A Month In Tulum | How We Spent $26 Per Person / Day
Time really flew by; it seems like just yesterday I had landed in Cancun and took the bus to Tulum. It's officially my last full day here as I write this, and it's bittersweet to say the least. I've been receiving lots of questions recently, asking how I'm traveling for such a long period of time. So, in this blog, I'll be sharing how I spent my 5 weeks here: tips and tricks, hidden gems, and how we only spent $52 a day, or a mere $26 per person a day, in one of the most popular tourist destinations. Tomorrow, my boyfriend and I will be heading to a remote Airbnb tent nestled in the jungle of Tulum, and then we'll be off on our next adventure in Playa Del Carmen!!!
Free Flights:
I figured the best way to start this blog off is a tip on actually flying to Tulum, Mexico for free. Yes, you heard it right – the "F" word in travel: free. Often times buying a ticket to a place is the majority of the travel cost. I honestly don't even think we'd be able to travel for months at a time, if it wasn't for this hack. My boyfriend works for these travel YouTubers “Kara and Nate,” and they have a business called “Faredrop.” FareDrop is essentially a business dedicated to uncovering the best flight prices, by finding sneaky airfare loopholes. On average they save people $450 USD per flight, and they help you find CRAZY deals like $280 USD to Japan, or $240 USD to Finland, it's truly an act of modern-day sorcery.
On top of this, they have a newsletter called “Daily Drop.” Daily Drop delves into the whole realm of “Travel Hacking.” My boyfriend reads almost every newsletter and has essentially taught himself how to Travel Hack. I'm not going to go too deep into this topic in this blog, but to summarize, you can find credit card bonus points by signing up at the right time and referring people. In our scenario, that would be me, so we both benefit from the referral points.
Daily Drop has “Red Alerts,” and it keeps us informed about which card to sign up for, when to do so, and essentially instructs on the optimal utilization of your points. FareDrop does have a subscription, but the Daily Drop newsletter is completely free and is a super quick read. My boyfriend and I have been flying free all over the past year without spending a penny. Recently, we signed up for a credit card that gives us Priority Pass access to all airport lounges. Hopefully, you're still with me after my long travel hacking rant. Now, let's get back to some other tips about traveling to Tulum.
Transportation:
If you're like most people, you probably picked the cheapest option – flying into the Cancun airport – because going to Tulum's small airport is very pricey. But now you have the issue of being 2 hours away from where you're wanting to go, and taking a Taxi as a budget traveler seems out of the cards for most. It costs around $110 USD for a private taxi ride from the Cancun airport to Tulum. The taxi ride from Cancun to Tulum might as well come with a gold-plated chauffeur and a red carpet. But even then, it's difficult to put a price on this. The taxi drivers have no set rate, and will often charge you a higher price if you don't talk them down.
We did some in-depth research and found out about the “ADO Bus.” This bus goes all around Central America and it's used by a lot of backpackers. This bus had a bathroom, a TV (Playing the newest Spider-Man Movie?!), air conditioning, comfy seats, outlets to charge your phones, and my favorite part was that it was basically empty. And for both of us, it was only $20 USD per person – basically the price of two Venti Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Lattes. There are even cheaper options than that, but we still enjoy the comfort of having those listed luxuries, especially for a 2-hour bus ride.
Now you might be asking, “Well, I'm in Tulum now, and I don't want to get scammed by taxis, but how do I get around?” First off, not all taxi drivers try to rip you off. Just be aware of what a reasonable price is, and don't be afraid to let them know the max you're willing to spend before they take you somewhere. But if you're like me and you're a penny-pincher, I have loved taking the community transportation service they call the “Colectivos.”
The Colectivo is a small shuttle, almost minivan-like, that they fill up with 5-10 people and bring them essentially to their “bus stops” for very cheap. I think for us the most we've paid is $40 MXN per person, which is less than $3 USD. I commonly see TikToks saying, “Don't take the collectivo; it'll drop you off at the wrong place and we had to walk to our destination.” Well, yes, because you are spending significantly less, and everyone else on the shuttle has somewhere to go, so they drop you off at the closest bus stop to your destination. If you're down for a communal adventure – like a budget road trip with 10 sweaty strangers crammed into a minivan for $3 USD – then this is a great option.
Air Bnb's:
In the duration of our stay in Tulum, Mexico, we stayed in 3 places – well, 2, but tomorrow the tent will count as our third. Something my boyfriend and I have learned over the course of traveling is that often times the longer you stay in a place, the cheaper it'll be. So for all of the big trips we're doing, we are trying to book month-long stays on Airbnb. I was interested by this finding and researched if this is true, and NerdWallet states, “On average, the nightly rate for a seven-night Airbnb stay turns out to be 32% cheaper than the nightly rate for a one-night stay. Stick around for a month to bring your nightly rate even lower — a 46% discount for committing to 30 days versus just one.” This makes sense because it's much easier for Airbnb hosts to not have to worry about having a new person every night and to have that security.
Often there are days where plans don't exactly match up. For example, when we flew into Cancun, it was a day earlier than when we were able to clock in for our actual month-long stay. We got an Airbnb for one night. Our first Airbnb was such an exciting way to kick off our trip. We stayed in a tiny studio room with just a bed, a small bathroom, and the tiniest balcony, but it was gorgeous. Not to mention it was right on the Main Street, so we could really explore Tulum by just walking out of the building. This was a very convenient place for us because it's directly across from the ADO bus drop off, so we didn't have to lug around our 50-pound suitcases for 2 hours. This stay was called “13 La Tulumeña - Queen with Balcony - Cielo Azul.” Of course, this is not sponsored, but I just love to recommend places I enjoy to my fellow travelers to save you from potentially having a rough stay. This cost us $46 USD a night, which, of course, as I was explaining above, if you book longer there's usually a discounted price.
The next day, we packed up and went to our new month-long stay, which is called “Rooftop 1BR Suite WiFi Pool 15 min to Cenotes.” I don't know where to start with this place because I truly cannot recommend it enough. The host, Julia, was so helpful and very communicative about the directions on getting in and helping us with weird questions like “how do we take out the trash” and “where is the best place to do laundry.”
I stayed here for 5 weeks, and I can't help but feel like this place was our home away from home. This Airbnb cost us $1,149 USD for 5 weeks, and that includes the taxes, cleaning fee, and the Airbnb service fee. So basically, we were paying $32 USD a night to stay there or $16 USD a night per person. I feel like these prices are unheard of, especially in Tulum, Mexico. If you want to learn more about my thoughts on Tulum's prices, read my “The Truth About Tulum” blog post. Of course, these prices are cheaper because we are on the outskirts of the main town center and about 2.7 miles away from Tulum Beach. This Airbnb is located in the Jungle amongst the locals. I think it's really fun while traveling to get the local experience, and that's exactly what this place offers. It also offers:
An Apple TV
A Beautiful Long Lap swimming Pool
Fast Wifi
Air Conditioning
Gorgeous Authentic Interior Design
A Queen Size Bed
A Bathroom (Shower + Sink)
A Kitchen (Stovetop + Fridge)
A gorgeous outdoor patio space (Couches + Plants)
And my favorite part a ladder leading to the sunroof the overlooks the jungle
We are located on the 4th floor, where we have parrots, woodpeckers & toucans as alarm clocks and wake up to the jungle skyline outside the window. This place, by far, makes me feel like I'm living out my “bougee hippy” dreams and on a budget! This Airbnb is significantly cheaper than our STUDIO APARTMENT in Austin, Tx. It's really cool how affordable travel can be; you definitely have to do your research and learn a lot, but a lot of the time, it can be cheaper to afford this lifestyle than the one you're currently living.
Food:
Something that I touched briefly on in my last blog about Tulum was the food prices; the food here is definitely expensive, given that Tulum is an extremely touristy area. A silver-lining to being in a touristy area is the amount of vegan food they have to offer! With the balance of grocery shopping, cooking at home, and eating out only once or twice a week, we were able to budget relatively easily when it came to meals. Our favorite place to go grocery shopping in Tulum is called “Chedraui.” As for eating out, I'll create a complete list with our FAVORITE restaurants + cafes:
#1. Rossina Cafe: Great Iced Coffee + Breakfast Items
#2. La Taqueria: Has AMAZING vegan tacos + Quesadillas & love the atmosphere
#3. Ice Cream Booth, Attached To La Taqueria: The Chocolate Vegan Ice Cream is to die for
#4. Tomizen Ramen Bar: By far my favorite spot, it is so aesthetically pleasing + the miso ramen & dumplings is the best duo
#5. Golden Cham Thai: Super good Pad Thai + Curry
#6. Once Tulum: This is actually a co-working place but the food + coffee happens to be really good
#7. Tika CurryNGrill: It's to die for that's all I can say
#8. La Fournee: Super good coffee and you have to get a croissant there
#9. Burrito Amor: Super fun banana leaf wrapped burritos, cute atmosphere, food is kind of basic
#10. Cafeína: Good Boba + Coffee
Experiences:
The experiences here in Tulum are endless, and honestly, I'm not even completely satisfied with what we did in a month. But the best thing about travel is that you can always come back. Tulum has over 226 cenotes, ancient ruins, 3 gorgeous beaches, and so many cool artistic museums. It's like a theme park designed by Picasso and Indiana Jones. I'd love to come back someday when I have more money and get to experience all that we missed.
This isn't exactly a non-stop vacation. Our days don't always look like they're out of a 2015 travel montage (although I'd love that). They're more like your average WFH days with occasional bursts of adventure. Basically, while we are traveling, we're still remote working. Our weeks aren't action-packed with crazy experiences as much as I'd like it to be, but that just made the few experiences that we had here even more special. During our time here, we snorkeled with sea turtles in Akumal, explored the caves in the Gran Cenote, and had endless days snorkeling over the coral in our favorite hidden gem beach “Xcacel Beach.”
Overall cost + last thoughts:
My boyfriend and I did some budgeting as to what we spend exactly in a month to make sure we were spending the same as we were living in Austin, TX. To our surprise, we were actually spending way less – the grand monthly total was only $1,980 USD, or $990 EACH!! We spent $960 USD on our Airbnb for a month ($1,149 USD for 5 weeks). Around $600 USD a month on food for both of us (Grocery Store), and around $420 USD for “fun money” – eating out, cool experiences, car rental, etc. In Austin, we were spending almost double this, and over half of that was from rent.
Overall, I'm super sad to be leaving Tulum. It was such a great way to kick off our travel adventure around Mexico. I'll forever remember swimming next to sea turtles, exploring cenotes, trying new food, meeting people from all over, the beautiful architecture, and so much more. Tulum has a lot to offer, and I'm really excited to come back one day.
As for Playa Del Carmen, I'm so excited! I've been seeing nothing but positive reviews about this place. Tonight, I have to pack up my suitcase for the first time in 5 weeks (wish me luck) and catch my trusty steed, the ADO Bus, for a new adventure. I hope this was helpful if you're coming out to Tulum soon or even in seeing that travel doesn't have to break the bank. You might not be in first class or in a 5-star resort on the beach, but the memories you make while “Broke Traveling” are forever. If you have any advice or recommendations for our month in Playa Del Carmen, click on the “Contact Me” section and let me know. Also, make sure to follow along with my adventures over on my Instagram.
Cheers to budget but fabulous travel, my friends!
Love, Kadee
