Dec 2022 / Jan 2023 – Beaches and Ruins in Playa del Carmen

Playa del Carmen

Playa del Carmen is part of the Riviera Maya, a string of towns on the east side of the Yucatan Peninsula. It’s about 40 minutes south of Cancun and 1 hour north of Tulum with a number of small beach towns and all-inclusive resorts spread out in between. Sandy and I had been to the area about 8 years ago and were interested to return. We really enjoy being near the ocean and we are also interested in all of the Mayan ruins that can be found in the Yucatan. Because we travel by car, we decided to take advantage of our Mexican Temporary Residency to spend 7-8 continuous months in Mexico, working our way over to and around the Yucatan peninsula before driving back out. With that in mind, we looked at spending the Christmas holidays in either Cancun or Playa del Carmen to entice some family to visit (spoiler alert – it worked).

Our trip to Playa started with a 4-day drive from Oaxaca! It took 4 days because we only

plan on 6-7 hours of driving per day, to allow for delays that might come up, and also to make the mornings and evenings more relaxing. On day 1, we drove from Oaxaca to Cordoba, where we stayed in our first-ever auto-hotel. These hotels are common in Mexico. They’re primarily business is for couple’s rendezvous so they advertise hourly rates. But many of them can be booked ahead for a full night and are a favorite of long-distance travelers because each room has a secured enclosed parking space for a car full of stuff. The Hotel Caribe was clean, quiet, and worked well.

Auto-hotel garage and casita

On day 2, we headed east to Villahermosa where we stayed in a more typical Fairfield Inn near a local mall. It was as-expected, but the food options nearby were pretty poor. On day 3, we continued northeast into the Yucatan for a night in Merida. Here, we stayed at the Euro-styled Ibis Suites, also at a mall. There was a Texas Roadhouse nearby (and it was my birthday) so we had a good American meal of steak and ribs. On day 4, it was a short 4 hours to Playa del Carmen, where we found our condo without too much trouble.

We chose Playa based on some research into available condo locations within our budget as well as proximity to the coast. We ended up in a beautiful 2-bed, 2-bath unit in a large gated community about a mile from Xcalacoco beach. In terms of duration, our 2-month stay in Playa was our longest stay in any single place. We set this longer duration based on expected visits from family but primarily to allow us enough time to renew our Temporary Residency.

When we obtained our Temporary Residency last year, we didn’t really consider the “start date” for our initial 1-year visa (new Temporary Residents are always granted a single year to start). Our expiration was January 6 and the renewal process can only start 30 days in advance of that date. Combine that with the fact that immigration offices close for 2 weeks for Christmas and New Year’s, and we were worried about how efficiently the process would go. In some offices, like our original visit in Mazatlán, services are walk-in with no appointment needed. While it might take all day to complete, everything could be self-performed without too much concern. But in many of the more popular immigration offices, appointments are needed a few weeks in advance. It used to be possible to make the appointments online, but that system has been eliminated and appointments must now be made in-person.

Even with a 2-month stay in Playa, we were concerned about being able to request an appointment and have enough time to complete the process (there is also a backlog in printing/issuing final documents after approval). After some discussion, we decided that having a professional immigration facilitator would be worthwhile. While we were in Oaxaca in October, I contacted multiple facilitators to confirm which offices they supported and if they could provide the services we needed. Once settled, I then had to learn to use Xoom to pay a deposit to retain the services of Milly Arceo at Legally in Mexico – highly recommended for anyone needing immigration assistance in the Playa del Carmen office. Milly was able to schedule our appointment for December 7, the first date of our 30-day renewal window. She completed all of the paperwork for us, with only signatures required to update our address and request our 3-year residency extension. On the 7th, we spent our first hour waiting at a coffee shop next door to immigration, then another 3 hours inside before our pictures were taken for our cards. As I said, the offices were behind on issuing cards, so it was helpful to have the additional time in Playa. But the office worked overtime through the holidays and we got our cards during the first week of January. When our Temporary Residency expires in 3 years, we’ll be able to request a conversion to Permanent Residency, at which point we could remain in Mexico as much (or as little) as we want, without any additional renewals or fees.

But enough about the administrata of residency in Mexico…. Our condo was amazing – the nicest we’ve had in Mexico. Because we were expecting guests, we made sure to have 2 full bedrooms, both with king-sized beds. (If I haven’t mentioned it before, double beds are the most popular size in Mexico, so getting a queen or king is a real treat!) We had a ground floor unit, which I always prefer for moving our things in and out. However, this one also had a main walkway outside, so neighbors were occasionally walking past our unit and looking through our open windows. That was a bit awkward and off-putting, but we needed to leave the windows and blinds open to allow a cool breeze to flow through the condo. Both bedrooms opened to the back of the unit, each with their own small gated terrace. Beyond the gates, we had a small grassy area and a narrow lap pool. We spent many of our afternoons out back, sitting with neighbors and enjoying the space. Our condo had a nice large kitchen and multiple split AC units. We found that running the AC in the main living area wasn’t really efficient and we had better results opening the front and back windows and running some fans. But we did often use the bedroom AC unit at night. Our condo came with a washing machine, but we were a little disappointed that it didn’t include a dryer and we had to air-dry all of our clothes. The condo also had a semi-private cenote out front – a large, natural, freshwater pool that was home to many fish and a few turtles. Our condo building was part of the large El Cielo neighborhood. We were able to take long walks with Gunner in the morning, often spying the wild coatis (raccoon-like creatures who like to raid the trash cans). We were also welcomed into the neighborhood and attended a block party with a great live band, went to a New Years Eve party on the rooftop, where we could see a great arrangement of firework shows from 6 or 8 local hotels, and we played a bit of cornhole out back by the pool.

Overall, our condo location was great. We were 15 minutes north of the town of Playa de Carmen, out of the hustle and bustle of the bars and shops, but with a few restaurants and convenience stores in our immediate area. We often traveled into Playa for major grocery shopping at Chedraui or Sam’s Club, or to explore the beaches, tourist zones, restaurants, and shops. On a few occasions we headed approximately 45 minutes north to Cancun for specific items from Costco. The international airport is also located in Cancun, so we combined those trips with picking up and dropping off various sets of kids.

The economies of Playa del Carmen, Cancun, and the entire Riviera Maya are centered on tourism. Forty years ago, there was just a few small fishing towns along the coast, but Mexico invested heavily in tourism in the area, which continues to grow and expand further south to Tulum and beyond. There are a large number of resorts (many all-inclusive), as well as theme parks, excursions, and beach clubs. As a result, much of the lodging and food options are truly tourist-priced. Our condo was the most expensive of our 1.5 years in Mexico, coming in at $1,600 per month (I remind myself that we picked a unit with 2 king beds, air conditioning, a nice kitchen, and a pool). That cost included all utilities (water, electricity, gas, internet) but came with a quota on the electricity we could use and a rate for anything above the quota. Over our 2-month stay, and with extra guests for approximately 10 of those days, we finished the stay right at our power quota, so no extra charges.

There is a wide range of food options and prices in Playa. For budget travelers, there are plenty of local options for reasonably priced tacos, tortas, and even our go-to chain restaurant Cerveceria Chapultapec. Our favorite mid-priced option was El Fogon, with tacos for 30 pesos ($1.50), alhambres (sauteed meat and veggie mix, similar to fajitas, but cooked with pieces of bacon) for 150 pesos ($8), and pastor to go for 630 pesos per kilo ($15/lb), complete with all fixings. We also enjoyed very reasonable meals at the Argentinean Kaxapa Factory and the funky local café El Hongo. There are also many higher-end options, where meals go for 400-500 pesos each ($15-25) and up. Because we were in Playa over the Christmas holiday, we found a meal-prep service through a Facebook group. Bloomfood delivered an entire smoked 13-lb turkey plus trimmings and sides for 6 people for approximately $165. Over our 2-month stay, we ate at our condo 2-3 days a week instead of going out. This included leftovers (including turkey!), takeaway pastor for tacos, pizzas, and the like. After living this nomadic life for over a year, we’ve found that cooking from scratch really doesn’t work for us. Every kitchen has its own collection of equipment, but most importantly we rarely have any base ingredients provided other than salt, pepper, sugar, and vegetable oil. We think it would be too hard to carry a collection of spices, flour, sauces, etc., so we rely on restaurants to keep us fed.

Expats – Playa del Carmen is full of international residents and tourists. Life here is too easy because all of the restaurants and shops have English-speaking employees, menus in English, and many of them will take dollars instead of pesos! To be honest, Sandy and I didn’t spend a lot of time in the touristy part of town. We walked 5th Avenue (the main tourist strip) to check out the shops and restaurants, and also when each group of kids were in town. It’s definitely a good spot to see a mix of locals and tourists, and also to shop for souvenirs and trinkets. Our condo community was a mix of Americans, Canadians, and Mexicans. We spent a lot of afternoons by the pool, sharing our travel stories and learning about other people’s plans and paths to Mexico. The majority have been coming to the Playa area for many years and bought a permanent condo unit, with some now living there full time, and others just traveling down when they can get away from their places back home. Almost everyone we talked to lives there for the comparatively lower cost of living, the warm weather, and the warm Caribbean Sea water.

As mentioned, we had some of our kids come to visit during our stay in Playa. Skylar and boyfriend Woody visited for five days at Christmas. We were able to have a traditional Christmas dinner and take them to see many local sights. We drove south to the small town of Akumal where some beach clubs and diving entrepreneurs lead guided snorkel tours to swim with turtles, rays, and other fish. The going rate for the 45-minute swim is about 600-700 pesos ($30-35, includes gear), but we found that negotiating could get the tour closer to 400 pesos ($20) per person. On another day, we chartered a fishing tour. Bad weather prevented us from going out as planned, but we were able to reschedule the following day. We had a great day at sea, with 6 hours of fishing (we caught one), an hour of snorkeling at a reef, and an hour on a beach eating ceviche and drinking beer. We also walked around Playa del Carmen and made a quick visit to the public beach in Cancun before their flight out.

Our son Dan visited in January with his wife Lauren and daughter Emalyn, also for 5 days. We took them to Akumal as well, partially for the snorkeling but also because the protected bay has a nice calm beach where Emalyn could play. On another day we visited the Crococun zoo, which is a crocodile refuge plus a zoo of many other native animals like snakes, turtles, jaguars, and the Mexican hairless dog. After the zoo, we went to the nearby fishing town of Puerto Morelos for a laid-back, small-town seaside lunch. On their last full day we visited Playa Esmerelda, which had become our favorite local beach. The beach is semi-protected by a reef so the water is often calm and there is a large sandy area to sit and have a picnic (not all Playa beaches have large wide expanses of sand). Additionally, the sheltered shoreline tends to stay clean of the sargassum seaweed that is washing up all along the Riviera Maya.

Playa Akumal

Playa Esmerelda

Akumal turtle

In addition to sightseeing with the kids, Sandy and I also visited a number of Mayan ruins in the area. There are two sites in Cancun along the small island now known as the “hotel zone”. Both are fairly small and most of the structures are platforms where it’s believed that the inhabitants built wooden structures for houses and shops. Cancun also has a great Mayan museum with artifacts from around the Yucatan. As a side note, we went to the 3 locations in Cancun on a Sunday, which is free admission for all residents of Quintana Roo, which we are! South of Tulum, we visited Muyil, another small site with many walls and platforms and a couple of short pyramidal structures. While there, we also explored the Sian Ka’an biosphere reserve. Supposedly there are lots of animals wandering around, but we were not fortunate enough to find any. We still felt that the chance to explore the jungle was worth the 50 peso admission fee though. Just south of Playa del Carmen, there are some small ruins inside the Playacar neighborhood. Again, mostly low, flat platforms, and since non-residents can’t drive into Playacar, I really didn’t feel it was worth the walk. Speaking of Playacar, this was Sandy’s favorite beach, as it was the only one that had lots of shells. For people interested in collecting shells, walk south from the ferry terminal about 15 minutes and you’ll have the opportunity to collect shells as far as you care to walk.

Cancun - El Rey

Cancun - San Miguelito

Lots of ruins in the Yucatan!

Muyil

Muyil

Playacar

The most extensive Mayan ruins that we visited was at Coba, approximately 1.5 hours west of our condo. This site had some larger pyramidal structures, spread over a large site. We recommend renting bicycles or hiring a bicycle taxi for approximately 200 pesos ($11) to explore the site. After exploring Coba, we drove a short distance to the Cenote Tankach-Ha. After paying the 100 peso entry fee ($5), we climbed down a spiral staircase through a small opening in the limestone to a large, open cavern with a clear freshwater pool for swimming and snorkeling. The cavern had many stalactites and was tall enough that multiple platforms were built into the staircase for jumping into the cenote. On another day we found the open-air Cenote Cristalino. This cenote was a series of pools of varying depths where we could snorkel with lots of small fish. Some were the type that nibble skin from your feet, so we also got a bit of a pedicure there. People pay good money for the feet-fish in town, so of course I wanted to take advantage of the benefit included with our 150 peso admission ($8, with our Quintana Roo discount).

Coba observatory

Coba - Nohuch Mul pyramid

Tankach-Ha cavern

Cristalino is well-named

We did have one other housekeeping item in Playa - we had driven enough miles that it was time for an oil change. Playa has a Honda dealer, so we made an appointment there. They did a thorough job, but we were surprised that the cost was equivalent to the U.S. To be honest, I expected that the lower labor costs would be reflected, but no. However, we did get a very good car wash and interior cleaning, so that was nice.

Gunner had a reasonable time in Playa. Midday temps were often in the mid-to-upper 80s, so we tended to walk him early in the morning or at dusk. And unfortunately, as we were dialing in our plans for the visit, we learned that the state of Quintana Roo does not allow dogs on the beaches. There is one dog-beach in Cancun – Playa Coral – that we visited a couple of times, and we also found some beach clubs that would allow us to bring Gunner to lay with us, but not get in the ocean. We enjoyed the Morena Beach Club (Wednesdays are dog-friendly), Mungata Beach Club (Thursdays), and the Playa Xcalacoco Beach Club (every day is dog-friendly, but their food and drink menu is very limited). Gunner did swim in the local cenote a few times but we would never let him in the pool. Otherwise, he walked the neighborhood, tried to chase coatis, laid in the grass, and watched over the condo when we went out.

Mungata (with sargassum)

Neighborhood coatis

Gunner at Xcalacoco Beach Club

Our 2-month stay in Playa flew by! We made some new friends there, which is a rarity for us since we are always on the move. For positives, Playa is a nice town, easy to navigate and get around, and there’s plenty to see and do. For negatives, average costs are higher, the sargasso seaweed is a nuisance on most of the beaches, and the daily temps are higher than we’d like. Overall, there are a few more destinations that we want to explore in the Yucatan, so we think we will return to Playa at some point. There are a number of “X-Parks” to visit, many cenotes to see, and I wouldn’t mind returning to the Mayan ruins at Tulum that we saw 8 years ago. If/when we return, we’ve talked about seeing if the same condo is available. Large, walkable neighborhoods are a rarity in Mexico and it would be nice to catch up with some of our new friends.