I don't see a master thread for TQO Tulum - mods, please redirect me if appropriate.

Will be flying in and out soon. Curious about arrivals and departure experience, immigration kiosks, wait times, and car rental process. Also VISITAX. Anyone have early experience? Hoping it is less crowded than CUN, but also assume it will be slower as they work out the kinks?

Thanks.

No experience here, but this might help - https://caballerosvacations.com/trav...d-its-flights/

Published taxi zone pricing with guides.

As far as I can tell, they only have 13 gates, so it is not going to be a hard airport to navigate or get around. From Flightradar24 I am only seeing about 15 arrivals/15 departures daily so should be fairly calm.
A video showing the facilities up to the check in gates.

I flew into TQO with AA on the first day of international ops last month. Customs on arrival was super quick, less than 5 minutes. Can't comment on the car rentals as we booked a transfer service but I did notice a few kiosks. The ADO bus also runs to/from the bus station in downtown Tulum and is waaaay cheaper than the onsite taxi services.

On departure we arrived 2.5 hours prior to departure (also on AA) and security took less than 5 minutes. Super efficient but perhaps we were also there earlier than we needed to be. Helps that there are only 6-7 USA flights per day and they're not all bunched together. Overall it was a super convenient experience flying through TQO.

WesternCDN,

Did you happen to notice if there were ATMs at TQO ??

At CUN T3 we always use the Santander right outside of Customs; then we use the Santander by the Food Court on our departure. We're hoping there is a reputable ATM at TQO for both Arrivals & Departures.

We have flights in/out of TQO in April, August & December. I'm glad to hear things went so smoothly for you !!

Jackie

Thank you! We've decided to skip the car, but good to know rentals are up and running. Sorry, more questions...

For arrivals, are there kiosks or staffed booths?
Duty free on arrival to pick up a bottle or two?
For exit, did they check Visitax?

Thanks again. Really helpful.

Sorry, I wasn't paying attention for ATMs on my way out, so can't say for sure whether there were or not.

Do you mean kiosks/booths for immigration? There were staffed booths - no self service kiosks. After you go through you that and collect your bag there is an additional x-ray scan before you can exit. They were putting all bags through there on the day I flew through, but fortunately only had carry on so no line ups.

Did not notice any duty free on arrival. Overall food options pre-security and post-security were very limited, but there were a number of spots still under construction in the airport. There was duty free post-security for sure, but didn't see any after going into the arrivals hall.

Nobody asked for or mentioned Visitax - we didn't pay it.

Thank you. All sounds like normal Mexico then, no changes, just a new, small airport, hopefully less crowded due to fewer flights and people not discovering the flights yet. :-) On Visitax, I honestly didn't even know it was a thing until reading on FT but always want to be prepared. (In the old days, leaving India, e.g., people would be surprised by a cash-only exit fee after ditching all their Rupees already. I could see a bureaucratic annoyance happening.)

I don't fly for a bit but will be sure to post here with details as this looks like the default TQO thread now. :-)

TQO details from our recent trip:

TQO Arrival (Sat, April 22, 2024):
---right before Immigration a girl was letting everyone know where the bathrooms were (just to the left of the Immigration lines). I asked & she said there were no more bathrooms anywhere after Immigration. I found that hard to believe, but I used it anyway just in case. :-) (once we got out of Customs to the main entry area there were other bathrooms).
------didn't notice any immigration kiosks, but I wasn't looking for them either

---Immigration is a pretty small area, but I guess w/ only 13 gates it doesn't need to be as big as at CUN. Lots of agents on the desks. Got through that in just a few minutes.

---our luggage took quite a while to come out. Didn't time it but it probably wasn't as long as it seemed. :-)

---Customs: we were directed over to send our luggage & carry-ons through an x-ray machine. Not sure if they made everyone do that, or just random selections. While we were walking away from that an agent had a dog sniffing everyone/everything

---post-Customs: we had arranged transfers w/ Canada Transfers. Once you come out of Customs, inside the building, there are the usual guys standing there w/ signs for pick-ups. While my husband was looking for our guy, I wandered around a little looking for an ATM machine. I didn't see any ATMs there yet.
------I did see little offices/desks for Hertz, Mex & Europcar. There might have been others, but I just noticed those 3. The Hertz line was crazy long !!
------finally found Canada Transfers & got in our van & on our way to Mahahual

---ride from TQO to 307 (highway): took us 9 minutes to get from the terminal out to 307


TQO Departure (Wed, May 1, 2024):
---we got to TQO at 12:20 for our 2:20 flight to CLT (we started boarding at 1:35)

---the drive from 307 to the TQO terminal took 10 minutes

---when our Canada Transfers van got back to TQO he dropped us off right where is picked us up (same main door we came out 11 days earlier). Once inside we had to get upstairs for Departures. Escalators & stairs were on our right. Elevators were kind of right in front of us, but you had to walk around them to get to the elevator doors.
------as an aside, when we came in the main door, I noticed that the Hertz line was again really long.

---once upstairs it was easy to find the AA lines. The Main check-in line was pretty short. Our Priority line seemed longer since there were several people in wheelchairs in the Priority line (but it seemed that most of them were not actually flying in First/Business, but the Priority line was checking them all in). One of the AA agents on the Main check-in line came over to the Priority line to bring the actual First customers over to his station to check them/us in. This all seemed rather unorganized & took longer than it should have. (no biggie since we were there pretty early)

---Security line: same process as at CUN, you show your passport/boarding pass to security (except they're military personnel). Then you get in line to send you & your stuff through the x-ray machines. Like CUN you keep your shoes on. You take out liquids & laptops, etc... They also made you set your passport in the bin along w/ your stuff.

---post-Security: now you're free to wander around the small, HOT departure gate area. All the gates seem to be lined up in a straight line. (you can see from one end of the hallway all the way to the other end)
------when you walk out of Security you can go left or right. We walked left first, just to look around, then we went right, down to our gate
------there's duty free right when you come out of Security. We didn't look at any of that, so I don't know what's for sale.
------between the 2 sides, there are boarded up "coming soon" signs for: Burger King, Popeye's, Starbucks, Carl's, Firehouse Subs, Applebees (seems like a lot for the small size of the airport)
------there are bathrooms on both sides
------on both sides, there is a tiny little convenience-style cubby w/ only chips, snacks, drinks
------and there was a tiny temporary-seeming stand for GoMart pre-made sandwiches & drinks
------it's really hot in the gate areas. They have A LOT of super-huge fans all up & down the gates. The bathrooms were really HOT. Not sure if the a.c. is already broken, or just not working properly yet.

---I did notice the Interviewers wandering around talking to people, just like at CUN

---Visitax: no mention or signs that we noticed at TQO
------as an aside, we've been in/out of CUN 2 or 3 times a year since Visitax became a thing. We have never paid Visitax. They are still lettin' us in & out every time we come back, with no mention of having not previously paid it.


General comments:
---you can definitely tell that the military runs this airport. The Guarda Nacional is roaming around outside, inside pre & post Security. They also man the Security checkpoint & Security lines.

---we were glad to see how easy TQO is since we already have our August & December flights booked through there (phew !!). Just hope they have ATMs there by August (since the airport website says there are ATMs there !!).


OK, goodness, sorry so long, but wanted to give details for all the detail-oriented pre-planners like I am !! :-)

Thank you so much for the detailed description. Super helpful.

That is wonderful information, jmrp. Thank you!

Thanks for the review!

Did you see any remote gates with stairs being used at arrival and/or departure? If not, makes it a better option for those wheelchair-bound, as a remote gate at other Mexican airports (CUN, SJD) with stairs means being lifted and carried down (or up) by some of the employees, which is rather scary...

I just looked at some pics I took on landing & then on takeoff. There was a United plane away from the terminal that had the stairs off of the front door. And, I saw several of those staircases sitting around.

The plane on the left had the stairs:


Here are some of the staircases:

We'll be trying TQO in a few weeks, appreciate all the comments above. From this and google, looks like a work in progress. Anyone noticed arrival duty free lately? TIA

The Conrad is claiming we should leave 4 hours before departure flight due to construction traffic risks and a single road to the airport. This sounds insane. To change the time they want me to sign a waiver. Any seasoned Tulum'ers have advice? They have us at 1:30 for a 6pm flight (beyond 4 hours!). I was thinking more like 3pm... get there by 4:30 latest?

Conrad had same: 8:30am departure for a 1pm flight. I've asked for an hour later, they have also asked for me to sign a waiver. Considering there's not much available at the airport still, thinking this won't be an issue, plus not checking bags etc etc