Playa Del Carmen was never in our original plans. Turns out we like to fly by the seat of our pants (which also kind of sums up our experience on the flight out of Mexico on the cheapest flights ever purchased by man.)
Since I’ve been travelling long term, I have developed a hatred for overly-crowded and overly-touristed resorts. Even though I used to love those kind of holidays when I was younger, now that my eyes have been opened to deeper and more meaningful experiences (as well as not having to elbow my way to dinner), I cannot stand them.
Which was why I was rather nervous to about where to stay in Playa Del Carmen.
All I could picture in my mind’s eye was row upon row of all inclusive hotels, drunken louts staggering out of gaudy clubs and touts trying to sell me over-priced food. And Playa has a lot of that in the centre, don’t get me wrong, but there are definitely little hidden gems to be found.
Also, after spending the best part of two months in a secluded beach village and then mountain town, it was kind of nice to get back to civilisation. And by civilisation, I mean somewhere with a Ben & Jerry’s outlet.
Anyhow, we turned up at the Illusion Hotel late the first evening and were greeted with bottles of water and recommendations on where to find some tasty street tacos. We were impressed by the size of our room and the addition of air conditioning (try spending half of rainy season in Mexico with no air con and you’ll soon understand why.)
The highlight of our stay came the next morning when we went down to breakfast.
Again, after spending three months in Mexico either eating terrible free “continental” breakfasts which consisted of dry cereal and toast, or of sweating over a pan of scrambled eggs, it was nice to be served a breakfast that I didn’t have to cook or choke down.
The focus on the food here is healthy and fresh produce, so it isn’t your normal hotel breakfast. They even offer carrot juice and flax seed to add to your yogurt, as well as different coffees and fruits.
Scott ordered a fruit smoothie which turned up at our table looking more like a delicious cocktail, along with heuvos rancheros, and I ordered the Mexican omelette. They were both delicious and homemade. It was definitely the best breakfast we had our whole time in Mexico (apart from my sweaty scrambled eggs, of course).
Unfortunately for us, it was pretty rainy and grey most of the time we were there, which also meant that we couldn’t use the rooftop pool at the hotel (woe is us), but we did manage to get lots of work done and enjoy some tasty meals and a Starbucks (something that we surprisingly hadn’t seen for a couple of months).
Overall, despite our brief stay in Playa, I really liked the hotel. The only slight drawback was that some of the decor and furnishings could do with an update, such as the elevator, which was very slow and rickety, and the cabinets within the bedrooms. However, while we were there they seemed to be doing improvement works on the hotel and I think a general re-furb seems to be on the cards.
But the fact that it is literally steps from the beach and also the great and healthy breakfast they serve, makes it definitely worth a visit, even in rainy season.
Leave a Reply