Playa de Progreso — Attraction in Progreso

Not bad. I wouldn't come here to vacation for more than one or two days. It's better to stay in Mérida and visit Progreso, rather than staying in Progreso as a base to visit Yucatan. You can find decent Airbnb's or hotels in Yucatan that have a pool if what you want is to spend some time swimming.

We stayed for a week and visited places around Yucatan. We recommend getting an Airbnb. Some people in our family rented a hotel room (more expensive than our Airbnb) and it looked old and their room was small with a basic bathroom where the light was flickering and the hotel has a ton of complaints about lack of hot water and bad smells. It seems most of the hotels are kind of old. Our Airbnb was owned by a foreigner and was very well equipped with a kitchen, living room with a TV, community pool, a place to BBQ, a very nice bed and the owner had towels for us to take to the beach as well as chairs and bikes for us to use. Hot water with great water pressure and the owner even left some beers and sodas for us as a welcome present.

Most businesses along the beach are expensive to eat and the food is underwhelming. I wouldn't mind paying those prices for good food. For the same price we ate good food in Mérida city.

The "malecón" or boardwalk smells like urine in a lot of places.

The marquesitas are pretty good for a one-time trip, I wouldn't have them more than once in the whole trip and it's basically one of the only snacks to have along the "malecón".

They have either gentrified restaurants owned by foreigners or local businesses that will try to squeeze you for everything you have. It's different than other beaches like Oaxaca where there's a ton of options to eat/drink along the beach for moderate prices and good seafood. Expect to pay 350 pesos for a plate of okay-tasting shrimp and 80 to 100 pesos for a soda on the beach.

In addition, reading some research papers it seems the sea could be contaminated to a degree. We left the sea feeling super sticky, something I haven't experienced in other beaches. I couldn't find the PROFECO analysis of the Mexican beaches for 2025, just for 2024 which says the beaches are okay to swim. Another research paper from 2019 says the water might be contaminated with several unpleasant things. Also, someone from our family got a bad cut on their feet from a piece of glass in the sand. We found other pieces of glass, rusty bottle caps and other trash along the beach. I know there have been efforts to clean up the beach, but people still do not respect nature enough not to be pigs leaving their trash for other people to step on.

A lot of the locals don't respond to pleasantries like "Buenos dias" or a simple hello. I guess that could be cultural or a result of gentrification. In that case I don't blame them. This happens in many places in Mexico.

There isn't much to do around Progreso except for the meteorite museum which looks nice. The beach looks nice but like I said, the water quality is questionable. If the government/PROFECO spent more time and money doing research on water quality and cleaning up the beach/patrolling for people who litter and pee on the malecón, and reviewing businesses for food quality, it might be a lot better in the future.

Sorry guys, I hate to be a hater but Progreso is the worst beach I've been to in Mexico, and I've never been to Acapulco which has the worst water quality in Mexico from...

I don't know why so many people hate this place. There's nothing wrong with it. The beach and water are perfectly fine. Not every place needs to look like the Caribbean, and at least it's free. I'll admit on the days we were there, the sea was rough and more suitable for wading than swimming, but the water was warm. The entire place has a very relaxing seaside vibe, though I will admit being constantly pestered by hawkers and vendors gets tiring after a while. They aren't aggressive like in other parts of Mexico, but I'd still prefer they left me alone. That being said, after visiting this place, I would recommend staying here instead of Merida. Either way, I recommend getting to the beach before noon, when it's less crowded and the hawkers weren't out yet. Maybe it was because of the cloudy the weather, but the beach was still surprisingly not very crowded despite it being a Saturday. I will note however, we took a taxi there, then took the bus back, as I didn't see a single taxi anywhere...

The water at the beach is clear, light blue, and comfortable, with a pleasant shallowness that makes it ideal for families. You can walk quite far in, and we really enjoyed it. The area offers plenty of shops, restaurants, and shower stalls available for a fee.

However, our experience was marred by a parking issue. We were guided by a group of men to a parking spot that they claimed was safe, even though it was a handicap spot. After declining their tour services, one of the men warned us that our vehicle could be towed or have its plates taken by local authorities. We decided to move our car and parked further down the Malecon near the Progreso letters, where parking was ample and we faced no harassment.

Be cautious and avoid being misled into using illegal parking spots. These individuals were located near C. 76 and C. 21, across from the DIF. Overall, we had a good experience at the beach itself, though the touristy area was quite busy and crowded therefore hard to...