What to do in Playa del Carmen and how to plan your trip
The walkable one. Playa del Carmen packs its beach, its restaurants, its nightlife and its ferry pier into forty streets you can cross on foot — and the rest of the Riviera Maya starts at the edge of town.
- 1transport zone
- 663hotels
- 7tours & activities
- 40walkable streets
- 28 °Caverage, all year
- UTC−5no daylight saving
Everything you need to know about Playa del Carmen
Playa del Carmen was a fishing village with a ferry pier until the eighties, which is why it has something Cancun doesn’t: a centre you can walk. The Quinta Avenida — what the tourist board calls the soul of the city — runs pedestrian-only for forty streets, one street back from the sand, and almost every hotel in town is within ten minutes of it. South of the pier, Playacar is the gated half: golf, all-inclusives and a beach without vendors. And under all of it runs the same flooded limestone as the rest of the coast, which is why underground rivers and caverns start ten minutes from the avenue.
Getting to Playa del Carmen
- Cancun Airport (CUN)About an hour and a quarter down Highway 307, dual carriageway the whole way. The only airport with international flights for this stretch of coast.
- Maya TrainThe Playa del Carmen station connects the town with the airport, Tulum, Valladolid and Merida without a car.
- Cozumel ferryFrom the town pier, at the end of Calle 1 Sur. Thirty to forty-five minutes to San Miguel, departures roughly every hour.
Beyond the beach
The three reasons people end up staying longer than they planned.
Good to know
- LanguageSpanish, with English and a surprising amount of Italian along the Quinta.
- CurrencyMexican peso (MXN). Prices on the Quinta are often shown in dollars; paying in pesos is cheaper.
- Time zoneUTC−5 all year. No daylight saving.
- Power127 V, 60 Hz, flat two-pin US-style plugs. Bring an adapter from the UK.
- WaterBottled water. Hotel and restaurant ice is purified.
- Emergencies911 nationwide, with English-speaking operators.
Transfers from the airport to every zone of Playa del Carmen are a fixed price per vehicle, with the driver waiting at the exit. See availability.
What to see and do in Playa del Carmen
The full list, not a top three: what the destination’s tourist board puts first.
Forty pedestrian streets one street back from the sand, from Calle 1 to Calle 40. What the tourist board calls the soul of the city, and busiest between 8pm and midnight.
The town beaches, both with beach clubs and both walkable from the avenue. Mamitas is the loud one; 88, further north, is where people go to escape it.
A flooded cavern a few minutes south, walked and swum with a guide and a head torch. The one underground trip visitors book here.
Cristalino, Azul and Jardin del Eden sit on Highway 307 just past Playacar. Shallow, open to the sky and reachable without an excursion.
Thirty to forty-five minutes each way from the town pier, roughly hourly, which puts the best wall diving in the Caribbean within a day trip.
The gated half south of the pier: golf, all-inclusives, a beach without vendors and a small Maya site inside the development.
All three parks are within half an hour south, and all three run their own transport from town.
The square where the ferry pier meets the avenue, with the Portal Maya sculpture and, most evenings, dancers and street musicians.
At the north end of town, where a cenote empties into the sea across the sand. Free, shaded and mostly local.
Twenty minutes and forty-five minutes south: turtles in the bay at one, the walled city on the cliff at the other.
Three hours inland by the toll road, and the day trip most visitors here end up taking.
Beaches of Playa del Carmen
Town beaches you can walk to, and the quieter sand at either end.
North end, where a cenote empties into the sea. Free, shallow, mostly local families.
The beach-club beach, at Calle 28. Music, sunloungers and the busiest stretch of sand in town.
In front of the town, between the pier and Calle 10. Convenient rather than beautiful, and always busy.
South of the pier. Wide, quiet and clean, with access through the resorts and a couple of public entrances.
A short way north of town, reached by a dirt track. Rustic, shallow and almost empty on weekdays.
Tours and activities in Playa del Carmen
Pick-up from your hotel, and each tour’s cancellation policy is shown before you pay.
Adventure
ATV Xperience by Xcaret
Theme parks
Jungala Aqua Experience
Theme parks
Xcaret Park
Theme parks
Xenses Park
When to visit Playa del Carmen
Four seasons for one destination. Choose yours by weather, crowds and price.
Dry and busy, 24 to 29 °C. The Quinta is full every night and hotel rates peak around Christmas and Easter.
Hot and humid. Sargassum season begins on the open beaches; the ferry crossing can get choppy in the afternoon.
European and Mexican summer holidays overlap. Warm sea, short afternoon storms, full restaurants.
The quietest and cheapest months, with tropical-storm watch in September and October.
Getting around Playa del Carmen
What each option costs and when it makes sense.
The town is forty streets long and four deep. Nearly everything worth doing is inside it, and walking is genuinely the quickest way.
White vans on Calle 2 run north to Cancun and south to Tulum all day, stopping anywhere on the main road. Cash only.
Fixed zone fares, no meter, posted at hotel receptions. Agree the price first. Ride-hailing apps are limited here.
To the airport, to the parks, to Tulum or to Chichen Itza, at a fixed price per vehicle with a driver who waits.
Areas of Playa del Carmen we serve
The whole town and Playacar under one fixed price from the airport, with hotels, times and vehicles.
Hotels in Playa del Carmen we pick up from
Fixed price to every hotel in the zone. If yours isn’t here, type it in the search box.
Playa del Carmen
Cancun · 663 hotels- Free cancellation with Premium
- Flight monitoring
- Meet & greet
Tips from our local team in Playa del Carmen
What travellers ask us most, answered by the people who live here.
Book the ferry, not the package
The Cozumel ferry is cheap and runs all day. Buying a ferry-plus-tour package is almost always more expensive than buying the ticket at the pier and the tour on the island.
Playacar is not walking distance from the Quinta
It looks close on the map, but from the far end of Playacar it is a 30-minute walk in the sun. Budget for taxis or pick a hotel north of the pier.
The Quinta is quieter before nine
Restaurants on Calle 38 and above are where locals eat. The streets between 10 and 14 are the loudest, and the touts are relentless.
Colectivos won’t take big suitcases
They are the cheapest way down the coast and a bad idea with luggage. Use an ADO coach or a transfer on airport days.
Sargassum hits the town beaches hardest
The open stretch in front of town catches the most. Punta Esmeralda and Playacar usually stay cleaner, and the hotels clean at dawn.
Cash for the cenotes and the market
The cenotes south of town and the craft stalls off the Quinta don’t take cards.
Playa del Carmen travel guides
Practical, written by the team that drives the area every day.
How to read a Playa del Carmen address
Playa del Carmen is a grid, and once you can read the grid you can find anything in it without a map. Streets running inland from the sea are Calles and…
3 read
Playa del Carmen: the town you can walk, and the resorts you cannot
Playa del Carmen is the one place on this coast where you can land, drop the bags and not arrange transport again until the flight home — but only if yo…
4 readGetting to Playa del Carmen from the airport
Fixed price per vehicle to every zone, driver at the exit with a name board. Full details on the airport page.
Transfer prices per zone in Playa del Carmen
| Transport zone | Journey time | Passenger van8 8 | Airport taxi3 3 | Luxury SUV5 5 | Group van15 15 | See availability |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Playa del Carmen | 60 min | $69 | $71 | $154 | $149.99 | See availability |
One way in USD per vehicle, taxes, tolls and luggage included. Return is the total for both legs. Journey times are estimates without traffic, worked out from distance and speed limits; those marked ≈ are approximate.
The prices shown are the Economy fare. Many services also have a Premium fare in the same private vehicle, with free cancellation up to 24 hours before and free changes up to 12 hours before; Economy includes one change with 24 hours’ notice. You choose between them when you see availability.