Towards the middle of my gardening leave, before starting my current role, I booked myself for a week in Tulum in search of a bit of me time and a lot of zen. I found both, of course, but much more. This was my very own version of ‘eat, pray, love’…
My amazing trainer become close friend N. and I arrived in Tulum one balmy evening following quite a long flight and the most surreal passport experience ever (there wasn’t a queue so much as a sea of people trying to get through to a police official, of which there might have been more than one, but it didn’t feel like it…): I had scheduled my trip exactly on Spring Week, not by design of course, but that explained the scrum at the airport! Thankfully most people were headed to the slightly unsavoury resorts around Cancun right by the airport, whilst we were driven down a bit further to the thin land strip that is Tulum.
Where to stay
Our hotel, Sanará, was neither the largest nor the cheapest, but it promised a haven away from the stresses of urban life and the most beautiful setting, and it didn’t disappoint: minimalist boho decor with raw wood and brushed cement everywhere, and the super soft sand from the beach starts at reception, meaning you can spend the full week barefoot here. I had arrived in my kind of heaven. The room was gorgeous, such an inspiration for that holiday home that I’m still saving for, and we could hear the sea, but waking up the next morning we realised we had a jaw-dropping view from the balcony, which featured a lovely hanging chair, basically a front-row seat to the best sunrise show I’ve seen, pinks, purples, oranges. We also found out that reception had fresh coffee every morning, and we could pick up our cups on the way to the beach to admire the sunrise and its ballet of fishing pelicans.
Where to yoga
The main reason for choosing Sanará as a base was the yoga room: it faces the ocean and has big full height glass doors that can slide open. It is nothing short of spectacular. We went for daily yoga classes and sometimes double classes, and enjoyed most of them (there was a very grumpy and authoritarian instructor one day who really made me wish I had stayed on the beach and enjoyed cocktails instead of going for a second class that afternoon, she managed to strain my shoulder by forcing me down on chaturanga), enjoying the sound of the waves crashing on the beach, and looking out on to the turquoise waters and swaying palm trees. In the morning the sun shines directly into the room, adding some extra warmth to the Power Yoga classes, and I did wear my sunglasses for a couple of classes…
Where to eat
The other thing I’d been looking forwards to at Sanará? The in house restaurant, The Real Coconut, which offers fresh healthy food with a focus on wellness, plant based recipes, and fantastic taste-packed dishes. Before you look at the menu, you are struck once more by the beautiful simplicity of the decor, on par with the coolest hang-outs in NY and London. The breakfast here is to die for, especially if you sit on the sea-facing terrace, but do pack on the SPF50 sunscreen when you do, as the sun is super strong even at 8AM! My favourites were the coconut flour pancakes and the delicious Easy Green smoothie.
A great alternative for breakfast is Be Tulum, one of the hotels towards the end of the Tulum hotel strip. We had a wonderful breakfast here one morning when I came out of yoga screaming for eggs: they make a divine omelette, and the fresh juices are the kind that you wish was packed and sold by the gallon. But hands down, my favourite place for breakfast was the Raw Love Café within Ahau Tulum, where you will find raw (I know, kind of expected given the name), vegan, dairy-free, and gluten-free food: the smoothie bowls are particularly special, but if you come here for one thing, make it the iced chai latte, it is totally dreamy and addictive.
After morning yoga, we spent most of our days on the beach, enjoying our reserved sunbeds (super comfy of course) in front of our hotel room, with no cares at all beyond whether to read or swim, and when to get our lunch snacks delivered from The Real Coconut: delicious herb-infused cocktails (and mocktails for the very rare times we felt virtuous) and some pretty awesome guacamole and hands down the best tortillas ever, nice cream smoothies, all coconut milk based, also to die for etc. We also sometimes walk over to next door’s La Zebra and The Mulberry Project beach bar for the live music, the bespoke cocktails (my favourite: rhum, coconut, lychee), the ceviche and the adorable fishing boats filled with cushions that are used as seating areas. Further up the beach, we had some delicious cocktails on the swings at CoCo Tulum.
We tried a number of places for dinner… although we gave the legendary and over-hyped Hartwood a wide berth. According to the concierge at Sanará the famed place hadn’t answered email bookings in over three months; as someone who’d come here looking to leave stress behind, stressing over dinner was not an option. Instead, we sampled Kitchen Table (delicious, inventive and fabulous service), Nômade (sit in Macondo’s berber-inspired lounge area and order from both the vegan and non vegan menus), and of course the Tulum legend that is Posada Margherita (you guessed it, Italian, of the amazing variety, served by some pretty lust-worthy staff, as you’d expect).
Where to spa
Sanará does have a spa, which had some very tempting treatments and an adorable receptionist, but the cabins were a little boring and the European lady who appeared to be the lead therapist had a serious case of resting b*tch face going on, which made us look into other options. That’s when we came across Yaan Wellness Energy Spa, and with their treatment cabins on stilts in the middle of the jungle garden and the very cool water circuit to do before or after your treatment it did give us a more special experience. I had the house massage, where my sore back and hamstrings were rolled down to a soft pulp. Did I say zen?…
Other things to do
If you must do something else beyond beach lounging, yoga, and going to the spa, can I suggest strolling through the multiple little boutiques lining the beach road in Tulum, all selling a similar assortment of pared-down swimwear, boho dresses, and barely there (but oh so pricey!) jewellery. My favourites were the shops in the little alley around MurMur bar, although the most unique place was KM33 and its walls of fabulous Allpa Hats.
This trip doesn’t feature in my Insta highlights but I have a few pics from that week on my feed that are truly enticing… A few tips: 1) Tulum is a destination for everyone but this trip was only for R&R, if I had come here with my children I would have added some visits to the Mayan sites and an outing to a cenote, and included a couple more towns for variety, 2) Due to climate change and the sudden hype around the region, the beach gets positively inundated by seaweed most times of the year, so if you don’t like swimming in seaweed go somewhere else and 3) This is a very hype-ish place but you can avoid all the parties and all the craziness by just being you, doing your yoga, and enjoying your beachtime, as we did.
With love, S.
A Styled Life 