Tulum is a place people come to be outside. The sea, the jungle, cenotes, long lunches that turn into late afternoons.
So when we found the penthouse in Aldea Zama, what mattered to us wasn't simply what was inside it. It was what happened when you opened the doors. Up here, the jungle sits at eye level. The light changes throughout the day. And there is just enough distance from everything below to make coming home feel like leaving Tulum without actually leaving it. That was the point.
Tulum, with somewhere to retreat to
There are two versions of Tulum. The one everyone knows is barefoot and busy: beach clubs, restaurants, bikes, mezcal, music and people who came for three days and somehow stayed for three months.
Then there is the quieter version.
Aldea Zama sits between Tulum town and the beach, close enough to move easily between the two, but removed enough that you can close the door at the end of the day and hear something other than Tulum.
We wanted both. Close enough to be part of it. Far enough away to disappear from it.
Why the penthouse
There is something different about staying at the top of a building in the tropics.
Down below, Tulum can feel dense. Jungle, palms, limestone walls and buildings all competing for space. Up here, everything opens.
The penthouse gives you privacy, light and that rare thing in Tulum: a little perspective. You wake above the palms rather than behind them. And when the doors are open, inside and outside stop feeling like two separate places.
The rooftop is the real living room
Every holiday home has a room everyone gravitates towards. Here, it isn't really a room at all.
It's upstairs.
Morning coffee before the heat arrives. A swim in the afternoon. Something cold to drink as the light begins to change. Dinner when nobody feels like going back out.
The rooftop has a way of rearranging the day. Plans become optional. And that, for us, is exactly what a holiday home should do.
The small choices that decide everything
Shade matters
Tulum is beautiful in the sun. It is considerably better when you have somewhere to escape it. We wanted outdoor spaces that could actually be lived in, not simply photographed. Somewhere to sit with a book at midday, somewhere for lunch, somewhere you don't have to abandon when the sun is directly overhead.
A kitchen that gets used
There are enough extraordinary restaurants in Tulum that you could eat out every day. You probably won't. Eventually there is a morning when nobody wants to get dressed for breakfast. Fruit gets cut. Coffee gets made. Someone comes back with pastries. Lunch happens accidentally. Those are often the best meals of the trip.
Bedrooms that feel removed
A bedroom on holiday should make sleeping late feel entirely reasonable. Cool, quiet, uncomplicated. Somewhere to retreat when everyone else is still upstairs, or to disappear for an afternoon nap after the beach. Privacy matters more when you're travelling together than people admit.
Outside, without leaving home
Tulum is built around outdoor living, but sometimes the best version of it is the one that requires no reservation, taxi or beach-club minimum spend. Bare feet. Wet hair. Your own music. Nowhere else to be.
What we chose not to make it
- Not a resort. You don't need a wristband to come home.
- Not a hotel. Nobody is waiting for you to finish breakfast.
- Not a beach club. There is no minimum spend beside your own pool.
- Not somewhere you need to dress for.
- And not a place designed simply to sleep between everything else you've planned.
Because eventually, the penthouse becomes part of the plan.
Between town and sea
That is what we like most about Aldea Zama.
Go one way and you're heading towards Tulum's restaurants, cafés and everyday life. Go the other and you're heading towards the Caribbean.
Or don't go anywhere. Stay upstairs. Swim. Read. Open something cold. Watch the palms move. Tulum will still be there tomorrow.
Nyara Tulum is our place above the palms in Aldea Zama. Come for the Caribbean, the cenotes and everything that made you book a flight to Mexico in the first place. Just don't be surprised if, once you're here, you occasionally decide not to leave the penthouse at all.