Best Ways to Move Your Body in Tulum

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Hire a Bike

One of the easiest and quickest ways of getting around Tulum is by bike, especially if you want to head into town. We don’t recommend you bike at night though, as the traffic can be careless and the bikes don’t usually have lights. There are plenty of places to hire from, check with your hotel as they usually provide bikes to their guests either for free or for a nominal charge.

Walk the Beach

What’s not to love? Pristine, white sand gives way to dreamy turquoise Caribbean ocean and the sunsets are worth writing home about. Walk, swim (the water’s so warm) or simply lie back and work out a way to stay here forever. The finest beaches we’ve ever seen. No filter necessary.

We did a morning walking meditation for an hour every day on the retreat and that was superb. There’s something very healing about doing it in silence, or alternatively with a loved one as it’s one of the most romantic stretches of beach we’ve ever experienced. Hold hands, kiss and soak up every last grain of sand. On our last day, we saw the most incredible rainbow taking up the whole sky on the horizon. It’s like time stood still. Every single person on the beach fell silent. Being here reminded us of what it means to really be alive, to be human, to appreciate how amazing our world is and our unique place within it. Its beauty made us cry.

Yoga

Yoga is everywhere in Tulum. Along the main stretch of beach are numerous spas, natural retreats and boutique hotels that employ world-class teachers who hold their own yoga and meditation retreats. Most of these also offer daily group and private yoga tuition. To find out what’s on just take a walk along the beach and pop into places that take your fancy and find out what times these classes take place. The times and teachers change all the time so it’s worth doing this when you first arrive. Many even do yoga on the beach.

A retreat we know and have experienced is Bryan Kest’s annual Tulum yoga retreat at Maya Tulum Resort. It isn’t for the faint-hearted, with five to six hours of yoga and meditation every day. Bryan likes to experiment with the yoga practice and his retreat regularly attracts seasoned practitioners, but please don’t let that put you off if you’re a beginner. Bryan is a wonderful experienced teacher, one of the best really, so he’ll be able to provide modifications for any body type and level of experience.

Details for Bryan Kest’s Tulum Yoga Retreat 2017 below:

Bryan Kest’s Tulum Yoga retreat 2017

Things to do in the water in Tulum

Janzu Therapy

Janzu is often seen as a ‘re-birthing’ therapy: the water represents the amniotic fluid of the womb. The practice of janzu (Chinese for “peaceful river”) originated in the 1990s in India and was developed as a medical treatment by Mexican Juan Villatoro. Inspired by Shamanic regression techniques, janzu is like an aquatic dance: ‘letting go’ is crucial as you allow yourself to be guided by a janzu practitioner through gentle movements, stretches and pressure point massage to activate energy. The treatment also involves immersing your head in the water for three-second periods.

Janzu encourages you to symbolically leave all your cares and worries in the water as a sort of psychological ‘deep healing cleanse.’ It’s incredibly relaxing and reflective; the regressive effect of the water and the act of being carried helps you feel connected to life in the womb. Not being in control was disorientating and took us a while to get used to but eventually we found it very freeing. It brought with it a clarity of mind that’s hard to describe. Almost like taking us back to a child-like freedom.

We wanted to do janzu everyday as it’s such a wonderful way of developing trust and letting go of things we’d been holding onto in mind, body and soul. For janzu practitioners, ask around the main spas we’ve recommended as they seem to come and go depending on the time of year.

Diving

The cenotes are a must for water babies or even those that just love the healing powers of water: diving (or at least snorkeling) and swimming are big in Tulum with some of the best dives in the world found locally. You can even swim with bull sharks! Take the ‘collectivo’ or a taxi from Tulum Pueblo to Akumal, where you can snorkel and dive with turtles for a truly unforgettable experience.

The two guys recommended to us were:

Luis Martinez

Nickname ‘Pich’. A great guy and known as the best dive instructor and underwater guide in Mexico.

Phone: +52 1 984 807 911

Email: Luis Martinez’s email

Paolo Chileno @Diving Cenotes Tulum

Address: Calle Polar y Calle Acuario, 77780 Tulum Centro, Solidaridad, QR Mexico

Phone: +52 1 984 140 6813

Visit: divingcenotestulum.com

Kitesurfing & Paddleboarding

Kitesurfing is BIG in Tulum. Not only is it graceful and fun, it’s an excellent workout for your core and after catching some air you’ll feel like a bird flying. It’s hard work but incredibly exhilarating.