Playa del Carmen, Mexico Hotels, Vacations, Tourism

PLAYA DEL CARMEN (known simply as Playa) once a soporific, very Mexican fishing village, has mushroomed in recent years and now has the dubious distinction of being the world's fastest growing town (by a rate of 26 percent per annum), according to the Guinness Book of Records . It's expensive and overcrowded, not only with holiday-makers but also thousands of day-trippers from Cancún and passing Caribbean cruise ships. As a result the town's main centre of activity, Av 5 (or Quinta), a long, pedestrianized strip one block back from the sea, is often packed to capacity with visitors rapidly … more »