Steal My 3-Day Tulum Itinerary & Budget

As I explained in last week’s post, Tulum, Mexico is still worth visiting in 2025. That being said, it’s no secret that Tulum is one of the most expensive places to visit in Mexico so this wasn’t exactly a budget trip. I visited Tulum in August for my honeymoon, and the money we saved by having a micro-wedding was used to splurge on a slightly more expensive than usual vacation which was worth every penny. Read on to see what I did in Tulum for three days and four nights, and how much it costed.

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My 3-Day Tulum Itinerary

Tulum ruins

We didn’t spend too long in Tulum because the city was expensive compared to other Latin American countries. However, three days were enough to explore the best of what Tulum and the Yucatan Peninsula has to offer. Of course, there’s a lot more to do in Tulum than we were able to, but we got to see the most popular ruins and cenotes, visit a Maya village and try new Mexican food so we couldn’t ask for anything more. With that said, here’s my 3-day Tulum itinerary:

• Day 1: Tulum Archaeological Ruins, Playa Maya, Casa Tortuga Tulum Cenotes
• Day 2: Cenote Samaal, Chichén Itzá, Valladolid (separate article coming soon)
• Day 3: Coba Archaeological Ruins (separate article coming soon)

If we had had more time to spend in Tulum, we would’ve likely visited more cenotes, and the Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and home to thousands of flora and fauna. Our taxi driver also recommended the Xcaret Theme Park in Playa del Carmen, so feel free to substitute these places of interest for the sites we visited if you’d like a bit more adventure in Tulum. But, we love history and were happy visiting all the Maya ruins we could. It really brought movies like Apocalypto and The Road to El Dorado to life for me, although I’m well aware that these movies are laced with historical inaccuracies.

My Tulum Budget

Now, to the part you’ve all been waiting for– what 3 days and 4 nights in Tulum costed!

(Costs reported as if I travelled solo)

I flew from Kingston, Jamaica to Cancun via Arajet Airlines, with a 2 hour layover in Punta Cana. Arajet Airlines is a budget carrier based in the Dominican Republic, and offers some of the most affordable flights from Jamaica. A roundtrip flight would’ve costed around US$600, but I flew from Cancun to Guatemala City instead for part two of my adventure. One way tickets from Cancun to Guatemala City cost around US$100, so it was the perfect country to pair with Mexico. Flights from Cancun to other Central American cities costed a bit more. The distance between Cancun International Airport and Tulum is 120km, so chartering a taxi was quite expensive as you can see (US$194.56). It would’ve been cheaper to stay in Cancun than drive to Tulum, but we already had our eye set on visiting Tulum. Sure, there’s a Tulum International Airport now which is only 42km away from Tulum but flying to that airport from Jamaica wasn’t practical. We checked. There are ADO buses which offer more affordable airport transfers, but the schedule meant we’d have to wait several hours at the airport which didn’t work for us.

Keep food prices down by dining at local taquerias, as a single taco can cost as little as 15 MXN (around $0.80 USD) at local spots. La Coqueta was my favourite restaurant in Tulum, and an average meal per person at La Coqueta costed 200 MXN (US$11). Consider renting a car, ATV or scooter to get around, as taxis are expensive and there’s no Uber in Tulum due to powerful local taxi unions (the taxi sindicato) that have fiercely resisted its operation. There’s no way to get around excursion costs as Tulum doesn’t have free things to do besides visiting the park surrounding Museo de la Cultura Maya (the museum itself isn’t free), and hoping that you’ll run into a free concert and fair like we did during our visit. There’s only one free cenote left in Tulum (Cenote Aldea Zama, and it’s really tiny) but that’s about it. Everything else comes at a cost, even visiting the beach and taking photos at some Instagrammable locations, so plan accordingly to stay in budget.

KAHATSA’ Boutique Hotel

Lastly, regarding accommodation, there are cheap places to stay at like hostels which start at US$20 per night, once you don’t mind sharing 10 m² spaces and bathrooms with strangers. I know that isn’t for me so I settled on KAHATSA’ Boutique Hotel, a small Bohemian chic hotel with a great location, rooftop pool (cover photo of this article) and continental breakfast for US$90/night. They even made me breakfast to go when I had an early checkout, and the staff was friendly, attentive and helpful. I also enjoyed how clean and spacious the room was; I’d definitely book this hotel again. With that said, you need about US$150 per day in Tulum on average.

Wrap Up

We’re halfway through my Tulum series, and I hope you’ve been liking it so far. Next week, I’ll cover Coba Ruins then round out the series with Chichén Itzá, Valladolid and another cenote. Have you ever visited Tulum or would you like to visit? Sound off in the comments section below! And, if you’ve never used GetYourGuide, download the app then enter ADVENTURESFROMELLE5 to save 5% off your first excursion. 🙂

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