- 3 weeks ago
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Thinking about living in Tulum, Mexico as a digital nomad (or with a family)? We spent one month here and tracked every expense — rent, utilities, groceries, eating out, transport, gyms/yoga, laundry/cleaning, activities, and health insurance. In this video we show what we actually paid, where the hidden costs are, and how to save money in Tulum.
Our 1-month totals:
• Lean: US$2,700 (₱ ~46,000 MXN)
• Comfortable: US$3,800 (₱ ~65,000 MXN)
(includes rent, food, transport, gym/yoga, phones, insurance, activities)
Don't forget to like and subscribe for more family travel content like this.
Our Content Production Company: https://rebelcontentproductions.com
GET IN TOUCH:
🌏 Email: lloydandmandy@ruthlesstalent.com
📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lloydandmandy/
💻 Our Website: https://www.lloydandmandy.com/
TRAVEL INSURANCE THAT WE USE AND RECOMMEND:
🏥 Reliable Travel In
Thinking about living in Tulum, Mexico as a digital nomad (or with a family)? We spent one month here and tracked every expense — rent, utilities, groceries, eating out, transport, gyms/yoga, laundry/cleaning, activities, and health insurance. In this video we show what we actually paid, where the hidden costs are, and how to save money in Tulum.
Our 1-month totals:
• Lean: US$2,700 (₱ ~46,000 MXN)
• Comfortable: US$3,800 (₱ ~65,000 MXN)
(includes rent, food, transport, gym/yoga, phones, insurance, activities)
Don't forget to like and subscribe for more family travel content like this.
Our Content Production Company: https://rebelcontentproductions.com
GET IN TOUCH:
🌏 Email: lloydandmandy@ruthlesstalent.com
📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lloydandmandy/
💻 Our Website: https://www.lloydandmandy.com/
TRAVEL INSURANCE THAT WE USE AND RECOMMEND:
🏥 Reliable Travel In
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TravelTranscript
00:00Tulum, Mexico is absolutely booming right now for digital nomads, mainly due to the new airport that
00:07was recently built, as well as the high-speed rail that lets you get from Tulum to Playa del Carmen,
00:14Cancun, and all over Quintana Roo and the Riviera Maya. This has actually brought in a flood of new
00:20rentals and digital nomads. But while some things are crazy affordable, others are surprisingly not.
00:27So in today's video, I'm going to give you a full breakdown of what it costs to live in Tulum
00:33for one month as a digital nomad.
01:03We've been living in Tulum for one month now and we've been keeping track of all of our costs while
01:09we've been here just to get a bit of an idea of whether or not it is as cheap as
01:15we thought it was going to be before we came.
01:17So this video is really for anyone who's a remote worker looking to live somewhere as a digital nomad, whether
01:24that's a single or a couple or even a family.
01:28We're actually here with our one-year-old daughter. So just remember guys, this is a typical month for us.
01:34If we were to stay here in Tulum, this is exactly how much we would keep on spending.
01:39So the first one is the obvious one and that is going to be rent. Rent is surprisingly affordable here
01:45in Tulum.
01:46It's actually one of the more affordable things. There's a few different areas you can stay in in Tulum and
01:51that includes Centro or Downtown, which is the most practical.
01:54It's closest to everything. You can walk everywhere.
01:57Then there's Lavaleta or Region 15, which is basically just new condominiums and constructions going on.
02:04The other area, which is probably our preferred area where we're staying, is called Aldea Zama.
02:10It's where most of the more polished, a little bit pricier condominiums and villas are.
02:16It's a really nice area that's kind of set in the jungle and it's only just a little bit back
02:21from downtown.
02:22And then lastly, you've got the beach zone. This is the premium area for obvious reasons.
02:26It's right on the beach. There's great restaurants. There's great shopping. There's nightlife.
02:30There's pretty much everything you want there, but expect to pay a lot more in that area.
02:34So our apartment here in Tulum is a two-bedroom apartment, which we booked for one month on Airbnb, which
02:42cost us around about $1,450 US dollars.
02:46Now, keep in mind that was booked on Airbnb, which is notoriously more expensive than if you were to book
02:51anything privately.
02:52If you were looking on Facebook Marketplace, which we did have a look at, you can get similar places for
02:58much cheaper, especially if you're going to book long term.
03:01And we could have booked something quite a lot cheaper than what we're staying in.
03:05But for what we wanted, which is walkability, close to all of the amenities, very close to downtown, but not
03:11actually in the middle of downtown.
03:13So it's not too noisy. We decided we wanted to pay a little bit extra.
03:16So if you're going to be booking something privately on like Facebook Marketplace, just make sure you ask about the
03:22power bill.
03:23And I would honestly be asking to see the most recent either one or three month power bill, just so
03:30you get a really good idea of what you're going to be paying.
03:33Because you may think you're getting a really good deal on an apartment or a villa, but the power bill
03:37is going to be through the roof.
03:38And then drinking water. Even this Airbnb doesn't actually come with filtered water.
03:42So we have to supply our own.
03:44Next up, and probably most importantly, is the health costs in living here.
03:50So if you're going to visit a doctor's clinic in Tulum, you can expect to pay a private GP around
03:56300 to 800 Mexican pesos, which isn't too bad, really.
04:00It's not expensive at all. If you're going to see a specialist, though, expect to pay upwards of maybe a
04:05thousand Mexican pesos.
04:07And that's for things like lab tests and just extra stuff on top of going to see a GP.
04:12So for our travel insurance, which includes health cover costs, we actually use Safety Wing Nomad Insurance Essential Plan.
04:20It costs us 57 US dollars each per month, and we actually get our daughter included onto one of our
04:27plans absolutely for free,
04:29which is amazing. So for the three of us to be covered for one month, it's 114 US dollars.
04:36And the reason we use the Safety Wing Nomad Essential is because it's basically built for travelers and remote workers
04:42just like us.
04:43It works country to country and month to month.
04:46So if we go here from Mexico to, say, Vietnam and then Indonesia, we can use the same plan.
04:52We don't have to change anything, and we can still use it for up to one month when we're in
04:56our home country.
04:57We've had to use Safety Wing Nomad Insurance in four different countries.
05:03And of course, we used it in Thailand when we had the complete coverage, which covered all of Mandy's pregnancy
05:10costs,
05:10as well as the delivery of our baby, which was absolutely incredible.
05:13If you want to check out Safety Wing Nomad Insurance, we'll leave the link down below in the description and
05:19the pinned comment.
05:20This is an affiliate link, so it's no additional cost to you, but it does help us out and helps
05:26the channel out.
05:26And we want to thank Safety Wing for supporting us over the last four years.
05:30Next up is food and groceries, which have been surprisingly really, really good and also very affordable.
05:38So if you're going to be going to supermarkets, you're going to be going to places like Walmart, Chedrawi, or
05:43Super Aki for staples, drinks, bread, eggs, meat, everything like that that you need to cook at home.
05:50As an example, like eggs for a basket of 30 costs around 90 Mexican pesos.
05:56A five liter bottle of water is just 30 pesos.
06:01Local beer for a six pack, you can get it for under 100 pesos, which is absolutely incredible.
06:05And then, of course, eating out.
06:07So we tend to cook most of our breakfasts and probably lunch here at home, but we like to go
06:13out for dinner because it gets us out of the house.
06:15And also, you can get a really, really good local meal for very affordable.
06:20So as an example, if you're going to be eating at a very local restaurant, you can expect to get
06:26something like three tacos or a burrito or quesadillas for under 100 pesos.
06:31If you want to go a little bit of a level up, you're probably looking at about 200 pesos for
06:36like a mid-tier restaurant for a main meal.
06:39And then if you're going to like the hotel zone or the beach area, you're probably looking more like 300
06:45to 400, maybe even 500 pesos for a decent meal.
06:50Of course, there's street tacos, which you can get for like 20, 30 pesos.
06:54So just for a monthly ballpark of food costs for two adults and a toddler, we're probably looking at about
07:0012,000 to 20,000 pesos for the month, which is like between 600 and 1,000 US dollars.
07:09So transport, believe it or not, is actually probably the most expensive part about living in Tulum, which was kind
07:15of a surprise.
07:16Bikes are probably the cheapest way to get around.
07:19Taxis are relatively pricey, not even relatively pricey, taxis are just really expensive.
07:25If you're going for a 10 to 15 minute drive, they're going to try and charge you probably 600 pesos
07:31and you usually can get them down to around 400, maybe 300.
07:36If you're getting a taxi from downtown to the beach area, once you get to the beach or hotel zone,
07:42there's not much room for negotiation because they kind of know that you're stuck there.
07:46There's no way for you to get back.
07:48The other options are scooters, which is actually probably the best way to get around here.
07:54And then ATVs are really popular as well.
07:57Or there's colectivos, which are actually really good for longer drives.
08:00So just to give you an idea, like a short trip in a taxi, it should cost about 100 Mexican
08:06pesos.
08:07That's for like a really small trip.
08:08If you're going to the beach area from downtown, as I mentioned, it could be anywhere between 300 to 600
08:14pesos.
08:15Renting a bike for the day should be between 150 to 200 pesos per day.
08:21Should get a discount if you're renting it for the whole month.
08:23Then scooters, they're actually not that cheap.
08:26It's about 500 pesos per day at the minimum, which works out to be like maybe 10,000 pesos.
08:33If you're going to rent it for a whole month, you could get a deal.
08:35A colectivo is very cheap, between 30 and 40 Mexican pesos, depending on how far you're going.
08:40And then there's the ADO bus.
08:42If you're going somewhere like Playa del Carmen or Cancun from Tulum, it's really reasonable.
08:47It's probably only about 100 pesos.
08:48So if you're a digital nomad, chances are you're into fitness, you're into yoga.
08:53For gyms, pretty reasonably priced.
08:55The one we go to is amazing.
08:57It's a really, really good gym.
08:58And it costs us 800 pesos for the month.
09:01A yoga drop-in class, you can typically get for around 200 to 300 pesos, which isn't too bad.
09:08I feel like yoga is one of those things that's just the same price anywhere in the world.
09:12If you go to Bali, Thailand, Mexico, even Canada, like everywhere, it's about like 15 to $20 for a drop
09:19-in.
09:20Next, household laundry and just kids stuff.
09:23This is for the people who are parents and have kids with them.
09:26So our laundry, we did it for the first time a couple of weeks ago.
09:30And I was pretty pleasantly surprised with how much it costs.
09:32I think we washed pretty much everything we had in our suitcases and it came to less than 500 pesos
09:39and it was ready the next morning.
09:41Cleaning for the apartment.
09:42So if you want to get a cleaner to come around, it's also pretty reasonable.
09:46We paid 500 pesos for a cleaner to come and do a full like deep clean of this apartment and
09:54it only took about two hours.
09:55And then there's the fun stuff.
09:56So the activities, this is all just the add-ons.
09:59Like this isn't a necessity, this is like if you want to go and do some fun activities with the
10:04family or with friends or whatever.
10:06So everything here does seem to have an entry fee and it's usually quite expensive.
10:12Like we went to the cenotes the other day and I think we had to pay 400 pesos each and
10:18then we had to pay extra to bring our cameras in, which was, it's standard.
10:22We've been to a bunch of cenotes, it's always the case.
10:25If you want to go to a beach club, generally a day pass in the hotel zone is anywhere from
10:30600 to 1500 pesos per person.
10:35It usually includes drinks and food, but sometimes it doesn't.
10:38Even if you want to go to one of the most popular beaches here, which is called Paraiso, you have
10:46to pay 400 pesos just to enter the beach.
10:48So there are other beaches that are free to go to, but unfortunately they're not as nice.
10:54They've got a lot of sargasm, which is supposedly this time of year, but we've been here different times a
10:59year and it seems to always be around.
11:01There's not a lot of free activities here.
11:04Some of the things you can do for free though, I guess, is the public beaches, you've got sunset bike
11:09rides, which is really cool.
11:10And then you can save money by doing things on weekdays because there's a lot of local tourism, people that
11:16come from other places in Mexico that come for the weekend.
11:19So that's when prices are generally jacked up.
11:21Also look out for ATM fees.
11:23We use a wise travel money card, which I've mentioned in other videos that saves us a ton in ATM
11:28fees.
11:29And make sure you're using the ATMs from the big banks, not just the random ATMs that you see in
11:35all the tourist areas.
11:36So keeping all that in mind, our actual monthly budget for spending one month here in Tulum as a digital
11:43nomad family.
11:44If we're looking at the lean end, so if we're saving a little bit of money on things like activities
11:50and going out, drinking, food, restaurants, we're looking at about $2,700 in total.
11:58If we're living a little bit more comfortably and we add everything up, then it's about $3,800 in total
12:06for one month.
12:07And that includes absolutely everything.
12:09I'm talking gym, yoga, phones, health insurance, food, going out, going to the cenotes, going to the ruins, like everything,
12:18$3,800.
12:19So some tips to save money if you do come here for long term would be pick your location wisely.
12:25Make sure you're staying in a location that means you don't have to spend as much money on transport.
12:30That's exactly what we did.
12:32Negotiate long stay rates with villas or apartments before you come.
12:36So you generally should be able to get a discount if you're staying for a long time.
12:40And make sure you have travel insurance with Safety Wing because although it may be inexpensive to go to see
12:48a general practitioner or to get a prescription or for whatever minimal thing you need.
12:52If you need to go to the hospital here, and we've heard stories actually from people who have done it,
12:57they will, as soon as you walk in and they see that you're a tourist, they're going to charge you
13:01an absolute shitload.
13:03So make sure you're insured.
13:04So that's it, guys.
13:05Let us know what you think down below.
13:07Do you think this is expensive to stay in a place like Tulum, Mexico, or is it cheaper than what
13:13you thought?
13:14Drop any questions you have down below.
13:16If you want to know anything about neighborhoods or family life, what it's like living in Tulum, is it safe?
13:21Drop a comment down below and we'll do our best to get back to you as soon as possible.
13:25If you found this video helpful at all, make sure you hit the thumbs up and subscribe and we'll see
13:30you in the next one.
13:31Cheers, guys.
13:37Cheers.
13:43Cheers.
13:48Cheers.
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