Playa del Carmen, a ferry landing that grew

Playa del Carmen began as a fishing settlement whose only real job was to be the ferry landing for Cozumel, and the boats still leave from the same pier through the day: forty-five minutes across the channel to the best known wall diving in Mexico, where the current carries you along Palancar and Santa Rosa with almost no effort. The town that grew around the dock is now the most walkable place on this coast. Quinta Avenida runs parallel to the sea for some four kilometres, pedestrian the whole way, thick with restaurants, mezcalerías and shops, and it thins out pleasantly north of Calle 30 towards Playa Mamitas and the quieter sand at Playa 88. At the southern end, Parque Los Fundadores holds the bronze Portal Maya arch and, most afternoons, voladores from Papantla unwinding head-down from a pole by their ankles. Cross Avenida 30 and the grid changes character within a block: Colonia Colosio and the streets around Calle 34 are where the city eats, taquerías and marisquerías charging a third of Quinta prices. The cenotes begin immediately south. Cristalino, Azul and Jardín del Edén are twenty minutes down the 307, all fresh water and limestone ledges you can jump from, and Río Secreto runs underground through a cave system you walk and swim with a helmet lamp. Xcaret is next door, Akumal and its seagrass turtles half an hour on, Tulum an hour. Beach clubs open early, the rooftops on Calle 12 run late, and the town keeps a pace somewhere between Cancún's and Tulum's. November to April is the driest stretch; sargassum can appear from spring onwards and varies beach by beach along the same shoreline.