5 Things to Do When You Stay in Tulum, Mexico
In my last blog post, I talked about why you should stay in Tulum, Mexico. Now, I'm talking about 5 activities you should do when you are in Tulum. Some of these are local to Tulum, some of them are little day trips, and some of them are just an hour or two away, but in my opinion they all are a must.
5 Things to Do When You Stay in Tulum, Mexico | Tulum Ruins and Snorkeling
First up is the Tulum ruins and snorkeling. We absolutely loved this. The boat we went on for the snorkeling actually took us to see a water view of the ruins, which was the best view of the ruins overall in my opinion. After seeing the ruins, we got to go snorkeling which was super fun and something my husband and daughter had never done before.
5 Things to do When You Stay in Tulum, Mexico | Akumal Monkey Sanctuary
Next up on the list is the Akumal Monkey Sanctuary. I cannot say enough good things about this place. They're an animal sanctuary, which is different than a traditional zoo. An animal sanctuary is somewhere animals go if a zoo closes down or if animals are confiscated by the police. The animals can't re-enter the wild because they've lived in captivity so the sanctuary takes care of them.
They have so many more animals than just monkeys, some of which we got to hold. We also got to have monkeys on our shoulders and our heads, which was super fun. As an added bonus, the town of Akumal has some nice restaurants and we stopped for lunch after we were done, and it was a great experience.
5 Things to Do When You Stay in Tulum, Mexico | Coba Ruins
Next thing is going to Coba and seeing the ruins. In my opinion, Coba is the most underrated set of ruins in the Maya Riviera. It is less known making it much less crowded and not a tourist trap. It's shaded, and while it is really big, you can rent bikes or a bike tech to take you all around the ruins. We did go to some other ruins while we were in the area, but I definitely think Coba is a highlight and somewhere you should check out. We even got to see some monkeys in the wild! Like I said, the site is huge and actually has some of the largest Mayan pyramids in the area.
5 Things to Do When You Stay in Tulum, Mexico | Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve
Fourth on my list is the Sian Ka'an Bio Reserve about 45 minutes south of Tulum. You can book a tour online, but we actually just went to a gas station right outside of Sian Ka'an, and my husband talked to someone there and got us a boat ride. Having a fluent Spanish speaker with us has a lot of upsides!
It was a three hour tour and our guide took us through some amazing canals. We went and saw some manatees, we got to float down a fresh water canal that was like our own personal lazy river, which was awesome. We saw a lot of birds and saltwater crocodiles and our tour guide even took us to this private beach right on the ocean, which Jackie loved so much we had to bribe her to leave!
5 Things to Do When You Stay in Tulum, Mexico | Tulum Gran Cenote
The last thing on my list is going to the Gran Cenote in Tulum. There are a lot of Cenotes, or sinkholes, in Tulum and Gran Cenote is one of the largest. It has two entrances for you to go into, the water is amazingly cool, which feels so nice in the middle of the day heat and its absolutely beautiful. While there is a ton of space, it does get crowded, especially in the middle of the day. I would definitely recommend going earlier in the morning to avoid crowds.
That's a wrap on our favorite things to do in Tulum. We absolutely loved it there and can't wait to go back and explore it even more in the future.
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