Cigar stores in Playa del Carmen - Mexico

So, just got back from PdC and a lovely, sunny, warm, vacation.

We stayed at "The Reef" Playacar and took a couple trips to 5th Street in PdC. There was a little store in the resort that had a buttload of fake Cohiba cigars. They were either in a glass tube or in a box with a glass top. As far as I know, Cohiba doesn't do either. The bands were horrible facsimiles. I looked in one glass top box of smaller cigars and they were various different shades going from yellow to orange. No two bands had the same number of rows of dots above the brand name and I don't think any had the correct number.

Walking down 5th St in PdC you encounter quite a few stores. All the stores I stopped in had legit Cubans with the exception of two factories that only sold their own product (ie: nobody elses cigars). I only checked in 3 stores because I was looking for the place my wife found on her previous trip where she said she'd found the best price. Mostly I stopped in the other stores looking for various Mexican brands and checking prices. All the vendors with a stand on the street all had similar Cohiba's to the ones in the store at the resort I stayed at...which is to say fake...so I just strolled right on past them without stopping.

So if you're going to the PdC area and looking for some ISOM's do not buy from any vendors on the street. I would suggest if the resort you're staying at has Cohiba's that are in clear tubes or glass topped boxes, they're fake too and you'll want to avoid them as well.

Here's the store I bought most of my cigars from:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/La-5ta...40616309296842

The first RyJ Churchill I bought from him I paid $20 for (they go for $30 at my favorite B&M here in Canada) and the last two I got for $15 when I was bulk buying some Te Amo's and some local factory cigars (A. Garcia). Just for comparison, a friend brought me back a box of RyJ Churchill's from Cuba just a couple days before I left for Mexico and he paid just under $10/each for the box of 25 so I figured $15/20 each when buying just a couple wasn't a bad deal.

It's worth noting I went there with getting some Mexican cigars in mind since I live in Canada and the only prohibition we have with ISOM's is the taxes our wonderful gov't puts on them. In the end I did buy a couple different Mexican cigars from him but he didn't have the Te Amo #4's I like but I found them down the street in a different cigar store that stocked a very nice selection of Te Amo's. Sadly, I could have got the box of #4's at the Duty Free in the Cancun airport for about $20/box less...........LOL...........had I known that, I wouldn't have bought the #4's at that store.

So anyhow, if you're planning a vacation in the PdC area and you smoke cigars, know what you're looking for, know how to spot a counterfeit, avoid street vendors and do check out the above store. It's a small place and they don't have a huge stock, but they do have good prices and the guy will deal.