Tulum was the first major trip that I planned out months in advance. The extensive research paid off, and as a result I thoroughly enjoyed eating and exploring my way through Tulum.
First we looked at hotels.
We were hosted by my boyfriend’s sister for the first half of the trip, and spent the rest at another hotel down the beach. I based my hotel choice off of TripAdvisor’s ratings and price range. However, I would do outside research in addition because the hotel we stayed at didn’t quite live up to our expectations. Luckily, we were away for most of the days, so this didn’t affect us too much.
The area with the most activities (restaurants, shops) is between El Pez (the furthest point) to Om Hotel Tulum. I found that the area around Ahau was the most densely populated with restaurants. This list is based off of the aesthetics, location and food at the hotel.
STAY
EAT:
This is a list of restaurants we tried and loved.
Dragon 
These are the ones we missed:
Casa Banana
ACTION
Here is a list of what we did:
Zine 
-Your own private movie theater that comes with dinner!
Dos Ojos Cenote 
-One of the most beautiful experiences!
-The view is stunning, and you can walk down to the beach.
-We chose to do zip lining at Selva Maya and the course was so much fun! The instructors were also very sweet and funny.
After that we went to two different cenotes on their property and snorkeling at a different site. 
Coba Ruins
-Climbing to the top is exhilarating, but the view is 100% worth it.
We also went into town and checked out the different shops.
The Tall Teacher 