Thoughts on Playa del Carmen

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Playa del Carmen was a little pricey. I suppose that's to be expected when it is such a big destination for short vacations, or owning a vacation home/condo. That being said it still felt cheaper than home. Maybe my mind wasn't fully wrapped around the conversion, but if you can get a decent breakfast with a large glass of mixed juice for MXN149 it's got to be a good deal...right?

Well, everyone told us that it would be the most expensive area we'd be in in Mexico. We did enjoy walking beyond 5th Ave (the main tourist road) and hitting some of the smaller shops. We were able to eat much cheaper getting a stack of tortillas from the local tortilleria for MXN5 that would last us for two meals, and getting 2 oranges, a tomato, an avocado,100g of cheese for MXN9, and enough ground beef for 4 light servings (200g total?) for about MXN60.

With the CAD -> MXN conversion being about 1 to 12, one restaurant breakfast on 5th ran us just under CAD12.40, while a meal for two cost about CAD3.70 bought locally. Of course we didn't have to prepare and wash up at the restaurant but Playa del Carmen can be as expensive, or as cheap, as you want.

Where it really hit us was the accommodation, but that was only because we had some very specific plans for the first week. It was to be our holiday before we start traveling. We got a private room (shared bathroom) that opened to the hammockful courtyard where the outdoor kitchen and dining area was through which was the direct beach access. That cost us about 500MXN a night each. We accidentally stayed during Canivale so the price was slightly higher than usual and ended up being closer to CAD40 each per night for our location and timing, though there are for sure cheaper hostels in town.

We found out that Ashley can handle drinking almost any Mexican alcohol; in that she not only drank but, dare we say, enjoyed a couple bottles of 'Bohimia', a dark Mexican beer.

All told Playa was more expensive than we would have liked, but it served our purpose; a hostel with beach access, for relaxing, and great people with helpful tidbits to help us once we really decide to start our journey. As such we didn't do any excursions from town, though there are plenty. From Zipline parks, to Cenotes, to ATVing, SCUBA diving, snorkeling, ruins, and many I'm sure I've missed; these all had multiple tours companies that will convince you that theirs is the best deal. We steered clear of tours and decided to head out to some of them on our own time.

So far, no health problems, but the threat always looms.

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Photos

Hammock con Dan
These turned into our favorite spot. Out of the sun after we got our burns, and spacial distortion through repetitive motion is sooooo relaxing.

Rustic Room
Ashley's super excited to be heading to the beach from our rustic room. Those bars on the windows? Don't worry, we didn't do anything wrong; they're standard issue.