{TRAVEL DIARY} Tulum, Mexico

Spring finally seems right around the corner here in NYC, but a few weeks ago, winter seemed endless, so a quick getaway after working for a month straight, then New York Fashion Week craziness, I jetted off to one of the hottest winter destinations at the moment, Tulum, Mexico.

It’s been quite a popular destination over recent years, considered one part retreat with hippie vibes and one part trendy “Hamptons of Mexico”, and some criticizing it’s now overrun with tourists. For me, it was still paradise and I can’t wait to go back.

With a husband who’s a teacher, we are forced to take vacations when everyone else does, so most resorts on the strip here were booked up or unaffordable due to demand. A travel agent friend found a great deal about 40 minutes away from the main area of Tulum, but I was happy to spend a little more to be near the action, and I’m glad we did. We ended up booking at one of the newer resorts on the beach, Villa Pescadores, which was truly paradise, but close enough to all of the best restaurants and shopping, not to mention according to our yoga instructor there, it had the best chef on the beach.

Really, you can’t go wrong anywhere on the beach; there are no chain/all-inclusive/cheesy mega resorts there. All feel like a little oasis, but after visiting many of the hotels in the area, I can honestly say we chose the best one.

We flew direct from NYC into Cancun, rented a car and drove 1.5 hours south to Tulum on a Monday. After getting swindled by an employee at Fox’s rental car to pay him $10 for tickets to a couple of excursions he promised he was getting us a deal on, we didn’t stop until we got to our hotel in fear of another trap. Next time I would have loved to have stopped at the fishing town, Puerto Morelos for lunch, as he suggested.

It’s a direct shot on one highway to Tulum and when you arrive to the beach, you come to a rotary where if you turn right, you hit an overwhelming amount of cute resorts, restaurants, shops, and stylish people. If you turn left, you come to a tent village of hippies camping out, a few more cute resorts, including the one where we stayed and then the famous ruins.

Our hotel was no frills but quite magical, filled with 18 rustic cabanas in a row directly on the beach, with a view of the ruins in walking distance, hammocks lining the front of each one, a restaurant/bar, and a beachfront bar/grill with comfy beds to bask in the sun with along with quite possibly the best fish tacos, and chips and guacamole we had on our trip.

While I say it was rustic, that’s just the vibe of the eco-friendly village that is Tulum. Everything looks to be artisan made and there’s a focus on health and environment. There’s probably no where else in the world where you can’t flush the toilet paper, only turn the a/c on during certain hours, but you can spend NYC prices on gourmet meals.

The grounds and our bungalow were pristine, with the employees up at sunrise cleaning the beach, removing seaweed and keeping it possibly the nicest private beach we encountered while there. Details like that and arriving to being handed fresh cucumber juices, as well as purified water replenished daily in our bungalows made it for a luxurious experience that I’m hesitant to share with you in fear that everyone will soon know about our secret paradise hotel, juxtaposed with the crowded, popular resorts on the other side of Tulum.

Aside from hanging out on the beach at our hotel, my second favorite activity that we did while we were there was taking a private cooking class called Rivera’s Kitchen with a local resident named Lilly in her home.

We learned how to make traditional Mexican dishes, with a menu she tailored to my Pescatarian diet, as well as 3 kinds of salsa, tortillas from scratch and learned how Mezcal was made, tasted the differences in Pechuga (her preferred liquor of choice) versus traditional Mezcal. Along with two other couples about our age hailing from the coasts as well, we had a memorable evening of cooking and eating like a local from her abuela’s recipes in her own kitchen with the help of her assistant, Gloria. It was an experience that I would recommend to any food lover and traveller that likes to immerse themselves into the local culture.

SUNO dress and Sensi Studio bag via Rent The Runway (c/o, get 20% off your first order with the code: FIRSTRTR20P!) //  Soludos espadrilles // Linda Farrow x The Row sunglasses via Gilt 

 Stay tuned for more of my favorite places and things to do in Tulum…