Advice for diving and fun near Puerto Adventuras

[Chocoholic]

I like Aquanauts too. You can snorkle and see a lot of fish off the beach in Puerto Aventuras right in front of the Omni, I saw an eagle ray and a stingray there too. You can see turtles off of Puerto Aventuras but many more out of Akumal. (snorkeling off of the beach in Akumal is a good idea too.)
Consider going to see Coba; it is close to the turn off for Tulum and is an awesome sight, you can climb the tallest pyramid. Tulum is breathtaking, Coba is aweinspiring. If you go to Tulum take your bathing suits so you can swim down on the gorgeous beach.
I second Yal Ku lagoon, it isn't as touristy as Xel-Ha and much cheaper. Xel-ha has more stuff, like a rope swing, a "river" raft ride, a dolphin pen, an underwater cave, fish feeding stations and all inclusive food. YalKu is a lagoon with lots of fish, a tiny parking lot, not many people and a taco stand. Have fun.

 

[cddfamily]

First another thank you for all of your suggestions. We had a great time. The hotels are only ~ 50% occupied due to the economy and bad [unwarranted] press for H1N1. The impact to the tourist economy is quite great. If you are considering a vacation, I recommend you consider Cancun/Riviera Maya. You can get great deals.

Aquanauts was fantastic. Aquanauts Dive Rite Tek Center- scuba, cavern diving, dive instruction, retail on the Mexican Caribbean

We dove 2 to 4 dives/day. They accommodated our desires and matched skill levels, while being professional and safe. We met Dennis the owner/expert cave instructor. He epitomizes safety and service, while insuring you have fun. Natalie was great in ascertaining my daughter's new dive skills and suggesting locations/plans to grow her skills. I recommend that you email her your wishes/experience levels ahead of time. We did this and she had everything lined up, but accommodated all of our tweaks. Natalie arranged a night dive and coached my daughter through it. Seeing my daughter gain confidence, calmly work through her new diver awkwardness, and master her buoyancy was the highlight of the trip for me. She is hooked. Her BF [new phase for dad] joined us and did two discover scuba dives and will now go on for his OW cert. We had a good DM, Chris. He just joined a few weeks ago. He was great in taking the extra time for my daughter to clear her ears and giving her tips on tuning her skills. This made all of the difference for her enjoyment and growth.

All of the above at 1/2 the cost of the resort dive op. They were cattleboating the divers at the resort. The few experienced divers I spoke to told me they were forced to end some dives with half tanks, because the dives catered to the minimum common denominator. With Aquanauts, we dove our computers on all of the dives for max bottom time. They separated the discovery scuba and students that did the 2PM dives.

We saw daytime octopi and night time turtles, an incredible variety of sea life, pretty cool coral/diversity, and met some genuinely nice folks. We even had a large female turtle make a nest and lay her eggs one night. We called hotel security and they relocated the nest to a sanctuary.

The ultimate recommendation comes from my dear wife, who stayed with my younger daughters at the beach, while I dove for six days. She suggested that now that the kids are older, we try a vacation away from home during Christmas break and repeat our stay. I am a lucky man!

cddfamily

 

[Ed Hatfield]

Thank you for the report. I enjoy it when the advice/opinions that SBers share turns out positive. It also helps to support the dive ops that are 'professional'. You are not likely to see Dennis on here blowing his own horn as some tend to do.

 

[khacken]

Glad you had a great time with Dennis. I would also like to give him a positive vote on here. One thing that extremely impressed me was that when I was setting up a reservation I was worried that there would not be enough people for the boat to go out. I was told that they will go out even if only one person has made reservations. This shows me their commitment to customer service that you just do not see anywhere else.

Keep it up Dennis!

 

[docmartin]

I just got back and - as always - had a great time with everyone at Aquanauts. They have taken me more than once on a dive where I was the only diver.