LGBTQ+ Tulum Guidebook: Free Recommendations From the Founder of a Queer Tour Agency

Pre-Hispanic Mexican food · Tulum Centro

A restaurant built around a corn mill, heirloom corn, fire, and pre-Hispanic Mexican cooking. Grilled elote, huitlacoche tacos in dual-toned heirloom tortillas — I recommend the one in the blue tortilla. Everything cooked over open flame in a tree-shaded courtyard. One of our favorite restaurants in Tulum, and it earns it. Go hungry.

Specialty coffee · Tulum Centro

A specialty coffee shop roasting its own beans, started by a Mexican-Irish couple (the name is the Irish way of saying hello, "what's the story, horse?"). Quietly one of the best cups in town. Come slow down for a morning and let the day open up from here.

Café · bar · cultural center · Tulum Centro

Part café, part rooftop bar, part cultural center. A bohemian maze of rooms and hidden corners with live music, jam sessions, workshops, and movie nights, built around community rather than a tourist crowd. Settle in with a mezcal, end up on the rooftop. Check what's on the night you go; there's almost always something.

There's no Uber in Tulum, which catches almost everyone off guard. The app locals use instead is Eiby, think of it as our version of a ride app. Download it before you need it and you'll get fair prices instead of the tourist markup. One catch: Eiby doesn't always work well outside Tulum Center and the Hotel Zone. If you're headed somewhere more remote, like a cenote out of town, message a taxi driver directly beforehand and arrange a pickup time. I recommend Carlos, who runs a taxi service: +52 984 213 6381.

Tulum ATMs are set up to charge you on the currency conversion. They'll offer to "convert for you" at a terrible rate, and most people just tap yes. Always decline the conversion. When the machine asks whether to charge in your home currency or in pesos, choose pesos every time, and let your own bank do the conversion. One exception: BBVA doesn't let you decline, so it's not the ATM to use if you want to avoid the markup.

Same trick applies at restaurants. If you're paying by credit card, always have the payment run in local currency (pesos), not your home currency. If you let the restaurant convert it for you, their payment processor picks the exchange rate, and it's usually a bad one. Your own credit card company will almost always give you a better rate.

If you'd rather exchange cash, casas de cambio (currency exchange houses) are all over Tulum Centro. One thing that catches people off guard: bring your passport. It's a rule the exchange houses themselves enforce, so you won't be able to exchange money without it.

For local and organic options, check out Chancelvita, Woolies Market, and Coco Amor. For a full grocery run, Comer and Chedraui are the reliable big supermarkets. If you're staying near La Veleta and need something in a pinch, there's also Super Aquí, though it's not one I'd go out of my way to recommend.

Classic Mexican music. The songs you'll hear at weddings, house parties, karaoke, and just about anywhere people are out drinking.

Modern songs I'm obsessed with. My collection of my favorite music in Spanish. This playlist has queer Latinx reggaetoneras, rappers, Indigenous singers, as well as, of course, Karol G and Bad Bunny.

This free page is about one day's worth of recommendations. The full guidebook is the real thing: 3-4 days, fully planned out, written by someone who actually lives here. Plus direct access to me by email. If anything isn't in the guidebook, or you're looking for something else, just reach out and I'll do my absolute best to connect you with what you're looking for.

Yes. Tulum is a welcoming place in Mexico for queer and trans travelers. Read the full breakdown, including what nobody tells you before you arrive, in Is Tulum LGBTQ+ Friendly?

Yes, with real nuance worth understanding before you visit Tulum, Mexico. Here's the honest, local answer: Is Tulum Queer & Trans Friendly?