Located on the coast of the Caribbean Sea, Playa del Carmen used to be a sleepy village but over the years it has become a well known holiday destination.

You can reach Playa by flying to Cancun airport and then taking a transfer, which is an hour's drive. The ferry docks to Cozumel are near the bus station.

The main street is 5th Avenue (Quinta Avenida), also known as Playa del Carmen's Pedestrian Walkway, which runs parallel to the ocean. Along this avenue there are several stores as well as restaurants and hotels.  Away from the majority of hotels and resorts because of the noise level, you can find clubs and bars located on the beach.  Along many of the streets intersecting 5th Avenue there are dive-shops, convenience stores, hotels, tour operators, Internet cafes, currency exchanges, restaurants, banks and pharmacies. As Playa is not very big, everything is within the tourist zone.

All the beaches in Playa are open to the public. In the tourist zone the beaches are all of clean white sand with some coral. The beaches closest to the ferry docks are the busiest.