In this blog, we want to tell you why the area known as South West Playa Del Carmen is quickly becoming one of the hottest places to own a home in the Riviera Maya.
Restaurants and Bars
In and immediately surrounding Centro Maya you will find a variety of restaurants.
Our favorite is Gran Taco, a family-run restaurant that offers homemade Mexican cuisine. Open for breakfast and lunch this immaculate restaurant offers the best tacos de guisados, the carnitas being our personal favorite, and unforgettable flautas ahogadas. Service is friendly and fast and we know you will want to go back for seconds!
We also love Off the Vine, an intimate wine bar that started in the center of Playa Del Carmen and now has a second location across from Centro Maya. Here you can find a vast wine selection from all around the world, carefully curated by the owners. The offerings are available by the glass or you can purchase bottles to enjoy there or take home with you.
Along with their wine offerings, they have a wonderful food menu ranging from a lovely charcuterie board to entrée options.
All Your Shopping Needs
The area around South West Playa del Carmen has its own centers of commerce. You wouldn’t have to visit the center of Playa Del Carmen unless you wanted to.
The local shopping mall is called Centro Maya and it contains a grocery store called Soriana. It has a large selection of international cooking supplies, home goods, and even electronics. Other stores in the mall offer party supplies, a variety of clothing stores, department stores, cell phone stores, and a cinema for those rainy Caribbean days.
Need some caffeine fuel before running all your errands? Centro Maya has a Starbucks in the parking lot!
The surrounding shopping centers on the west side of the highway include pharmacies, Office Max, banks, scuba diving centers, furniture stores, convenience stores, car washes, and Liverpool, a large department store.
Things to Do
The area of South West Playa del Carmen is very close to Playacar, which boasts some of the best beaches in the region.
If you prefer freshwater adventures, there are a couple of cenotes in the area which you can visit too. Cenotes are freshwater natural swimming pools with crystalline water that hold a very special place in the Mayan world as they were sacred and used for religious ceremonies and were thought of as entrances into the Mayan underworld.
Have you heard of the different adventure parks the Yucatan has to offer? In this area, there are three of them: Xplor, Rio Secreto, and Native Park Playa Del Carmen. These adventure parks offer ziplining and cenote experiences which are a fun day out for active families.
Xplor is an all-inclusive adventure park that boasts the highest zip lining experience in Rivera Maya and offers amphibious vehicles to explore the jungle within the park.
Rio Secreto offers a 1 km hike and swims through a stunning crystal-clear cenote that has thousands of stalagmites and stalactites.
Native Park Playa Del Carmen offers an educational experience as the guides explain life for the original settlers of the area. It also offers guided all-terrain vehicle tours through the jungle and finishes the tour with a refreshing visit to a cenote to cool down.
Developments in South West Playa del Carmen
Bali Lifestyle
Living in the area southwest of Playa del Carmen is easy because the infrastructure has already been built. We love the condos in the developments at Bali Lifestyle. As well as being a secure gated community, this residential complex has the benefits of sports facilities on-site, including a sports club, gym, basketball, and tennis facilities.
Being a little further from the center means you also get more bang for your buck in terms of buying property here, with much larger houses available.
Palmara
Palmara is a new development which prides itself on having first-class facilities. Surrounded by lush jungle, this gated community can be your haven in the Rivera Maya.
It has sports facilities on-site, as well as an event room, parks and playgrounds for the kids, and large communal swimming pools.
As an investment piece, this area provides growth with options for long-term family rentals, Airbnb trips, or even as your new home in the Caribbean.
South West Playa del Carmen
If you are thinking of investing in a property South West of Playa Del Carmen you would have ease of access to all the things you need, while escaping the noise of the city center. If you’re looking to invest on a budget, it’s the hot location to check out.