Playa del Carmen facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Playa del Carmen
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City
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Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo
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| Nickname(s):
Playa, PDC
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| Lua error in Module:Location_map at line 416: Malformed coordinates value. | |
| Country | Mexico |
| State | Quintana Roo |
| Municipality | Solidaridad |
| Founded | 1937 |
| Elevation | 10 m (30 ft) |
| Population
(2020)
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| • City | 304 942 |
| • Urban | 304 942 |
| Demonym(s) | Playense |
| Time zone | UTC-5 (Southeast (US Eastern)) |
| Postal codes |
77710, 77720
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| Area code(s) | 984 |
Playa del Carmen, known colloquially as 'Playa', is a resort city located along the Caribbean Sea in the state of Quintana Roo, Mexico. It is part of the municipality of Solidaridad. As of 2020, the city's population was just over 300,000 people, a small yet thriving portion of which are foreign expats.
Playa del Carmen is a popular tourist destination in Mexico's Riviera Maya region. Its current growth rate is set at 25% per year. According to the Guinness World Records, it one of Latin America’s fastest growing communities. In 2016, the city was the tenth most popular international travel destination for U.S travelers, and over a million tourists passed through the city a year later. The main airport for Playa is the Cancún International Airport, which is around 70 kilometres (43 mi) away.
The area is known for its white sand beaches, blue turquoise waters, coral reefs, surrounding rainforests, and balnearios. The downtown area of the city revolves around Quinta Avenida, a busy pedestrian thoroughfare lined with many shops, clubs, and restaurants. The weather is hot year-round, with the summer and winter breaks being peak season for tourism.
Geography
Playa del Carmen is located within the Riviera Maya, which runs from south of Cancún to Tulum and the Sian Ka'an biosphere reserve. Playa is a stop for several cruise ships which dock at the nearby Calica quarry docks, about six miles (10 km) south of the city. The Xcaret Eco Park, a Mexican-themed "eco-archaeological park", is a popular tourist destination located just south of the town in Xcaret (pronounced "ish-kar-et").
Climate
In October 2005, Hurricane Wilma passed directly over Playa del Carmen, remaining in the vicinity for two days and causing significant damage and a temporary drop in tourist arrivals. Most of the damage was relatively superficial and repaired within a few weeks of the storm. Hurricane Wilma arrived from the Caribbean Sea, passing over Cozumel before making landfall in Playa del Carmen. It then moved north along the Mexican coast, hitting Cancún especially hard.
Playa del Carmen has a tropical savannah climate (Aw) with June to November receiving most of the precipitation. Summers are hot and year round with warm nights. Cold temperatures are unheard of because of the tropical influence of the Caribbean Sea.
| Climate data for Playa del Carmen (1951–2010) | |||||||||||||
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| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 37.5 (99.5) |
33.0 (91.4) |
34.0 (93.2) |
39.0 (102.2) |
40.0 (104.0) |
39.0 (102.2) |
39.0 (102.2) |
39.5 (103.1) |
39.0 (102.2) |
34.0 (93.2) |
35.0 (95.0) |
39.0 (102.2) |
40.0 (104.0) |
| Average high °C (°F) | 27.8 (82.0) |
28.5 (83.3) |
29.6 (85.3) |
30.8 (87.4) |
31.7 (89.1) |
32.0 (89.6) |
32.5 (90.5) |
32.9 (91.2) |
32.6 (90.7) |
30.8 (87.4) |
29.3 (84.7) |
28.6 (83.5) |
30.6 (87.1) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | 22.8 (73.0) |
23.4 (74.1) |
24.3 (75.7) |
26.1 (79.0) |
27.3 (81.1) |
27.9 (82.2) |
28.0 (82.4) |
28.0 (82.4) |
27.9 (82.2) |
26.3 (79.3) |
24.4 (75.9) |
23.4 (74.1) |
25.8 (78.4) |
| Average low °C (°F) | 17.9 (64.2) |
18.3 (64.9) |
19.0 (66.2) |
21.3 (70.3) |
22.9 (73.2) |
23.7 (74.7) |
23.5 (74.3) |
23.2 (73.8) |
23.1 (73.6) |
21.7 (71.1) |
19.4 (66.9) |
18.2 (64.8) |
21.0 (69.8) |
| Record low °C (°F) | 8.0 (46.4) |
7.0 (44.6) |
5.0 (41.0) |
10.0 (50.0) |
15.0 (59.0) |
14.0 (57.2) |
13.0 (55.4) |
15.0 (59.0) |
14.0 (57.2) |
13.5 (56.3) |
11.0 (51.8) |
9.0 (48.2) |
5.0 (41.0) |
| Average rainfall mm (inches) | 61.2 (2.41) |
50.5 (1.99) |
28.1 (1.11) |
51.2 (2.02) |
78.1 (3.07) |
153.0 (6.02) |
126.3 (4.97) |
126.3 (4.97) |
168.8 (6.65) |
284.3 (11.19) |
130.3 (5.13) |
73.1 (2.88) |
1,331.2 (52.41) |
| Average rainy days (≥ 0.1 mm) | 7.7 | 4.4 | 3.8 | 3.7 | 6.5 | 10.6 | 9.3 | 9.6 | 14.5 | 15.9 | 9.5 | 7.3 | 102.8 |
| Source: Servicio Meteorológico Nacional | |||||||||||||
Demographics
| Historical population | ||
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| Year | Pop. | ±% |
| 1995 | 17,621 | — |
| 2000 | 43,613 | +147.5% |
| 2005 | 100,383 | +130.2% |
| 2010 | 149,923 | +49.4% |
| 2014 | 186,700 | +24.5% |
| 2020 | 304,942 | +63.3% |
| sources: | ||
Tourism
Originally a small fishing town, tourism to Playa del Carmen began with the passenger ferry service to Cozumel, an island across the Cozumel Channel and a world-famous scuba diving destination.
Playa del Carmen has recently undergone extremely rapid development with new luxury residential condominium buildings, restaurants, boutiques, and entertainment venues. Tourist activity in Playa del Carmen centers on Quinta Avenida, or Fifth Avenue, which stretches from Calle 1 norte to Calle 40. A pedestrian walkway located just one or two blocks inland from the beach, Fifth Avenue is lined with hundreds of shops, bars, and restaurants. There are many small boutique hotels on and just off Fifth Avenue and on the beach.
Playacar is a residential and tourist development in Playa del Carmen just south of the main urban area. Most of the all-inclusive hotels, the aviary, and the golf course are located in this development. There are two phases – phase 1 is mostly residential with a few hotels and some stores, while phase 2 contains the largest all-inclusive resorts as well as the golf course and a significant number of residential properties.
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Park temático Xcaret
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Tourists entering Playa del Carmen's ferry terminal
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Paseo del Carmen shopping center
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Church in Playa del Carmen
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Beach in Playa del Carmen
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Beach in Playa del Carmen
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Modern church, interior view
Safety
Playa del Carmen is generally a safe travel destination in Mexico. The town is generally secure for most tourists, except for risks such as hurricanes, sunburns and common tourist scams. Numbeo reports that the Safety Index and Crime Index in Playa del Carmen are both in the low-moderate range, with scores of 50.55 and 49.45 respectively.
On January 21, 2022, a tourist opened fire at the Xcaret all-inclusive hotel, killing two Canadians and wounding one other.
Sports
The city is home to Inter Playa del Carmen, an association football club founded in 1999, which competes in the south group of the Segunda División Profesional, the third tier of Mexican football league system.
The World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba is a PGA Tour FedEx Cup golf tournament held at El Camaleón Golf Club since 2007. Since 2013, it has been a full-points tournament where the winner earns full rights for a PGA TOUR win.
Notable people
- Tory Burch, fashion designer
- David Guetta, disc jockey
- Barry Shulman, poker player
- Ana Claudia Talancón, actress
See also
In Spanish: Playa del Carmen para niños
- Cenote
- Puerto Aventuras
- Riviera Maya Jazz Festival
