FULL REPORT: PDC Jan 2-9 2009

[Renesis]

To see more pictures of our tip go to my website here

Introduction
Background
Day 1 – 8
Cliff's notes
General impressions


Introduction


Hi guys, so finally (or sadly, depends on which side you are) I'm back from Playa to post my trip report! It's going to be a long one so come back when you have enough time.

First, I want to thank all of you who helped either by answering my numerous posts on this forum or by contributing in other threads which I've read, or by making this whole website and it's directory come together, you've been great!

I'd also like to deliver a special thanks to MapChick for the Playa del Carmen map, it's the best $10 I've spent in a long time!

For those who like it short and sweet, head to the end for the cliff's notes.



Background


Now a little background on me before the trip report to put you into context:

I'm 21, so I didn't travel that much, I did 3 trips with my parents in California, USA. It was my first time travelling only with my girlfriend and for the first time also I had to do the planning by myself.

I chose Playa because we wanted to have that kind of weather, didn't want an all-inclusive, and we're not really "beach" people so we wanted a city where we'd have some walking to do. And then I found out about this bunch of Playa loving people that you are and thought that there must be something about this place.. so we gave it a go and this is how it went:

TRIP REPORT

Day 1: We left from Quebec city airport at 5 PM with Air Transat, everything went well, we had a nice smooth flight and the food was great. Arrival in Cancun was 20 minutes early of what we expected at 8:30 PM local time. Again everything went well and soon we were out, anxious to see if our transport would be there.

Sure enough, a guy from Entertainment Plus / USA Transfers was there holding a sign with my name on it and within 3 minutes both of us were in a comfortable private air conditioned van. Nice!

First impressions, it's quite warm for that time of the day, air smells good, the highway is nice with all it's lighted decorations. First surprise: the way the driver drives. So un-American. No honking, he doesn't jerk us around, he lets other motorists go by… Wow! We already feel more relaxed.

About 1 hour later we arrive in Playa, eyes wide open. Obviously we didn't see the best part of the city and at time I wasn't so sure I had made a good choice, let's say that the streets he took to get us to the condo weren't the nicest looking! We finally arrived at the Pueblito Escondido resort, still a bit stressed since we had booked directly through an owner. To our great pleasure check-in proved to be a 30 second job and soon we were in the condo which was absolutely awesome. You can read my full review of it here



Day 2: Our first meal in Playa, where did we start? An obvious choice for a breakfast, also about 1 min from the condo, the Cueva del Chango! I ordered a nutella sweet crepe and my girlfriend got herself a Yogourt, Granola and Banana crepe both with orange juices. We both loved our meal and it was very inexpensive. Great experience.

We then walked our way to the Mega (no way we were going to a Wal Mart in Mexico!) we've been a bit stupid as we walked back from the Mega with quite a lot of groceries in the worst heat of the day at about 1:30 PM… I then took my first cold Corona when we got back to the condo. We then visited the condo resort (rooftop pool) and headed to the beach and the 5th ave. Let's say we were impressed from what we saw. Lots of picture taking later, it was time for dinner (wow, we forgot to take a lunch since we were so full!) so we went for another recommended restaurant that was close to our condo (we were still exploring, remember!) La Pumerolla, a nice Italian restaurant off the main tourist area but still on the 5th.

I had the classic recommended meal, the Italian sausage pizza with a Corona, and my other half ordered a lasagna and a Limonada. As others have mentioned they offer you meatballs with fresh bread while you look at the menu, they were AWESOME. I'm a big fan of Italian food and tried lots, but these meatballs were something, let me tell you. The food was very good too although the lasagna and the meatballs could have been warmer. The pizza was way too big for only one person, which was a good thing since my gf didn't like her lasagna very much since it was made with fresh pasta and she's not too fond of that so we kind of shared our meals.

We headed back to the 5th ave for a walk and stopped to buy the famous Brownies from Ah Cacao and went back to the condo in order to plan the next day. I found the Brownies quite good but not exceptional, my gf obviously loved them, being full of chocolate! It's a girl thing I think!








Day 3: Woke up early, went directly to La Vagabunda for the breakfast, I had an American breakfast and she had a waffle with fruits (no pics, sorry). We walked further south to the new ferry docks (nice place, but looks too Americanized to me) we walked back to the condo, saw the playa palms webcam (hello!) and had a little sunbathing session before lunch which we had with the food bought the previous day.

After lunch we walked north on the beach for a good hour each way, past a place where locals had a parking and hanged out (we saw no tourists for a good 15 minutes of walking before turning around)

We ate dinner at La Parilla, fortunately for us the Mariachis got there earlier than expected and we heard them while we were waiting for our bill (by then we still hadn't got used to asking for the cuenta…) We shared a mixed beef / chicken fajitas together and it was very good and almost enough for two. But it was pretty expensive compared to other restaurants in Playa. Only thing I didn't like is that on the bill they circled the total amount in such a way that it completely hides the word and amount of the propina! How dishonest is that! We left tip over that amount which already included tip and only noticed later when we had left. Be warned!

On our way back to the condo we stopped again for something sweet for the lady, cookies from the Coffee Café, they were pretty good!






Day 4: EXPEDITION DAY! We woke up very early, ate breakfast in the condo with the remaining brownies from Ah Cacao, and walked to the Gran Porto Real where the bus was waiting to pick us up for the tours. We went to Tulum first (after many stops to pick more people along the highway) Tulum was nice but I can't say I've been impressed. The ruins left me cold, I was expecting something bigger more interesting, next time we'll go to Chichen Itza instead.

I must admit what these people did is simply amazing, not only to see the remains of something so old still stand up today but also all the calculations involved in the lighting effects they created in the temples. What I really loved was the views of the ocean which looked (dare I say it) even better than from Playa.

Then we went to Xel-Ha. It's a very nice park (felt VERY American though) very well organized and everyone seemed to enjoy their day. We, however, didn't do much there. We planned on doing the river run on tubes but the guide told us most people don't like that activity as it's too much time on the water and quite hard physically so we ended up only walking around the park… Snorkeling would have been nice but we would've needed lessons and my gf isn't good in English and I'm useless in Spanish…

So it wasn't the best day of our trip, and that's without mentioning the food… it was atrocious and made us so glad to have a condo and not an all-inclusive resort! The international and Mexican buffets looked like crap, so we went to the gill instead which was another buffet finally (!!!) and we tried something basic like hamburgers with fries and onion rings and.. it was our worst meal of the trip and by far!

We got back to the Pueblito Escondido quite late (since we had almost 20 min to walk from the drop off point at the Gran Porto Real) and ate a Pizza from the Mega.

[Renesis]

Day 5: We woke up late and ate breakfast in the condo, then went out to explore the 10th ave, we came back on the 5th and stopped by the 100% natural to have some refreshing drinks since it was getting hot to walk that much far from the ocean breeze. I got myself a lime sparking drink and my girlfriend had a Californian juice (lime, orange, pineapple and apple) both were very good and helped us cool down a little. We went back to the condo's rooftop hoping to get our tan darker a little and then went for lunch. We (well…I) wanted to try the Fogon to have our first real Mexican meal, but sadly we found out they were only open for dinner (IMHO tacos are more of a lunch than dinner) and we had to go to the MEGA afterwards.

So not looking to go too far out of the way, we finally stopped at the Aca Los Tacos. I ordered a dos equis (had to try it out, seems like it’s THE beer here, and I had never heard of it) and the famous al pastor tacos, and I also chose for my girlfriend since I wanted to try another kind of tacos, the arrachera con queso (I was still a newbie and didn’t know you could order tacos the same was as sushis to have different kinds in a meal!) Both were good but a special mention goes to the Al Pastor ones, why don’t we have these here?!?

Obviously I’m used to “Americanized” tacos, (hard shell, nacho sauce, lots of cheese) so it was quite different but I really liked the condiments they had, mixed a few sauces. The only thing I’m still not a big fan of is the soft shells, you might as well order burritos…

The rest of the day was quite slow, we went to the Mega, relaxed on the rooftop and then had dinner at the condo. My gf was K.O. and needed to go to bed quite early.







Day 6: We started off slowly once again, had breakfast at the condo, we the headed to the beach (and brought our beach chairs that came with the condo). That’s when I got my sunburn! We then headed to the rooftop once again (it’s just a lovely place, with the music and comfy lounge chairs!) Had lunch at the condo and then left for a walk, this time walking the 38th.

We then turned on the 30th and walked quite a lot, came back to the condo to relax a bit, and later we left for dinner. (wow, seems like all we do is relax and eat? I’m already missing that!)

We ended up at the Makkeroni, at first I was hesitant, the street was dark, there were only 3 persons in the restaurant.. but in the end we decided why not, the menu (thanks to intheroo.com!) looked interesting and that’s why we wanted to stay there. Boy am I glad we did try it.

I’m a big fan of Italian food (I inherited that from my parents) and I obviously tried many Italian restaurants not only in my own city but also when I travel and I can say that this one was amongst the best. It might not look like much but trust me, the food is worth it!

I had a rigatoni bolognese and my girlfriend had a pizza (yes, another one!) margharita. The owner was simply brillant, funny, kind, very professional, he knew his menu very well and once the cuenta came, he even offered us free tequila shots. (which we politely declined so don’t think it’s the reason why I’m posting such a good review of this restaurant!)

After dinner we were full since food was so great we ate way too much, so we went for a walk again, this time looking at the stores (since the trip was already coming to an end) and we had time to spend since we were waiting for the fire show.

If you saw my thread about it then you know what’s coming: we waited and waited and waited but all we saw was the show at the Fusion from far away. We left at 11:15 and walked back to the condo (so we still had a view of the Blue Parrot until about 11:35) and sure enough there was no fire show that night or it started ridiculously late (why pay to have planes advertise a show that starts at 11PM if it does not?) My gf was very disappointed so to compensate we bought a mocha frappe at the Ah Cacao on our way back.







Day 7: Woke up very early that morning as I wanted to get sunrise pictures. (why isn’t the sunset over the beach, darn!) They didn’t turn out very good since it was too cloudy that morning. We then had to get breakfast therefore we went to the Cafe Tropical.

This was also a notable moment, not because of the food (which was okay) as I had a waffle and bacon while my girlfriend had a strawberry bread with cream cheese. So what was worth mentioning then? The JUICE! And what a juice it was. My brilliant girlfriend had the great idea of ordering a strawberry, apple, lime (and maybe another fruit) mixed juice. I don’t remember how they called it but it’s THE best juice I ever had. It felt like you were drinking vitamins it made you feel good and healthy!

After this refreshing breakfast we had to go shop for souvenirs, since our trip was coming to an end already. We shopped mostly at Plaza la Fiesta because there was pretty much everything we needed and unlike smaller shops, nobody to bug us. We got a nice discount (200 pesos per 500 pesos of purchase) to be used at the jewellery section and my girlfriend bought nice earrings with that. However, I just got my credit card statement and it looks like he charged us TWICE, before and after the discount, even though I only signed one copy. Be warned, as I’ll have to contest this bill.

Sadly, this wasn’t the lonely bad experience of the day and I’m almost sorry to report this (as I know they post on the forum and most people like that place) but the 2nd bad experience we had was at the Fusion. Where to start… first, we had absolutely NO service, it was one of the first time where there wasn’t anyone to welcome you and assign you a table. So we chose the only one remaining and noticed a couple that looked bored as hell. Little did we know what was about to happen..

After 10 minutes (no joke!) of waiting, no waiter had come to our table (nor to the couple’s) so I went and grabbed a menu by myself. A few minutes later someone finally came. (the other couple were about to leave at that point!) When then got the food quite quickly, I had the apparently “best in playa” Hamburger and my girlfriend had (we’re still unsure what she really had.. you’ll see later) a chicken breast sandwich.

Sooooo… my hamburger was ok, I expected more of something that’s supposed to be the best of a whole town and I still don’t understand the trend of uncooked buns.. I’ll definitely try a hamburger at El Diez at my next visit because their fries were much better and since it’s an Argentinean grill, I’m sure they can do good hamburger meat too, I’d like to compare. So the “sandwich” then? Well.. it was the worst joke ever. The chicken breast was probably an AA cup in chicken standards and boy were we surprised to see the bread: plain white sliced bread! The “sandwich” was a do-it-yourselfer too and she had NO condiments whatsoever! Fortunately I didn’t take the tomato and lettuce in my Hamburger so she got a half-decent sandwich.

Then the cuenta came, with an error, the waiter charged us for a grilled chicken breat and not a chicken breast sandwich, which left us wondering if that’s what she had. But the grilled chicken breast was supposed to be served with a salad and rice (from what I remember) and anyway why would it come with sliced bread!

So he finally corrected the bill and we left, very disappointed. We chilled out during the afternoon, part on the beach part on the rooftop again. We went for dinner at Babe’s noodles and bar. For the first time of the trip we ordered an appetizer, the chicken satay which was very good. I then had teriyaki noodles while my girlfriend had a half Tom Ka Gai soup. We didn’t like the soup much but there was plenty of chicken in it, my noodles were great, once again lots of meat (of very good quality) and it was very tasty. We walked back to the condo and it was already time to pack our luggage for the next day. Afterwards we watched a movie on the nice 42” plasma screen of the condo.

[Renesis]

Day 8: This was one of the worst days of my life. Felt like I was leaving a part of myself there… We had breakfast at the Playa Maya both feet in the sand. What a nice place! We both had continental breakfast, I had mine with eggs and bacon and my girlfriend took the hot cakes, both were good and so inexpensive! Wow. I was expecting to pay a premium for such a nice location (better than the Fusion IMHO) but no, it was one of the cheapest breakfasts we had of our trip and the food was great. They even had MAPLE syrup, we felt at home!

After that we went back to the condo to finish packing off and we spent the rest of the day on the rooftop as you can only go so far with all that luggage! Since we didn’t have lunch we got a frozen cappuccino at Ben & Jerry’s. (oops, we ate American!) We went for dinner at El Diez. That finished up a nice trip in a very good way as we had our 2nd best meal there. We weren’t hungry (remember that frozen cappuccino?) so we ordered sandwiches. I got a chicken one and my gf got the arrachera one. They were big, hot, and tasty. Full of veggies, the bread was awesome and the fries were by far the best we’ve had in playa. Fusion, are you listening?

Then it was back to the condo to change clothes before leaving, and our transport was there 30 minutes early! So we left for the airport with time to spare. Everything went well at the airport, the Air Transat people even spoke French to us, the terminal wasn’t confusing and we left by the same gate where we had landed a week earlier. The plane even left 15 minutes early, we had a nice flight and a good meal (in a night flight!).

Big disappointment? Hearing the pilot tell you it’s –20 Celcius at home when you’re leaving Cancun airport where it’s still +27 Celcius…





Cliff's notes

It's been a wonderful time and we truly loved PDC, there's still a lot we didn't get a chance to try and see. We both want to go back ASAP, our only regret? not booking for two weeks instead. Your help has been very helpful and I'm looking forward to staying a member of this awesome community of lovers of a great place on earth!

[redhairgirl1]

Just read this all. Excellent, excellent job

Loved it! But i am a little disappointed in you that you did not try the conchinita pibil

And what about a pic of you and your girlfriend

[Renesis]

hahaha I know you'd say that about the pibil! Maybe next time, but I'm not a huge fan of citrus in meals.

As for pictures of ourselves, we're not too fond of posting them on the Internet, hope you don't mind.

thanks for reading!

[redhairgirl1]

I'll forgive ya! Your breakfast at Playa Maya made up for it

And i love all the food pics! I believe you ate at all the places i did

[Dan-0]

Renesis, c'est magnifique! Alright, that's all the French I know.

Great report and beautiful photos, I really enjoyed reading this. You give such good descriptions of everything I really felt like I was right there with you all. Thanks for sharing! (love the thong pics!)

If you go back to Xel Ha, try floating down the river. I don't think it's that physically demanding, the river does most of the work, you just float along and it's a blast. The only hard part is jumping into the freezing water of the spring where the river begins.

Glad you're a part of this community. I hope you'll be a regular participant here and that you and your GF get to go back to Playa soon!

[SUNBABY]

Great report!...Did you do a big bus tour to Tulum and Xel-ha? BTW..You don't need lessons to snorkel...just put on the mask, put the snorkel in your mouth, fins on your feet...and float in the water looking down. If you don't float or swim, wear a vest. Snorkeling is a whole new adventure and easy to get hooked on.

I have been to the ruins in Tulum 4 times and I liked it alot better in the old days before they landscaped it with grass. Next time you book tours to anywhere, go with Yukatreks!. They are small groups, less than 12 and the service and food provided is excellent. I know what you mean about the food at Xel-ha...Yuck!

Did you go to any of the bars at night?

[Renesis]

Originally Posted by Dan-0

Renesis, c'est magnifique! Alright, that's all the French I know.

Great report and beautiful photos, I really enjoyed reading this. You give such good descriptions of everything I really felt like I was right there with you all. Thanks for sharing! (love the thong pics!)

If you go back to Xel Ha, try floating down the river. I don't think it's that physically demanding, the river does most of the work, you just float along and it's a blast. The only hard part is jumping into the freezing water of the spring where the river begins.

Glad you're a part of this community. I hope you'll be a regular participant here and that you and your GF get to go back to Playa soon!

Thanks! I really don't think we'll go back to Xel Ha though, if we want that kind of experience again we might try XCaret to try something different

Originally Posted by Sunbaby

Great report!...Did you do a big bus tour to Tulum and Xel-ha? BTW..You don't need lessons to snorkel...just put on the mask, put the snorkel in your mouth, fins on your feet...and float in the water looking down. If you don't float or swim, wear a vest. Snorkeling is a whole new adventure and easy to get hooked on.

I have been to the ruins in Tulum 4 times and I liked it alot better in the old days before they landscaped it with grass. Next time you book tours to anywhere, go with Yukatreks!. They are small groups, less than 12 and the service and food provided is excellent. I know what you mean about the food at Xel-ha...Yuck!

Did you go to any of the bars at night?

Next time we might book with the company sponsored by intheroo.com since they offer french tours, I saw this too late and they didn't offer the package I was looking for at that time. I have no problems with english but my girfriend would enjoy it a lot more in french.

snorkeling is on our to-do for Playa #2, we plan to make a trip to Cozumel (we didn't have enough time in this trip and I didn't prepare a day trip there either so we might have missed too much good stuff)

As far as bar goes: not really! We were just us two (would've been different with a group of friends) and I'm not a dancer so it would have been more the "sit-down and watch" type of bars. But we walked quite a lot so most nights we went to bed quite early!

[John]

Renesis, thanks for the trip report. I always enjoy reading the trip reports from first timers here - it's an experience I'll never be able to have in Playa again.

I wouldn't feel bad telling of your bad experiences here - they happen. Besides, business owners/managers would never know that something was wrong if everyone just kept the bad stuff to themself. As a matter of fact, Libby and I had friends in town yesterday, and we made a stop at the Ah Cacao on Constituyentes. Our brownie looked and tasted dry - not as magnificent as we've come to expect. It was still a good brownie, but I can understand why you might not have been very impressed with yours.

Our last visit to Makkeroni was right after the ownership changed and the pizza was so-so. On your recommendation (thanks!), I took our friends there yesterday night. The owner waited on us - I assume, anyway, as his Spanish sounded very Italian-ish. The Margherita pizza was ready in less than 10 minutes, and WOW, it was once again fantastic. Thanks for convincing me to give it another try.

And, I hope you make it back soon - sounds like you've been bitten by Playa-itis.

[SUNBABY]

Actually, the more times I go the better it gets..new discoveries and old haunts. It's also great to rent a car and head south to the Tulum beaches south of the ruins, Akumal, and XPU-ha beaches...And yes...you will love Chichen Itza, especially if you get the right tour guide. I can't wait to go back there.

[Renesis]

thanks guys, and yes the owner of the Makkeroni really sounds Italian, he even offered us free shots of vodka (which isn't very Italian though!) after our meal.

I know there's still so much to see, and with all the construction going on I feel that even the 5th will have changed in, say 2-3 years from now.

[LarryH]

Great report (as I expected after the interim reports). I really appreciate the detailed restaurant reviews, especially with the negatives included.

I will never be able to look at a chicken breast again without a "size analysis"

We get to Playa on Wed and will be trying many of the places you mentioned - we are trying to figure out how to have six meals a day to fit all the places in.

[Michele]

Thanks for the taking the time to share your Playa experience with everyone, the good and the bad. The pics on your website are great. Hope you both come back soon!!

[Coccinelle]

What a great report, Renesis! I had been looking forward to this and you didn't disappoint. I appreciate your honesty, too.

Too bad about your experience at Fusion. I have yet to make it there and it has been on my list for some time, for dinner and drinks en la playa on a starry night. I might still give it a try but I will not have high expectations as I had after reading your review on it. And I do hope that Fusion is 'listening' as you said...it seems like such a great spot to hang out late afternoon or evening.

Makkeroni has been added to my list of 'must do'.

Your photos are beautiful! I am in love with the rooftop pool/lounging area at Pueblito! Wow...

Everything cannot always be perfect in Playadise. We learn and discover as we go. And today, I have learned from your experiences.

Merci beaucoup, Renesis.

[Renesis]

I'm very happy to give a little back to this great community that did so much to help me plan our first trip (and hopefully will also help for a whole series of future trips) to Playa!

I also added the restaurant reviews in the directory because I know not many newbies will take a look at this trip review!

Coccinelle, don't cancel your trip to the Fusion, as most people seemed to be enjoying their meal, I think we've just been unlucky, but this kind of experience is never fun.

[Renesis]

This is a rough estimate (from what I remember) map of where we walked in Playa, what we've seen. This still leaves plenty to be discovered but I'm sure it's way more than some other people saw or else we walk too slowly because it didn't leave much time to be on the beach!

[Coccinelle]

Wow...you guys covered a lot of territory.
We like to walk around Playa too. You can discover so much that way.

Oh...and I will go to Fusion but I don't think that I will order a chicken sandwich. Hahaha.

[Renesis]

Originally Posted by Coccinelle

Oh...and I will go to Fusion but I don't think that I will order a chicken sandwich. Hahaha.

actually you should, it would be very interesting to see what you will end up with!