Playa del Carmen beach
The main beach (Playa Caribe, p. 99) is looking much better–deeper sand, fewer rocks. But I would still advise against staying directly on the beach, except for a couple of specific hotels. With the real estate situation in Playa so feverish, it appears that many older beach hotels are letting maintenance slide while waiting for some great buyout deal to come along. No matter how slick a website a hotel has, the reality can be pretty stark…