Playa Palancar — Attraction in Isla Cozumel

Came here after washing positive YouTube video reviews! Will never be returning to this trap or will recommend it!

We arrived and during entry needed to remove our water bottles. This is fine, we were going to order drinks and have lunch anyways.

We grabbed a table directly up front and ordered our lunch for 5 people + 5 sodas. This was well over $50 USD mark which covers the minimum required to use their beach.

While I left a family member to pay, we proceeded to go and rent the beach chairs and two umbrellas ($13 for two chairs and umbrella). We wanted to rent two $26 USD). The waiter on the sand was originally going to give us a cabana type setup that can hold us all. We were fine with that and about to pay when he said that he will include it in our overall bill. We explained that we already paid for lunch and drinks at the restaurant and wanted to pay for the chairs or cabana upfront in cash now. He said sorry, we work for tips only and he wants to give it to customer who he can serve so that he can get tips. He told us to wait here he will be back.

We waited 20mins…he disappeared. While standing in the middle waiting I went to another waiter who is at the beach. He came over and did not seem that he cared to help since we already paid for lunch at the restaurant. He took us to a broken umbrella and said he will replace it left. 20mins later (40mins wait) he never returned.

A customer who was already seated prior was looking on and noticed us. He spoke to a female waitress in Spanish and she came over and asked if she can help us. At this point it was 40mins of standing in the hot sun. We had enough and told her it’s fine we are going to leave.

While we walked out my family hit us one one more massive red flag! Our family gave a $8USD tip to the waiter. The waiter told them that they need to give a $15 tip! He made them walk to get more cash to give him. Besides taking the order and bringing it he did not do anything extra.

While walking out, the ladies in our group decided to use the restroom. They quickly ran out…the toilet was totally filthy and did not have any toilet seat.

Besides the great view…this place is a total dump with crooks trying to suck every penny from your pocket.

We spoke to a guy at the bar who translated to the manager. The manager did not apologize or anything except just gave us a blank stare. Perhaps she was still...

It’s the biggest tourist money grab on the island. Playa palancar it self is ofcourse amazing, but the bar you have to go through is not. Even parking here is by tip, a 20USD entry pp (comes with use of beach furniture) Service is non existent, and the prices for everything are heavily marked up.

We entered, paid, got to the beach with no one helping us with where to sit or changing the broken lounger we were on, the guy just stood there and watched us adjust and move furniture things with a look on his face as we moved the furniture around to be able to use the facilities. You aren’t allowed to carry any of your food or water just fyi (understandably)

We wanted to order some beers, but actually had to go get the guy to take our order coz no one was even close to paying attention, when we were leaving, they tried to charge us more than the price of the beers on the menu, we corrected them, were paying by card, after all of that, the lady at the counter tried to force a 15 percent tip, which is when I just lost it and decided that I am not going to tip, not for this service especially after having paying 20 USD pp to enter, no service or facilities (be brought and used our own towels, there were no towels) and also having to tip to park (we had a single scotter and no one was actually helping us park, just to stop and park our own vehicle, and there was a mandatory tip to park)

While paying by card, and me denying a 15 percent tip, the lady at the counter said a 10 percent tip was mandatory (it’s not, it says no where, she was just trying to fleece what she thought were drunk tourists) I asked her to show me where it said there was mandatory tipping for this, then she said that it was for the job the dude who didn’t help us with anything was doing, and showed us the machine saying it starts at 10 percent tip. I clicked on the no tip option, told her there was no service worth tipping and left.

I understand entry to a beach club, but I am never going back to this place (3rd time in Cozumel now, gonna be back many times this lifetime) There are far better beach clubs with no entry fee and great snorkelling on the island like the money bar we ended up going to for the rest...

Sandy beach in Cozumel! Which also means, snorkeling won't be interesting. No entrance fee. We had lockers to store our stuff but that's because we paid the outfitter for a snorkle boat excursion which included the lockers. We didn't ask if we could use the lockers if we didn't do the snorkle trip.

We ordered the ceviche and it was nicely prepared with just fish. No fillers so no tomatoes or onions(not that we ever complained about portions here on the island so far). It's also tender although a bit small in pieces than I'd prefer.

Snorkleing: We didn't find another way to get to the reefs further south (noroads from google maps) and the boats here will take you to 3 reefs with Playa Palancar being last. For all 3 reefs on a guided snorkel tour, costs $30-35/person. I recommend this unless there's another way. I suspect boats pick people up in town or from PDC so if you're already here maybe this is the best (and leastexpensive maybe) option.

First stop was starfish land which was neat. Next stop was two in one since we swam for a good 20 (?) Minutes between reefs with plenty to see. Great visibility even if from the surface of the waters. If you can freedive, you can get up close. Huge corals and not too many fish. If you are a good swimmer and can freedive, it may be a good idea to ask your captain if you can be paired with other good divers/swimmers who are also going out. I wished our group could snorkle better as they had more needs and used up a lot of time...