Playa del Carmen

Playa del Carmen grew in a few years from a fishing village with 300 inhabitants to a mexican most desirable vacation destination.
The reason for it are the dreamlike white sandy beaches of Riviera Maya and the turquoise waters of the mexican caribbean ocean, which attract yearly thousands of tourists.
The beautiful warm weather all year round motivated lots of canadians, americans and europeans to emigrate to mexico and open a business there, or just to enjoy there their retirement.
Because of this colorful mixture of emigrants from europe and northamerica and the natives, who mainly are the successors of mayan people, Playa del Carmen became a multicultural city, though not typically mexican, but with its many faces and international and mexican cuisine, got to be one of the most desired travel destinations.
First there were cozy caribbean style hotels with less than 30 rooms, located inbetween pubs and restaurants. Those original hotels are still very popular among tourists looking for an individual or alternative athmoshere.
In the meantime there were built many small hotels and lots of all inclusive resorts , which are mainly located in Playacar.
With raising popularity more and more holidaymakers spend their vacation time in apartments or houses, which have been bought by investors for capital gain, and which offer for the rest of the year as vacation rentals an additional income, or were just bought by fans of Playa.
Playa del Carmen is growing and streches along the caribbean coast for kilometers. Just one block away runs parallelly the main business street of Playa and the pedestrian zone, which is called the 5th avenue, named by the locals la Quinta. There you can find small hotels, pubs, restaurants and stores.
Playa also offers multiple shopping centres and huge grocery stores, cinemas and a variety of activities, like diving, fishing, surfing, horseback riding, golfing, swimming with dolphins and much more. Also for those interested in culture, there are various mayan villages and places, which can be reached just on a day trip with first class busses, rental cars or organised tours.