T U L U M
We wanted to go to Tulum, Playa del Carmen, and Chichen Itza in two days but wouldn't be able to do them in any of the tours that we were looking at. So we decided to rent a car and make a day trip of a drive to Tulum, which is an hour and a half drive south of Cancún, and on the way you pass by Playa del Carmen.
We left Cancún really early at around 7:30 am and got there at around 9, as we were advised it gets SUPER hot in Tulum later on in the day. The drive was easy and only needed to take one highway. We got there just in time, when all the tours were arriving in the parking lot. From the parking lot it's a 5 minute walk, but there are also trams that you can take, but there is a wait. I was super jealous of the people who got bicycles as that would have taken 2 minutes.
The ruins were pretty and we decided to walk around and read the signage. Once I saw the beach I couldn't wait to jump in because of the heat!!! The water felt so nice and I felt so much better. We left the Tulum Ruins at around 11, so going to the ruins was just a short time. I really want to come back to Tulum for a day or overnight and just explore around there.
O U T F I T
Weather in Tulum was super hot and humid, just like true Mexico weather but felt much hotter cause there was no shade in the ruins. I wish I wore something more light weight and loose cause the tunic was still sitting on my skin.
Tunic: Zara
Backpack: Zara
Shoes: Superga
Bikini: River Island via ASOS
Sunglasses: Sunnies Studios
No filters needed cause everything was beautiful
X C A R E T
(going north, right before hitting Playa del Carmen)
A natural ecological site, with the adventure park built on the land, it is definitely for people who like nature. Compared to the other adventure parks around the vicinity, this one was a little more lowkey and family oriented but it definitely incorporated all the culture and different animals and types of geological formations.
The major thing to do that is included in the park admission is going on the sub terrain/ underground river, so we did that after eating at the buffet for lunch.
It was really a different experience as you just have a life vest and are kicking or floating through the river. It was definitely cold as a lot of river is underground and goes through caves. But the view is beautiful if you're floating on your back, which is what I did for the most part.
Most people stay the whole entire day at the park, where there are other activities, sea animal and land animal exhibits, snorkel, extra pay activities like swimming with dolphins or sea astronaut, etc. Others just lay by the beach and relax under the umbrella. There is also a big cultural show at night with a duration of 2 hours or so but we just opted to just do the river.
We got to Playa del Carmen in the afternoon, maybe around 4 and did some shopping and walking around. There are many places to eat at, and we wanted to go for a big dinner as there were a lot of restaurants but we were still full from lunch. We went for tacos though at a popular taco spot and had their al pastor, which was freshly carved off the vertical rotisserie. Paired with a piña colada or margarita, a satisfying happy hour. Super good, even better than the Leo's Taco Truck in LA!
We then left Playa del Carmen at 8 pm and got to Cancún at 9. Long day but pretty happy we hit all the spots we wanted to see.
