Playa Del Car"ly"men, Mexico.

HOLA! Greetings from MexiCO-CO! We started our journey at the Cancun airport with some margaritas, BECAUSE WHY NOT? Playa del Carmen is 45 minutes south of Cancun, but a world away. The resort is wedged between Mamitas Beach and la Quinta Avenida, so moving from beach bum to shopaholic is easy. The luxury Grand Hyatt had a huge one-year anniversary sale that discounted all the guest rooms in August! So we really got lucky. It was designed by Sordo Madaleno Arquitectos + Rockwell Group. For starters, the entrance had no doors. It also has a grand view of the Caribbean Sea. It’s located on a stretch of Playa Del Carmen’s most beautiful white sand beach with turquoise waters. My photos do not even do this place justice.

The hotel room was designed with lots of walnut wood, turquoise rope accents and back-painted glass everywhere!

Our first stop was the taco restaurant: “La Cocina”. It offered steak, chicken, catch of the day, portabella mushroom, ahi and shrimp. We also had to order a side of guacamole. You really couldn’t go wrong. We also returned to this restaurant for their breakfast buffet every morning. There’s nothing comparable to a good vacation breakfast.

The hotel consisted of a smoothie bar (as seen above), coffee bar, sushi bar and full-service drinks/food to your cabana at any time. We were living the good life. Our hotel even made their own tequila. It had their own agave farm on their roof. Like WHY NOT, right? There was absolutely no reason to leave this hotel. 

We also explored the city of Playa Del Carmen. La Quinta Avenida (5th Avenue) is the main street. It’s only two blocks away from our hotel. It consisted of cute Mexican restaurants, shops, leather goods and more taco shops. I felt like we were exploring an authentic Mexican City until we passed: Starbucks, McDonald’s and Sephora. 

One of my favorite design details was at the restaurant called “The Grill At 1-26”. It had full-height blackened steel rod wall divider system that incorporated green plants with lighting elements above each piece of pottery. It was magnificent!

During our stay, we took full advantage of the beach activities. This consisted of: jet ski races, banana boating and paddle boarding. It was a hard week.