The energetic sand of Playa del Carmen

By Sarah Greaves-Gabbadon
CJ Travel Editor

You know those tranquil Caribbean beaches where the only sound is the wind rustling palm fronds and the only footprints on the sand are yours?

This is not that beach.

This is the sandy scallop in Playa Del Carmen, the bohemian beach town on Mexico’s Riviera Maya. And it’s no secluded spot. Rather, this curving sweep is stage on which Playa’s daily life is played out.

Outside its numerous beachfront restaurants, vendors hawk buckets of cervezas. You can’t stroll two feet without being offered a massage. Local children careen along the water’s edge, flinging handfuls of water into the air, the droplets glistening like diamonds on their descent. Tourist couples stroll at a leisurely pace, while others, laden with bags and coolers, proceed at deliberate pace toward the pier, where ferries like giant bathtub toys make the 45-minute transit toward the horizon and the neighboring island of Cozumel.

The beach is breezy, bustling, and unapologetically noisy. It’s Playa, pure and simple. Bienvenido!