Playa del Carmen is a great vacation spot. There are plenty of things to do in this town and you could probably stay for about a week without running out of things to do. There are areas that definitely cater to tourists but also areas that have more of a local scene but are open to tourists. The only negative was that the beach was suffering from some major seaweed while we were there. We found just one area that wasn’t bad to get into the water.

There are different dining options ranging from street food to gourmet restaurants. There are all types of cuisines. Our favorite place to eat in Playa was a stand near Super Aki. We also enjoyed a good amount of marquesitas.

You can take plenty of tours from here and many attractions are located within a quick drive. We didn’t end up going south of here to see any ruins or visit Bacalar but you definitely can do that.

Nightlife is abundant, however the pricing is not ideal. We read and heard that the cost can change depending on gender and time of year and we saw that to be true. While most places let females in for free, men had to pay $20. The drink prices were also listed outside and many were overpriced. We thought it was way too steep so we decided to go away from the main club area and went to a cool rooftop.

I’ll share more about what we did in the 2nd part because we spent time in Playa twice. ;P