My boyfriend and I stayed for 4 nights during the last week of May and we had an excellent time. La Zebra is my favorite place to stay in Tulum and I'm only staying here from now on! I've been to Tulum before and have seen other hotels up and down the beach and La Zebra is by far the best if you want a small boutique hotel with luxury cabanas and the best beach. We had cabana no. 5 and it was perfect and very private and you still get an ocean view. They do a great job with cleaning service and I appreciated the fresh beach towels and water they left in the room every day after cleaning. We loved the bed and thought they were very comfortable so I didn't understand the complaints about the beds being too hard....those people must like sagging super plush beds that will ruin your back!

Tanya at reception was extremely helpful and even helped us call a particular cab driver every day to take us places. If you are in Tulum and want a reliable cab driver, Ignacio is your man! We met him the first day and he basically drove us around all day for a very affordable price, waiting for us at each destination. And we got his cell number and we kept arranging rides with him for everywhere, including Playa del Carmen. His cell is 984143-1412 and taxi number is 379. He's a nice, hard working guy trying to support his Mayan wife and son. Also, he lived in California for a while so speaks excellent english and he is always exactly on time when you arrange times to meet. Everyone at La Zebra was very kind to keep calling him for us and arranging rides with him.

For the majority of our stay, we hung out on the property and just lounged, read, swam and enjoyed the beach. This stretch is definitely the best beach in all of Tulum...the waves are less turbulent and it just isn't as crowded as further down towards Zamas. There are a fair number of people staying in other places who come to hang out so I can see that during high season, competition for lounges under umbrellas could get fierce. We didn't any have issues on that front but we were also waking up on the early side and grabbed our lounges first thing. We had friends staying at Zamas and Maya Tulum and the beach down there is a joke. It's rocky and smelly because of seaweed. The food at La Zebra was great...their breakfast menu is awesome and they have an imported Italian espresso maker and use good espresso. The lunch and dinner is the same menu so I found the lunch options extremely limited and just did breakfast and dinner there. We had dinner at Posada Margherita twice...they definitely have the best restaurant in Tulum and excellent food even in terms of San Francisco standards and the service was super friendly so I don't understand the complaints about the "Italian attitude" there either. Zamas restaurant is just average but it was lovely to right by the ocean. We ate at one of those $4 roast chicken places in town which is the best meal for value you'll get in Tulum and also at Don Cafeto for some authenticity.

If you are looking to get away from normal life and truly relax, this is your place! And don't forget to do the cenotes cause they are incredible!

My wife and I stayed in Cabana 2 (closest to the beach) and 4 (30 feet further back) in early May. We have stayed in 4-5 star boutiques all over the Caribbean and Mexico.

LaZ is wonderful for what it doesn't have!

There is no beach service, you have to get off of your comfy lounger, or giant beach pillow, and go to the beach bar. There is no fitness center, you have to walk the 5km of unbelievably white, soft sand or kayak or bodysurf in the twenty shades of blue surf to get exercise. If you want air conditioning, you are forced to rely on the cool ocean breeze.

Rooms: Traditional, but hip cabanas with very comfortable king beds and large showers. No sitting area, no room fridge and the mini-bar is replaced by a bottle of tequila and shot glasses. You have only what you need. Be prepared for the "minimal privacy" toliet that is so common in the caribbean.

Food: Beach bar is very convenient and can produce some excellent fare. Half of the time the food was average and half the time it was excellent - never bad. Service was decent, but for such a small place, it might be more personable. Everything at the bar is made with the freshest organic ingredients. We quickly learned that it is best to walk (or take a $5 cab) up and down the beach and just pop in and out of places to eat and drink.

Also, don't miss the salsa night if you are there on a Sunday!

Location: This is what makes LaZ 5 star in my mind. Why spend 5 figures to visit Bora Bora or some remote resort off the coast of Africa or India to find 5 miles of unspoiled, powdery, white beach when it is in Tulum for less than a grand?

There is not a resort over 15 rooms or two stories on the entire stretch of beach. There are still camps where backpackers find rest under beach tents! You can walk into the crashing surf and find spots100 yards out where your head is above water. If you like to sea or surf kayak, you'll be in heaven and, if you can stay long enough, you can learn to kiteboard (wakeboarding by the power of the wind). You won't find a sandbag anywhere as Tulum's beaches were spared by the hurricanes that stole so much of Playa and Cancun's beaches.

Also, we were lucky enough to be at LaZ during "butterfly season". Every day from 10am-3pm, swarms of black and neon blue butterflies come out of the mangroves and flutter about the beach. It was absolutely surreal and we found ourselves laughing out loud at the beauty of the place several times.

This is one of the few places we will return to and will do soon as development seems to be on the way. The highway is being widened, a new road to the beach is finished and there are strong rumors of a golf course and condo development.

Go to LaZ and realize how wonderful it is to have nothing!

Me & my boyfriend just got back from our first trip to Tulum! Definately one of the BEST trips ever. We live in NYC & its been a long, cold Winter so we wanted to go somewhere far away, warm, sunny, beachy & tropical to lay in the sun, sleep in a thatch-roofed cabana in the sand, eat chips & guac and sip on Margs & La Zebra offerred all of that & more in a more amazing setting than we could have hoped for.
La Zebra is the BEST spot on the beach. We spent hours walking up & down the beach checking out all the other cabana places & realized we totally scored with our pick. Zebra has, hands down, one of the best beach areas in Tulum-- long/wide sandy beach with plenty of lawn chairs, beach beds, & umbrellas. The water at their beach is clean & clear. Also, its much farther down from everything & is much less crowded & more secluded from the other cabana places.
The Tequila bar/restaurant was SO good & I'm a picky/fussy eater/drinker. The breakfast=AMAZING, the margs & liquados were SO fresh they squeeze the sugar cane right there at the bar- la zebra marg & pinapple chaya agua fresca were my favs. Dinner was SO good-- I reccommend the chicken mole!
Oh, and the cafe au lait in the morn' was off the hook, too!
Tania, our concierge, was SO nice- all the staff at the Tequila Bar were so friendly & accommodating.
Ok, so now for the cabanas- holy cow! SO BEAUTIFUL yet extremely rustic! I would reccommend splurging on Cabana #1 (where we stayed). Its actually got 2 beds, but its closest to the beach, gets an intense/cool breeze, beautful views, 2 ceiling fans, stucco inside really nice shower/bathroom with hot water.
They give you beach bags with towels & bottles of water, in fact-- there was always plenty of bottled water & 24 hopur electricity. Dont get me wrong-- this is definately NOT like a hotel. Its a cabana on the beach, but its so beautiful and unique!

We stayed at Zamas our last night in Tulum- which was fun & cute but it just wasnt the same-- zamas is not as clean & nice. The rooms are realy small & the cabanas are close together, but they're decorated funky & cute. The restaurant was pretty good (breakfast was the best, huevos rancheros/huevos mexicanas & a Melon agua fresca= our favs) but the margharitas on the rocks tasted like Turpentine so we opted for frozen margs with a Sol chaser & that did the trick.
They dont have electricity after 10 or 11pm & that's fun.

Anyway, I HIGHLY recommend La Zebra! ITs got the best Cabanas, THE BEST BEACH, and amazing bar restaurant right on the beach, & a friendly staff. Its a lil' more expensive than a lot of other places but not by much. Plus, the extra pesos for the better beach is definately worth it!

If its your first time in Tulum- I recommend doing what we did: stay at more than one place-- that way you get a feel for what's what & get to know Tulum a lil' better plus its adventurous!

We stayed at La Zebra for four nights in late April and were very pleased with our experience. We've already recommended this hotel to friends, so overall I would give it a thumbs-up, but here are a few of the pros and (very minor) cons:

Pros:
The location is perfect: a clean, postcard-worthy beach and just the right amount of isolation.
The cabanas are playfully decorated and strike a good balance between being rustic and stylish. We felt like we were in a chic version of Gilligan's Island :)
The restaurant is fantastic -- probably the best I experienced while in Mexico. We had a ceviche appetizer on the first night which was out of this world. One morning I had a goat cheese and herb omelette which was to die for. We tried a lot of different restaurants during our trip, but wish we had dined at La Zebra more frequently. (warning: it is not overpriced, but certainly not cheap!)
We visited Mezzanine and Zamas while in Tulum, two of the other hotels we had considered staying at before choosing La Zebra. While both had good restaurants, we were happy with our choice of staying at La Zebra. For my taste, Zamas seemed to lack privacy -- stay here if you are a very social beach bum who likes live music every night. Mezzanine was very polished, and would probably be a good choice for someone who's hip and likes a good bar scene. The beach didn't appear to be as nice as at La Zebra though.
Cons:
As other reviewers have noted, service is an area for improvement. I found the service to be sufficient, but if you are a true stickler for great service, you might find yourself annoyed at La Zebra. For example, we were only given one tiny piece of soap during our 4 night stay, and didn't get a replacement even after we were down to a tiny sliver of soap (this is after tipping). Also, upon checkout, the lady at the front desk took our key, said thanks, and that was it. No "Did you enjoy your stay?" or "We hope you come back again." There wasn't any outrageous service problem, just little things that brought service down to more of a three-star level.
If you are deciding between a cabana hotel and an American-style resort hotel, you should know that cabanas can have their drawbacks: you are on a septic tank, so plumbing can be kind of iffy; you may encounter a few bugs. But, being within a few steps of the sea and sleeping to the sound of crashing waves makes it 100% worth it in my opinion.
Overall, La Zebra provided us with an unforgettable vacation at a very good price.