After spending nearly two years in the Caribbean, we were incredibly excited to get to Mexico and tuck into some flavoursome local dishes, and Mexico definitely didn’t disappoint. We’d never done a food tour before, but we had to get the lowdown on the best foods and spots to eat in Playa del Carmen. After a quick search, we found Eating with Carmen, rated the best Playa del Carmen food tour, and they offered an Authentic Local Experience tour – it sounded perfect!
In this Eating with Carmen review, we’ll talk you through our experience – the good and the bad, so you know what to expect from this food tour in Playa Del Carmen.
Playa Del Carmen’s Best Food Tour: Eating with Carmen Review
Eating with Carmen Tour Options
Eating with Carmen offers food tours in Playa Del Carmen, Cancun, Tulum and Merida, and they are probably the most popular throughout the Yucatan Peninsula and Riviera Maya.
In Playa Del Carmen, there are three exciting Eating with Carmen food tours:
Each of these tours takes you to different local food spots that aren’t on the traditional tourist path. Each is a great way to experience the city of Playa Del Carmen while tucking into some of the tastiest food you’ll find in the region.
You Might Love: How to Get From Playa Del Carmen to Isla Mujeres: The Easiest and Cheapest Way
Also, these guys have done some serious research. Over the years, they’ve done all the hard work finding sumptuous family-owned spots, so you don’t have to worry about going to a taco stand that’s going to give you food poisoning or a place that serves aqua fresca made using tap water.
What to Expect from the Eating with Carmen Authentic Local Experience
We chose the Authentic Local Experience because we thought it offered the best range of local food options for us to try. It’s also relatively budget-friendly at around $65 USD per person, with all food and drinks included.
You can do the tour at 10 am or 5 pm. We opted for the evening tour, which was a great choice. In total, the tour lasted around 3 hours, and it was a walking tour, so we didn’t want to risk walking around in the heat of the day.
Although a 3-hour walking tour might sound like a lot, you don’t cover much ground as a lot of the time you are stopped and eating, so it’s suitable for almost anyone.
🥘 Find out more of what to expect on the Eating with Carmen Walking Food Tour here.
The Good
Our guide, Paola, was fantastic. Energetic, engaging, and informative. She spoke to us about the history of Playa Del Carmen, the fusion of Mayan culture with Spanish influence, and we stopped off at some incredible street art along our journey too.
All of the food we tried was delicious. We’re not fussy eaters, but we loved everything. We won’t tell you the places we stopped at because that would ruin the tour and take away from all the hard work the guys at Eating with Carmen have done. To give you an idea, some of the food we tried included:
- Tamales
- Mole
- Tacos
- Fresh local fruits
- Aqua Fresca
- Ice cream/Ice pop
💭 Did You Know? Traditional Mexican Cuisine has been declared an Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO.
We’d done a lot of research for places to eat in Playa Del Carmen, and none of the spots the food tour took us to were on our list – so it was great to try new places!
The Bad
Ok, the tour was near-perfect. However, there were two tours that started at the same time, ours and another. On our tour, we had 10 people. The other tour had only two. So, unless you kept to the front of the group and sat near the guide at the stops, it was difficult to hear.
A group of fewer people would have felt more intimate, informative and engaging. However, this was the only thing that let the Eating with Carmen food tour down.
🥘 If you’d prefer to take part in a cooking class in Playa del Carmen, you might love this 5 star Mexican cooking experience and local markets tour that lasts for 5 hours and takes place in a local’s home, for an authentic experience.
Would You Recommend Eating with Carmen in Playa Del Carmen?
Yes, yes, yes! As you can tell by our Eating with Carmen review, we loved this food tour in Playa Del Carmen. Everywhere we go, we try to take in as much local culture and food as possible, like when we visited Oistins in Barbados.
With an endless list of places to choose from in Playa Del Carmen, finding the best places to eat is a challenge. However, Eating with Carmen makes it easy. You get to try foods you’ll never have eaten, meet people you’d never have met, and immerse yourself in areas of the city other tourists never see.
Read About: How to Get Around Tulum in 2024
We highly recommend doing this tour as early as possible on your trip to Playa Del Carmen. It will open your eyes to the possibilities away from the pricey tourist restaurants and enable you to have an amazing rest of your vacation discovering other hidden gem restaurants and street vendors.
For more information and Mexico inspiration, visit Mexico’s official tourist site.
Did you know that…
When you choose to purchase through our links, you support us at no extra cost and help us keep creating content. Thank you for your support. ♥️
Leave a Reply