Playa 88
- Blue Flag certified
- Toilets and changing rooms
- Showers on site
- A few free thatched shade shelters
- Ramp over the sand, wheelchair accessible
- Lifeguard on duty
- No vendors, bring food and water
- Pedestrians and bicycles only
- Quieter than the centre
Overview
Playa 88 sits at the seaward end of Calle 88 Norte, in the Colosio neighbourhood about eight blocks north of the Calle 72 access and immediately south of Punta Esmeralda. It is one of eight Blue Flag certified beaches in Playa del Carmen, and the certification is the reason it feels different from the rest of the northern stretch: it brings toilets, changing rooms, showers, a staffed information booth and a lifeguard, none of which is usual on a free public beach here.
The approach is a paved corridor rather than a road. Cars cannot reach the sand, so the last stretch is walked or cycled, with bicycle racks at the entrance and a ramp carrying the path over the soft sand for wheelchairs and pushchairs. That single constraint shapes the whole character of the beach: no traffic at the waterline, no beach club sound system, and a crowd made up mostly of people who live nearby.
There are no vendors and no restaurant on the sand, so food and drink have to be carried in. A handful of free thatched shade shelters stand near the entrance, unfurnished and taken early on a busy morning. The sand is raked, which is a visible difference from the untended accesses either side, and the beach is signed as smoke-free.
Our current condition score for this beach is .
Our photographic record
Each photograph is published unedited and in date order, and is retained so the record builds rather than resets.
No photographs of this beach have been submitted yet. The grid below fills in as contributors send them.
Position relative to the Atlantic sargassum belt
Playa del Carmen faces east into the Yucatán Channel with no barrier reef offshore to intercept drifting weed, which is the structural reason this coast receives sargassum that Cozumel, sitting in the island's lee, largely does not. Playa 88 shares that exposure with every access in the town.
What varies along the town is the shape of the shoreline rather than the exposure. This stretch runs almost straight north to south with no headland to trap material, so mats tend to arrive and leave with the current rather than settling into a corner. The cost of that is a beach with nothing to shelter it when a swell is running; the benefit is that accumulation here often clears faster than it does in an enclosed bay.
The Blue Flag programme adds a second variable that geography does not. Maintaining the designation requires water quality monitoring and active beach management, and the raking regime that follows means the sand at the entrance is usually cleared even when the waterline is not. Visitors should read those two things separately: cleared sand at the access is not evidence of clear water.
The sargassum season
The Caribbean sargassum season generally runs from spring into late summer, with the heaviest arrivals between April and August and a slackening through the autumn. The belt itself sits far offshore in the Atlantic, and what reaches any given beach depends on wind and current in the days beforehand rather than on the month alone.
For this beach the practical consequence is that the season determines the odds, not the outcome. A single settled week in June can leave the water clear here while a windy stretch in October brings a mat ashore. The regional pattern is covered in our guide to sargassum season in the Riviera Maya.
One durable local point: because there is no vendor economy on this sand, there is no commercial incentive to clear it beyond the municipal programme. On a bad week the difference between this access and a hotel frontage two hundred metres away can be considerable, and it is worth checking a recent photograph rather than assuming the certification guarantees a clean waterline.
Choosing a hotel on this stretch
The blocks behind Calle 88 are residential rather than resort, made up of low-rise condominium buildings and small boutique hotels rather than all-inclusives. Staying here means walking or cycling to the beach through a neighbourhood, and a taxi or colectivo ride to the restaurants and nightlife of Quinta Avenida in the centre.
The trade is quiet against convenience. Anyone whose priority is stepping from a room onto raked sand with a lounger waiting will find the centre or Playacar a better fit; anyone who wants a beach without a sound system, and does not mind carrying a cool box, is better served here.
Access and getting there
The access runs east from the junction of Quinta Avenida and Calle 88 Norte, and is closed to cars for its final stretch. Parking is on the surrounding streets, free but limited, and it fills early at weekends. Motorbikes and scooters can generally be taken further in than cars.
From the centre of Playa del Carmen it is a walk of roughly forty to fifty minutes along Quinta Avenida, or a short taxi ride. There is no Uber service in Playa del Carmen, so a street taxi or the colectivos running along Avenida 30 are the alternatives to driving.
The facilities at the entrance, including the toilets, changing rooms and information booth, are staffed during daytime hours and can close earlier than posted. Reports differ on whether a small charge applies for the toilets and showers, so carrying a few coins is sensible.
Check live conditions before you go
Sargassum on this coast changes from one day to the next. Our live card for Playa 88 carries the current condition score, the most recent contributor photographs with their dates, and any webcam pointed at this stretch.
See live conditions, photos & cams →