If there’s a beach club in Tulum with a world-class reputation, it’s probably Nômade Tulum, which is part hotel beach club, part restaurant and part social hub.
The mornings at this beach club are famously relaxed, but the afternoon brings more music and a famous bottle service to this self-care sanctuary.
So, our team wanted to know if Nômade Tulum could live up to its unusual reputation and make us thirst for more. This is what they learned.
Introduction – Getting To Nômade Tulum
Where Is Nômade Tulum (La Popular)? Carr. Tulum-Boca Paila Km 10.5, Tulum Beach, Zona hotelera, 77880 Tulum, Q.R., México
Online: Nomade
Opening Hours: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
What’s Available At Nômade Tulum?
This beach club offers beach access, swimming pools, a famous barbecue and seafood restaurant in the form of La Popular and a plant-based dining destination in the form of Macondo.
Guests are also allowed to use the Ya’aan Spa, which is a full-service healing centre with a focus on temazcal ceremonies and ancestral rituals as well as massage, treatments and the like.
There is a free daily yoga class, and on-site parking. They provide EV charging and valet service too.
Non-hotel guests may access this beach club, but they must agree to either purchase a Day Pass or to a minimum spend in the restaurants.
It’s important to note that you should book in advance for Nômade Tulum as it is very regularly at full capacity.
Our Detailed Review Of Nômade Tulum
Our standard review system is used for every beach club. It ensures fairness when judging owners, management, and staff and produces consistent reviews that simplify comparisons between venues.
The review process is:
- Assign a team to assess the venue.
- Team members visit independently on different days.
- Each completes a scorecard with 1–5 ratings and observations.
- They gather to discuss and finalise category scores.
- One person drafts the review, and it is posted online.
Reservation and Booking Process
Yes, they’re often booked out. But once again, we find ourselves tearing our hair out in despair at the low-quality booking system of an email address.
While other beach clubs around the world offer interactive maps, a full explanation of any charges, etc., and the facility to pay a deposit in a few clicks, Tulum’s beach clubs are still on the Ark, and honestly, it wouldn’t surprise anyone on our team if there’s a club out there using carrier pigeons for communication.
It’s simply not good enough. It’s a drag on the customer experience from the outset.
Ambience and Atmosphere
We like the chilled-out daytime vibe that continues even when there’s a DJ or acoustical act performing in the late afternoon.
The post-sunset candlelight is very nice too. We weren’t so keen on the sound healing ceremonies, but we suspect that the crowd that loves this beach club loves that kind of thing.
It’s certainly one of the more unusual beach clubs that we’ve been to in this respect.
Location And Accessibility
Tulum is sort of easy to get to if you’re flying from the Americas, and there’s no doubt that it can still be a long flight depending on where you’re coming from and often requiring a change of plane at some point, too.
Once you arrive in the town, you will need transportation to get out to the hotel strip of beach, which this beach club shares; it’s further down the coast than most clubs too, so there’s not much to do within walking distance.
Aesthetic And Design
We often feel like if you’ve seen one beach club in Tulum, you’ve pretty much seen them all. They all try to blend in with the beach and the jungle.
And here you’ve got Earthy tones, patterned rugs, natural integration and lots of comfortable seating. There’s nothing that really stands out and makes it feel like there’s a real visual identity.
Staff Friendliness and Professionalism (Service Standard)
We find the staff at Nomade Tulum to be very friendly and professional with good knowledge of both the menu and the local area.
However, there’s no doubt that at times this place gets too busy for them to easily cope, and there may be moments where it’s very hard to get any service at all.
Service Speed and Efficiency
Again, for the most part, the service is speedy and efficient, but when the crowds arrive, there’s no doubt that they can overwhelm the place’s ability to function effectively.
We don’t mind a little wait, but we do mind having to remind people that our order exists and then having to repeat it because it’s been lost in the system somewhere.
Food Quality and Variety
The menu isn’t that varied, but there’s enough to keep you happy for a day, and the quality of the food and taste is spectacular.
However, this place is stupidly expensive, and the food here is in the same price bracket as you’d expect in London or New York, not Tulum.
Beverage Selection and Creativity
The cocktail menu is very limited, and we’d really like to see a bit more thought and creativity go into it. What is available is decent though, and it’s always presented in a way that will keep the Instagram crew happy.
Overall, though, what we left Nomade with was a lasting impression of how expensive these drinks were. It’s not stopping people from coming, but we confess, we struggle to understand why.
Cleanliness and Hygiene
The team here do a great job of keeping the sargassum at bay most of the time, though we have been there when they seem to have become overwhelmed.
We also felt that they did a good job at keeping the beach club clean but could occasionally get stuck behind clearing away tables because of the volumes of people in the club.
Comfort of Seating and Lounging Areas
The seats are very comfortable, and we like that they’ve created a bunch of different seating areas, each with its own aesthetic appeal.
Certainly, we had no problems with chilling out on a daybed all day long at this spot.
Music and Entertainment
The music is very good if you like chilled-out vibes, and there are regular DJ performances and live acts, though the vibe remains chilled throughout these sessions.
It serves as a splendid backdrop for the club but isn’t something you can really dance to and it certainly won’t inspire any parties.
Note: The chill vibe here can occasionally be spoiled by loud music coming from surrounding beach club properties more focused on partying than feeling Zen, which is a bit annoying and out of the club’s control.
Seasonality
Tulum is in the tropics. However, unlike, say, Bali, where the weather is always pleasant and there’s nothing really to deter you from visiting, Tulum has two problematic seasons.
The first is the area’s hurricane season, which might not be unpleasant but can be very rough, indeed. Given that this season is fairly brief, it’s easy enough to avoid.
Unfortunately, the sargassum seaweed season goes on for nearly 8 months, and it’s much less pleasant. While this beach club is great at managing this problem, many other properties on the beach are not, and it can have a real negative effect on your holiday.
Pricing and Value for Money
Nomade is nearly always full, so the management team will feel like the pricing is fine, but we felt, and so did many others we spoke to, that this place was expensive even by the standard set by other Tulum beach clubs.
We didn’t feel ripped off, mind you; it’s a high-quality setting with plenty to recommend it, but we can’t say that it was anything more than OK value for money, either.
Beach Access and Quality
Tulum is plagued for about 8 months of the year with massive amounts of sargassum seaweed washing up ashore. And this beach club and hotel are very good at ensuring it’s swiftly removed so that it doesn’t stink up the place.
However, this can’t always be said for neighbouring properties. Overall, though, Tulum’s beach is lovely with soft white powdery sand that goes on forever. It’s very much the biggest draw for most holidaymakers.
Sustainability Practices
Tulum leads the way in sustainability for beach clubs, and Nomade Tulum leads the way in Tulum. They use recycled materials everywhere, and their waste management program is all about ensuring nothing goes to a landfill.
There’s a zero plastic policy, a comprehensive composting and landscaping program, they partner with many different community organisations to have a positive impact and are part of the Tulum Pledge, among other things.
We really like this, and we’d encourage other beach clubs around the world to follow suit; eco-friendliness should be the bare minimum standard.
Exclusive Perks for Guests
The minimum spend gets you a daybed, a towel, pool access and not much else, which is fair enough, and it’s the standard model for beach clubs in Tulum.
However, it does mean that there are no VIP experiences and no way of upgrading your time at Nomade Tulum even if you are willing to pay for it.
Safety and Security
They have a permanent security presence and cameras covering the hotel and beach club at Nomade. But sadly, it may well not be enough.
This part of Tulum is very popular, and there are regularly reported instances of theft both from the rooms here and from the daybeds. We strongly recommend never leaving anything of value unattended at this beach club or at the very least asking security or reception staff to keep an eye on it.
Event Hosting Capabilities
Once again, if you want to consider hosting a private event here, you’ve got to deal with an annoying e-mail chain rather than an actual conversation.
They do offer private events often combined with their hotel accommodation packages, though, and it’s one of the smaller, more intimate venues on this beachfront.
Consistency of Experience
We feel that Nomade Tulum provides a very consistent experience, and that was backed up by the conversations we had with other guests and from reviews online.
However, we’d also note that they’ve found their groove and don’t seem to be trying very hard to see if they could expand or improve on this experience. Which is a shame, because there’s definitely potential for making this place even better.
Additional Amenities and Facilities
It’s nice to be able to access some of the resort facilities, but we do feel that there’s not an awful lot at this beach club beyond the basic beach club experience.
That means if you need anything else, you may be looking at a long drive to find it, which could be a little frustrating given that the opening hours here are very narrow.
Summary
We very much enjoyed our time at this beach club, though it’s certainly not perfect, and we found ourselves quite blissfully relaxed by the end of a fairly short day on its daybeds.
It’s nice that they’ve created a fairly unique atmosphere that clearly appeals to a fairly specific crowd that comes back again and again.
We don’t think Nomade Tulum is for everyone, but for the people it resonates with, it’s very much going to become a favourite.
FAQs
Can You Go Swimming At Nômade Tulum?
Yes, though some of the swimming pools are reserved entirely for hotel guests and your day pass will not provide access to those pools.
We should also note that while it may be famous, it’s not a very big beach club, and it gets very crowded, which means during busy times, you won’t get to swim because the pool is full of people cooling off.
As always, if swimming is essential to you, it’s best to get to this beach club early in the morning before everyone else turns up.
What Is There To Do At Nômade Tulum?
You can swim, relax by the pool, eat and drink, join in one of their popular yoga classes, play on the beach and enjoy the background music and bottle service.
You may also use the hotel spa and wellness facilities, assuming that they have the space to accommodate you on the day. It’s important to remember that hotel guests always get priority, so it’s best to book both a daybed and a spa spot in advance if you want to be guaranteed to get them.
Is Nômade Tulum A Child-Friendly Venue?
Sort of. While children are allowed in the beach club and in the resort, they are not expressly encouraged to be there, and there are no facilities specifically for children.
We found the place to be more adult-oriented than some of the other more family-friendly clubs, and while we wouldn’t shy away from taking a child to Nômade Tulum, we wouldn’t particularly encourage it either.
Older children might enjoy the vibe, but we think younger children would be bored pretty quickly and might even feel stifled by the crowd and overall vibe.
Who Is The Owner Of Nômade Tulum?
Nômade Tulum and the adjacent hotel are owned and designed by the Argentinian architect Sebastian Sa.
He is also the owner of Nomade People, which is a hospitality group that specialises in eco-luxury experiential retreats.
Final Thoughts On Nômade Tulum
We think it would be hard to dislike Nômade Tulum, though we do find it a bit fussier than some of the other beach clubs in Tulum.
It provides a relaxing experience with a genuine wellness slant that’s enjoyable enough. It is quite expensive, but that’s beach clubs in Tulum for you.
Overall, if we were passing by, we’d be happy to pop in and spend some more time here. Though, we wouldn’t travel all the way to Tulum just to visit, either.
