Where locals go

Where locals actually go

Residents mostly avoid Fifth Avenue except for work. Real Playa life happens inland, west of the tourist strip, where the prices are in pesos-that-make-sense and the menus are in Spanish first.

Eating and drinking

• Colonia Ejido and the streets around Avenida 30 and beyond. This is where taquerias, loncherias and family kitchens serve the food workers actually eat, at a fraction of avenue prices.
• Calle 34 and the northern local blocks have neighborhood cantinas and taco spots that fill up with residents after work rather than tourists.
• Mercado Municipal (the local market). Cheap comida corrida, fresh juice and market stalls, busy at lunchtime with people who live here.

A day off

Locals with a free day head out of town to the cenotes to swim away from the crowds, or north to quieter beaches and coastal spots like Punta Esmeralda, a free town beach with a little freshwater cenote outlet that families use on weekends.

What a local would tell you

Cross Avenida 30 and keep walking. Every block inland the food gets cheaper and better, the crowd gets more Mexican, and you stop paying the tourist tax you did not know you were paying on the avenue.