Besides that we love the beaches, we chose Playa del Carmen for a long stay because of the warm, year-round ocean temperatures, familiar stores and services, good restaurants, and the Cancun airport, which is less than an hour away.
My first visit to Playa was in 1992, when Playa had sand streets and a few one story guest houses or small hotels. At that time, Playa’s claim to fame was its ferry service to Cozumel. Since then, the city has elevated its position into a destination in its own right. When we visited in 2021, we decided it would be a good choice for a longer term stay. At the time, though, we opted to continue our journey through Mexico.
I found the comparison photo, below, on the web. The top photo shows Playa as it was in 1974 while the photo below it is from 2010. When we visited in 1992, it’s size was still similar to the 1974 view
We visited many places in Mexico between 2021 and 2023.
Between 2021 and 2023, we visited Merida, Mazatlan, San Miguel de Allende, Puerto Vallarta, Tlacapaque, Mexicali, Tijuana, La Paz, Progreso, Ajijic, Campeche, Tulum, Orizaba, Cordoba, Villahermosa, Coatzalcoalcos, Palenque, Chetumal, Bacalar, Ciudad del Carmen, Mexico City, and more. We stayed from a few days to several weeks in each locale, returning to Playa del Carmen this past June.
When we chose Playa del Carmen for a six month stay, we rented an apartment in an eclectic gated community called Tohoku. The location is about a half mile walk from the beach. There are supermarkets close by and a Walmart, a bit further away.
Within walking distance in every direction, there are restaurants. The mariscos restaurants have all manner of fish and seafood dishes. We like Nativo Restaurant and the natural food store nearby, where we get freshly made blender drinks and juices to go with our meal. There is a lot more we want to explore here. Playa del Carmen is big and spread out.
One of the reasons for the spread of Playa del Carmen is that, by law, no building can be more than five stories of living quarters with a sixth floor deck. So there are no high rises. I think this five-story rule is a good rule for a town, although it does add to the width and length of housing developments.
Something that we have enjoyed on previous visits is Playa’s proximity to the archaeological sites in the Yucatan. We haven’t visited any yet on this leg of our journey. That will be the subject of another post.
