Playa del Carmen, Mexico

PLAYA DEL CARMEN (known simply as Playa), once a soporific fishing village, has mushroomed in recent years to become, for tourists anyway, a trendy place touted as the next Miami Beach – from a local's perspective, a goldmine of employment in construction. Not only do Mexico City's elite pop in, but so do day-trippers from Cancún and passengers from cruise ships. As a result, the town's main centre of activity, Avenida 5 (also called La Quinta), a long, pedestrianized strip one block back from the sea, is often packed to capacity with tourists rapidly emptying their wallets in pavement cafés, souvenir outlets and designer-clothes shops. Nonetheless, Playa does retain a rather chic European atmosphere, due to a high number of Italian- and French-owned businesses, and compared with hyperactive, Americanized Cancún, it seems positively cosmopolitan and calm. The nightlife in particular is excellent, and you'll also find sophisticated cuisine, hotels for most budgets and diverse shops. Everywhere visitors will want to go is compact and very pedestrian-friendly – even a walk to the better beach on the north side of town, a broad expanse of silky sand, is an easy one.