinterest dream that merges perfectly with the white sand and the turquoise water of the ocean. YUP… more swings, I think you get the trend here.

Dinner at Casa Banana- highly recommend! An urban rustic Argentine style food in an outdoor patio right downtown. I got the grilled shrimp and steak skewers here

Day 5: Markets

Our last day :(

We spent the day exploring near our AIRBNB. There are so many street markets with beautiful hand-woven macrame. If you love bohemian home decor, this is your place to shop! Countless macrame wall hangings, hammocks, purses, dream catchers you name it. Of course, I had to bargain with a few of the markets and take home a souvenir.

Tacos for lunch- we found this local taco place that served THE best tacos and for really cheap. So many options for food in this area that won’t break your bank account.