Hey friends! We are Karla and Alex Booth, and we have been living in Playa del Carmen since 2022.
Quick trivia: we met here! 🙂 We met at a friend’s dinner back in January 2022 and the rest is history.
We love this city so much, that we decided to get married here too.
A new friend, a family member, or a curious social media pal will always hit us up about the best places to go, things to do, restaurants, and our “Little Black Book” of trusted people and services. For Karla, it’s mostly beauty and spa services. For Alex, it’s golf stuff! Almost every month, we are hosting someone or showing someone around, that we often joke: it’s always someone’s first day and someone else’s last day.
Top 5 Reasons we love living in Playa del Carmen:
- Highly walkable town, keeps us active all the time. During our first two years here, we never felt the need to own or have a car. We live in Centro (downtown) and we walk everywhere! We easily clock in at least 5,000 steps every day, get some sun, and see friends and make plans spontaneously. Coming from car-dependent towns in US and Canada this was a treat for us.
- Healthy lifestyle. Another thing that’s super easy to do here is to keep a healthy lifestyle. There’s a ton of options for every diet, every health plan… Tons of spas, gyms, clinics, restaurants, and sources of healthy whole foods. There’s also a plethora of activities like salsa, golf, tennis, basketball, swimming, paddleboarding, kitesurfing, wakeboarding, Zumba, yoga, and others.
- Something for every budget. From food to activities, there’s something for every budget. If you want a great meal under 100 pesos ($5 USD) you can hit up taco trucks. (One of them was even listed in the Michelin guide of 2024!) If you want to be bougie, check out Quinta Avenida for $100 meals and $1000 wine bottles. Same with activities. There’s free/ donation workouts and dance classes, there’s also $250 golf games. Something for everyone!
- Great weather 95% of the time. Another thing that we love about living here is the weather! Save for two or three weeks of rain in October and a low category hurricane in July (3-5 days) the weather is generally nice and sunny all throughout the year. Air is clean and fresh, and you’ll see blue skies all over. Of course check the weather report for your trip.
- Wonderful international crowd. There is no pressure to speak great Spanish for your visit, but a well-practiced “gracias”, “por favor” and “de nada” can go a long way. You can easily get around here speaking English, and you’ll meet amazing people from all over the world who have decided to settle down here.
That said, we hope to see you soon! Check out the link below for our full guide. Thank you for letting us share our piece of paradise with you! 🙂
Hope this is getting you more and more excited about your trip. And oh, before we forget, add us on our socials and maybe tag us on your pictures!
📣 Karla – Instagram, LinkedIn, Company website: Proximity Outsourcing
📣Alex – Instagram, LinkedIn, Company website: Huckleberry Consulting
Check out our Playa del Carmen Greatest Hits Guide here. We want to maintain it as a Google doc so that we can easily update it each year. If you find this guide helpful, please consider donating to any of our beloved charities:
▶️Stoked.ORG – Stoked.org is nonprofit that funds and organizes a set of programs designed for kids between 6th grade up to 24 years old, around the appreciation of board sports (skate, surf, snowboard). These programs help develop skills in leadership, self expression, patience, time management, creativity, and teamwork. This is a US based nonprofit with HQs in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago.
▶️Talikala Inc. – Home and support center for abused, abandoned, and trafficked women and children based in Davao city, Philippines. (Note: If you don’t have a way to donate to a Philippine bank, please coordinate with Karla and she will assist you.)
▶️KKIS (Keep Kids in School) – KKIS provides programming that improves graduation rates for promising students and prepares them for life by providing financial aid, community connections, and educational support. In addition to academics, KKIS helps students develop essential language, life, and work skills to build a stronger community. This nonprofit is based in Playa del Carmen, Mexico.
Thank you so much! Enjoy Playa del Carmen, and see you very, very soon.
– Karla and Alex
