Playa Carmen/Santa Teresa
Playa Carmen and Playa Santa Teresa are basically just one long beach, only separated by some rocks jutting out into the ocean. As such, I’m reviewing them together as there are not any huge differences between the two. Both beaches are fairly flat and expansive with good soft sand and surf that can alternate between moderate and strong. Both beaches are also surfing hot spots for all ages and levels depending on the tide and waves and are frequented by surf schools. We stayed at Ventura Santa Teresa right across from Playa Carmen, so spent a lot of time there and the kids really loved it! Playing in the surf was super fun and we even rented a surfboard and helped them catch a few waves at low tide when the surf was pretty chill. I will say that at high tide the surf was pretty big at time for little kids and easily knocked our 4-year-old and 2-year-old off their feet, requiring both my husband and I to be in the water with them with direct contact at all times! Being on high alert can get pretty exhausting, so I was delighted to find a beautiful creek running across the beach out into the ocean between two of the Playa Carmen beach access streets, right next to the life guard tower. The crystal clear water in the creek was a foot deep at most with a lazy current and sandy bottom, making it a perfect place for our littles to safely play and they absolutely loved it. Although we didn’t play in any of the creeks on Playa Santa Teresa, I can see there are several from Google maps satellite view, so you can presumably have the same creek/ocean combo experience there.
Pros
Playing in surf
Surfing and body boarding
Watching other people surf or people watching in general as both beaches are quite popular
Huge beaches with lots of nice soft sand (although do note that none of the sand in this area is white if that’s what you’re after)
A really nice shallow creek crossing the beach and flowing into the ocean that little kids can play in if/when you need a break from big waves and salt water
Cons
Surf can be pretty strong depending on the tide and wind, so you need to be hands on with really little kids at all times, which can get tiring and be dangerous
Signs on the beach for rip tides so stay close to shore and be aware
Lack of good shade close to the water. There are trees but too far from the water’s edge to allow you to safely be in the shade while your kids play.
Playa Carmen beach. You can see Ventura Santa Teresa on this map (where we stayed) making this the easiest beach for us to access. You can also see the creek we played in!
At low tide, Playa Carmen and Santa Teresa are pretty chill for little ones and have a lot of nice silky sand
So much fun digging in the sand!
They also loved playing in the surf at Playa Carmen and it was great at low tide, but pretty strong at high tide
We even got to help the kids catch some little waves :)
It’s a pretty great spot for kids to practice surfing and schools in the area told us they work with little kids
The beautiful creek just to the right of the beach access road we used that was a perfect place for our kiddos to play at high tide or whenever we were ready for a break from waves and saltwater
You can see the creek was very shallow with minimal current and absolutely perfect for our 2-year-old and 4-year-old
It was a nice sandy creek with water temp just a little cooler than the ocean, which actually felt great!
Beautiful sunset on Playa Carmen
Playa Cocal
Located just a 7 minute drive from downtown Santa Teresa, Playa Cocal is a gem of a beach for little kids. We stumbled across it while taking a little scenic drive out of down and return multiple times after to enjoy the calm pools, tide pools, and shell hunting. It’s a very pebbly beach so not as good for playing in the sand, but the rock formations all around the beach create perfectly calm pools of various sizes and depths when the tide is down a bit and doesn’t have huge waves even at high tide because of the rock surf breaks. There are also a ton of shells at this beach, which was super fun for the whole family and we found some brilliant tropical fish in some of the outer tide pools which was very cool. This beach was also almost totally empty each time we visited and had a good parking area right off the main road, which made it even more appealing.
Pros
Sheltered rock pools and surf breaks make this beach safer for little kids and therefore more relaxing for parents
Tide pooling
Lots of shells
Pebbly beach which can be both a pro and con - can be a fun change if your kids like to play with rocks like ours!
Shade is closer to the water as it’s a narrower beach
Cons
No surfing here if that’s something you want to do
Rocks can be a little sharp and slippery in some places
More of a pebbly beach than a sandy beach if sand is what your kids want
Beautiful clear water, calm rock pools, and a little protected bay at Playa Cocal
It was nice being able to let the kids play at Playa Cocal without having to constantly worry that they were about to be swept away by a giant wave
Hunting for shells. We found more cool shells at Playa Cocal than any of the other beaches in the area.
Playa Cocal is a pretty pebbly beach, but pebbles are fun to play with in their own way!
Our 4-year-old especially loved playing with his cars in the rock pools :)
Perfectly calm at low tide with huge tide pools at Playa Cocal
Sunset was particularly pretty at Playa Cocal with the rock formations
Playa Hermosa
Playa Hermosa is the next beach up from Playa Cocal (about 10 minutes north of Santa Teresa) with some parking pull outs along side the road. We pulled over and considered getting out to play, but it honestly looked just like Playa Carmen/Santa Teresa so we skipped it as we’d had plenty of time that day playing in the surf. I’m including it here in our review though to let you know that having laid eyes on it, we can vouch that it’s going to be a pretty similar feel to Playa Carmen and Santa Teresa with toddlers - i.e. keep ahold of them at all times due to the surf and expect to find shade farther back from the water since it’s a wider beach. We did read though that it’s considered a more beginner beach for surfing than Playa Santa Teresa so might be a good place to try that with toddlers! The other potential pro to this beach is that the short distance from town makes it less crowded than Playa Santa Teresa/Carmen. You can look at some pictures and read more about Playa Hermosa at this blog post from Jay Walk the World.
Playa Ventanitas
For us, Playa Ventanitas was kind of the best of all worlds just 10 minutes south of Santa Teresa (and only about 5 minutes if you’re staying with good parking, trash cans, shade, rock pools but also a sandier beach than Playa Cocal, chill for small kiddos, AND it has a lovely little creek running past the parking area and across the beach to the ocean. We actually came across this beach while unsuccessfully trying to follow directions to an access point for the Malpais tide pools just south of this beach. The directions led us into someone’s yard, so we turned around and headed back to town and decided on a whim to check out this beach after seeing that it had a parking area and were so glad we did! The tide was just coming in so there were lots of perfectly clear shallow rock pools with some nice patches of sand too, and the creek was small and probably six inches deep at most, so we felt very relaxed letting them play around. Playa Ventanitas was the narrowest beach as well, which meant the closest shade to the water, which is great for parents! Last but not least, we discovered it was an easy five minute walk down the beach to the Malpais tide pools (really big tide pools polished into cool shapes by the waves and accessible at low tide) making this beach a perfect easy way to explore them vs the confusing online directions that may or may not lead to a separate parking area for them.
Pros
Clear parking with lots of shade
Trash cans at the parking area
Narrower beach so shade is closer to the water for parents who want to sit in the shade while their kids play
Fun creek running right by the parking area that is very shallow and safe for little ones
Nice chill rock pools but also some good sandy areas too
Easy access to Mal Pais tide pools from the southern end of the beach
Cons
No surfing if that’s what you’re looking to do
Even though there are lots of tide pools at this beach, we didn’t see anything in them aside from a few crabs compared to the tide pools at Playa Cocal where we actually saw some cool tropical fish
Not as many shells as Playa Cocal
Rocks can be a little sharp and were definitely slippery out by the Mal Pais tide pools
You can see that the Malpais tide pools are located right at the end of Playa Ventanitas
Awesome shallow and calm rock pools at low tide
The water was so warm in these pools, like little bath tubs
The lovely little creek running by the parking lot
Lots of nice sand around the creek. You can see how shallow it is.
Blessed shade for the adults!
Exploring the Mal Pais tide pools
The biggest of the tide pools
Top Pick If We Could Only Visit One of These Beaches?
If we only had time to visit one of these beaches with toddlers, I would pick Playa Ventanitas. The quantity and proximity of shade to the water, clear parking area, trash cans, super safe creek, mixture of sand and shallow rock pools, and ability to explore the Mal Pais tide pools at the same time edged out the other beaches for us. That said, that’s just if you’re going with toddlers and want a beach where you can relax a little too without having to be constantly hands on for safety concerns. If you’re going to Santa Teresa with older kiddos who can swim well, then going to Playa Carmen/Playa Santa Teresa is a must too, to play in the surf and enjoy miles of silky sand. And if you do have a little time, the three beaches listed here are all minutes from Santa Teresa, so we’d recommend visiting them all if you can for variety and so you can decide for yourself which beach suits you best :)
Have you explored Santa Teresa with toddlers? We and our readers would love to hear which beach(es) were/are your favorites with little ones! Leave us a comment!