Tulum is one of the best places in the world if you are looking for some very unique luxury jungle style accommodation. There is so much to choose from, so if you have the time and the budget we would suggest you to visit at least a couple of them on your trip to Tulum. We would recommend you to spend maybe 2-3 nights in each hotel you choose to stay at for the perfect experience.

As you may know, these beautiful and unique hotels in Tulum are not the cheapest so if you have a tight budget it’s gonna be harder, but if you can afford to stay at least in 1 of them for 1-2 nights we highly recommend you to do that! That’s what we did. We chose to spend a couple of nights in a few different luxury hotels around Tulum. Our unique jungle hotel hunt included also 1 night in Hotel Ikal and our experience was unforgettable!

We personally think that Hotel Ikal was the right choice for us and that it is one of the best hotels in Tulum. The unique jungle hotel experience is simply on another level!

ABOUT IKAL

Hotel Ikal is located at Tulum’s National Park just few meters from the Mayan ruins. This position makes it much calmer than the hotels located in the very “central Tulum beach”. You have a direct access to Playa Paraiso (a free beach) via the hotel’s beach club. The rooms are situated a couple of meters from the beach inside of the private jungle and they are all made by using bio-architecture systems which means everything that was used to build it were natural elements like wood and stone. The rooms don’t have the ocean view but trust us, you won’t need it. This way it felt much more private and secluded. Everyday you wake up to chirping birds and other beautiful jungle noises. It is a true Mayan sanctuary!

CABANAS/BUNGALOWS/GLAMPING

What we really love about hotels in general is when they are so characteristic and unique in every possible way and each room is a little bit different from the others even though they are all tied to the same style. In the hotel Ikal every “cabana” (hut) really looks a little bit different and even though they have the same wooden jungle style, they have different furniture and decorations. In the cabanas there are also a few decorations that you can buy afterwards which we think is very cool.

Here are some of the amenities and difference between each of the cabanas:

JUNGLE MAYAN SUITE (Cabanas 2,3,4)

We chose to stay at “Jungle Mayan suite” because it had everything we wanted! Beautiful wooden cabana, huge lush garden, amazing plunge pool. But what makes it different from the other rooms is that it has its private lookout tower with some lounging area on top!

• Luxury wooden crafted cottage
• 1 King bed
• Private plunge pool
• Outdoor shower
• Private jungle spaces with outdoor living area
• Lookout tower with jungle and garden views
• Crystal skylight roof (Cabana 2,4)

PLUNGE POOL MAYAN SUITE (Cabanas 1,7,8,9,10,11)

The main difference between the Plunge pool mayan suite and Jungle mayan suite is that instead of the Lookout tower you will have a terrace or what whey call a meditation area. This is usually bigger than the lookout tower and the price for these cabanas is also higher.

• Luxury wooden crafted cottage
• 1 King bed
• Private plunge pool
• Outdoor shower
• Private jungle spaces with outdoor living area
• Crystal skylight roof (Cabana 9,11)
• Meditation area/Terrace

GARDEN MAYAN SUITE (Cabanas 5,6)

The difference between the Garden Mayan suite and the other Jungle or Plunge pool Mayan suite is that you don’t have your own private plunge pool. In the Cabana 5 there is an outdoor bathtub and in the Cabana 6 only an outdoor shower.

• Luxury wooden crafted cottage
• 1 King bed (Cabana 6) / Queen bed (Cabana 5)
• Outdoor bathtub (Cabana 5) / outdoor shower (Cabana 6)
• Private jungle with outdoor living area
• Crystal skylight roof
• Upstairs meditation area with garden view (Cabana 5)

NOTE:

You can find pictures of each of their Cabanas on their website (https://ikaltulumhotel.com/cabanas).

If you would like to stay in some specific cabana we recommend you to discuss it with them upfront as they really are one of a kind and the booking of a specific Cabana is subjected to the availability.

ALDEA BUNGALOWS

The most economic option in Ikal (if we don’t count the glamping) is to stay in one of the Aldea Bungalows. You will get your own private bungalow with private bathroom and some hammock/lounging chairs but the garden with the pool is a common area shared between all the bungalows.

• Private bathroom
• Shared salt water pool
• Garden view

CASA NAWAL GLAMPING

We would really like to try out glamping one day and this place looks perfect to start with! All the tents are located on the beach with direct ocean access. You can choose between 3 types of tents: Deluxe tent, Na-Hi Mayan Safari Lodge and the Ocean platform tent. Each of them offers Wifi, Air conditioning, 110-120V circuits and shared bathrooms.

PRICES

Prices are changing a lot throughout the year so I would recommend you to check the exact dates you want to visit. I created this pricelist sheet for you to easily understand the differences.

Please remember that these are estimated prices which I found on booking for the entire year of 2021. If you book directly through Ikal or another website, prices might be slightly different.

Many times during the year they come up with some promotions so you might end up paying way less, just like we did on our stay. Instead of 550 EUR we paid 220 EUR which is an amazing deal so search for those!

For Casa Nawal Glamping check the prices here: https://ikaltulumhotel.com/casa-nawal

AMENITIES & SERVICES

What we also like about Ikal is that they offer many spiritual, wellness and sport workshops like full/new moon ceremony, yoga, capoeira, meditation, volleyball, ancestral dance and many others. Many say that Tulum is a heaven for spiritual and wellness stays and Ikal is definitely not holding back! It might be one of the best places in Tulum if you are seeking to improve your spiritual well being!

NEWS: Currently they are building a new Yoga shala with new class schedules and in the future they would like to start doing 10-day immersive retreats and teacher training programs, A TRUE DREAM FOR YOGA LOVERS!

You can read more about their workshops and ceremonies and download their weekly plan here: https://ikaltulumhotel.com/wellness-center

RESTAURANT & BEACH CLUB

A part of the hotel is also their beach club/restaurant which sits on top of small dunes at Paraiso beach (only a couple of meters from your room). The beach club and the restaurant are also made and decorated into the jungle style and we loved it! Hanging sunbeds under the cabanas were our favourite part! We could spend days and days relaxing there!

You can have a look on their menu here: https://ikaltulumhotel.com/maia-restaurant

Even if you are not staying in the hotel, you can come for a day to visit only their beach club/restaurant. We highly recommend you to do that. There is no entry fee to the beach club but they set the minimum spend which is around 500 MXN (20 EUR) per person, which to be honest is probably the cheapest beach club we found in Tulum. The only downside you might find is that there is no pool like in other beach clubs.

If you are visiting Tulum you might want to check out our ”9 best cenotes near Tulum” guide:

http://borntotraveldiaries.com/best-cenotes-around-tulum-mexico/

and our “20+1 useful tips for your Mexico trip”:

http://borntotraveldiaries.com/201-useful-tips-for-your-mexico-trip/

We also wrote a few articles about other Mexican destinations and you can find all of theme here:

http://borntotraveldiaries.com/category/mexico/

We hope this blog post was helpful to you and you are gonna have a great time staying at hotel Ikal. For more pictures and videos check out our IG story highlight (Tulum) and our feed posts/reels. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to comment below or contact us via email or even better via Instagram @borntotraveldiaries. Thank you for your time and stay tuned for our next diary page 🙂.