travelenthusiast

We decided to go to Tulum on our fall vacation and looked at many of the cute small hotels. I originally wanted to go with one that had AC, but due to our schedule, pricing, and hotel availability and location, we booked the Hip Hotel. It looks really nice.

We thought it was incredibly warm in our Playa Del Carmen room last July when we arrived until the AC came on full force. I'm counting on the ocean breezes to help cool the room down at night in Tulum. Hopefully the fall versus the summer wil be inherently cooler.

I'm curious if any other Fodorites have been there yet. I'd love to hear your first hand impressions.

november_moon

I've not stayed at this particular place, but rather at Cabanas Tulum. With a beachfront room, the breeze and an overhead fan was plenty to cool off the room. We did have AC, which we used one night of our 4 night stay - this was mid-March. We could have done without the AC, but since it was particularly humid that evening (it rained a lot that day and everything was steamy) we used it.

Trip Advisor has quite a few reviews on your hotel, so if you don't get sufficient feedback here, you might check there.

travelenthusiast

I've already read all the reviews on Tripadvisor but I always like to hear from fellow Fodorites on their experiences. Do you have any restaurants in Tulum that you'd recommend?

november_moon

I'm glad you've been over to TA since this board is incredibly slow.

For restaurants, we ate at least half of our meals in Tulum at Ziggy's, which is attached to Cabanas Tulum. The food was great - fresh seafood, well-prepared, nice variety. The ceviches were especially good. The food there isn't particularly Yucatecan, but definitely good.

We also liked the restaurant at Playa Azul - more Yucatecan choices there. The restaurant is upstairs with a nice deck overlooking the sea - great for catching the breeze.

At Coco they have a wood-fired pizza oven and make some really tasty thin crust pizzas.

travelenthusiast

Thanks for your suggestions. I've read through the trip advisor restaurant reviews and have a long list of places to go. Our list is longer than the amount of days that we'll be there! I saw Playa Azul and thought that the view looked really nice.

Did you go to the biosphere, Sian Ka'an during your trip? My husband likes the eco sites.

november_moon

We didn't make it to Sian Ka'an during our visit. It was on our list of things we wanted to do, we just didn't get to it. We only had 3 days in Tulum, and it was our relaxing beach time after a couple of weeks of wandering around the Yucatan, so we didn't do too much running around. That's the main reason we didn't explore too many of the restaurants either. Ziggy's was good and it was a 2 minute walk from our porch Playa Azul was just down the beach. We did visit the Tulum ruins and also Coba while we were in Tulum though - we might not have even made it to Coba, except one day turned out to be rainy and windy, so we went inland.

hopefulist

We loved Azafran for breakfast and for warm loaves of whole grain bread for picnic sandwiches and a local place on the south edge of Tulúm called El Camello - loved their fish tacos. We also shared a HUGE seafood special at El Cafeto's on the main drag. HUGE.

Here's a Tulúm set with lots of food photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/staceyh...7624437483789/

For what it's worth, we were there in June (HOTHOTHOT) and were happy we stayed in town to have easy access to these restaurants plus stores, dive shops, etc. Having ac was a big plus for us during our time frame and the place we stayed was really wonderful. http://posadalunadelsur.com/
Happy trails!

RAC

Sian Kaan is amazing--we recommend Sian Kaan Community Tours, though we've also heard nothing but good things about CESIAK.

travelenthusiast

Thanks for the info.

Hopefulist - I liked your pictures. Did you get the Rambutan in Mexico? I never saw anything like that. Was it good?

RAC - We'll check out those tour agencies. My husband was thinking about driving on our own but I think it will be an easier experience if we go with a company.

RAC

There's not much driving to do inside Sian Kaan--the highway is adjacent to it, but other than that it's prety much marshes and jungle. We're talking boat tours etc.