The Playa Maya Hotel was a great place to stay for my group of four. I did a lot of research here and on another Playa message board about the AI's and hotels in Playa del Carmen since none of us had ever been to Mexico before. Not really interested in going the AI route or booking a more expensive luxury hotel, I looked for a smaller beachfront hotel that was reasonably priced and found it perfectly in the Playa Maya Hotel. Actually it exceeded my expectations.

The location is great, just a block away from 5th avenue and all the happenings there. When arriving, you have to walk from the street a short distance through sand to get to the hotel. It was not a big deal since a couple of guys from the hotel came and took our bags for us. I thought the hotel was very well-kept and clean. The rooms were plain but quite roomy and very clean. They were even mopped every day we were there. The shower was nice and big and none of us ever had a problem with hot water. There was a small refrigerator in the room that got ice-cold which was nice. I thought it was a nice touch that the refrigerator also came with a big bottle of water and a few other refreshements complimentary. You can't drink the water at the hotel but we pretty much expected that in Mexico. Ice is provided at the bar, just make sure you get down there before closing.

The restaurant serves breakfast and lunch daily with a continental breakfast included in the room rate. For breakfast you can actually get more than a simple continental, hotcakes and eggs are available as well. I think there are four continental breakfast choices that are listed on the right side of the menu, just verify with the server as we did. Lunch at Playa Maya is awesome, I think our group ate lunch there every day of our stay. That would probably be overkill for some, but we really enjoyed the lunch menu there. As has probably been said before, the coconut shrimp are indeed awesome, and I also really loved the guanjillo shrimp. Other things we really liked... their guacamole, shrimp tacos, and nachos. There's also a beer bucket (5) w/ nachos for around $12.00 that was available as a special. You can eat under the restaurant palapa or eat at your lounge chair on the beach, great either way.

I thought the beach was great in front of the hotel and it was where we spent most of our time. Chairs and towels are provided and servers are always available to bring you whatever you wish for. The service was great and after a couple of days we developed a rapport with two servers who took great care of us. The hotel staff overall was friendly, although there was a language barrier with some people since we don't speak Spanish at all. Regardless, we were almost always greeted with an "hola" by everyone.

I think the beach was the best part of our vacation. Which was obviously why it was important to us to find a beachfront hotel. The beach in front of the hotel was actually bigger than I expected and the water was lovely. And as I said chairs, towels and service is provided by the hotel. It was great! There is a pool at the hotel, but none of us care about pools so we spent no time there. I did see it being cleaned every morning I was there.

Overall, we all really loved the Playa Maya for what it offers. If you're seeking a luxurious room and pampered service/ amenities then you might not like it, but if you're seeking a small, clean, beachfront hotel with good food and service at a great price well then you should seriously consider this hotel. We would all return in a heartbeat
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