Uber is now running in Tulum, with taxi and motorcycle rides on the way

Uber began operating in Tulum and Playa del Carmen on Tuesday, October 20, 2026, opening with free and discounted rides. Ride-hailing is not new here, since DiDi and inDrive already work in the area, but Uber's arrival adds a third app and, in time, a way to call a conventional taxi from a phone.

Uno TV and Excélsior reported the launch on the day, saying Uber had switched on service in both towns with free opening rides; Uno TV described trips appearing in the app at zero pesos. Quinta Fuerza reported that new users were being offered a coupon of up to 105 pesos on their first ride during the first days of service; where a fare is higher, the rider pays the difference, and no single expiry date had been published. What Uber's regular fares will be once the promotions end had not been announced.

Taxis and motorcycles in the same app

The groundwork was laid a week earlier. On October 14, according to El Heraldo de México, Uber opened recruitment through its Uber Driver app for traditional taxi drivers and motorcycle riders in Playa del Carmen and Tulum, for two options: Uber Taxi, which lets a rider call a conventional taxi from the app, and Uber Moto, a ride on a motorcycle. Taxi drivers who complete their first ten trips are offered 2,000 pesos extra, and motorcycle riders 1,000 pesos after five, subject to the company's conditions.

Mexico News Daily noted that the pairing repeats the model already working in Cancún. Uber arrived there on September 14, 2016, and El Heraldo de México reports that more than 2,200 drivers from Cancún's Andrés Quintana Roo taxi union now work through the app.

What a ride has cost until now

The case for the app, as residents put it to reporters, is price. Mauricio Morales, a Tulum merchant, told Uno TV and Excélsior that a taxi from downtown Tulum to the archaeological zone can cost 150 to 200 pesos, against 60 to 80 pesos on DiDi for the same trip. "La competencia siempre es sana en los mercados," he told Excélsior: competition is always healthy. Those are one resident's examples rather than official fares, and they say nothing yet about what Uber itself will charge once the free rides end.

What this does and does not settle

The taxi trade sees it differently. Brigadier Hernández, a driver with Tulum's Tiburones del Caribe taxi union, told Excélsior that drivers were already short of passengers; on the day he spoke he had waited about an hour without a fare, and he warned that more platforms would cut their income further. El Heraldo de México noted that neither town's taxi unions had confirmed they would work with Uber, and that conflict between taxi drivers and app drivers could not be ruled out. That is not an idle caution. Uber's arrival in Cancún in 2016 brought road blockades, assaults and hundreds of court injunctions from traditional transport operators, and the Cancún dispute was settled only by an agreement mediated by the Quintana Roo government in December 2023.

In Tulum the argument is about rules rather than rivalry. Manuel Solís Alcocer, leader of the Tiburones del Caribe union, told Grupo Animal on October 21 that "la competencia de libre mercado es sana, nos hace ser mejores," free-market competition is healthy and makes us better, but objected that the state's mobility law requires GPS and cameras that app cars do not carry: "si prácticamente sólo hay exigencia por un lado y del otro lado hay total tolerancia, no hay equidad." If one side faces every requirement and the other total tolerance, he said, that is not fair. Grupo Animal reports that Uber operates under a federal court injunction, an amparo, rather than the state mobility law that applies to DiDi and inDrive.

Several practical points are still unpublished: Uber's regular fares in Tulum, the area it covers, and whether it picks up at Tulum's airport. For now, the app shows the available options and the fare before a ride is confirmed, and Quinta Fuerza notes that how many drivers are on hand varies with location, time of day and demand. Anyone arriving for the winter season would do well to check the fare in the app against a taxi before assuming either is cheaper.

Sources: Uno TV, October 20, 2026; Excélsior, October 20, 2026; Quinta Fuerza, October 20, 2026; Grupo Animal, October 21, 2026; El Heraldo de México (Quintana Roo), October 14, 2026; Mexico News Daily, October 23, 2026.