Yes, another trip to our happy place, Playa del Carmen, Mexico! As much as we loved our last two stays at Mahekal Beach Resort, we decided this time to rent a condo right on the same beach in a complex called Natz ti Ha. In fact, the condo complex is located directly behind Mahekal and it's funny that when we stayed at Mahekal, we never noticed Natz ti Ha!
We rented Condo del Rio (E-101), which is a ground-floor, 2 bedroom/2 bath condo with a beautiful outdoor patio surrounded by lush tropical foilage. The whole property is just gorgeous and we thought very cleverly designed so that each unit feels very private. The pool, in the center of the property, is surrounded by a stone wall which keeps the patios of all the ground level units surrounding the pool private. The whole complex is filled with the sound of waterfalls - even our patio had a running waterfall, although it wasn't running when I filmed this video.
Here's a tour of our condo:
And here are some photos from around the property:
Chaparro is Natz ti Ha's Mascot - he's old and sleeps a lot
The kitchen was nicely stocked with everything we needed
This is the view from the rooftop of our building
Natz ti Ha complex as viewed from the beach
Natz ti Ha complex - photo taken from the rooftop of our building
Another rooftop photo
We swam in the pool every day!
Pretty paths throughout the complex
We never did get around to using the pool at night, but it sure looked pretty
This was not an adventure-packed trip. We pretty much did the same thing every day: get up, go out to breakfast (most days to La Cueva del Chango), get everything packed up and head to the beach, lounge at the beach for a few hours, take a break for lunch (or a snack), head back to the beach or to the pool, shower up for dinner and then head out to dinner and walk around town.
I took at lot of photos on this trip - I had a new camera with me - a Canon Rebel T4i - which is a big step up from the little point-and-shoot cameras I have been using for years. I am still learning how to use the Rebel, so I didn't use manual settings, but still - the photos came out pretty darned good. I also brought along the point-and-shoot for when I didn't want to lug the big camera (for example to the beach).
Speaking of the beach...
Playa del Carmen has a beautiful beach - one of the prettiest we have ever been to. I think the only beach that we've been to that beats it is Tulum, Mexico, but Playa del Carmen has a lot to offer that Tulum doesn't (like a vibrant tourist area that is within easy walking distance of the beach).
We think the beach on the north end of Playa (where Natz ti Ha and Mahekal are located) is the nicest stretch. We are not crazy about the beach south near the center of the action - too crowded, too many fishing boats, sandbags, seaweed, noise, etc.
Here's a video I took on the beach near our condo on our second day.
Here are some of my favorite photos taken on the beach:
A wedding at Mahekal
Boats on the beach further south
My cutie
The Mexican families come out to the beach on Sunday
Ah, I wish we were back here right now
El Pelicano
I burn easily so I need to dress like a dork
Powdery sand
That's me out there on my wacky noodle
And here's a video I took IN the water - yes, I like to live dangerously!
I am one of these people that LOVES to do lots of research before I go on a trip. I am particularly obsessive about researching where to stay, and where to eat. Where to stay? Well, Natz ti Ha was a no-brainer - a beautiful complex right on our favorite beach on the north side of town. And this choice was especially a no-brainer after I emailed the owner of the condo we were interested in and she offered me a rate we could not refuse.
And then there are the restaurants. After all my research on Trip Advisor and the Playa discussion forums, I came armed with a list of highly-rated restaurants to visit. One of the things that was fun about renting the condo as opposed to our past trips to Mahekal, was getting to eat out EVERY meal. At Mahekal, 2 meals are included and that meant we could only dine out for one meal each day. The food at Mahekal was good, but after awhile we got a little tired of the same choices. This time, we had breakfast, lunch (most days) and dinner in town and it was fun to try so many restaurants. A few were ones we visited during previous visits (and couldn't wait to visit again) - for example La Cueva del Chango, Piola and Origenes. Others were new to us and we enjoyed most of the restaurants we tried. A few were disappointing. (By the way, although our lovely condo was equipped with a full kitchen, we didn't do any cooking on this trip. But it was great to have the kitchen for making snacks and cocktails. I blended up some awesome pina coladas!)
Here's the list of restaurants we visited on this trip and a ridiculous number of photos. WARNING: don't view if you are on a diet, or have an empty stomach. I won't tell you how much weight I gained on this trip. It's too embarrassing.
The "Parma" pizza - was outrageously great on our last visit, but this time the crust was a bit burnt/overcooked. It was still good...just not as great as last visit
Phil loved Piola's famous Basil Martini - I don't know...basil in a cocktail? Think I'll pass.
La Fragata
26th Street between 1st and 5th Avenues
What we spent: $29 USD (including drinks and tip)
We were surprised at how great the food was at this unassuming and affordable little cafe!
The guacamole was delicious and so beautifully presented
Phil's enchiladas with mole sauce were scrumptious
These were the BEST fish tacos I have ever eaten in my life. Seriously. We went back to La Fragata on another day just so we could eat these again.
On a scale of 1-10, I give Corsi's gelato a solid 9. Occasionally I would find some ice crystals in my gelato, so I have to deduct a point for that. But damn, this was good stuff!
What we spent: $100 USD (including drinks and tip)
This restaurant is rated the #1 restaurant in Playa del Carmen by Trip Advisor reviewers and we could see why! The food was outrageously delicious (possibly the best meal of our trip) and the husband and wife that run this restaurant are about the loveliest couple you will ever meet.
Complimentary flat bread...delish!
My caprese salad was delectable
Phil raved about his thai noodle salad. Delicious!
I ordered a curried fish stew that was to die for. It came with white rice.
Phil's ordered a tuna entree that came with the most delicious vegetables
For dessert I ordered something called "Banana Toffee" but it was more like an ice cream sundae with bananas and caramel syrup. It was soooo good.
What we spent: $21 - $35 USD (including drinks and tip)
This is the go-to place for breakfast in Playa. The food is just awesome and so is the funky jungle atmosphere. It was a 1 minute walk from our condo and we ate breakfast here most mornings.
The French toast is really rustic and comes with a delicious plum sauce - yum!
We ordered fresh-squeezed juice every morning...all different types and combinations. That pink one is watermelon juice...my favorite!
The empanadas are made with homemade corn tortillas. Soo good. In fact, I decided I am going to try making some homemade corn tortillas myself because there's no comparison to the packaged junk.
Sweet crepes filled with homemade granola, yogurt, honey and fresh fruit
Granola with yogurt and fruit
Phil is a happy boy
Crepes filled with mushrooms and cream cheese. I don't know what the green sauce was made of, but damn it was good!
Raining? Not a problem.
They offered me some flan. Dessert after breakfast? Hey, it's vacation! This flan was the best I ever tasted. It was a bit like cheesecake.
They have a little pond in the center of the restaurant with turtles and fish. We loved watching the turtles wrestle with each other.
5th Ave between 38th and 48th Streets What we spent: $77 USD (including drinks and tip)
We had one of our favorite meals at Pachamama. We loved the atmosphere too.
My appetizer was called "Pearls" - fried vegetable/potato balls that had Indian spices in them. They tasted a bit like Indian samosas. They were fantastic.
Phil's appetizer was a trio of ceviche - each one had a different mixture of fruits/veggies. Phil loved this.
My entree was a fish sandwich that reminded me of a crab cake sandwich. It was the best fish sandwich I have ever eaten and the delicious bread was homemade. I regret I didn't get back there again to order this a second time. I wished there were more of those hand-cut fries.
Phil's entree was a risotto with shrimp, olives, dried cranberries and peanuts. It was unusual and delicious.
I don't know why this dessert is named "Chocolate Fondant" (isn't fondant an icing?). In reality it was a molten chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream and a berry topping. It was fannnntastic.
Origenes
38th Street close to the beach (right around the corner from Natz ti Ha)
What we spent: $102 USD (including drinks and tip)
Origines was one of our favorite restaurants on our last visit, so we were excited to visit again.
They have soft acoustic live music every night. Very relaxing and romantic atmosphere. Sometimes the songs are a little too melancholy.
Complimentary appetizer...chicken mole
Mango margarita
Phil's appetizer was ceviche with mango. He loved it.
My appetizer was scallops pastor...served on grilled pineapple with a sweet glaze. delicious!
Phil's grouper entree served over mash potatoes. He loved it.
Mango shrimp. Loved this!
I couldn't resist giving her some of my shrimp.
My molten lava cake was good, but not great. Served with broken cookies.
This is a tiny, non-descript little Venezuelan street cafe run by a husband, wife and daughter team. The wife and daughter do the cooking and the man runs around waiting on tables and interacting with everyone. He is the most friendly, energetic, sweetest, happiest man I think I have ever met. This was our first time having Venezuelan food and we thought the food at Kaxapa Factory was just delicious - simple, hearty and rustic. BTW, the name is pronounced "Kah-CHOP-ah".
Tostones appetizer. These were made of plantains (Phil's favorite). Yummy!
This is one of the arepa sandwiches. It was filled with veggies, cheese and plantains and the homemade bread was just scrumptious.
Kachapa (corn pancake) filled with 3 cheeses. OMG, heavenly goodness!! The pancake is somewhat sweet.
This is what it looks like when mostly eaten :)
The brownie and ice cream were homemade and to die for.
Casa Mediterranea
5th Avenue between 6th and 8th Street What we Spent: $69 USD (including drinks and tip)
This restaurant is so quaint and charming, located in an alley off 5th Avenue. The pasta is homemade. We LOVED the food here. Service was friendly but at times a little pushy (trying to get us to order more items, or more expensive items than we requested)
I love the jellyfish lights
Caprese salad
Complimentary bruschetta - very tasty
Phil ordered pasta that was tossed with tomatoes, capers and some other stuff. He said it was delicious
The bread was obviously homemade and very dense and crusty
My ravioli was stuffed with spinach and cheese and had a garlicky butter sauce. It melted in my mouth.
1st Ave between 14 and 16 BIS What we spent: $117 USD (including drinks and tip)
Imprevist has an elegant, relaxing atmosphere that we really liked - especially Phil. The food was very good.
My strawberry daquiri was made with real strawberries and tasted really fresh
The steamed dumplings appetizer was nicely presented, but a little skimpy. The bamboo container makes it look substantial
"Rocket Salad" had artichokes and shaved parmesan
Thai salad - stir fried veggies, peanuts and teriyaki vinaigrette. I liked the combination of cooked and fresh veggies
Vegetable pad thai - good, but a little too sweet - even for me!
Herb-crusted sea bass had cauliflower puree and quail eggs. Phil said this was great.
Cheesecake - Phil said this was delicious
"Chocolate Fondant" with berry ice - again, I don't know why they call chocolate molten cake "fondant" but that seems to be the thing in Playa. I don't think berry ice goes with chocolate molten cake as well as plain vanilla ice cream does. This dessert was just okay.
Veneno Vil "Cocina Sensual" - This is a swanky little place on the strip next to Pachamama and Como Como. The theme appearred to be "Aphrodisiac dining". I don't know...the pink lighting didn't make me feel sensual...it kinda gave me a migraine.
This is what the lighting was like in the restaurant (photo taken without a flash). For the food photos below, I had to turn the flash on to overcome the pink lighting.
Complimentary appetizer - fish mousse. This was tasty
This was complimentary too. I think it was a cucumber margarita. It was very tasty.
My mango margarita has little pieces of pepper in it. Believe it or not, it was good. The drink was a little toooo sweet, though
Despite the terrible red lighting, it is a pretty little place. Service was friendly, although we had a hard time understanding our waiter. He spoke VERY softly and had a very thick accent.
My appetizer was some kind of cheese balls...the cheese was wrapped in pastry and with a mango sauce. Yummy and kinda reminded me of the brie in pastry that I like to make during the holidays
Front: seafood soup; Back: creamed soup with chaya (which is a vegetable similar to spinach). Both soups were really tasty, although the seafood soup was oversalted (we both agreed). I gave my seafood soup to Phil to eat and I ate his chaya soup. The chaya soup was lightly sweet and had pumpkin in it.
Phil's glazed salmon was served over noodles and he said it was delicious
Parmesan-crusted grouper was served over mashed potatoes. It was very tasty, but again - oversalted
I think this was called "Chocolate Oblivion". I thought it would be molten cake, but it wasn't. This dessert looked beautiful, but didn't really taste that special
For our last dinner in Playa, we felt like having some casual Mexican food so we decided to go to La Mission, since we liked the one in Cozumel so much.
The coconut shrimp was served with a creamy coconut/mint sauce. The sauce was good. The shrimp were pretty good...maybe a little dry.
Complimentary tortilla soup. Phil said this was good (it had chicken in it)
All week I wanted chili relleno and I finally got it. It was yummy. Phil got chicken with mole sauce and he said it was very good. We also got complimentary gucamole with this dinner, which was a nice touch.
Around Town
Okay, enough with the food already! I guess it's obvious that one of the greatest things about visiting Playa del Carmen (aside from the dreamy beaches) is that it is a foodies' paradise with more and more fabulous restaurants opening up every day. Honestly, it is hard to keep up with them. Phil and I agreed that my pre-trip research paid off because we loved most of the meals we ate. Oh, and did I mention how much we LOVE the fact that in Mexico, nobody brings you the check until you ASK for it!! "La cuenta, por favor".
Aside from lounging on the beach and eating out constantly, we also enjoyed walking around town. We stayed mostly around the main drag - 5th Avenue - and I enjoyed taking lots of photos of the beautiful and interesting sights.
I loved the look of this hotel, the way it was covered with those beautiful flowers
5th Avenue at night
I loved the facade of this store. The diamond designs are mosaic.
We didn't see too many gatos y perros on this trip, but occasionally we would come across one
I thought this hotel had a charming look to it
One of these days I am going to buy one of these shell lamps
There is a lot of outdoor dining on 5th Avenue
There's the lamp I want to buy!
The best fish tacos in the world (La Fragata)
The vendors can be really annoying on 5th Ave. They aren't hostile, just relentless. "Amigos! Come look in my store!" "Hey - paparazzi lady! I have great prices!" "Sir, why you sweating so much?" "You like cigars!? I have cigars!" "She looks hungy!" "Honeymooners! Over here!"
This statue is stunning
This was a side street where the loud nightclubs were. Lots of thumping house music. I thought to myself - man, I'd hate to be staying in a hotel near here.
Calle Corazon
Look - a Mayan god! What's he doing?
Why - he's texting!
One of the really loud thumping lightclubs. Didn't sound like anything I'd want to dance to.
Aw - a gato!
This cracked us up.
The stores are so colorful
Peeking in the window of La Bodequita del Medio - to listen to the Cuban band
We were sad to see that Baremar was replaced with a steak house, but they did a good job with the decor. The area around 38th Street and 5th Avenue is really the hot spot for nice restaurants and it's a pretty area with lots of pretty lights.
No trip to Playa is complete with a trip to the Mega supermarket to stock up on refrescos!
We visited the food carts one morning, but there wasn't much sin carne
All dressed up and ready for dinner at Oh La La
Closing Thoughts
When we think of the perfect vacation, we don't see how it can get much better than a trip to Playa del Carmen. Between the drop-dead beautiful, WARM beaches, the interesting and unusual wildlife, the lovely, welcoming people, the outrageously good food, the reasonable prices, the multitude of fun things to do (if we choose to) or NOT do, the array of wonderful accommodations and restaurants that are available at any price point, the ability to find lovely places for quiet - like a long walk along the north beach - or a party atmosphere if we're feeling in a party mood and the fact that we can walk everywhere without the need of a car, the fun of speaking Spanish (or TRYING to, anyway) and being smiled at by the sweet Mexicans who appreciate the effort and play along, the slower pace, not to mention the fact that all of this is just a 4 hour flight away - makes us eager to return again and again!
For those who would like to know more about Playa del Carmen, I recommend watching this wonderful video by a talented young filmmaker. He really captures the essence of the fabulousness that is Playa del Carmen.
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