No, not exactly. I mean, I familiar with the grounds of the ruins and the beach below, but didn't really get around Tulum much (I'm not even sure what there might have been).
If it's as you say, it's probably one of the few places left like that on the Mayan Riviera. When the friend and I were down there in 1996, that described Playa del Carmen. Now, it's built up in a similar fashion as Cancun.
When my wife and I went this last time, we were off the main hotel zone, but still not in the city proper, in a new, very nice hotel. We couldn't do that now, but it was a very nice, quiet place, even though there are other hotels building up on both sides of it.
Cancun itself is kind of like most Mexican towns. You get to see that in the brochure or the travel videos. They just go down to the beaches and the hotel zone pretty much.
So, anything really would be cool. If I were to live anywhere in Mexico, it would be over on that side.
They were supposedly going to build an international airport near there. Do you know if that happened? This was probably 5-7 year ago, give or take, that they were in the process of going through whatever their stages are. It seemed like it had stalled, but I was wondering if maybe they actually got it going.