Life with The Libbys | Travel Guide to Tulum
We just got back from our vacation to Tulum, Mexico to celebrate our best friend Mackenzie's 30th birthday! It truly was a trip of a lifetime and I'm so beyond grateful for this experience with my soul sisters & gem of a husband.
I wanted to put together a post while all the details were still fresh to recap all our favorites for anyone else looking to travel to the area - so here we go...
Being the Type A *totally extra* BFF that I am, I created this itinerary with all the details planned for the vacation. There were 14 of us we wanted to make sure we had a few things reserved and made sure everyone was on the same page. You can view it here if you're interested and if you want to make one of your own, we used this template we found on Etsy using Canva.
We have been dreaming of this trip for over a year. If you don't know me personally, my girls and I like to go big for birthdays and love any reason to celebrate. So when Mackenzie decided on Tulum for her 30th - we were all in. 14 of us in fact. It was so special to have all of her closest friends and all of her siblings together to celebrate our favorite girl. Mackenzie and Danielle had already been to Tulum so they already knew of a few places to visit and we decided to try some new places too.
Starting with the most beautiful gem of a villa on Airbnb: Embre et Epices. The design of the villa was truly remarkable, every room and shared space was beautiful - truly obsessed. But the icing on the cake was our host Alain - he truly made the entire experience SO easy. He arranged transportation, chef meals, fire dancers - you name it he was on top of it and answered my millions of emails and great communication leading up to our stay and during our stay. Highly highly recommend if you have a big group. The only downfall was that it was about 10-15 minutes outside of Tulum Beach so we had to shuttle into town every time we had a reservation. If I was going with just Cole I think we would have tried to find a hotel right on the beach but for a group this size this Villa was truly perfect.
SATURDAY
We all got in at different times so we didn't have any real plans for our first night but ended up going to RosaNegra and it was bumping. The perfect dinner into dancing spot. We found Tulum was pretty quiet most of our stay (I think it was off season) but we went to RosaNegra on a Saturday and it had a DJ, so many sparklers, and the vibe was truly so fun.
SUNDAY
The next day we didn't have any day plans but some people in the group wanted to check out some cenotes so our host recommended going to Vesica. AH! It was so beautiful. Swim, eat, drink, get lost in the beauty - it was one of my favorite spots. And the coconut mojito was my favorite drink of the entire trip.
At night we went to Gitano for dinner. Such a cool jungly vibe and the food was delicious. I was told from a few people this was a party place but it was pretty quiet. Guess we will have to go back during a popular season/night to see it in action.
MONDAY
We reserved a suite at Tantra Beach Club and once again - everything was equally beautiful and delicious. The DJ was so awesome that we hired him for our dinner at the villa. We had a little suite with a pool and could walk down to the ocean.
Because we had reservations during the day we didn't make any in the evening but ended up at Nomade Hotel. We started at a gorgeous picnic table on the beach but ended up inside due to rain but the food was delicious! Honestly - we didn't have one bad meal.
TUESDAY
We started our morning with Yoga at Sanara and to be honest, yoga will never be the same after views like this and meditating to the sound of the ocean. We had brunch at The Real Coconut where everything was gluten free, grain free, diary free, soy free, and corn free so perfect for our all of our dietary restrictions so we obviously ordered everything and shared - YUM. That afternoon we walked around Tulum Beach and popped into some of the stores to do some shopping. I think if we were to go back I would try to make more time to do this and just to even walk on the beach and see all the design of the resorts. A lot of our reservations were after dark so I feel like we missed out on some of the "sight seeing".
We had dinner that night at Tseen Ja at Azulik - unfortunately it was raining but the design of this property is out of this world. Definitely a must see when going to Tulum.
WEDNESDAY
Our last full day did not disappoint. We rented a private yacht from Riviera Elite (recommendation from one of our past brides) and it was truly perfect. We did a 4 hour cruise which included open bar and some snacks but they have lots of different cruise and boat options. It was about 45 minutes from our airbnb but worth the drive.
For our last night we had the chef cook us a taco dinner and surprised Mackenzie with a DJ and fire dancer to celebrate her last night in her 20s!
Tulum definitely stole a piece of our hearts and we honestly can't wait to go back. But what was the most special was the opportunity to spend such quality time with our favorite people in such a beautiful place.
*all iphone photos - too busy having fun to whip out the camera*
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