Best of Playa Del Carmen Restaurants
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Best of Playa Del Carmen Restaurants

Eating out in Playa del Carmen can be expensive. Many of Playa’s restaurants, especially those on Quinta Avenida (Fifth Avenue) cater to the tourist crowd. While some are fantastic, they cater almost exclusively to tourists, and the prices reflect it.

Since we were in town for a couple of months, we spent some time finding out where the locals go for a taste of the real and affordable Playa del Carmen. This is in no way a complete list of Playa’s restaurants, but they are some of our favorites. Feel free to check any of them the next time you’re down there.

Best Breakfast: La Cueva Del Chango

With it’s unique garden style patio, and turtle and poi pond under a concrete canopy fitted with glass bottles to let in the sun, La Cueva Del Chango was by far our favorite breakfast place. The decor definitely makes the place stand out, however the food was delicious and a decent price as well. The kids loved walking around and watching the turtles. Their french toast was Charles’ favorite, but Micki and kids loved their granola concoction.

Calle 38 North between 5th and 10th

Best Pizza: Pizza Bella Vita

When we first arrived and asked people for suggestions on restaurants this place came up more than once. Seems that it was on everyone’s favorite list. After trying it for ourselves it quickly became a regular staple. Only a block from Mamitas Beach, we either stopped here before heading to the beach or on our way back. The pizza melted in your mouth and the calzones were incredibly light and crunchy. The place is run by a young Italian owner and is fairly new. They have some odd topping selections, but after trying most of them out you can’t go…

Micki vs Stand Up Paddle Boarding Kailua SUP
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Micki vs Stand Up Paddle Boarding on Kailua Beach, Hawaii

Every once in a while I get it into my head that I’m an adventure sports person.

This is kind of the equivalent of Elmo entering a mixed martial arts cage match. Possible? Maybe. Wise? Probably not.

I love all the so-called adventure sports: kayaking, snowboarding, rappelling, windsurfing, scuba, and so on. It’s a one-sided relationship. I love them, they kick my a**.

In the last few years, we’ve seen paddle boarders of all shapes and sizes on almost any body of water we visit. It looks fun, serene, and above all, fairly easy.

Charles and I decided to lose our stand up paddle boarding (SUP) virginity in Hawaii. Given that stand up paddling (Hoe he’e nalu in the Hawaiian language) originated in Hawaii, Oahu seemed like a great place to start.

The theory is simple: You stand upright on a specially designed paddle board (a very stable, modified surfboard) and use your paddle to…

Anne's beach near Caloosa Cove in the Florida Keys
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Tickling The Florida Keys

Not really having a plan except knowing we wanted to spend some time in the southern states, we booked a cheap flight from San Jose, Costa Rica to Miami, Florida. The weather was gorgeous and we were looking forward to North American style dining, shopping and ease of travel. It also didn’t hurt that the local language was English again. At a minimum, the kids were definitely excited to be able to watch cartoons in English now.

After a few quiet days laying low and acclimatizing ourselves to the US, our wanderlust finally kicked back in. I hadn’t been to Florida since I was in my mid teens and really didn’t remember that much about it. One thing I do remember is that we didn’t go any farther south than St. Petersburg. This trip I was adamant about seeing the Florida Keys and going for a hike in the Everglades.

We managed to rent a car and headed south for a few days of exploration. The kids and Micki were excited to see…

Snow
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Kamloops to Waikiki, a Mini Adventure in the Making

This winter we decided to make it a work season. We usually enjoy celebrating Canada’s coldest season simply by not being here. Hockey lovers, skiers, snowboarders, snowmobilers, cross country skiing lovers and all those other winter pastime people are pretty much crazy in our minds. Sure, if you’re stuck here anyway you should make the most of it and provided the weather is nice all of those can be quite enjoyable. We however, would much rather be just about anywhere else during the season of snowstorms, windchill warning days and “the greyness” as we like to call it.

Since we were trapped here for the winter and Micki’s contract was scheduled until May we decided that a short warm vacation was in order. We never knew how much of an adventure we’d have before we even got on the plane though…

Circus Circus Las Vegas
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Circus Circus Kids Activities, or How to Survive Vegas with Little Kids

If you’re in Las Vegas with little kids, Circus Circus is the place to be. Our little ones were completely transfixed by the idea that we were staying in a Circus hotel. They’d never heard of anything so cool.

Personally, I love the hotel’s tagline Act Your Age Somewhere Else. That’s my philosophy pretty much anytime.

We easily whiled a way a few days taking in the in-hotel entertainment. The circus acts were great, with a few shows a day. They featured David and Dania, the quick change artists from America’s Got Talent, along with a pretty talented assortment of acrobats and clowns.

Christmas in Playa del Carmen
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Post Christmas Trauma and Other Non Existent Things

First things first, Merry Christmas everyone from beautiful Playa Del Carmen, Mexico!

Now that that’s out of the way, here’s what we’ve been up to these past few weeks. The last time I posted I was explaining the daily grind and the more mundane facts of life we’ve been living. I would love to talk about all the incredible things we do on a regular day in this paradise like setting we find ourselves in but it would only lead to your heartbreak and our self delusions.The reality is that we don’t do much everyday. Between entertaining the kids and us researching our next leg of the trip, we barely have time to lounge by the crystal clear blue ocean or our pool (which we do almost daily). We barely have time to drink the 2 or 3 fruit smoothies we constantly inhale. We also barely have time to walk around in the +28 Celsius sunny sky weather we’re forced to endure day in and day out.

Yup, it’s a hard life we live. I say that all with a mischievious grin and a shake of my head. If only life was always like this. Please don’t get me wrong. We’re loving this lifestyle and to us no price is too high to live like this.

Beach Playa del Carmen, Mexico
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The Daily Routine

Hey everyone. Sorry for not putting up any new posts but this past week has flown by without much fanfare. It’s been a little cooler here and as such we’ve been enjoying the simpler things in life. We did enjoy a few days by the beach though. We also spent a few days walking around town and finally got the chance to check out the shops on Juarez Street. We even went to the mall (Centro Maya) to let the kids play the arcades and did some Christmas toy browsing while we were there. In short, it’s been pretty low key.

Today, I woke up with the realization that December wasflying by. I also noticed how we’ve fallen into a pretty set routine most days. It’s amazing how quickly that can happen after only a month and a half in one place. I find that most of our days are getting pretty quiet…