Day 204 - Our First Full Day in Playa del Carmen, Mexico

Our first full day in Playa del Carmen started much earlier than we would have liked.

After spending the last four months in Europe, the six-hour time difference between London and Mexico hit us pretty hard. Kia was awake ridiculously early, the kids weren't far behind, and while I managed to force myself back to sleep for a little longer, I was still awake by around 5:00–5:30am. The others had been staring at the ceiling since somewhere between 3:00 and 4:00am.

To make matters worse, we had no coffee.

We'd brought our coffee pods with us from London, thinking we'd be able to use them in our new accommodation, only to discover that the machine here is a traditional drip coffee maker, not a pod machine. There were filters in the cupboard, but no ground coffee. We briefly considered cutting open the pods and using the coffee inside, but figured the result would probably be pretty weak.

So instead, we settled for cups of tea and made the best of it.

Breakfast was simple but enough to get us going. We had toast, bananas and eggs while the kids eagerly got back into building their new Lego sets. They were completely absorbed, while Kia and I took the opportunity to settle into our new surroundings and tackle something a little less exciting… our travel budgets.

We wanted to close out Morocco properly and see exactly where we'd landed financially. London had already blown a hole in the budget before we'd even looked at the numbers. The accommodation alone cost nearly double what we'd normally spend, train fares were far more expensive than we'd expected, and food wasn't exactly cheap either. We only ate out once at a proper restaurant and grabbed some quick takeaway on our first night, yet the costs still added up quickly.

London was incredible, but it certainly wasn't kind to the wallet.

Morocco was a little more complicated. If we receive the refunds we're still waiting on, we'll actually come in under budget. If those refunds don't materialise, we'll end up over. To be fair though, we packed a lot into Morocco. Between horse riding, quad biking, surfing, kitesurfing, cooking classes and various other experiences, we definitely got our money's worth.

We're still waiting on two refunds. One from Morocco and another £133 from London after accidentally purchasing two sets of hop-on hop-off bus tickets. Hopefully both eventually find their way back into our account.

Once we'd finished crunching numbers, it was time to get out and see Playa del Carmen properly.

Our accommodation sits a couple of kilometres back from the beach, so we jumped into a taxi and headed downtown. Technically it's walkable, but in the Mexican heat and humidity it wasn't a particularly appealing option.

Downtown Playa del Carmen was actually pretty cool.

Running parallel to the beach is a long pedestrian strip filled with shops, restaurants, bars and tourists from all over the world. It has a completely different feel to anywhere we'd visited recently. Much more North American influence mixed with Mexican culture and Caribbean vibes.

The beach itself, however, wasn't quite what we'd expected.

The ocean was rough and huge amounts of seaweed had washed ashore. Teams of workers were constantly raking and removing it, but the waves just kept bringing more in. Large piles of seaweed lined parts of the beach and created a smell that wasn't particularly pleasant.

It reminded us a lot of parts of southern Italy and Sicily where we'd seen similar seaweed problems, particularly around San Foca. It wasn't exactly postcard-perfect Caribbean water, at least not in the central Playa area.

That said, it's only one section of coastline.

There are plenty of other beaches nearby, and we suspect we'll spend some time exploring further afield over the coming weeks. A ferry trip out to one of the nearby islands is definitely on the list as well.

While wandering around, we also started researching some of the activities available in the area.

There is no shortage of things to do around Playa del Carmen.

Swimming with whale sharks, snorkelling tours, cenotes, eco parks and ancient Mayan ruins are all within reach. The challenge isn't finding things to do—it's fitting them into the budget.

The whale shark tours look incredible but are expensive. The eco parks are expensive. Even some of the day trips start adding up once transport is factored in. We looked at visiting some of the famous Mayan ruins, but from Playa del Carmen the transport alone would cost us around $200.

We might leave some of those bigger adventures until later, particularly if we spend a few days in Cancun before flying to our next destination.

Of course, being the responsible adults that we are, we immediately added all these potential activities into our Mexico budget spreadsheet to see what would happen.

The answer?

It wasn't pretty.

Doing all the things we'd like to do would push us comfortably over budget. Whether we choose to do them all remains to be seen. Staying longer would certainly help spread some of those costs out.

One practical thing we did sort out was local transport.

Rather than using traditional taxis, we downloaded the Didi app, which works similarly to Grab in Vietnam. You enter your destination, receive a fixed price upfront and pay through the app. No negotiations, no guessing, no surprises. The driver we had was friendly and helpful, and the whole process was incredibly easy.

One thing we're still trying to get used to though is tipping culture.

Australia simply isn't a tipping country, so navigating places where tipping is expected feels surprisingly awkward. We never quite know how much is appropriate, when it's expected, or whether we're accidentally offending people by tipping too little—or by not tipping at all.

More than once we've simply walked away because we weren't sure what the correct thing to do was.

It's one of those little cultural differences that sounds simple until you're standing there trying to make a decision in real time.

After deciding the beach wasn't worth swimming at, we spent some time wandering through the shopping district behind the shoreline.

The shops themselves were interesting enough, but every few metres someone was calling us into a restaurant, souvenir store or tourist attraction. After a while it became exhausting. We understood everyone was trying to earn a living, but being approached over and over again made it difficult to simply relax and enjoy exploring.

By then the heat and humidity had really kicked in.

We were all sweating, hungry and ready for a break.

So despite knowing there were probably cheaper options away from the main tourist strip, we gave in and walked into one of the beachfront restaurants.

Sometimes, after a long morning of travel fatigue, budgeting and being roasted in Caribbean humidity, convenience wins over saving a few dollars.

The experience itself was fantastic.

We ordered a fresh guacamole to share and one of the staff prepared it right at the table in front of us. Watching the ingredients being mixed together and turned into fresh guacamole was pretty cool and definitely added to the experience.

The food itself was delicious.

Everyone ordered tacos, but the prices quickly started adding up. The tacos worked out at around $10–12 Australian each once converted from pesos, drinks were around $6–7 each, and the guacamole was close to $16 Australian.

Then came the bill.

On top of the already expensive meal, there was an expected 18% tip.

By the time everything was added together, lunch for the four of us came to around $125 Australian.

For three small tacos each, some guacamole and a couple of drinks.

It was one of those moments where you sit there afterwards doing mental maths and realising you've just spent more on lunch than your entire daily food budget.

The meal was excellent and we're glad we experienced it once, but it was also a reminder that if we're going to make our budget work over the coming months, we can't make a habit of eating in tourist hotspots like that.

Unfortunately, the spending didn't stop there.

The kids had been promised gelato.

How expensive could ice cream be?

Apparently very.

Single scoops were around $10 Australian each, and once toppings were added—even with a supposed two-for-one promotion—we still spent somewhere around $16–18 Australian for two ice creams with a handful of M&Ms sprinkled on top.

More budget damage.

By this point we were starting to feel a little shell-shocked.

Needless to say, we probably won't be eating or buying desserts along the main tourist strip too often. If we do, we'll need to be much more selective. There are almost certainly cheaper local options further away from the waterfront.

After recovering from our spending spree, we made our way to Walmart.

That was an experience in itself.

The place felt like ten Australian stores rolled into one giant building. It seemed to sell absolutely everything.

We spent some time stocking up on groceries and supplies, buying what should be close to a week's worth of food. The total came to around $400 Australian, which initially felt expensive, but when we looked at everything we'd purchased, it was actually fairly comparable to Australian supermarket prices.

The difference was that we also bought things we wouldn't normally buy back home.

A few beers for me. Some gin for Kia.

Mexico feels different.

The accommodation has a resort-style atmosphere with a pool, a gym and plenty of outdoor space. We can already see ourselves settling into a nice routine of breakfast, schoolwork, work, lunch at home, exercise in the afternoon and occasional day trips when opportunities arise.

It feels like somewhere we can actually slow down for a while.

Water is another expense here, as drinking bottled water is the safer option, so that's something we'll need to factor into the ongoing budget as well.

After Walmart we caught another taxi back to the accommodation and spent the afternoon exactly how we needed to.

In the pool.

No sightseeing. No rushing around. No plans.

Just relaxing.

By late afternoon the jet lag was catching up with all of us. Kia was the first to surrender and headed off to bed around 7:00pm. The kids were hanging on surprisingly well, so we let them watch a movie while I attempted to stay awake a little longer.

Eventually we all gave in.

I think the kids and I made it to about 8:00pm before calling it a night.

Overall, it was a good first full day in Playa del Carmen.

We explored the area, got our bearings, worked through our finances, stocked up on groceries and learned a valuable lesson about tourist pricing.

The reality is that with our cruise from Los Angeles back to Brisbane already booked for later in the year, we're becoming increasingly aware that every spending decision now affects what life looks like when we return home.

The goal isn't just to finish the trip.

The goal is to finish the trip well.

To arrive home with some money still in the bank, enough breathing room to make thoughtful decisions about what's next and enough flexibility to build the life we've spent the last seven months dreaming about.

One exciting thing on the horizon is catching up with some friends we met at the Better Together Hub in Phuket. They're currently travelling through Guatemala, right next door to Mexico.

So close, yet still far enough away that coordinating a meetup might take some planning.

We're going to jump on a call with them tomorrow and see if there's a way our paths can cross somewhere along the journey.

It would be pretty special if we could make it happen.

But that's a problem for tomorrow.

For now, Day 204 was all about settling into Mexico, adjusting to a new time zone and discovering that sometimes the biggest travel surprises aren't hidden ruins or tropical beaches.

Sometimes they're the lunch bill.