Tantra is renowned for its high-energy beachfront parties; it has an excellent reputation online for delivering a first-rate beach club experience.
However, one thing we’ve realised during our time in this Mexican beachfront town is that you can’t always rely on what you read.
So, our team packed their review gear for Tantra Beach Club and went to find out if this coastal spot could live up to the hype, and this is what they thought.
Introduction – Getting To Tantra Beach Club
Where Is Tantra Beach Club? Carr. Tulum-Boca Paila Km 7, Tulum Beach, Zona Hotelera, 77780 Tulum, Q.R., México
Online: Tantra
Opening Hours: Fri, Sat, Sun 11 a.m. – 7 p.m. only
What’s Available At Tantra Beach Club?
Tantra has a restaurant, a bar, a swimming pool, several comfortable seating areas (which must be booked and paid for), and regular live entertainment.
You must have a day pass to access the best seating and pool areas, and 50% of the variable cost of a day pass is refunded as a food and beverage credit.
Our Detailed Review Of Tantra Beach Club
Our team uses a consistent standard system to review every beach club. This guarantees fairness when judging owners, management, and staff and creates reviews in a uniform style that helps with comparisons.
Here’s the process:
- We assign a team to evaluate the venue.
- Each reviewer visits the club on their own, often on different days.
- They complete a scorecard with ratings from 1 to 5 in key categories plus personal notes.
- After submission, the team gathers to discuss experiences and agree on scores.
- One person then writes and publishes the review on our website.
Reservation and Booking Process
We found the reservation process confusing. While they do have a booking system (which puts Tantra way ahead of its competitors in Tulum), you can only reserve on some days and not on others.
Once you’ve finally found a day when they’ll accept your reservation, then you get presented with a nifty little map of the beach club to choose your seat and an explanation of the charges associated with each seat.
Then, you can book and pay your seat fee (half of which is rebated as a food and beverage credit) and be safe in the knowledge that you will have a seat. Which is important because Tantra gets super busy on weekends and during the high season, so if you don’t reserve, you may not get a seat at all.
Ambience and Atmosphere
This is an upscale beach club with a touch of Boho-chic combined with Balinese influences. During the day, the pace is pretty relaxed, but things get more energetic as the day progresses.
It ends up being very high-energy with live acts and regular entertainment, and people dance and have fun en masse. If you are a social butterfly, then Tantra’s vibe is likely to suit you down to the ground.
Location And Accessibility
Tulum is always accessible from the Americas, though journeys may be long and require multiple changes as the international airport in the city doesn’t see that many direct flights.
From the rest of the world, things are a little more challenging as you have to get to Mexico before you can get to Tulum.
Once you’re in Tulum, you can get transport to and from the beach club, and you will need it; this area is not safe to walk around late at night.
Aesthetic And Design
While there’s a certain sameness to the design of beach clubs in Tulum, they have added some Balinese touches to this place to help it stand out, at least a little, from the crowd.
Otherwise, it’s all organic materials, earth tones and blending into the beach and jungle, though the flow from the dining area onto the sandy beach is very good.
Overall, it looks good in pictures, which is often the most important thing.
Staff Friendliness and Professionalism (Service Standard)
The staff at this place are friendly, attentive and professional. However, there are also some real problems at Tantra that don’t seem to arise elsewhere in Tulum.
There are often billing discrepancies with the checks feeling like they’re being padded, the drinks sometimes seem to have been watered down, and the security and valet services can be downright aggressive.
Service Speed and Efficiency
While there is a noticeable slowdown around the peak periods, mostly the service here is very fast; both food and drinks make their way from order to your table rapidly.
However, some of our reviewers noticed that once you hit your minimum spend, there’s a sudden reduction in the amount of effort you seem to merit from the team.
Food Quality and Variety
The food at this beach club is very good, and we found it to be tasty and full of fresh ingredients that had been prepared properly and served attractively.
However, it is expensive; there are often discrepancies between the menu price and the price on the check, and the venue tries to force automatic tips that are much higher than they ought to be.
Beverage Selection and Creativity
The beverage selection is very good, and the presentation is fantastic. However, there’s no doubt that the prices are very high and the pours are often terribly weak.
We’d recommend sticking to things that are delivered in bottles like beers, spirits and wine at this club. The cocktails just don’t justify the prices.
Cleanliness and Hygiene
They do a pretty good job of keeping the beach clear during the seaweed season at this beach club, but it can occasionally build up, and then things get a little pungent, particularly on the sand.
The rest of the beach club is kept very clean, though, and you can be sure that your daybed, table, toilet, locker room, etc. are all in shipshape and in good order.
Comfort of Seating and Lounging Areas
Overall, we felt that the seating was comfortable and of a high standard; it’s not quite the best that we’ve ever experienced, and at around $200 per person per day, we really think it ought to be about the best we’ve ever sat on.
Also, be warned that on heavy seaweed days, the beachside seating can be downwind of some seriously stinky seaweed.
Music and Entertainment
We felt that the music and entertainment were among the best in Tulum. The pace gradually picks up as the day progresses, and by the evening things are very high energy.
The music mix is well curated and the DJs and live instrumentalists are great. We also like the secondary entertainment like the fashion shows they hold here.
Seasonality
This is Tulum, so the beach clubs are open all year round, and that includes Tantra. However, while the tropical climate is mostly pleasant enough all the time, there are two concerns for visitors.
The first is a short hurricane season that may be a complete nothing, or may be highly unpleasant depending on where hurricanes break land.
The second and bigger issue is the seaweed season, which now runs for essentially 8 months of the year. That can make swimming unpleasant and the beaches smelly.
Pricing and Value for Money
Tantra is one of the few beach clubs in Tulum that feels like its nickle and diming you all the time. The compulsory tipping, the weak drinks, etc. are all irksome.
We wouldn’t say we felt ripped off, but at best this is OK value for money and you really want to watch the check carefully for bill padding.
Beach Access and Quality
The beach all around Tulum is a massive asset and the sand is white and soft underfoot, but as we’ve mentioned a few times already, the problem is the seaweed season.
This beach club only does an OK job at keeping the Sargassum at bay, but at least it tries; many stretches of the beach don’t, and the whole thing is unpleasantly pungent at times.
Sustainability Practices
There’s a veneer of eco-chic at this beach club but no evidence of any real effort to become truly sustainable.
The use of heavy diesel generators isn’t exactly environmentally friendly either.
Exclusive Perks for Guests
You get a towel, a seat and the use of the changing rooms in exchange for a fairly hefty minimum spend agreement.
This is very much the standard in Tulum, but we’d really like to see beach clubs consider how they could offer better value for money and more inclusions, even if you pay a little more on the door.
Safety and Security
This is the lowest score that we’ve ever given a beach club in this category, but it’s worth noting that while there is on-site security, there’s also a huge problem with the sale of illicit materials on site and a security team that seems to support that trade rather than deal with it.
There is also a real issue with overbilling and occasional aggression from staff around that. Finally, the area itself is not safe to walk around at night.
Event Hosting Capabilities
They do have private event hosting capabilities at this beach club, but we’re not sure we’d want to trust this place with anything really important.
The bill padding and security issues alone are simply not the sort of thing that would encourage us to book a corporate event here.
Consistency of Experience
For better and for worse, there’s no doubt that Tantra provides a very consistent experience. This was confirmed not just by repeat visits from our team, but also by customers on-site and in reviews online.
Overall, we’d really like to see this place work on fixing the worst parts of the beach club because it could be truly fabulous if they did.
Additional Amenities and Facilities
There are some facilities on-site, but mostly if you need anything beyond the basic beach club stuff, you will need to travel to find it.
Summary
There are some genuine issues at Tantra Beach Club but that doesn’t mean that we had a terrible time here, in fact, we had a great day out.
We hope that the management team will work a little harder to create a safer, less money-focused environment in the future, because there’s a lot to like about this place.
FAQs
Can You Go Swimming At Tantra Beach Club?
Yes, you can swim at Tantra. Firstly, you can swim in the big on-site swimming pool. However, it’s fair to say that this beach club gets super busy and as the day progresses, the pool gets fuller and fuller and swimming is not really possible. So, get there early if you want to use the pool to swim.
Otherwise, you can swim in the sea on the beach, though we’d note that we’re not 100% confident in any lifeguard services on the beach. It’s worth noting that swimming during the seaweed season can be unpleasant as the water is full of seaweed.
And it should go without saying that swimming in the sea should only be done when it’s safe; watch for flags on the beach and don’t swim in bad weather.
What Is There To Do At Tantra Beach Club?
Tantra offers a swimming pool, restaurant and bar facilities, luxurious (paid for) seating, live entertainment and music. It’s famous for its beachfront parties.
Is Tantra Beach Club A Child-Friendly Venue?
No, while they do allow children into the restaurant for free, they are prohibited from accessing the pool area and daybed facilities.
And frankly, it’s an adult-oriented party affair with a lot of heavy drinking, high minimum spend requirements and a total absence of child-focused entertainment or facilities.
We can’t think of a worse option to take your children than Tantra. Tulum has loads of great family-friendly beach clubs; we’d pick one of those instead.
Who Is The Owner Of Tantra Beach Club?
Tantra is part of the Grupo RosaNegra, a local hospitality group. This group is, in turn, founded by and managed by Eduardo Beaven, a restaurateur with many years of experience.
Is Tantra Tulum Worth The Cost?
Whether something is “worth it” or not is both subjective and personal. What we can say is that we enjoyed our time at Tantra and would return.
We’d also note that they have thousands of online reviews on Google with an average rating of 4.9, which suggests that we’re not alone in that opinion.
However, it’s hard to deny that this is an expensive restaurant on the beach in Mexico, a place that many people visit to save money rather than to spend it like they were back home.
What Is The Dress Code At Tantra Tulum?
There’s no formal dress code at Tantra Tulum, and most reasonable forms of casual dress will be tolerated, but if you want to dress to fit in, then upmarket beach chic (think flowy maxi dresses, cool jumpsuits and tailored separates) is the norm.
Is There A Cover Charge At Tantra Tulum?
Yes, there is a cover charge at Tantra Tulum. It varies depending on the day of the week and sometimes on the type of event that it is hosting.
Half the cover charge is returned as a food and beverage credit; the rest is the price of admission. This doesn’t seem to discourage partygoers, mind you, and it’s strongly recommended that you pay in advance if you want to visit on weekends or during the peak season, as Tantra is often sold out.
What Kind Of Music Is Played At Tantra Tulum?
Tantra Tulum aims to create a tropical party vibe, and that means a mix of Afro House and Latin Beats. It’s a very accessible form of music which, even if you haven’t heard it before, is easy to dance to and enjoy.
Is Tulum A Nudist Beach?
No, Tulum is not a nudist beach and going nude on the beach could get you into real legal trouble. It’s fair to say that there was a time, not so long ago, when the beaches in Tulum were quite empty, and the authorities turned a blind eye to naturists on the beaches.
Now, the beaches are crowded, and while ladies going topless will be tolerated, full nudity will not.
Final Thoughts On The Review Of Tantra Beach Club
Tantra Beach Club is an amazing party destination, and we can’t agree more with many reviewers who said they had a great time here.
No, it’s not on a par with the world’s best beach club, FINNS in Bali, but if you’re in Tulum and in need of a party, this is the place for you.
However, there is a dark side to this beach club when compared to other beach clubs in Tulum, and you should be wary of being taken advantage of and not rely on security teams to help you out in the event of confrontations.
