Mexico - Playa Del Carmen

Any advice for a FT spending a week, with family, in Playa Del Carmen? Staying at a all inclusive in the Playacar section..

Thanks

Any advice for a FT spending a week, with family, in Playa Del Carmen? Staying at a all inclusive in the Playacar section..

Thanks

Advice.....Have a wonderful time:p

You are in for a great time! Playa del Carmen is our favorite vacation spot.

I would recommend 2 things ...

Get a good transfer service to and form the CUN airport. Even if you are on a Funjet or Apple tour. We have had problems with the group transfers included with tours.

Hers is a thread talking about this

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/mexico/1161586-cun-playa-del-carmen-car-service.html

The second recommendation is to get to the CUN airport early. I have gotten to the airport 2.5 hours before my flight and then almost missed my flight. Other times we have breezed through check-in and security in less than 40 minutes. The airport has decent dining and shopping options so it isn't a bad place to spend an hour or so.

Don't forget to go to Mamita's beach, it is the best beach in playa del carmen really beautiful.

Also go to the Bodeguita del Medio for dinner it is located on fifth street all the way till the end of it going towards 2nd street. Great music and really good cuban food.

Don't forget to take the whole family on a tour to Cozumel Island it is really beautiful and peaceful, great for snorkeling your family will have a great time.

Have a great time and hope this helps!

There is a great natural park called Ixcaret. It is a natural reserve park that has huge beaches, dolphins, natural river tunnels, real mayan pyramids, great for family time and you can get info at your hotel´s front desk, This a must go while being in Playa del carmen!!!

There is a great natural park called Ixcaret. It is natural reserve that has huge beaches, dolphins, natural river tunnels, great for family time and you can get info at your hotels front desk, This a must go while beeing in Playa del carmen
It is spelled Xcaret and people either love it or hate it. I fall in the latter camp and hence I must disagree with the poster about this being a "must go" destination.

It is billed as an "ecological park" and natural wonder. It is neither. It is a theme park for tourists - both foreigners and Mexicans. A very expensive theme park (at the time we went a few years ago a ticket cost more for Xcaret than Disneyland in Anaheim) - however if you are willing to put up with a high-pressure timeshare sales pitch in Playa del Carmen you can usually score free tickets to Xcaret. We paid for our tickets. In any case once you get in the park be prepared to pay through the nose for extras such as snorkeling, the underground river float, the dolphin experience, etc. Oh yeah, their rules prohibit you from bringing in your own sun screen unless it meets certain specifications, ostensibly to keep the waters clean in the park while you swim. But they'll sell you the right sun screen inside the park - cha-ching! They didn't really check too hard when when entered and missed our bottles of polluting sun-screen.

There is nothing particularly ecological about Xcaret park and, in fact, most everything there including the lagoon, beaches, archelogical ruins and "natural river tunnel", was constructed for the park. One might wonder just how much ecological damage was done to the site as a result of construction.

It can get crowded, especially on shore excursion days or high tourist season when busloads of day trippers come down from Cancun.

About the only redeeming factor of Xcaret IMHO is the evening folklore show (included in your admission). This is a very well produced show performed by local dancers, charros, mariachis and actors which tell the history of Mexico from the pre-conquest days through the Mexican revolution. The dialog is in Spanish and if you don't understand the language or have any concept of Mexican history much of what is going on will make little sense but it is still entertaining nevertheless.

About the only redeeming factor of Xcaret IMHO is the evening folklore show (included in your admission). This is a very well produced show performed by local dancers, charros, mariachis and actors which tell the history of Mexico from the pre-conquest days through the Mexican revolution. The dialog is in Spanish and if you don't understand the language or have any concept of Mexican history much of what is going on will make little sense but it is still entertaining nevertheless.

That evening game and the concluding show was enjoyed by me and my companions along with that building where the person in the corner arches can communicate with the person in the center of the room by way of a whisper that can't be heard in between.

Oops!!!

It's Xcaret.....

jwhite4304,

Any chance of a brief TR.

What was the hotel like and was all inc good value. Was it any of the RIU chain. I've been before an am thinking about going back

Did the kids enjoy. Got young ones of my own and think they would enjoy from my own memories of what was vailable at RIU Yuctatan and Tequila. Standard was pretty good then

Any thoughts appreciated

Custard

Trip is in May and will post a brief Trip Report. Going to an Occidental hotel for 2nd year in row.

Jim

Cheers,

Have a good vacation. If you are into diving, the school based at the Omni Hotel not far from Playacar has (or certainly had) some great staff. Look forward to the TR.

Been to XCaret on a boat and ATV tour.. Highly recommended.. sand isn't as nice as Varadero Cuba, even though XCaret claims it has the nicest beach in the world.

Just booked Fairmont Mayakoba for 14 nights.. looking forward to reading up on Playa Del Carmen.

We are thinking of renting a minivan/vehicle.. anyone else done so? How did it work out? Do you recommend renting a vehicle down here?

We are thinking about renting a condo/apt there for a few months this fall/winter. Mr.Bzbdewd will have to fly back and forth on occasion - mostly to DFW. How is CUN to fly in and out of?

CUN is fine !

Staying in Playa del Carmen or southward? Try a visit to Aktun Chen.