Live seaweed conditions, cleanup updates, forecasts, and practical beach planning across Tulum and the Riviera Maya.
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Mexico will spend 2.635 billion pesos over two years to catch sargassum offshore. Tulum is one of five priority corridors, with 10,943 tons already pulled off its sand.
Eleven Quintana Roo beaches carry excessive seaweed, and Tulum's sargassum levels rank among the worst, as hoteliers warn that cleanup now costs three times their electricity bill.
The Sargasso Sea is the only sea on Earth with no coastline, and the golden weed that named it now arrives on Tulum's shore by the ton. Here is the full story, from Columbus to satellite maps.
Sargassum lands on the sand, not in the cenotes. Our new community vote asks where to swim in Tulum when you head inland, and the ranking is yours to build.
Clearing the sand has become one of the largest line items on the coast. Tulum sargassum costs now have hoteliers asking whether some months are worth opening at all.
About 150 volunteers joined navy and municipal teams for a Tulum sargassum cleanup at Playa del Pueblo, hauling out some 50 tons. Zofemat has removed more than 2,800 tons this year.
The response to the Tulum tourism crisis came from the president herself, while the mayor elected to govern the destination stayed out of sight. The absence is the story.
A farewell video from La Eufemia, one of Tulum's best-known beach taquerías, has gone viral again, reviving the fight over who is to blame for Tulum's decline.
Sargassum removal in Tulum reached about 140 tons in a single day as more than 400 Navy personnel and municipal crews cleared national park beaches after Sheinbaum's visit.
Oceana wants the federal Tulum sargassum plan grounded in science and regulated harvesting, warning that the alga already carries an environmental, economic, and social toll on the coast.
As Plan Tulum Renace tries to bring visitors back, overcharging tourists in Tulum, from 350 peso taxi rides to forced tips, has residents demanding fixed fares and a local PROFECO office.
President Sheinbaum says the government may buy more collection vessels and extend marine barriers to keep sargassum off Quintana Roo beaches this season.
Tulum's hotel sector offered to help lead the tourism recovery in a meeting with President Sheinbaum, as small coastal hotels report occupancy as low as 15 percent.
Plan Tulum Renace lowers Maya ruins entry fees, makes Parque del Jaguar free for Mexicans, opens public beaches, and adds new sargassum measures to reverse the destination's tourism slump.
The 2026 surge of sargassum in Tulum has revived research into turning the seaweed into bioasphalt, even as a local official pushes to declare an environmental contingency.
President Claudia Sheinbaum's visit began with a Jaguar Park walk, during which residents raised a property seizure claim and objected to changes to the Tulum National Park management plan.
The president lands in Tulum on Thursday and will not leave Quintana Roo until Sunday. A 415-peso Jaguar Park fee, a sargassum plan, and cargo locomotives await Sheinbaum.
Zofemat says it has collected more than 2,800 metric tons of sargassum in Tulum this season, and its director calls the arrivals atypical for the Quintana Roo coast.
President Sheinbaum plans a four-day Quintana Roo swing, with a mañanera from Tulum, housing deed deliveries, and a sargassum briefing in Cancún, according to a preliminary agenda.
Tulum hotel occupancy is stuck at 41.5 percent with the summer vacation period days away, and downtown hoteliers say the reservations that usually arrive by now simply have not.
