Introduction to Playa del Carmen, QR

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 emptying their wallets in pavement cafés, souvenir and silver-jewellery outlets and designer clothes shops. Additionally, with the arrival of US fast-food giants McDonalds, Burger King and TFI Friday, Playa's rather chic European atmosphere is giving way to a blander, more homogenized culture. The beach, however, is one of the prettiest on the coast with unfeasibly white sand and gloriously clear sea and the entire town is, for the moment, still compact and easily covered on foot – as well as playing host to the best nightlife on the Riviera Maya. The reef offshore is almost as spectacular here as in Cozumel and there are scores of professional scuba-diving operations in Playa – recommended is Tank-Ha, Av 5 between C 8 and 10 (tel 9/873-0302, www.tankha.com) which offers PADI certification courses (US$350), one- and two-tank dives (US$45–65) and whole dive packages (from US$175) as well as twice-daily snorkeling tours (9.30am & 1.30pm; US$25; 3hr). If you're a real thrill-seeker, you can sky-dive from Playa with Sky-Dive Playa del Carmen, Plaza Marina (tel 9/873-0192, www.skydive.com.mx), which comes in at US$200 for a tandem dive with a certified instructor.

Information by Rough Guides

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