Tulum recommendations

Bring a rake for the Sargassum

if you stay beach front, most hotels will keep their beach tidy. But I would check on the levels before you book anything.

What is Sargassum? Here is a side-by-side pic from Tulum, it varies season to season.

We stayed at encantada and it was incredible.. has a really good restaurant across the street from it called NÜ Tulum.

Where are you staying?

Absolute coolest thing you can do in that area is to go to the coba ruins. Get there when it opens, rent a bike and haul arse to the ruins. If you do it right you can get there before everyone else and have about 15 min at the top of the ruins all by yourself. One of the coolest things I have ever done.

Wife and i went on an excursion down the sand/dirt road of Tulum that follows the beach, south of the city. No electricity down this road but there are a few private houses down it. I'm sure the nicer ones have generators or something.
Anyways, it was the most beautiful and serene beach i've ever been on in my life. We had visited a few cenotes along the way with a few other people and had a guide. He brought us to a house and made us lunch while we hung out on the beach with some drinks. Probably one of my most favorite days of my life. soft sand, beautiful water, and there wasn't a soul around us on that beach other than the group from that guides van. Standing on the beach looking out at the ocean, then looking both ways and seeing a peopleless sandy beach as far as the eyes can see is what i call heaven. My screen saver on my home computer is a picture we took looking down that empty beach with no one on it and lone giant palm tree hanging over the water. I feel relaxed anytime i see it.

We were staying at an all inclusive in the Riviera Maya area. It was something through them, so i don't have any info on it, adn it wasn't even really through them. It was a white guy with a big van that would take couples to a few cenotes and then to that beach. And this was 12 years ago.

I'd definitely recommend finding a way down south of Tulum though. It's not even a paved road you go down, and it was bumpy as hell. don't think we went over 10mpg the whole way down it, it was in that bad of shape, but they want to keep that stretch like that b/c they don't want that area to be full of tourism. There's turtles that nest all along that stretch of beach.