I tend to visit Plato Carmen for weeks at a time. Fifth Avenue is very close to my hotel. Although I love the sun sand surf swimming, I also like to walk long distances and see lots of interesting things. People watching, if you will. Fifth Avenue does not disappoint. It is a colorful scope of restaurants bars lounges shocks touristy things etc. It’s a slice of Mexico. Between all the shop owners calling you out all the time, and all the many people walking up and down the street, It is an amazing experience. I generally walk fifth Avenue from one end to the other twice a day, every day that I am there. It is very safe, although the prices are a little bit inflated at some of the restaurants and services. In exchange, you get food quality and food safety, you do not need to worry about getting illnesses from eating here. There are several American style restaurants, a few big names, mini Starbucks, and lots of interesting things to try. If you like shopping, there are several miles along the strip. I do wish that the city, government, businesses, Please, and everyone else involved, we’re finally curtail these idiots from offering drugs every five seconds down the walk. They are annoying. But aside from this, harmless. And aside from the idiots selling drugs everywhere, fifth Avenue is definitely a nice, fun, interesting experience. Highly recommend it, even if you’re not staying in Playa Del Carmen, try to spend the day here just to experience all the colour, lights and sounds.

Playa del Carmen has certainly grown since the early 90’s — and so has Fifth Avenue. The entire strip from oceanfront to the north end is filled with businesses of every type and street vendors have multiplied as quickly. There is an endless variety of eating and drinking establishments, a multitude of souvenir shops, countless pharmacies and street entertainers on almost every corner. It is a wonderfully eclectic environment but comes with some cautions to novice travellers. Pickpockets and scam artists are there to prey on unwary tourists and some more organized scams are worthy of note. From our condo to the cab stand at the Cozumel Ferry end of 5th Avenue was a 50 peso ride. If you catch a return cab from the same location, the fare suddenly becomes 150 pesos. Walk a block or two further east and you can easily flag down a cab for the 50 peso ride home. Similarly, having a cab called by a restaurant or bar will similarly trigger the higher charge. If you want to purchase liquor, go to a liquor store some distance from this district and you will enjoy substantial savings. With these cautions in mind, a visit to 5th Avenue should still be a priority item on your list of ‘things to do’ in Playa del Carmen.

I really enjoyed my time shopping down 5th Avenue, but you really have to go with the flow. Lots of vendors want you to come in their shop and they're quite aggressive about it. We would only stop at the ones we wanted to and just smiled and said no thank you to the others. They're persistent though! I read on Trip Advisor in someone else's review that they read your resort bracelets and then tell you they're from your resort. That actually happens! But we were able to just smile and carry on. There are quite a few cheaper souvenir shops at the beginning of the street, but there are definitely some gems of handmade items too further on. I definitely recommend going at least once. Just enjoy yourself!

This is the street in Playa del Carmen which is for the tourists. You can buy almost everything you want and you can get some great deals, but a lot of tourist rip-offs as well. Be wary of the many "new friends" you will find there who recommend you stuff. They will tell you things like that they work at the reception of <insert your hotel> in order to gain your trust. Keep in mind that anyone knows in which hotel you are staying if they gave you a bracelet.

Quinta Avenida is the main commercial street on Playa del Carmen. Although its prices are higher than open fairs on other areas and much higher than you can find in Mexico City, it has the advantage of wider variety of itens and the offer of high quality handcraft. The street shows shops for clothes, utilities and handcraft mixing with many kinds of restaurants of several nationalities and bars. If you are not interested in shopping, I suggest knowing Quinta Avenida through a walking tour with Estacion Mexico to get a special flavor of this street.

Be ready to say No a million times and get ready to negotiate. Everything here can be negotiated but be weary of the jewelry and visit multiple before purchasing a valuable stone. Our experience with a mayan ring started with $400 down to $100... You will also be able to find cheap massages and hair braiding. Tequila tastings in every corner! I recommend going to many shops and get a taste of the tequilas prior to making your purchase.. remember to negotiate!

Exciting avenue to visit either by day or night. It has many bars, stalls, restaurants, nightclubs, and further some more for everyone. The atmosphere here is quite vibrant and it is located in the heart of Playa del Carmen. In the evenings, everyone come down here to gather around a bar or a restaurant. Live music is ongoing all night, and it is just lovely. Not all shops are expensive, like I said above, you can find posh places if you wish to go to them, but there are also typical Mexican taquerias and pubs. Quinta Avenue is a bit long and you'll want to go back there for more.

Everything about Playa Del Carmen is here. The evenings get very busy with hoards of people walking around shopping, restaurant/bar hopping. The street will be live with people playing musical instruments on the roadside and plenty of small time vendors shouting for attention. You can see many ATMs on the street where both pesos and USD are available.

We were able to walk the shops. A lot of everything, shopping, drugs, dancing, etc. It was nice, make sure you take extra money for tips. They character people would get upset if you would just give them a couple of dollars and there are so many performers.

I'm not a shopper by preference, but walking through the outdoor shops and bargaining with vendors is an interesting experience. Almost nowhere here do you offer anything near first asking price. Keep bargaining until you are turned down; that might be some resemblance of lowest price. If you are pursued out of the shop, you'll likely get a lower price. Of course, the vendors are trying to make a living, so I don't do this with an item unless I'm actually thinking of buying. There is also innumerable restaurants and bars to eat and/or drink at. Food and drink prices less than US, but not remarkably cheap. All in all 5th Avenue is many blocks long and will consumre a far amount of your leisure time to view.