Things to do in Playa del Carmen

One would imagine that what you are coming to do in Playa del Carmen is only relaxing and doing nothing… and that’s probably the main goal. However there are plenty of things to do, depending on what you like, because of that we’ll divide this post in different parts.

Besides doing nothing in your vacations, what do you like doing? Going out for a drink? Having a nice dinner at a restaurant… What about partying like a rockstar at a nightclub? Going out for a walk on the beach, or on the Fifth Avenue in Playa del Carmen. Doing some tours of course…

Ok, so let’s start with…

Walking down the Fifth Avenue in Playa del Carmen.

Sometimes relaxing means doing things without thinking, for example walking down the pedestrian 5th Avenue in Playa del Carmen. You can buy a nice ice cream in the several Ice Cream shops down the street and start walking with no plans at all, wandering from one storefront to another probably deciding where you wanna go later. Walking down the 5th Avenue will give you plenty of ideas of where to go have a drink or where to eat later on on your vacations.

Walking down the beach in Playa del Carmen.

Do you know what “Playa” means? Well that means “Beach” in spanish, and of course, what would you be doing down in the Caribbean in mexico if it wasn’t for the beach? Anyway, walking down the beach is very relaxing and you’ll get to see really nice ocean views, from the beach you can see the Cozumel Island on the other side of the sea. Walking down the beach you’ll see all the nice beach clubs there are, because one important thing are Beach Clubs in Playa del Carmen to go have some drinks during the day and listen to some good music. You can see a list of beach clubs here: Beach Clubs in Playa del Carmen.

Bars in Playa del Carmen

One thing you wont miss in Playa del Carmen are the bars, the city is full of them, mostly down the 5th Avenue, however the streets of Playa del Carmen all around have bars, some of them are really nice fancy bars and some others are really fun and cheaper, remember there is always something for all sorts of budgets.

There is one place right now that is really rocking and that is the roof-top bar at the Thompson Hotel in Playa del Carmen. This is amazing, its a really hip bar and is open to the public, not only for guests of the Hotel, you can actually use the pools some of the nights and they always have different promotions during the week like ladies night or happy hours. This hotel is located on the fifth avenue on a street that’s called “Calle Corazòn” which is the romantic part of the 5th in Playa del Carmen.

There is another very nice place in Playa del Carmen called Fusion, it is a beach bar, restaurant and hotel so you can go at any time from noon forward…

Fusion is amazing at night to go have some nice snacks or a good dinner and then start your night with some drinks… their margaritas are really delicious actually. Fusion Bar have different shows every night during the week so you’ll be sure to have some fun.

You can go to our Playa del Carmen Directory and look at “Bars in Playa del Carmen” section and see all the bars in the city.

Beach Clubs in Playa del Carmen.

Like I told you before, Playa del Carmen has lots of Beach bars that are worth visiting and spending every second there.

The first and most known beach bar has been Mamitas beach bar a place that hosts the Jazz Festival every year and is located on a great beach in Playa del Carmen. Mamitas Beach Club has grown a lot since it beginnings, now it has a large infrastructure with restaurants and different areas for events.

One known Beach bar right now is the Coralina Beach Club located at the Grand Hyatt Playa del Carmen Hotel, it is a really hot spot of Playa del Carmen and it was on all the social media recently by one thing that happened there… just look for the Hashtag #LadyCoralina and you’ll know.

One really nice relaxed beach bar is the Canibal Royal Beach Club, it has a really hip environment and it has a roof-top pool and the music is amazing every single day.

Restaurants in Playa del Carmen.

There are plenty of restaurants in Playa del Carmen and it’s really hard to choose from one to another, basically start walking down the 5th Avenue and you’ll see what I’m talking about, but restaurants are not only on the 5th Avenue, there are some really good restaurants all around Playa del Carmen.

One really known restaurant is “La Casa del Agua” serving International food and some really nice Seafood plates.

One I especially like is the Ipanemas Grill located on the 10th avenue, just one block from the 5th. This is an all you can eat meat Brazilian restaurant where they bring you the spades with different types of meat while you keep your green light on. I simply love meat.

If you want to know all the different restaurants in the city go to: Playa del Carmen Restaurants

Nightclubs in Playa del Carmen.

There are lots of different restaurants all around Playa del Carmen and most of them are of course on the 5th Avenue of Playa del Carmen. The main area for nightclubs is the 12th Street in Playa del Carmen where lots of people meet and dance all night long.

You should go to each and everyone of them but one you cannot let pass is the CocoBongo Nightclub, because their show is something amazing. They have several different shows every night and their quality is something amazing.

Tours in Playa del Carmen.

You could probably want to stay at your hotel if you are staying at an All Inclusive place down in Playa del Carmen, but let me tell you, there are plenty of activities you can do in Playa del Carmen, there are any number of Adventure tours in the Riviera Maya, family tours, theme parks, sightseeing excursions and more. You should visit our “Tours in Playa del Carmen” page to get to know all the Tours available in the area.

One of my favorite tours is Zip Lining with Selvatica. Selvatica is an amazing Zip lining park located in Puerto Morelos in an area called “La Ruta de los Cenotes” and it’s about 35 minutes from Playa del Carmen. Here you’ll experience adrenaline while jumping from one tree to another hanging of a zipline.

Depending on the type of tour you would take there are some other activities in the Park, one of them which I really like is the Polaris Off-road vehicles that you drive in the middle of the jungle fast as you want and doing some nice u turns.

You can also to a tour where you’ll drive ATV’s thru the jungle and be sure that you’ll have some fun here… if you like adrenaline…

Have you heard of the cenotes? If not you should read a little bit on our about cenotes page… Going to Selvatica will give you access to a cenote in the middle of the Jungle which is like a sinkhole, here you’ll jump in cool crystal waters to refresh yourself from the heat of the day and the adrenaline.

Depending on what type of person you are, if you don’t like adrenaline that much, you can go Snorkeling for example, there are some great snorkeling spots around the area of Playa del Carmen or you can always go to Puerto Morelos National Marine Park, and since it’s a protected Marine Park you’ll be able to see lots of natural sea life in the area.

There is one thing lots of people come to Playa del Carmen for… and that is Diving… Check out more info about this on: Diving Playa del Carmen.

Yes, people come diving to Playa del Carmen because it has amazing underwater formations, like great coral reef walls and just in front of Playa del Carmen is Cozumel, the mecca for divers from all around the world. And guess what… lots of people comes to Playa del Carmen do dive with sharks!!! That is correct Shark diving is popular in Playa del Carmen and it’s actually a way to incentive people of the area to not fish sharks since they are endangered species. The Bull Shark comes to Playa del Carmen in the winter season to have their babies and it’s when divers start their Diving with Sharks season.

But these are not all the tours you can do in Playa del Carmen, you better check our page: Playa del Carmen Tours.

There are plenty of things to do in Playa del Carmen and we’ll keep adding some more to this article, but please tell us in the comments what other things there are to do in Playa del Carmen and we’ll add them 🙂