Tulum, Mexico

Delek Tulum

Price per night from$236.25

Price information

If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (including tax) available in the next 60 days.

Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (USD236.25), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Style

The barefoot and the beautiful

Setting

Cobalt Caribbean coast

At Delek Tulum, life is lived at a deliciously slow pace. Salt-baked sunshine streams into the mod-Mayan cabanas – with their concrete-crafted tubs and beds draped in organic cotton – and onto decks made for sipping smoky mezcal cocktails at dusk. A coconut’s throw away, the beach is fringed by peridot-green palms that curl like commas, as if urging you to pause and enjoy life’s simple pleasures: views of the teal and turquoise tinted ocean, the sifted-flour sand between your toes and swaying your way into a siesta in one of the hand-woven hammocks that line this coveted stretch of coast.

 

Smith Extra

Get this when you book through us:

A bottle of sparkling wine; Smiths staying three nights or more in Master Suites will also get a US$50 dining credit (excludes alcohol)

Facilities

Photos Delek Tulum facilities

Need to know

Rooms

21 suites.

Check–Out

11am, but flexible, subject to availability. Earliest check-in, 3pm.

Prices

Double rooms from £221.05 ($281), including tax at 19 per cent. Please note the hotel charges an additional resort fee of $25.00 per room per night on check-in and an additional local city tax of $4.00 per room per night on check-in.

More details

Breakfast – an à la carte selection of peppery Mexican-style eggs and lighter options like homemade granola with chia seeds and almond milk – is not included.

Also

Tulum's a lively town, and during the day party people let loose at next-door club Vagalume. There's a chance that some of the sounds of revelry may spell over into your chilling out at the hotel reveries (unless you're joining in, of course). The hotel has a traditional Temazcal (Maya sweat lodge) and yoga classes can be arranged on request – they take place on a breeze-brushed deck right beside the beach.

At the hotel

Private beach; free WiFi; restaurant and bar; yoga deck; library. In rooms: drinking water; air-conditioning (at night only); Marshall Bluetooth speaker; vegan toiletries.

Our favourite rooms

The standalone Master Suites offer the most space and privacy, plus their semi-open-air bathrooms come with bathtubs carved from concrete where you can soak to soothing ocean sounds and gaze at star-sprinkled skies.

Packing tips

Embrace Delek’s don’t-bother-with-shoes attitude and bring some delicate accessories for dressing up bare ankles and toes.

Also

The hotel isn’t suited to wheelchair users: its eco-conscious ethos means there are no solid pathways. Babysitters are available for $15 per hour and must be booked 24-hours in advance.

Pet‐friendly

Small dogs are welcome for a refundable USD$100 deposit. See more pet-friendly hotels in Tulum.

Children

This refined-rustic escape is best suited to grown-ups. Cribs (free) can be added, and the hotel has a small collection of sand toys, but there’s isn’t much else to entertain Little Smiths and you’ll struggle to lug a pram through the sand.

Sustainability efforts

Conscious of Tulum’s potential for over-development, the hotel has established an ethos that’s all about supporting indigenous communities and leaving as little impact on the surrounding ecosystem as possible. Everything was built sustainably – buildings were erected on stilts to help maintain the stability of the surrounding dunes, for example – and all wood is local; solar power is used wherever possible. Rooms have low-energy lightbulbs, ceramic water bottles (refilled daily) and ensuite bathrooms stocked with natural, vegan toiletries. The hotel’s management is also committed to the fair compensation of local artisans, whose eye-catching handiwork you’ll find throughout the property.

Food and Drink

Photos Delek Tulum food and drink

Top Table

The tables at the edge of the deck are where you want to be for frond-framed views of Mexico’s most sought-after stretch of sand.

Dress Code

Dress like a fashionable frond child in macramé maxi dresses, floaty fabrics and delicate shades of eggshell and ivory; Mr Smiths should take sartorial cues from the locals and don a crisp, cream-coloured Panama hat.

Hotel restaurant

Tatewari has a dreamy beach-chic-meets-wild-west aesthetic: animal skulls sit alongside sweeping sea views and long, ghostly tasselled lights sway from the palapa roof. The food is unapologetically Mexican, so much so that you can order crispy chapulines (grasshoppers) to go with your guacamole or taste beef marrow sprinkled with ant eggs. Tacos and tlacoyos come piled high with expertly crafted combinations like flank steak and spicy chorizo or Poblano chilli, cream and prawns, but even the simple, classic soups here are worth ordering. The menu reads like a shopping list for the local market (mole, epazote, habanero, pasilla, Oaxaca cheese) and though there’s a token burger and a few salads, you’ll be doing yourself a disservice if you don’t dive straight into the traditional fare and top it off with the hotel’s bold house-made hot sauce. 

 

Hotel bar

Though the bar – which you’ll find in Tatewari – serves up all the usual wines, tequilas and artisanal beers, it’s really all about mezcal. There are 19 varieties and the bartender can put together a tasting selection for you, but if you’d prefer something more sippable you’ll find a menu full of mezcal cocktails, too, that are infused with spices and muddled with homemade syrups. Try the Tutú Tái, made with dried pepper mezcal, a syrup of berry, basil, kiwi and pineapple, and infused with vanilla, cinnamon and chamomile. 

Last orders

Breakfast is served from 7.30am to noon; the lunch and dinner menu is available from noon to 10.30pm.

Location

Photos Delek Tulum location
Address
Delek Tulum
Carretera Tulum-Boca Paila
Tulum
77780
Mexico

Planes

The closest airport for international flights is Cancún, from where it’s an easy – if fairly dull – two-hour drive to the hotel. British Airways operates daily non-stop flights from London Gatwick and Thomas Cook flies direct from Bristol, Birmingham and Manchester; the hotel can arrange round-trip transfers for two for $230. Or, private taxis and shared shuttles are available, starting at around $79 for a round trip.

Automobiles

The peninsula’s teeming with cenotes and ruins within day-tripping distance of Tulum, making it worth hiring a car for at least some of your stay. There’s free parking onsite.

Worth getting out of bed for

Mexico’s sun-bathed Yucatán peninsula isn’t all influencers and boho boutiques. Among the swathes of low-lying jungle you’ll discover cerulean cenotes and iguana-dotted ancient ruins.  

You’d need weeks to explore all the surreal swimming sites in the area and big names like Gran Cenote and Cenote Dos Ojos are most often recommended. Both are worth your time – and you’ll likely recognize them from Instagram – but charming spots like Cenote Calavera shouldn’t be overlooked. Small though it be, you’ll find it largely empty of tourists and no less beguiling with spectacular sapphire water that’s pierced by glinting rays by mid-afternoon. Other cenotes are best seen from below the surface, where you can swim through thousands of stalactites and other-worldly sulphur clouds – Diving Cenotes Tulum can arrange trips for the PADI-certified. To explore striking areas like Isla Holbox or the reefs and mangroves of the Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve, Extreme Control can arrange kitesurfing and kayaking trips. 

 

It’s worth making the two-hour trip inland to Chichen Itza, to see intricate skull carvings, a sacred, sacrificial cenote and some of the best-preserved Mayan temples in the country. Tour buses flock here from as far away as Cancún, so try to arrive as the site opens (8am) to beat the heat and the crowds. If you’d rather stay closer to home, Tulum Ruins, teetering on the edge of a cliff overlooking the coast, are easiest way to explore the Mayan world (and their proximity to the beach means you don’t have to sacrifice too much tanning time).    

 

Local restaurants

Tuck into Antojitos La Chiapaneca’s sublimely juicy tacos al pastor at plastic tables in the main town (if you’re brave enough to try the salsa verde, quell the fire with a cup of velvety horchata) or try experimental riffs on traditional Mexican flavours – cochinita pibil steamed buns with avocado mousse, for example – at Cenzontle. Matcha Mama offers different kind of quintessential Tulum experience with its menu of açai bowls, nice cream and kombucha, served from a whitewashed cabin pineapple-dotted cabin. For a meal rooted in the ancient world, head to Hartwood Tulum, which sources its produce from local Maya farms and cooks everything on the menu (which changes daily) using an open fire. Less lauded, but equally worth a visit, Mur Mur uses seasonal Yucatán produce to create the flavours of Baja California in trendily tropical surrounds. Extra special meals are best booked at  for its show-stopping contemporary Mexican cuisine (like shrimp and passion fruit aguachile and mango panna cotta with pink pepper, jicama, red prickly pear gelatin), but nor can you go wrong with the tapas-style plates and cocktails at Arca, helmed by former Noma chef Jose Luis Hinostroza. 

 

Local bars

Gatsby-in-the-jungle Gitano glitters with candlelight-catching disco balls, combining chandeliers and colonial chequerboard floors with Tulum’s forest-green foliage. The mezcal-heavy cocktail menu – the bar serves more than 50 kinds – is as sparkly as the venue with whimsical names like Kisses in the Car and Gypsy Disco. Jewel of the jungle Casa Jaguar is easily one of the town’s liveliest nightspots after sundown, and its mixologists are some of the best on the coast.

 

Reviews

Photos Delek Tulum reviews
Karen Bell

Anonymous review

By Karen Bell, Stylish hotel-hopper

A mid-week daydream among the hustle and bustle of city life led myself and Mr Smith to book a trip to Tulum over the holiday weekend – a daydream which just weeks later became a sunshine-dappled reality, complete with lapping azure waters, ultra-fresh seafood and sunsets like no other. The call for adventure and reconnecting with nature was high on the agenda – but for now it would have to wait. We had arrived, and the beach was calling. Arriving at palm-strewn boutique property Delek Tulum, we were embraced by mother nature herself, her omnipresence was immediately felt in every inch of the property. With bungalows perched directly on the sand, you felt intertwined with the surrounding beach and landscape. 

The stay highlights local architecture in its thatched roofs and untreated wood accents, and it’s all built by hand. Our Partial-Ocean-View Cabana sat high in the treetops, shadowed in privacy. It had all possible options for much-yearned-for downtime covered; a lavish timber deck wrapping around the room was adorned with a hammock for two and a day-bed for three, and was blissfully serene. Inside, a perfectly-dressed queen-size bed sat beneath a mosquito canopy, and here, too, there was a relaxed atmosphere. The space is littered with local treasures and fixtures, and Mr Smith patiently listens as I spend the next 45 minutes gushing about the bamboo lights, delicate decor and timber detailing. If a hotel hopes to win you over on the first day, we were putty in their hands within the hour.

The hotel’s named for the Tibetan greeting ‘tashi delek’, meaning ‘may infinite blessings be on your path’. It’s truth was felt from the moment we arrived until we glided down to the water’s edge. Set on the cusp of a tropical jungle between trees and the moving shadows, Delek was clearly built out of love, with the utmost respect for Tulum’s natural ecosystem. Every experience felt in perfect harmony with the leafy environment, and the hotel’s leave no footprint mantra was underpinned by its commitment to sustainability. Located in the garden is a traditional temazcal, a Mexican sweat lodge. This tradition is a purifying experience for the body, soul and mind, rooted in spirituality. During, you’re enclosed in a house of hot stones, and forget your next juice cleanse or detox: the temazcal will cleanse you inside and out with a combination of energy healing, heat and traditional music – the perfect antidote to a long day’s travel.

Over evening drinks and a Mexican delicacy of fresh pineapple with chili salt, we chat to the chef about his regular ingredient-sourcing trips through the Yucatán region. Listening to his stories of intergenerational cooking and the flavours he remembers from childhood in his mother’s kitchen on the outskirts of Mérida, we indulged in sumptuous cocktails which complemented the incredible sunset. Drinks evolved into a three-taco tasting before the chef presented poblano-chilli shrimp and coconut-marinated fish with our favorite lima soup as the evening temperature cools. Still damp in our swimsuits and wrapped up in towels we muster up the little energy we need to make the pilgrimage through the labyrinthine sandy walkways to our cabana. Each hut-like structure is unique in its meticulously handcrafted aesthetic, yet after sunset they all seem to look identical. Embarrassingly, we make a few false starts up the stairs to our neighbours’ rooms. 

Surrounding the hotel are some of the best restaurants Tulum has to offer. While going up and down the only road that accesses the beach (mere footsteps away), we did all the hard work sourcing recommendations for local eateries and nightlife while chatting to our fellow travellers. Arca came highly recommended, with its micro-seasonal menu of native flora and fauna, in tune with the Yucatán’s roots and traditions. Open-fire cooking dominates their menu, which is composed of small plates designed to be shared, a way of eating that is inherent in Mexican culture. And so, we sampled fresh fish ceviche, grilled octopus drowned in delicious homemade marinades and prawns the size of lobsters.

Hartwood has an impressive reputation too and everyone who speaks of the magic of Tulum has this high on their list, making it virtually impossible to get a table. The menu changes daily based on what’s harvested by land and sea. If you haven’t been savvy enough to book your reservation in advance (sadly, us) you can still nab your coveted spot by arriving early afternoon to be first in line for the 5.30pm open sitting. The sun was high in the sky, yet we were dressed for dinner, heading out from our room, while fellow Delek guests enjoyed the soft rays of the afternoon sun…but, the meal was so worth it. The rest of the weekend we spent not far from our homebase, exploring every inch of the hotel’s private patch of sand. Shaded by the canopy on our day-bed, with a few books to flick through, we disconnected from the world and became completely present in the moment. 

It’s clear Delek Tulum works incredibly hard to ensure guests leave re-invigorated and revitalised. The team makes the attention-to-detail of their service look effortless and they stay true to the hotel’s intentions, prioritising respect for nature and letting you fully connect with the essence of Tulum.

Book now

Price per night from $236.25