When I first investigated Cancun, everyone said stay in Playa Del Carmen. “Cancun is the low rent area, you want to be in Playa”. I think I made the Cancun decision based on the prominence of bike rental and Airbnb options. Again in 2017, I read everything I could about were to ride in Playa and came away with the same idea that I was better off with the Cancun I had. In 2016, my only foray out of Cancun was to Isla Mujeres but this year I got to Playa Del Carmen.
I took the ADO bus. It is cheap (under 5 USD) and runs at least hourly. The bus let some people off along the road at Puerto Moralas and then arrived at the downtown Playa terminal.
Playa has a very simple layout, unlike Cancun. 5th avenue runs for 30? blocks, pedestrian only, and is cheek to jowl with message parlors (no, not that kind, the have your fingernails done too kind), T shirt shops, high end cloths, tour hawkers, restaurants etc. The next street back from the beach is 10th street and it is a smaller version of 5th. The cross streets lead down to the beach.
I walked the 3 minutes to the center of town and the beach. Ferries run from here out to Cozumel, that one can see lying low in the water, As usual, in a new environment, I feel particularly embolden to approach anyone. I picked a couple my age, speaking English, told them I was just off the bus. They were a couple days ahead of me and filled me in on what they knew. They were particularly interested in “local” and inexpensive Taco shops. They had found the famous one and were now in search of another they had heard of. They filled me in on being able to see the cruise ships at Cozumel and I told them I had heard good things about a town between Playa and Cancun called Puerto Morales.
My next stop was the information booth which had almost nothing to offer. I started off down 5th avenue. Hawkers, particularly message, were asking if they could help me. So, I asked about healthy eating and she sent me up a couple blocks to the local 100% natural. The same chain I had eaten lunch in yesterday in Cancun. It was wonderful. I sat right out on the avenue.
People who saw the distinguished traveler (me) sitting on the avenue soon filled the restaurant, but I had the primo seat. One young newcomer was a German students, just on her way to the airport after a weeks R&R.
My next goal was a bike shop. I hoped to speak to someone in person about riding in Playa. Most of the advertised bicycle rentals seemed to be beach cruisors but I found one “serious” looking google entry listed as on 30th street. I started to walk up, gauged my progress and elected to move inland a couple streets and hail a taxie, my second in 2 years in Mexico! I did not negotiate and of course was charged 40 MD for a 5 minute run.
A little searching turned up a hole in the wall bike shop but clearly the right kind of bikes and a man working on them, Mario Medellin. His English was good and he used WhatAp to send me a link to the man I should talk to about the kind of riding I wanted. Miguel Tekno +52 1 984 146 2885. I will certainly contact Miquel in the future. I also asked Mario about high end craft beer and he directed me to local bars but they were not open yet. I enjoyed walking back down 5th Ave and stopping in likely establishments to evaluate their beer worthiness.
I felt that I had a sense of Playa, so I decided I might as well do a reconosence of Puerto Morales as long as it was on the way home. The info both at the ADO terminal assured me there were busses every 20 minutes and I got in line. Wrong line. The two young men in front of me were planning a 20 city Mexican tour. About 30 minutes later I had a ticket and was on the bus to Puerto Morales. I chatted up the Arizona couple in front of me. He was very happy to be installed in a senior citizens community. They were just using up their last weeks of a time share down here that was not permanent but had an end date. I had never heard of that. He also played poker regularly in Vagas. And he brought up that he was on the winning side of our recent Trump disaster.
I’ll give Puerto Morales its own page, but comment here on how different the basic design is of the three resorts: Cancun, Playa and Puerto. Cancun is all hotel oriented. We have a friend who I told about the restaurants I knew she would have enjoy in Cancun. She reported that they did not stay in Cancun. In reality, she just stayed in her hotel complex. That is the Cancun model. Many establishments are all inclusive. The down town has a low rent feel to it. In fact, the area where my Airbnb was this stay is called Market 28 and more than a few of the hotel dwellers take the bus in to walk its unlimited kitchie souvenir shops. There are two bus routes plying the hotel road, R1 and R2. The R2 has a subset that is labeled Market 28. About Kilometer 12 on the Hotel Road is a high end mall. There may be others that I am not aware of.
Playa Del Carmen. Those pedestrian streets. Mixed vendors. Kitch next to Ralph Loren. Fancy people walking next to delivery people. The tourists are out in the town. I’m sure there is lots I am missing in that I was only there a couple hours but the feel is definitely different from the other two. The street is alive and it is not just the low end as you would see in Cancun. At the high end in Cancun, I never saw and hawking near by. Things are separated.
And then there is Puerto Morales, my favorite. A very small town, really just one 4 sided square. No high end shops. The expats are everywhere and really living. Eating in the restaurants. Buying in the stores. I am sure there are other day and week tourists like me but the place has a real “I live here” feel to it.