Plaza Playacar — Local services in Playa del Carmen

Beware of the 3 small kiosk that sells tour excursions. We got scammed very well on 3 tour excursions we paid for. They give low prices to beat hotels own excursions but you get low quality excursions with lots more to pay when you arrive at your excursions destination. They tell you you have to pay extra money since the tour planner did not pay them or some activities were not included in the tour package which the tour planner said it was. It's a big scam and they know how to get tourist money. I even went back for a refund but they always tell you to come back for the manager but he never shows up. All 3 excursions we paid and book were a disaster when we arrived. Advice: get your excursions at your hotel since they garanty there excursions to be authentic and mostly nothing to pay once you arrive at your tour. We learned the hard way.... old tour bus broke on highway and stuck on side of road for 3 long hours, they charged us $15 usd for 1 bottle of water on the bus, they use very old boats for snorkling which snorkling location were very bad with nothing to see, catamaran boats with no sails, nothing to drink unless you pay extra, full day excursions you get 6 hours on roads from transfers to 2 bus to 4 busses but once arrived your tour last 40 minutes and so on. DO NOT BOOK YOUR TOUR EXCURSIONS THERE. IF YOU WANT TO GET SCAMMED...

Great little centre for shopping if you don't want to go far and just get out the hotel for an hour or so. The prices are very competitive with 5th avenue, some actually cheaper so you can compare if you want to make the effort to do so. You can get great deals on jewellery, we got a mixed silver bangle down from 1200 pesos to 600 and a ring we saw in 5th avenue which best price we got was 2000pesos, we saw here and he said 3200 and we got it for same as 5th avenue. They also fit it to size bigger or smaller. The shops are great, lots of variety. We found Mexican hats were cheaper here 100pesos difference. Lots of stalls selling the trips which are much better value than the tour operators, at least 1000 pesos difference. And there's a Starbucks for...

Lovely little shopping centre. Wide variety of shops including a 7 11. The locals are friendly and helpful although sometimes a little to keen to get you into their shops. Great feeling here though. There is food and drink for sale and we witnessed a live jaz band here in the evening. There are lots of stalls offering excursions at a much cheaper rate than your reps will charge you (makes me wonder who the sharks really are). Only thing is where it's just outside the hotels everything is a little more expensive than if you travel into playacar centre and go to fifth avenue. Worth it for convenience and got some beautiful souvenirs....