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We’d booked a small group tour of the Yucatán, with the main aim of visiting some Mayan ruins. The tour was to start in Playa del Carmen, so to be safe we arrived there a day early. From the roof of our hotel we could see out over the beautiful blue Caribbean Sea, and we watched as a steady stream of fast ferries headed out and back from close along the shore. To begin with the haze obscured their destination, but when this cleared we could make out the tourist tower blocks on the island of Cozumel poking above the horizon.

The ferry ride appealed as something fun to do on our spare day, but the thought of just ending up in a classic modern mega-tourist town did not, so we spent our day wandering Playa del Carmen. But that choice did not turn out much better. The main roads of the town were pure tourist traps, with restaurants, bars, and countless shops selling tat. A swim in the beautiful sea should have been possible, but most of the beach was squeezed by the bars and hotels into a narrow strip of sand, which in the morning when we tried walking it was narrowed even more by a heaped band of seaweed washed in by the tide. And having just arrived from winter in Montreal in March the heat was tough to take, increasing our disappointment in the town.

There are three competing ferry operators, each with offices at the base of the pier from which the ferries sail, and vigorously promoted at kiosks and any opportunity around the town. Although Cozumel has an airport with flights to about 15 destinations it seems that it is still a popular option for tourists to fly into Cancún, take the bus or taxi to Playa del Carmen and then the ferry.

The ferries from Playa del Carmen are for foot passengers only, but there is a vehicle ferry that leaves from a few miles further along the coast at Punta Venado. But the general advice is to make the crossing as a pedestrian and then rent a vehicle if needed on the island, to avoid the potential trouble and time taken on the vehicle ferry.

Our disappointment with Playa del Carmen probably puts us in a minority as the town was hopping when we were there, especially after dark. But I think it attracted more party animals than those like us looking for some history and culture. So, all in all, we found little to enjoy in Playa, and wished that maybe we should have taken the ferry to Cozumel after all.