First Diving Trip to Cozumel in April, Please help me choose resort and dive shop..

[Ron Lee]

While the sand portion of the beach is fine at Aura, under water "appears" from shore to have lots of rocky ironshore.

Allegro and Occidental Grand would be better in that respect. Melia up north has a nice beach but the water can be discolored at an unknown frequency.

 

[ColoDale]

My past experiences with the Secrets/Sunscape properties is that the darker areas in the water are sea grass not necessarily rock/ironshore. If there are patches of rock it would be good for attracting fish. Last time I snorkeled there (many years) it was mostly sand, sea grass and a few small rocks but nothing that was a problem. I am not a big snorkeler but have diving friends that snorkel there and have not heard any mention of any rock or ironshore problems. Away from the beach no one would be walking anyway (right?). The beach itself does not have ironshore at Secrets although you may occasionally find a rock under the sand.

Ironshore is to the North end by the concrete pier and I do not recommend snorkeling past it as it is ironshore for a good distance to the North which would be a pain to get up and then get back to the hotel. Secrets Aura is at the South end of the property (wood pier). The entire Sunscape and Secrets are long properties on the beach.

I think it was the Allegro that had a fire and was closed at least in November 2014. I don't know if it is open now or not. Seems to have a great beach.

Any dive op can pick you up at southern hotels (well except maybe Iberostar).
Dive House is the onsite operation. They seem to have larger boats and many divers. I would use the ones recommended here including mine, Bottom Time Divers, who pick me up at the Aura pier.

If you book with Secrets (as opposed to the sister property Sunscape next to it) be aware there are several parts to it. There is the Aura section which is the bigger buildings on the beach, the Secrets "VIP" section which were converted two level hotel rooms and is on the beach, and a section not on the beach behind Aura that has water slides. I have no idea what they are calling the latter section now (It used to be called Sabor). Make sure if you book, to check which one you are booking as they all seem to use the Secrets name and causes confusion and expectation problems with guests. All of these are adults only.

 

[cicopo]

The beach at the Aura isn't what I call a nice beach other than for walking along.

Picasa Web Albums - Larry - The beach at ...

To see all the other Cozumel related photo albums click on the Larry's Gallery Tab which includes property tours of the Allegro, Grand & Iberostar & very specific details about the beach along the southern hotel zone. There are also property tours of the Park Royal, Hotel Cozumel & Blue Angel along with the waterfront area at the Palace.

 

[Brules]

The PR is great to stay at for diving, ESPECIALLY if you have a non diving spouse going with you.....

You can pay $5 in the shop at Aqua World (don't you dare use them lol - they are terrible!) to use their pier for the week and they will rent you tanks for shore dives.

Yes the beach is small at the PR, but it is great for an easy entry/exit and it is real sand (imported). It drives me nuts to see people talk about the sand beaches down south - they are nothing but dead rock/coral sand lol. AKA cheese graders for your feet. The PR is nice and close to town for cheap taxi rides, there is shopping next to it since the cruise ship piers are there.

 

[ggunn]

The PR is great to stay at for diving, ESPECIALLY if you have a non diving spouse going with you.....

You can pay $5 in the shop at Aqua World (don't you dare use them lol - they are terrible!) to use their pier for the week and they will rent you tanks for shore dives.

Yes the beach is small at the PR, but it is great for an easy entry/exit and it is real sand (imported). It drives me nuts to see people talk about the sand beaches down south - they are nothing but dead rock/coral sand lol. AKA cheese graders for your feet. The PR is nice and close to town for cheap taxi rides, there is shopping next to it since the cruise ship piers are there.

There are indeed some very nice beaches on the southern reaches of the island although they are pretty narrow. You won't find any Florida style 100 yard wide flat beaches anywhere on the island.

 

[Roatan Joe]

The wife and I stayed at Park Royal for a week a couple of months ago. $1000 for both of us, all alcohol, food and room included. That's a pretty good deal!

I did our diving across the street at Dive With Martin for something like $28 per tank for boat dives. We would get off the boat and be back in our room a few minutes later by walking back across the street. The pools w/ swim up bars at Park Royal are very nice! There are also a few hot tubs, but they were not hot. I don't know if they fixed them yet or not. There is also nightly entertainment, although we were always too tired to go to any of the shows.

Per the information posted above, I didn't know that we could have done shore diving from the Park Royal beach.. DARN!

 

[tooez]

Thanks guys. I think I'll go with Park Royal. It's $1000 per person for the package from San Francisco for 6 nights. I think it's pretty good deal.

 

[AlbertaMan]

My brothers and I dove with Blue Magic Scuba when we were in Cozumel. They were very professional and accommodating. They run smaller boats so they never have more than six divers at a time. They had us out on the dive sites before the morning rush so we weren't bumping into other dive groups.

 

[bilboinsa]

If you have decided, great. If not, give Fiesta Americana a look. Great place for non-divers to chill. Stayed there in November. Good snorkeling with ez in and out steps w railings. No real sand beaches, though. Aldora picks you up at FA pier, and you are five to ten minutes from many dive sites. Have fun!

 

[crosshairs]

My brothers and I dove with Blue Magic Scuba when we were in Cozumel. They were very professional and accommodating. They run smaller boats so they never have more than six divers at a time. They had us out on the dive sites before the morning rush so we weren't bumping into other dive groups.

Ill throw another vote to Blue Magic....a great OP with great owners, fast boats and very experienced DM's.