Playa del Carmen Trip Report
February 2005: Includes Beach, Restaurant and Nightlife information.
PLAYA DEL CARMEN
FEBRUARY 20-FEBRUARY 28
February 22
We got up around 9:30 and headed downstairs to Siesta Fiesta's restaurant. Hotel guests receive a free continental breakfast of a basket of toast, orange juice and one cup of coffee. Additional cups of coffee are almost two dollars each.After breakfast we took a stroll around 5th Avenue and the beach. We stopped by at the Mimi del Mar where I usually park it on the beach. I felt so bad for them, the beach there was in sad shape. There were a lot of rocks and hardly any beach area for them. The restaurant tables were about right up to the water and the lounge chairs were on the side of the tables.
I had read about the beach being gone in front of Señor Frogs on Tripadvisor, so we walked over to the Pier to check it out. Sometimes when people say there is no beach right now they mean there is a thin stretch of beach. I was really shocked, as there is totally no beach there or in front of the old Continental Plaza Playacar (which is under construction right now). The water goes right up to that retaining wall and you absolutely cannot walk from Playacar into Playa along the beach right now.
February 2005 Beach Condition at Senor Frogs
We stopped at an internet cafe so I could email home to tell my family I found a room and wasn't living on the beach. We paid 4 pesos for 15 minutes.
We hit the beach by Alhambra again and decided to see what El Faro was charging for chairs, since they had stacks of them along the wall. Shari walked over there and they told her ten dollars per person. We passed on that. I'm hoping they let you use their pool and everything for that price, but we didn't ask.
We hung out on the sarong again and later we moved over to a beach table at Alhambra. We got a bucket of ice-cold Sol's for 90 pesos and Shari had Quesadillas and I had deep fried cheese tacos. Everything was good and we had a really nice waiter.
We decided we should hang out at our hotel's bar for a while, since we had not done that, yet. Siesta Fiesta was my favorite hangout this year. The duo from Bourbon Street was playing there almost every night. A lot of nights they would have one guy who sings and plays guitar on from 7-9 and then the other two guys from 9-11. They are both pretty good. They do covers, but I like the tunes they play. They do Coldplay, Green Day, the Beatles, and one night I heard some Lou Reed-I'm not sure who was singing that.
That night they had one of my favorite bands from a few years ago that used to play at Tequila Barrel when they had live music. It's a Blues band with a blonde female singer with an awesome voice and she plays saxophone. They're called Chivo Azul, so check them out!
I had beer there, and I think it was about 25 pesos. Expect to pay between 20 and 35 pesos for a beer at the bars in Playa. Shari had a jumbo strawberry Margarita which was 65 pesos, which I think is getting a little steep.
After the band stopped we took a little walk and got another piece of pizza. Shari got the Blue Cheese pizza and I got mushroom and black olives. We ate them as we walked over to check out Señor Frogs. They had a band, not as good as Chivo Azul. I had a Caipirinha and I can't remember what Shari had there. We didn't stay there real long, as we got there about midnight.
