Playa del Carmen Trip Report
February 2005: Day One:Includes Hotel and Nightlife Information.
PLAYA DEL CARMEN
FEBRUARY 20-FEBRUARY 28
My co-worker, Shari, and I had been talking about taking a trip to Playa for the past few years. Near the end of last year, we decided to meet up with a large group of Shari's family and friends for a trip they were planning in February.
Shari and I bid to try to get the same week of vacation-from February 21-28. I was awarded the vacation week I bid for, Shari wasn't. It took a lot of work on Shari's part to get the week off, which she managed to do. Shari wasn't able to finalize getting all of the days off until February 10, so we did not have a lot of time to do much trip planning.
I had been watching fares through MLT Vacations for a few weeks. Airfare was down to 224.00 roundtrip, taxes and fees included for February 21-28.
The only thing I didn't really like was that the flight departed at almost 5 PM on the 21st, so we wouldn't get into Cancun until almost 9 PM. I tried to see if we could depart on the 20th, making it an 8-night trip, instead of 7-but it wouldn't allow me to do that online.
I called MLT to ask them if there was any way we could leave a day earlier, and was able to work out an 8-night trip over the phone. It was the same price, and we get a 20 percent discount off of the fare before taxes, so I went ahead and booked our flights for 204.00 roundtrip about a week before our departure.
Normally, I get into Playa during the day and just find a hotel when I get there. I was a little nervous about getting into Playa after 10 PM, since I didn't know if there would be anybody working the front desks to show us rooms at that time of night.
One year I stayed at Sergio's on 5th Avenue, and their "front desk" is the liquor store downstairs. When the liquor store is closed, you're on your own. There is no desk staff.
When we stayed at El Sol del Caribe a couple of years ago, they had a guard at the desk at night, but I didn't know if he was able to rent rooms or just guard the entrance.
Shari and I decided it would be best to try to book a room for the first night, and then go ahead and look around the next day to see what else was available.
The Online Hotel Search
...Sorry, we are booked full...
...Sorry, we are booked full...
On February 15, I emailed Villa del Mar, Bananas Cabanas, Posada Sian Ka'an, Santa Lucia and Pension San Juan. Pension San Juan replied back with a vacancy for 80.00 a night for a double room with balcony.
A few days later I sent another email to all of the above hotels that hadn't responded, along with emails to DaGabi, Eclipse, Tank Ha, Hotel Mayeli and Hotel Alux. I also sent a copy of the Posada Sian Ka'an email to the other hotel they own, Lab Nah, just to make sure they got it.
On the 18th I got responses from Tank Ha, Hotel Alux and Santa Lucia to tell me they were all full.
I sent an email to Posada Freud on the 18th. I got an email back from them on the 19th telling me they were booked full.
Posada Sian Ka'an replied that "reservations were closed" for the dates I requested. I emailed back to ask if that meant they weren't taking reservations that close to arrival, or if they meant they were full, but they didn't respond to that email.
I never received any reply from Bananas Cabanas, Da Gabi, Eclipse or Hotel Mayeli.
On the night of the 19th, I attempted to call Bananas Cabanas around 9:30 PM. A man with an American accent answered and the connection sounded very clear.
Man: Hello?
Jen: Is this Bananas Cabanas?
Man: Umm......no.
Jen: OK-Bye.
I tried with the international calling code, but got no answer.
I called back the morning of our departure and got a bad connection with a person who didn't speak the best English (Bananas Cabanas!), however they told me they were completely full, but I could try calling back after noon to see if people were checking out.
Nah.
I called some other hotel that day, but I can't remember who it was. I was getting really freaked out that everything in Playa was full. I called Shari and told her maybe it was always like this, but I just didn't know it because I never try to find a room in advance.
We could have contacted Pension San Juan, again, but we were running out of time. I did not know, when they first responded to me, that they would be the only hotel to have a vacancy or respond to my request.
We started contemplating taking the bus to downtown Cancun, since the last bus to Playa would be gone by the time we arrived at the Cancun Airport. I checked some of the larger chain hotels in downtown Cancun like Holiday Inn and a few others, but their online booking systems showed they were full.
We decided we'd just see what time we actually got into Cancun and through customs and immigration and then decide if we wanted to try to get a room in Cancun. I envisioned us sitting at the Blue Parrot all night, with all our luggage beside us in the sand.
There are worse places to be stranded.
But...
I was not feeling the positivity at this point.
::Sunday, February 20::
There was short line to check-in, so we got through that pretty quickly and then had time to hang out at the airport for a few hours joking about our hotel situation.Our flight was running a little late. At that point, we either wanted to be very, very early, or very, very late.
We flew out on Omni International. Omni served us one glass of soda and sold a sandwich, chips, raisens, Goldfish crackers, and Oreos for 5.00. We bought that. We didn't buy the 5.00 headset for the John Travolta flick. We did buy a Rum and Coke for a dollar less than the meal.
We landed in Cancun just a few minutes late. We got through immigrations quickly, but I had to wait a while for my luggage. We both hit the green light through customs and headed outside. It was muggy out. I like that. Yes, I do.
As we stood in the Terminal 1 parking lot, we were still trying to decide between Cancun and Playa for the first night.
We decided to take a cab and just get to Playa.
A private taxi costs about 60.00 US dollars from the airport. We asked for a taxi to Playa and a driver told us he would drive us. He walked us to a van. He said they were short on taxis because it was high season. Yeah. Sure. We ended up in a shared van. Shared vans usually cost 15.00 per person. He still wanted us to pay 30.00 per person, and he charged the other people in the van 20.00 per person.
Normally, I wouldn't go for that. It was late, we didn't see a lot of taxis out there and didn't want to stand around waiting while they herded other people going to Playa. We just paid the money and got in.
We had to drop the other people in the van off at Mayan Palace. If you haven't heard of the Mayan Palace, yet, and you are going to Playa...you will. You definitely will hear of the Mayan Palace. You might want one of THESE.
Playa!
We finally got into Playa del Carmen at 10:15 PM. I told the driver to take us to the bus station on Juarez, and figured we'd just start walking down 5th to see if we could find a room.As we were driving up 20th Avenue we went past the Sahara which had a neon sign out front that said "Vacancy".
Stop!
We went in and they wanted about 120.00 a night. We knew they weren't going to get a bunch of walk-ins at that time of night, so we walked up to another hotel. I don't remember which one. They wanted 80.00 a night. Better, but we kept walking.
We walked over to Bananas Cabanas, and there were lights on at the front desk. We couldn't find anybody working it, though. We waited several minutes and then left.
We went to El Sol del Caribe on 5th and spoke with the guard. He said he had a room with two beds for 40.00. Bingo! We paid him 40.00 cash and took the key and hauled our luggage up to room 10 which did not have two beds but one king-sized bed. At that time of night, all we really cared about was a place to stow our luggage.
The room had a full-sized refridgerator, microwave, television with cable, telephone and free AC. It was clean.
Let's party!
El Sol del Caribe Hotel on 5th Avenue
We had arrived into Playa at 10:15 PM, found a room, checked in, changed and were out the door by 11:10 PM. Not too bad, I think.
We went to Bourbon Street on 5th Avenue. We ordered two Superiors and watched the same guitar duo I spent a lot of time watching there last year. Two guys play and one sings. Beer cost 25 pesos.
Exchange Rates
The bank and money exchange booth rates were between 10.50-10.85 pesos to the US dollar when we were there.
The bank and money exchange booth rates were between 10.50-10.85 pesos to the US dollar when we were there.
After Bourbon Street we decided to head over to the Blue Parrot.
On the way there I was super disappointed to see Da Gabi's new remodeling job. They got rid of the outdoor brick oven! It's more trendy looking, now. I guess they felt the need to blend in with the look of Kartabar and Om, across the street.
This was the first year I didn't bother to stop in there at all. I miss the quaintness and charm of the old Da Gabi. That is the way Playa goes.
I haven't cared much for the Parrot that much since they don't have live music the nights I go there. Maybe they do sometimes. I never see it. Techo House music. It always has something that changed about it.
This year they have big pillows on the ground around low tables in that back area where the band used to play. They weren't selling the baked potatoes and other late night foods they used to cook outside. They put in some beds on the beach to lay in. Unlike Deseo Hotel...they looked kind of shabby.
We headed over to the Swing Bar, El Pirate, next door at Costa del Mar. They play Reggae and you can see what is going on over at the Blue Parrot from their beach tables.
We had a nice waiter who suggested some Caipifruitas. I like Caipirinhas, but hadn't tried a Caipifruita. They were 50 pesos, but made with real fresh fruits and were very good. Oh, and something on the top he said would give us energy. Shari took that to mean it would make us horny, but-hey...I don't know.
I had a Kiwi one and Shari had a Mango one. Then we each had a Mango. I guess it did give us energy, since we stayed there until about 4 AM.
Some drunk guy came to talk to us on our way out. He didn't make me horny.
The AC in our room worked too good, so we turned it off and kept the ceiling fan on and passed right out.
