We are allowing little guests solely for our immediate family. So enjoy your get away from your little ones and party it up!
Tulum Hotel Zone is generally not child friendly, if you're bringing children and wish to have a foodie adventure, please research ahead and be sure that the restaurant can make accommodations for families with little ones. Reservations are HIGHLY recommended in the hotel zone at any given time. Tulum Town on the contrary has great mom and pop restaurants that aren't hell bent on an adult only atmosphere.
The hotel zone is GORGEOUS! But you do pay for that ambiance. Restaurants and hotels tend to be on the more expensive side in this part of Tulum, but you can easily enjoy everything on a short 5-10 minute taxi ride from town for approximately $15-20 USD. Taxi's are generally available at all hours of the day and they are in an abundance in this high tourist area. Side note, most hotels in Tulum are strict about not allowing outside guests onto hotel premises, mostly to keep their guests safe but also because of COVID.
You can order pesos ahead of time through your bank. It's also an option to do an exchange at the airport when you land. Tulum also has exchange establishments in town but they tend to always have a line! We spent most of our stay paying with USD at the pesos exchange rate, it takes some extra mental math but its doable if you run out of pesos!
Light airy clothes, tons of sunscreen, sunglasses, and bug spray! When packing bug spray/sunscreen, look for an eco friendly version in case you visit cenotes, which are strict about chemicals polluting their waters.
To get to Tulum, you will fly into Cancun International Airport and take a 1.5 hour drive south to Tulum. I highly recommend not renting a car and booking a car service instead. You can find really affordable shared transport services to private transport services that range to $100-400 for a group, depending on the amenities you feel are important (ex. suburban vs. van, ready shopped liquor/beer accommodations). The drive is a little long, I would recommend skipping the foot long margarita offered outside of the airport unless you're okay with making multiple stops to highway bathrooms (costs pesos).
No, you can't drink Tulum water, even restaurants will require you to buy/share bottled water. Most hotels will provide a few bottles of water for your stay, but absolutely check and see if a grocery/liquor store stop is included in shuttle transportation on the way to your hotel. There's a really nice grocery store right when you enter Tulum town.
You don't need a COVID test to fly into Mexico, but you will need to be tested within 3 days of flying back into the United States. There are many options to getting tested, almost every hotel in Tulum/Cancun offer testing for their guests on a daily basis. Should they not be able to accommodate you, there are several traveling clinics (trucks) and small medical offices in the area that make it easy to get tested in a timely manner.