Tulum in Mexico can be summed up in one word: Paradise. Soft white sandy beaches? check! Crystal clear, warm sea? check! Palm trees? check! Sunshine? check! It has everything you could ever want from a beach... well if you like the deserted, remote kind of beach that is.

I've visited a lot of beaches in my time and Tulum wins hands down.



Tulum lies at the southern edge of Riviera Maya on the Mexican Caribbean coast, about 80 miles south of Cancun. It's a really quiet beach community, spanning an area of approximately 10 square miles. I was there about eight years ago when it was still very much untouched. I'm hoping it's still the same. You had to take a taxi down a sandy track to get there and there's no electricity, only candle lit cabanas and hammocks and a simple restaurant on the beach. You can spend your days dividing your time between the sand and sea (with water like a giant bath) and then venturing up onto the cliffs to explore the Mayan ruins. And the nights sipping rum and coconut juice out of coconuts. It was idyllic. I didn't want to leave.

Check out these photographs and I think you'll agree with me that it's up there with the world's most beautiful beaches...