Tulum, Mexico

To say that I’m uptight would be an understatement. I don’t think I’ve ever planned anything less than a month in advance, and I showed up to my second date with my fiancé with an itinerary. Apparently, he wants to be married to this madness, but most people just tell me to chill.

I’ve calmed down so much in the past decade, not that you can tell, but the fact that I can sometimes do dinner with only two days’ notice is a victory lap.

I’m the worst about travel. Six months out is the opportune time to buy a plane ticket, and the world begins to crumble before my eyes if tickets and hotels are not arranged by the time we’re three months out. Then there I was, staring at a 6-day gap in my work schedule. I clicked on Kayak, and when they asked for a destination, I typed in “anywhere”. I can literally go anywhere, I want to go everywhere, and for the first time in my life I didn’t have a plan. Many affordable tickets arose, little pinpoints of potential, most of them within a tumultuous country, hell-bent on making itself great again...under the capable guidance of a lunatic.

The round-trip to Cancun caught my eye. 1) Because $272 for a couple of direct flights is criminally cheap, and 2) because that was my heart rate at the time. Three weeks in advance might as well be three seconds. And with trembling hands, I made the reservation.

I wasn’t crazy about going to Cancun, and that was never the plan. No thanks to a city of tourists, a harem of all-inclusive resorts, full of honeymooners and people who want an “authentic” travel experience that isn’t too authentic because their comfort levels are somewhat sensitive. But Quintana Roo has much more to offer, among those choices, there is the town of Tulum.