Quinta Avenida
Forty pedestrian blocks of restaurants and shops, with beach access every hundred metres.
Duration
1 hr 30 min – 3 hrs
Best time
In the evening
Open
Every day
Entry price
Free
Quinta Avenida runs parallel to the sea for about forty blocks, entirely pedestrian. Playa del Carmen was a fishing village and the jetty for Cozumel until the 1980s; the street is what grew up around it.
It reads in sections: the south, between calle 1 and calle 12, is the densest and most commercial; north of calle 20 the terraces are quieter and the prices more reasonable. The sea is a hundred metres away down every cross street.
Getting there
It crosses the town north to south, one block from the beach. The Cozumel jetty is at its southern end.
Rules on site
Restaurants with a tout and a laminated menu charge several times the price of a place one street back. Prices are often quoted in dollars when the peso is better value: ask for the bill in local currency.
Other places in Playa del Carmen
- CozumelThe island across the water, sitting on the world's second-largest coral reef.
- Cenote AzulThree open-air freshwater pools, with a rock jump for those who want it.
- PlayacarThe beach south of town, wider and quieter than the central stretch.
XcaretAn eco-archaeological park built around underground rivers, with an evening show.