zazilkinbeachclubtulum — Restaurant in Tulum

As I share this I’m pretty furious, but I hope it can help someone else at this beach club, or any other. I apologize for the length of this, but if you care about your safety, PLEASE read.

We had the most magical day here after visiting the ruins. The scenery can not be beat, and we were treated so well by the staff who took my husband’s allergies seriously and were so kind. The food and drinks were good, and we even felt comfortable leaving our things on our beach chairs to go take dips in the ocean. The beach is stunningly gorgeous, and you can even see the ruins in the distance from the water.

This would have easily been a 5 star review EXCEPT about 1-2 hours after leaving this place I became VIOLENTLY ill. This was the only place I had consumed anything (both food and beverage) all day. This was not your average traveler’s diarrhea/Montezuma’s revenge situation. I didn’t eat seafood, the fish in my tacos was fried, we obviously didn’t drink the water, and I didn’t have all that much to drink. I have a fairly high tolerance, and had 4 mojitos (because that was the special that day!) over the course of about 5.5 hours, along with lots and lots of filtered water (which we brought ourselves) and a decent amount of food.

Look up symptoms of poisoning from BOOTLEG/COUNTERFEIT ALCOHOL. I had them all — and then some. I am a nurse, and I was very scared for my life. On top of the violent vomiting/diarrhea, confusion, stupor, hallucinations, hypothermia, extreme dehydration, and passing in and out of consciousness, I also had full limb paralysis which progressed into muscle rigidity and full contracture of the hands and feet, which I could no longer use or control. I fully believed I was on my way to having a seizure or worse. I honestly nearly died. It of course ruined the entire rest of my trip.

The locals that I spoke to (at my hotel and our private driver) immediately said “adulterated bootleg alcohol” when they heard my list of symptoms and learned how bad off I was. And now I’m left feeling like a fool, but I hope I can at least help someone else.

I did an ENORMOUS amount of research on ALL kinds of safety related issues prior to our trip. How on earth this issue did not come to my attention is beyond me. Now that I’m home and thankfully still alive, I have been doing a deep dive into this topic, which has absolutely confirmed what the locals told me.

Looking back on this experience, I really do believe that the servers at this beach club probably had no idea that the bottle of rum they were using to make my drinks was contaminated with something like methanol, antifreeze, nail polish remover, or paint stripper. Knowledge of this counterfeiting most often just happens at the buyer level, using incredibly convincing bottles, which makes it impossible for servers and bar tenders to know that what they’re serving guests might be adulterated.

I have absolutely nothing against this particular beach bar or anyone who helped us there that day. And I’m truly sorry to have to write this review because like I said, we had a blast there. (It was the best day of our trip, until it wasn’t.) But I do think that anyone planning to drink alcoholic beverages here should be advised. Stick with beer or wine, as those beverages are the least likely to be contaminated. If you order wine, try to order a full and unopened bottle, and have them open/pour it in front of you. Just in case. This rule applies to EVERYWHERE in the Riviera Maya, not just here. I had no idea there have been hundreds of deaths in this area (even at reputable resorts) from adulterated alcohol. Needless to say, we won’t be going back to Mexico. It’s just not worth all the risks.

Thanks for treating us so well Zazilkin, but you need to please take a closer look at where you are sourcing your...

Take care, they try to rip you off. We ordered food and drinks and asked for the receipt. He came with the receipt and read out what we ordered without showing us the bill. He was asking for an amount which was higher than actually ordered. So we asked him to give us the receipt to check the prices. The receipt stated 940 pesos. He asked for 1090 because of “taxes”. Taxes must be declared on the receipt already. The receipt didn’t have an extra tax information which justified the additional 150 pesos. So we told him, where can we see the difference between 940 and 1090? There is no information on the “tax fee” on the bill. It is legally not allowed to request something which is not on the bill. He started a discussion and got angry. After some time he said it is 10% tips. But 10% tips equals 94 pesos not 150. So again he tried to trick and manipulate. Because his tricks didn’t pay out, he said “credit card is not working we have no internet, you have to pay cash” haha, I don’t believe this after all the lies. I am just using internet at this place to write my review. Don’t go to places where you are treated disrespectful because you...

Great relaxing waterfront lounges with shade. They let us spend hours here with no minimum in September (off season). The ceviche was delicious, drinks well made and prices comparable to the other more affordable beach front spots. Wait staff was very friendly. Out of habit from being screwed over on “cash only” and “mandatory tips” in the past we made sure to tell them we only have Visa when we arrived and that we would decide our tip. They agreed with no issues and during checkout we dealt with another server for the bill. We were told only cash as other reviewers noted but told them our previous agreement and they smiled shook my hand and charged us by credit card. ...