Parking in Playa Del Carmen

Garages, Parking Lots and on the Street

Funny signs in Playa Del Carmen

Parking in Playa Del Carmen

Parking in Playa Del Carmen is getting a little harder with more and more hotels, restaurants and businesses opening in the downtown and luring in so many tourist. If you are staying outside of Playa Del Carmen and want a night on the town or are using a car in Playa Del Carmen, then you will need to know where to park for convenience. Here is our guide to parking in Playa Del Carmen for on the street, garages, lots and scooters. All parking is reasonably priced. Prices are about 15-20 pesos an hour and about 200 pesos for 24-hour parking.

Special note about parking: A few of the parking lots that are smaller will park cars together and require you to leave a key. There have been isolated reports of workers taking things from the cars. If you don’t feel comfortable leaving a key, some of the self parking garages are a better option. 

Never leave anything of value in your car. This goes for places you leave your key or not. Many rental cars are easily identifiable to would be thieves. Some of the more targeted places are indoor parking at supermarkets like the Walmart in the downtown of Playa Del Carmen. An alternative is the park out in the open where there is more visibility. We always park in the sun in front of the store if we have things in the car, even if they are out of sight. 

Parking Garages in Playa Del Carmen

There are three main garages you can park at for the downtown of Playa Del Carmen and they are spread out for whatever part you want to visit. All of the garages are covered and are self-parking.

On the South end there is an underground parking garage that is fairly hidden, and you might not notice it. This garage is on diagonal road on the south side of the airport between 15th Avenue and 10th Avenue. The garage is good for shopping at Paseo Del Carmen shopping plaza, immigration or going to Cozumel. This garage often has spaces when the other two parking lots on 10th Avenue are full. (See map for details)

Tendenza garage is on 10th Avenue between 14th Street and 14 Bis Street. This is almost in the center of Playa Del Carmen. This is a multi story garage with ample parking and is never full. This garage is good if you are going to clubs on 12th Street, Calle Corazon or nearby shops or restaurants on 5th Avenue. You might miss it because the exterior has many plants on it. This keeps it looking nice and green and cooler inside.

Parking garage Playa Del Carmen Mexico Parking Playa Del Carmen
Tendenza Parking Garage on 10th Avenue.

The last garage is under Quinta Alegria Mall. The entrance is on Constituyentes Avenue between 10th Avenue and 5th Avenue. This garage makes for easy in and out of the center of Playa. You are almost in the center of 5th Avenue and allows you to go for a walk and visit each end of 5th Avenue as well as Quinta Alegria Mall. Sometimes during the day on weekends, it can get pretty full, so you might have more of a problem parking if you have a larger vehicle. 

Parking Lots in Playa Del Carmen

Parking lots are not expensive as well and make for easier in and out parking. The only disadvantage to them over garages is the fact they are usually not self parking and your car might get blocked in by other cars when full and can take a few minutes to move around. Some will require you to leave keys and some people prefer to park in a garage and keep the keys to yourself.

On the map below you can see they are spread around the downtown of Playa. There are parking lots for the Cozumel Ferry, Paseo Del Carmen, the south end of 5th Avenue, Middle of 5th Avenue and upper end of 5th Avenue.

Grocery store parking lots in Playa Del Carmen

All of the grocery stores in Playa Del Carmen have free parking. However, with the implementation of parking meters on the street, parking lots at grocery stores has become limited. For example, the Walmart in the center of Playa Del Carmen is used by employees of the area and often the inside and outside parking can be full. This has led some grocery stores to close the lots at night and put up a chain. Be mindful not to think you can park and leave late at night, you might be trapped until the morning. 

As mentioned above, isolated parking spots at grocery stores can be a target for thieves. Here are some tips to avoid problems:

  • Never leave anything in sight. 
  • Always lock your car. 
  • When you arrive, don’t place your items in the trunk, thinking you will hide them from sight, people can be watching, and it is too late. Before you park, have everything put away. 
  • If you have anything of value in your car, you might want to park in the outside sections for better sight visibility. 
parking Chedraui Select
This is the Chedraui Select in Playa Del Carmen where you can find indoor parking below the store.

Parking Map for Playa Del Carmen

See all the above places on the map below.

New street parking meters in Playa Del Carmen

Since the downtown is getting more congested and on street parking is getting hard to find, Playa Del Carmen is adding meters. These are supplied by a company called PlayaParq. Machines will be placed in the central area of Playa Del Carmen for parking. Instructions are in English, Spanish and French. 

Tickets are printed out and you set them on the inside windshield of your car. Below are the sample instructions for paying and using the tickets. 

Parking Playa Del Carmen

Parking Regulations and General Rules about Parking in Playa

It might be a bit daunting at first if you are driving around the city looking for parking. There are some general rules that will help you avoid getting a ticket.

  • The signs with the “E” slashed out means no parking in Spanish “No estacionar“. This means no parking there.
  • Yellow curbs mean no parking but white curbs is ok. Red curbs are also no parking. You will however see some streets with yellow curbs and many cars parked there. This can be a local tradition and there are exceptions to every rule. It is still best not to park here even if other people are doing it.
  • Don’t park near street corners. There is an official measurement but you would never know it from looking around Playa Del Carmen. Parking near a corner is dangerous because it limits visibility. Try to leave two car lengths before a corner and just be safe and don’t park near one.
  • For scooters and motorcycles there is more sections in the downtown that are set aside for just scooter parking. This is because many people commute to work on a moped. It is good to park in these areas because cars will not be trying to park near you and bumping into your scooter. It is also important in the evenings to park in well lit areas since mirrors and batteries can be taken off scooters. (See map for scooter parking areas)
  • If you have parked illegally you will get a ticket but that is not all. Usually the police will take off one license plate. This way you have to go pay your ticket to get back your plate. Check your car to see if you have both plates and always check a rental car when you get it to see if it has two plates. Don’t accept it if it does not.
  • If you get a ticket it is best to pay it in the first few days. You will get a substantial discount.

If you have found this guide to Playa Del Carmen helpful you might also want to check out our other great guides to everything in Playa here!

Playa Del Carmen Guides

About The Author

23 Comments

  1. Quiero manejar de cancun aplaya del carmen un lugar seguro para a dejar mi carro y cuanto me costaría

    • Hola Miguel
      Costará 10-15 pesos por hora, o aproximadamente 200 pesos por 24 horas en la mayoría de los lugares.

      If you drive to Playa Del Carmen from Cancun and park you car here, it will cost about 10-15 pesos per hour or about 200 pesos for 24 hours at most locations.

      • Mr Yucatan,
        Can you tell me if it is safe to leave a car parked there for 48 hours while we go to Cozumel?

        • Hello Kristin

          The Parking lot by the Cozumel Pier or the garage should be fine for leaving you car. We have never heard of any issues there. Both have attendants that work there.

  2. Tendenza Parking Garage

    ABSOLUTELY DON’T LET YOUR CAR IN THIS PARKING
    Somebody Broken my car in this parking, nobody saw anything and obviously thez are not responsible of the damages !!!!

    Those who watch the parking are virtually present and strangely have memory loss or simply deaf. May be part of the breakers.
    Flee this Parking !

    • Thank you for posting your experience. We are sorry to hear this happened and it is always good to hear from readers sow e can keep up to date on what things are happening in the area.

  3. We are wondering about buying a scooter, do you need licence plates and insurance? If so do you have any advice on getting them? Thanks in advance! 🙂

    • Hello. You do need plates and you should have insurance. There are several types of drivers license depending on what you want to drive. In Mexico there is a separate motorcycle license. If you need to get one here we have an article on where to go. There is a separate test from the car license for the motorcycle license. If you go to a larger store where they sell scooters, they should be able to tell you some details of the regulations.

  4. Have you ever seen any authentic Mexican license plates for sale in any of the shops? I am a license plate collector and like to pick one up wherever I travel? I will be there in March and very much looking forward to it! Thank you!

    • There are pieces of art that is made from plates. We have not seen and old shops that have just plates but sure someone would sell you one. The art consist of plates cut so the letters spell out something like ” WELCOME”. If you do travel to Valladolid there is a antique store that should have some plates for sale. You might also check out the Sunday market on 54th Street but 10th Avenue. It is a flee market and a lot of local stuff is there.

  5. Loving the info on this site, you have done outstanding job on the content.

  6. Will be renting a car in Merida for our stay in Yucatan. We are on Cozumel for three nights and looking for the safest option where to leave our rental car while we are there. Appreciate any information.

    • The underground lot near the ferry pier is the best and the above ground lot that is closest is second best. Both are safe to leave cars therejust are designated spots and less moving around the lot in the underground location.

  7. Hello, we want to rent a car, can anyone tell us where we can park our car for 9 days? Are there any special prices for a week? We stay in a hotel in plaxa del carmen, thank you

    • Hello. There are no specific long term parking lots. The best might be the garage on 14th Street and 10th Avenue. Are you going to be not using the car for 9 days? It might be easier if that is the case to take a private transfer to your hotel and then rent a car just for the days you want. One good local company we recommend is this one: https://everythingplayadelcarmen.com/car-rental-playa-del-carmen/

  8. We parked overnight in the south underground parking garage only a few minutes walk to the ferry. The the garage was lighted and had very clean bathrooms. The cost was 450 pesos.

  9. Can one park at the parking lot at Walmart and leave the car there? I was thinking of going shopping at Walmart and then looking around PdC. Does it cost anything? Thanks!

    • There is no charge to park there. It is a popular parking lot and sometimes full. If you park underneath, be sure to put all items out of view. There have been resports of breakins.

  10. Hola,

    Queremos saber que es el horario de este parking gracias!!
    10 Avenida Nte. 28, Gonzalo Guerrero, 77710 Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo

Comments are closed.