Playa Del Carmen, Mexico

[Stevo985]

Right chaps,

mentioned it in the 2015 holiday thread, but I'm off to Mexico for two weeks in June so thought it was about time I started a topic to get some worldly advice.

Staying at the Riu Tequila in Playacar, so accommodation is sorted (all inclusive). So really just looking for advice on stuff to do outside of the resort while we're there.

Some questions to start... do I need to bring US Dollars? I was obviously planning on just bringing Pesos but some places seem to suggest having some dollars is a good idea. Thoughts?

Secondly, is there an easy way to get to Chichén Itzá? The hotel does a trip there but it's £90 per person. I know it's a couple of hours away but seeing as the entrance fee to see it is 98 pesos (about 5 quid) that seems like a rip off! I assume you're paying for safety and convenience, which may be worth it, but I'm not sure.

Any other advice appreciated!

[jackbauer24]

I stayed in Cancun, such amazing beaches, weather and a great country. We plan to go back so decided to just upgrade our room to a private suite overlooking the ocean and saved trips til our next visit.

 

Definitely take dollars, we were prepared with Pesos and, whilst they take them, everything was priced in dollars and they expected you were paying in dollars. It surprised me when they got a calculator out to work out the exchange rate for their own currency!

 

Whilst we made ours a very much beach holiday (the beaches and sea are stunning, whitest sand and clearest blue warm ocean) we looked at some of the activities for next time and I'd strongly recommend an eco park like Xcaret or the cenotes.

 

Have fun!

[Stevo985]

Yeah we're planning a Cenote visit as part of our Chichen Itza visit as most tours seem to offer that as part of the itinerary.

 

Other people have mentioned XCaret. But what actually is it? I've even been on their website and watched their videos and I still don't know what it really is. What do you do there?

[Tayls]

- Chichen Itza with the Cenote stop off, prepare yourself for the freezing cold water! Great experience.

- take about 800 pesos with you (£30-£35) for some cool trinkets when you get to Chichen, haggle like crazy. Definitely some cool things there to take home.

- Xcaret, it's essentially a jungle with barriers around it, connected to a beach, with a cowboy town within it. You can expect to see all kinds of wildlife and get involved with various activities. Or you can just lounge about on a hammock on the lush sand, or take a seat in a cave by a rock pool, close to the sea turtles. They have dolphins, Manatees, creepy crawlies, birds, monkeys, big cats etc etc, if you are into all that. We did the snorkling through the river - clear water, about 40minute swim/walk through dark caves and openings. (The dark caves arn't very long else it would be pointless). They also have an arena there where they perform Mexico through time - including a traditional game of 'hip ball'. Was fantastic to watch. Xcaret is worth the day out for sure!

[Stevo985]

Sounds cool. Think we'll definitely check that out!

[sharkyvilla]

I just remember the hotel having margarita cocktail slush puppies on tap to which you could add as much extra tequila as you wanted. The rest of our holiday was a bit of a blur, though Chitchen Itza is remarkable. Can't remember how much the trip was as a comparison.

[Tayls]

I just remember the hotel having margarita cocktail slush puppies on tap to which you could add as much extra tequila as you wanted. The rest of our holiday was a bit of a blur, though Chitchen Itza is remarkable. Can't remember how much the trip was as a comparison.

Did you clap??

[Dr_Pangloss]

Chitchen Itza is easy to get to by bus and shouldn't cost much.

 

Basically you should be able to get either an ADO bus (the 'first class' bus) or an Autobus Mayab ('second class' and will take longer). First class bus will cost you like 10 quid for a round trip but will take about 3 hours + from Playa Del Carmen.

 

If you have time you should check out Valladolid, Tulum and the lagoons in Bacalar. Bacalar is probably a bit too far but definitely go to Tulum, although to get the most out of it you should probably get a sweet place on the beach for a night, the town isn't great but the bars and restaurants along the coast line are awesome, and the beaches in Tulum are really among the best that part of Mexico has to offer.

 

Valladolid is what you'd call 'real' Mexico, not full of Americans, plenty of genuine antiquity with lots of colonial archetecture and some truly wonderful places to eat, offering real Yucatan food.  It also has a cenote that isn't as well kept as the more well known ones but still fun.

Edited March 13, 2015 by Dr_Pangloss

[Stevo985]

Most of the tours to Chichen Itza include a stop at Valladolid.

 

Found one now (hihgly rated on trip advisor which is always a good sign) for about $50 each. Includes transport to and from chichen itza, a stop in a cenote, entrance to chichen itza, buffet lunch and the stop off in Valladolid.

 

SO we'll probably go for that, seems pretty reasonable.

[blunther]

went last year. On phone now so will try and post more when on my laptop. Stayed at riu yucatan but went to Tequila a few times. Don't take dollars. You can use them but at a crap exchange rate. Take pesos. That's their currency after all. Did a few trips including Chichen Itza but will post more info when I have a proper keyboard. It's bloody great.

[blunther]

As promised, laptop now out so I'll give you a proper response.

 

First of all, you'll love it. If you don't, there's something wrong with you.

 

Like I say, we stayed at the Rui Yucatan, which is next door to the Tequila, about five minutes walk away. The Yucatan is the beachfront one, with the Tequila set back. As you can use other Ruis as part of the deal, a lot of Tequila guests came to the Yucatan through the day to use the beach, so the area around the pool and the lunchtime restaurant got quite busy. To escape the crowds when we wanted some peace, we did the opposite a couple of times and went to the Tequila in the day which was nice and quiet. The Yucatan is newly refurbed so a bit 'swankier'; but the Tequila is a lot more 'Mexican' (as much as you can be on these all-inclusive resorts anyway) and I preferred the layout. You also have the Sports Bar which came in handy a few times. There's a few Villa tops up in there. If you have an old one, might be worth taking them another one so we can outnumber other clubs! Quite nice to escape the heat and sit with some air-conditioned sports and a beer. The timing only really works for evening kick offs though. 3pm kick offs were a bit early to watch! You also have the 'discotheque'. I went here once, and me and the missus vaguely remember dancing around like idiots with some American teenagers. We spent the evening at the Tequila, and thought the Margaitas weren't very strong, so were having Tequila chasers. This turned out to be quite foolish, and the next day was a bit of a write-off!

 

The food and drink at the hotel is quite good, but in the end we kind of regretted going all-inclusive. We don't usually do it, but as it was a honeymoon we thought we'd just be lazing round most of the time. Turns out though that Playa Del Carmen itself, and surrounding areas, are so unbelievably wicked that we ate and drank out most of the time. It's quite cheap, expect about half the price you do in England, so a quid or two for a beer, three quid for a cocktail, seven quid for a meal. The food is great. Just great. Every restaurant we went into was ace. You get a bit of hassle from the shopkeepers like you do in most touristy plces abroad, but they're friendly enough and actually quite funny. Never saw any hint of trouble in Playa, it just seemed a really cool place.

 

On currency, definitely take pesos. Someone above mentioned taking dollars, but Cancun must be different. I think Cancun is pretty much 99% American, hence the dollar being more widely used, whereas Playa is more European. You can use dollars, but they just give you a rate of 10 pesos to a dollar, where the true rate is more like 12 to the $, so you're being ripped off. Might be worthwhile if you're American and already have dollars, but if you're changing anyway, just chanfge straight into Pesos.

 

To get to Playa from the hotel, it's a flat rate of 70 pesos in a taxi. The drivers know this, but some tourists don't. Don't bother negotiating, it's 70 pesos (£3.50) all the time. If a driver tries it on, just get another taxi. There are plenty of them. We never had a problem though, they all seem to know the score. You can just order one at the front desk, and you'll see where they hang out when you get into town.

 

It's mostly one street, 5th Avenue, though the 'Calles' (the roads perpendicular to the Avenues) have some good stuff on too. One 'calle' (I can't remmeber the number - 10th or something) seems to b Club Street, if that's your scene. We took a walk down there one evening, and it was full of youngsters and deafening music. Not our scene but was interesting to look at. We're far too old for that shit.

 

While I'm writing this, my missus has piped up and said 'tell him to go to the bar with the swings. And tell him they keep red wine in the fridge, but that is their only fault'. So there you go!

 

You'll probably see Coco Bongos, and see people selling tickets. I kept reading about it before we went, and everyone was saying how you HAVE to go. So we went. You can book a tour from the hotel, but there';s not point. Just get a taxi there and back and buy your tickets in town. It's about £80 for 'VIP'  tickets. For that you get balcony seats, and unlimited booze. Tell the chap what your drink is (we went for Rum and Cokes) and your glass will never be empty. We were hammered. It's a late night. You'll get home about 4am. I still don't really know what to think of it. It was weird. Probably worth going though, it was a laugh.

 

Outside of Playa. You can buy tours from the hotel through the rep, but we didn't bother. They just cost a lot more than you can get them elsewhere.

 

First of all, Chichen Itza. You're going all the way to Mexico, so you have to go really. Buying through the rep bloke, it's about £80. We bought from a tourist information place in Tulum (I'll come to Tulum in a bit) and paid around £35. This included being picked up from the hotel in a minibus at about 8/9am. Then it's about a two hour drive to Valladolid, which as said above is a nice little colonial town. You only get about 45 minutes here, but it's enough to have a quick mooch. Then we stopped off for a spot of lunch, and then to some gift shop type place (travel company obviously on commission). We weren't going to buy anything, but in the end bought an obsidian knife for a few quid, so it didn't break the bank. Then to Chichen Itza. It's midday by this point, so hot as hell. Spent a couple of hours there having a look around. It was good, and interesting. There was a walking tour, but we ended up shuffling off and having a look round ourself. Bought some lovely little decorated bowls from one of the stalls at Chichen Itza (it's a bit more commercialised than it would ideally be, but that's the world we live in I guess). He wanted 800 pesos for four. Got them for 280 eventually. It's a bit of a pain in the arse not to be able to get a simple price for things when you just want to buy a hat or something, but all part of the fun I guess.

 

The only positive to going with Thompson or someone (if you're an early riser) is they leave at about 5am, so you get to Chichen Itza while it's still (relatively) cool. At 1pm, it really is hot. That was okay though in the end, as down the road we went to a cenote. It was quiet, with only our little group of about 12 there. It as quite a developed cenote, with chnging rooms and showers. Other cenotes are nothing more than a hole in some jungle. Depends what you want I guess. It really did cool you down. The water was chuffing freezing! Apparently it's about 400 foot deep, so a bit scary, but a great experience. This one had a platform about 30 foot up which you can jump off. Took me a fair while to pluck up the courage, but I'm really glad I did!

 

Tulum: there are three parts to Tulum, which is about an hour down the road. There's the town, which is worth a look if you're there but nothing particularly special. Then there's some Mayan ruins. And there's the beach strip. The ruins are definitely worth a look. Really impressive, as it's located on the cliffs above the turquiose sea. Just beautiful. Then from the ruins, down the beach running for a good three or four miles, are all the beach clubs and hotels. There must be a good 100 of these. We visited a few and they were all great. You can walk down the beach, or just behind the beach is a little road where you can flag down a taxi. We went a couple of times to a place called Zebra. Amazing food, and the beach was just stunning. I really want to go back and stay a few nights at Zebra - magical place.

 

To get to Tulum, again you can book a trip. Don't bother. In Playa, there are little minibuses called Collectivos. These are about 12 seater minivans, which go to various places, but there's one that's a shuttle between Playa and Tulum. They're used heavily by locals, and it costs 20(!) pesos from Playa to Tulum. Just tell the driver your destination when you get in, and you're away. They just stop wherever someone flags them down, and drop you off wherever you want. If you're going to the ruins, make sure to tell the driver 'Tulum Ruinas', as it's a couple of km from the main town, which is a long walk in the heat. Where it drops you off for the ruins, it's about a ten minute walk to the ruins, or there's a land train whcih was a laugh and cost something daft like 50p. It was here that I booked the Chichen Itza trip above for half the price of the hotel. There;s a few places to get a bit of grub or a cold drink too.

 

I'm going to post this now and then start a new post in case my laptop crashes or something daft.

 

TBC!

[blunther]

Right, part two!

 

Yeah, Tulum is definitely worth a visit. The collectivos are great, but you can also get the 1st class bus from the bus station on 5th Ave too for a few quid if you prefer. There's only one road really down the coast, from Cancun in the North, down to Playa, then further south is Tulum, until eventually you get to Belize. I want to do this trip one day, stopping a few nights at each place then ending up in Belize. Anyway... the collectivos travel down this road. If you want to avoid going into Playa, you can walk to the main road from the hotel and just flag one down. But walking anywhere is a problem when it's 35 degrees and you've had too much tequila the nights beofre.

 

The hotel is in a gated community called 'Playacar' (which confused me initially with the similarity of the name, but there we go). It's deceptively big. I walk from the main road once, then regretted it when my flip flop broke, and I couldn't find a taxi. Ended up walking barefoot on the red hot floor and blistered my foot like a clearing in the woods. So yeah, my advice would just be to taxi to 5th Ave!

 

Likewise, you can walk from the Rui to Playa Del Carmen. Did this a few times. It's about 40 minutes by road, or the quickest way is get to the beach, hang a left and walk all the way in along the beach which is about 30 mintues. Walking along the beach brings you out in Playa at a ferry port. Whcih brings me neatly on to the next trip.

 

Cozumel is an island about a 45 minute ferry ride across the water. It's quite a big island, I think from memory about 15 miles long by a couple wide. You can get the ferry across for a few quid, and rent a car or buggy on the other side. We got some weird two seater knackered old pick up jobby on the other side, which was great, and did a lap of the island, stopping at various restaurants and ruins. Well worth a day for something a bit different. I was concerned about the honesty of the car rental places, as most of them were just a bloke in the street We had no problems, but I've read of others having issues on places like Tripadvisor. Here's a little tip. They take a scan of your credit card before you leave in case they need to charge anything to it. You know those pre-paid Mastercards you can get? I have a FairFX one. I'd already taken the money out, so it only had a few quid on there. As it's a Mastercard, they don't seem to notice it's not a credit card! So if they tried to charge anything to it, it'd just get rejected as it has no money on there. I was quite pleased with myself, and it saved me worrying while going around the island. Turned out fine anyway, but nice to be safe.

 

Didn't get to any of the theme park type places, but some of them looked good. 

 

I think that's about it. The rest of the time we spent beach-bumming, or in the sea, or oh no, one more!

 

We went to a place called Akumal, between Playa and Tulum. This is home to a load of sea turtles, and you can go snorkelling with them. The opportunity to snorkel independently is limited, as it's regarded as a protected reserve for the turtles. You can have a guided snorkel, including kit hire, for about 20 quid each. Seeing sea turtles in their natural environment was amazing; one of the higlights of the hoiday for me. Such lovely, peaceful creatures. Word of warning  make sure you get some waterproof suncream on the back of your legs and anything exposed while snorkelling. The wife found this out the har dway, and spent the next two months looking like one of those fish-stick things. Don't **** with the sun in Mexico!

 

That goes for the rest of the time too really. Don't underestimate tropical sun. I used P20 most of the time - excellent stuff. One application in the monring, and it actually protects you all day. Took me a while to trust it, but it really does work.

 

Now that really is about it. What a place. Would go back in a heartbeat, but wouldn't go all-incusive again, but different strokes for different folks and all that. If you like the all-inclusive vibe, I don't think you can go wrong with a Riu. Good balance of relaxed and fun, but good quality too (some of the food was great!). The drinks... they have branded spirits if you ask for them by name. Otherwise asking for a whisky will get you some weird cheap stuff called something laughably fake scottish like Kilty McSporran or something like that. 

 

The beach is great. The hotel is great. The sea is warm and turquiose. The people are lovely. The town is ace. The surroundings are awesome. Mexico is the best country on Earth. Have a cracking time mate, and I hope some of this info is useful!

 

Up the villa!

[blunther]

2,500 words. Jesus. Accidentally wrote a thesis on Playa Del Carmen there! 

[Dr_Pangloss]

Make sure you go to eat at a place called 'Nativo' whilst in Playa, it's very cheap, doesn't have a huge amount of foreigners there, and the food is absolutely fantastic. 

[Stevo985]

Wow, thanks for the help guys. blunther especially, that's a great post. I'll be forwarding that to the missus.

 

The currency is very confusing, so many people say different things. The missus works with someone who went last year and stayed in exactly the same hotel as us and she said to take all dollars. Said take enough to tip the hotel staff in Pesos, but dollars for everything else!

Everyone seems to say different things. Think we'll just take half and half and see what happens.

 

Will take all your advice on board.

Chichen Itza is a must, that was always on the radar. The tour we found sounds pretty similar to your one in terms of price and itinerary.

Coco Bongos has been mentioned to us a few times

 

 

All Inclusive... our thinking behind it was that we did Thailand last year. Whilst it was an amazing holiday, it wasn't that relaxing because we were always moving around or worried about the next flight or ferry or taxi or whatever. 

So this time we thought we'd go all inclusive and just be lazy for 2 weeks (although we always intended to go out and do a few activities)> Neither of us have been all inclusive anywhere before so it's worth a try.

 

Thanks for the info anyway, I'll have a good read of that post and might come back with some questions

 

Collectivos sound great I've got basic Spanish skills these days so I should be ok with taxis and buses and the like

[Stevo985]

Tulum and Akumal sound great.

 

The missus and I have this thing where whenever we're away we go to a Hard Rock cafe if there is one where we're going. I know that's really commercial and sad but it's a habit we have. Anyway, there's one in Puerto Aventuras which is between Playa Del Carmen and Akumal.

 

So I'm tempted to do all three of those in one day. Take a look around Tulum, stop at Akumal on the way back and then at the Hard Rock for dinner or drinks. That'll get us out of the hotel for a day at least.

 

That island sounds ace too. I'd definitely be up for exploring that! Although after Thailand the missus hate ferries, so she might take a bit of convincing!

[Tayls]

What about Isla Majures? Taking the Catamaran over to there was a great experience. They pepper you with beverages and music whilst you relax on the netting. There is also a midway stop off to snorkel in the Caribbean Sea. The island is incredible, you stop off at one end of the Island which is essentially paradise - White sand, wooden shacks where you get a buffet for lunch, clear waters to have a quick dip before heading to the other side of the Island and the main town. You can then choose to hire a golf cart and drive it around the whole island. We did that and stopped off at a cliff so we could check out all the iguanas that go there during mating season. We got back into town and then just explored until heading back to cancun.

Also worth mentioning that we stayed at the Thompson Sensatori resort which is outside cancun. We were a little worried that we wouldn't have much to do, but, we were wrong.

[Stevo985]

I looked at Isla Majures.

 

It does look amazing but we'd have to get to Cancun first, which is 2 hours from our hotel for a start. And then we'd have to get a ferry to the island.

Just a bit of a long trip is all.

[Dr_Pangloss]

Isla Majures is fun. I did one of those catamaran jobs where you do some snorkeling and get smashed, then I hired a golf cart and rode around the Island (lots of fun). That said, looking back, I wish I'd have just made my own way to Isla Majures as the catamaran trips only give you an hour or two on the Island, so you don't have a huge amount of time to enjoy it. 

 

Oh, if you go to Coco Bongos make sure it's the one in Cancun, the one in Playa is smaller and not as good. 

[Stevo985]

I doubt we'll be going to Cancun at all to be honest. Certainly not for a night out anyway.