littlechihiro
Registered
Travelers:
I and my husband (both divers), our toddler daughter, and my retired parents (snorkelers).
General impressions of the diving:
We’ve been to Cozumel twice before, in 2015 & 2016, and I noticed some differences in the diving this time. There seems to be a lot more algae on the coral formations; at a couple of dive sites there were algae balls gathering in drifts, too. On previous trips, I saw quite a few splendid toadfish and lots of eels, and several huge (~2 feet long) parrotfish; this time, we only saw a few eels and only one splendid toadfish, and no large parrotfish at all (but many small ones). However, we still enjoyed diving in Coz. Lovely swim-throughs and a good variety of fish; still my favorite coral formations of any place we’ve been diving. There were lots of large angelfish, filefish, and triggerfish. We saw plenty of turtles and spotted eagle rays, and two or three sharks. Water was warm (80F) and it was sunny and calm the whole time we were there. I was comfortable in a 3mm shorty wetsuit; seemed like most people on the boat had 3-5mm full-length wetsuits and some wore hats or hoods as well.
Aldora:
We really liked diving with Aldora and would use them again. Some features we appreciated: warm dive parkas that they handed out to anybody who wanted them after each dive; steel tanks with two size options; conditions permitting, surface interval at a beach with a restaurant and bathroom; they kept our dive gear each day and rinsed it, and everything was all set up for us when the boat picked us up the next morning; we could WhatsApp the dive shop to easily add an extra dive or switch from afternoon to morning diving; they picked us up each day at our hotel’s dock. The dive shop is in town near the pier by Casa Mexicana, and our boat stopped there between dive sites a couple of times to pick up gear people requested (thicker wetsuit, replacement BCD, etc.). Our first diving day we did an afternoon dive, and even though it was just me and my husband, they ran the boat anyway, which I thought was nice since their website says they may cancel afternoon dives if there aren’t enough divers. We have DIN regulators which we were able to use without adapters.
We did most of our dives with instructor/divemaster Arturo, who was friendly, kind, thoughtful, and very patient. He seemed to anticipate the needs of divers on our boat before they even asked for help. Arturo listened to what everyone on the boat (usually 8 divers) wanted to see, and then selected sites based on that. In this way we ended up with a mix of classic Cozumel wall and coral pinnacle dives and some less-visited sites: at Cantarel, we hunkered down to get out of the current and waited while a school of eagle rays made loops over our heads; San Juan had a very strong current and Arturo passed out radio transmitters to each buddy pair before the dive (although he said he’s never had anybody need to use one). Every Aldora divemaster we dove with made the safety rules/expectations very clear while also giving the divers plenty of freedom to explore. We surfaced as a group when one person got to the divemaster’s minimum PSI, but since everybody had good air consumption rates and/or large tanks, the dives were not short – average of 74 min for 11 dives, including deep dives & strong currents. I got the impression that Aldora sorts divers onto boats based to some degree on diving skill (and probably also based on logistic concerns); it was nice to be in groups where everyone had good buoyancy control. Everyone on the boats we were on used Nitrox.
My dad, who got certified in Minnesota when he was young and hadn’t dove since, wanted to try diving again, and did the discover scuba experience with Aldora (short classroom session, pool dive, shore dive, one-tank boat dive - all in one day). He had a good experience with instructor Saul and would recommend this activity to other potential divers. We went along for his afternoon boat dive, which had four students and their divemaster, plus me and my husband and our divemaster. They used the big (maybe biggest?) Aldora boat for this, which was very spacious.
Aldora offered a 10% pay-in-cash discount, with the final bill quoted both in USD and pesos. I noticed that the exchange rate they used was different than what Google told me the day’s rate was, such that the bill was slightly more expensive if paid in USD.
El Presidente Intercontinental:
Very clean, very beautiful, and not at all crowded. Included breakfast was excellent and as a bonus, the restaurant was adjacent to the boat dock, so we could sit with our coffee and watch the dive boat coming in to pick us up. We would definitely stay here again, especially when traveling with non-divers.
We were looking for a quiet place to stay that would have beautiful outdoor spaces for my parents to play with our toddler while we were diving and good enough food that we could mostly just eat there and not have to wrestle the car seat into a taxi for every meal. They don’t sell day passes to cruise ship passengers, and perhaps this was the non-busy season; whatever reason, there were always unoccupied palapas on the beaches and lounge chairs by the pools, and we never had to wait for a table at the main restaurant (El Caribeño). We prefer peace and quiet over activities and music when traveling, and this place was perfect on that account. There was an area next to El Caribeño with the ‘family pool’ and a sandy beach that had waiter service and music playing, but even that was not very loud or boisterous. The other beach areas and ‘quiet’ pool were very quiet; almost no people were at the quiet pool (as a plus, there were several large iguanas living there). Two of the beach areas had sand that went directly into the water so you could wade into the sea (important for our toddler). They also had a small playground and many beach toys you could borrow.
The bed was comfortable, and the bathroom included full-size shampoo, conditioner, and body wash. There was a complimentary mini bar with plenty of bottled water, beer, and Nespresso pods, plus a couple of liter bottles of water for toothbrushing, etc. which were replaced as needed. The balcony had a handy drying rack for hanging up our wetsuits. We couldn’t hear people in the rooms adjacent to ours (although you could hear people in the hallway). There were two ATMs on site: one for pesos, one for USD. A taxi to centro was 150 pesos.
We ate most of our meals at El Caribeño, which had good Mexican food for lunch and dinner priced similar to restaurants where I live in the Washington, DC area. And it’s worth noting again that breakfast really was excellent and there were many options: Mexican breakfast foods, made-to-order corn tortillas with your choice of fillings, made-to-order eggs, fresh baked goods, yogurt and fruit station, oatmeal, veggies, cheese and charcuterie, waffles/pancakes/French toast, breakfast meats… and really, sitting right next to the water watching the boats come in, lingering over breakfast, was such a pleasant experience.
I and my husband (both divers), our toddler daughter, and my retired parents (snorkelers).
General impressions of the diving:
We’ve been to Cozumel twice before, in 2015 & 2016, and I noticed some differences in the diving this time. There seems to be a lot more algae on the coral formations; at a couple of dive sites there were algae balls gathering in drifts, too. On previous trips, I saw quite a few splendid toadfish and lots of eels, and several huge (~2 feet long) parrotfish; this time, we only saw a few eels and only one splendid toadfish, and no large parrotfish at all (but many small ones). However, we still enjoyed diving in Coz. Lovely swim-throughs and a good variety of fish; still my favorite coral formations of any place we’ve been diving. There were lots of large angelfish, filefish, and triggerfish. We saw plenty of turtles and spotted eagle rays, and two or three sharks. Water was warm (80F) and it was sunny and calm the whole time we were there. I was comfortable in a 3mm shorty wetsuit; seemed like most people on the boat had 3-5mm full-length wetsuits and some wore hats or hoods as well.
Aldora:
We really liked diving with Aldora and would use them again. Some features we appreciated: warm dive parkas that they handed out to anybody who wanted them after each dive; steel tanks with two size options; conditions permitting, surface interval at a beach with a restaurant and bathroom; they kept our dive gear each day and rinsed it, and everything was all set up for us when the boat picked us up the next morning; we could WhatsApp the dive shop to easily add an extra dive or switch from afternoon to morning diving; they picked us up each day at our hotel’s dock. The dive shop is in town near the pier by Casa Mexicana, and our boat stopped there between dive sites a couple of times to pick up gear people requested (thicker wetsuit, replacement BCD, etc.). Our first diving day we did an afternoon dive, and even though it was just me and my husband, they ran the boat anyway, which I thought was nice since their website says they may cancel afternoon dives if there aren’t enough divers. We have DIN regulators which we were able to use without adapters.
We did most of our dives with instructor/divemaster Arturo, who was friendly, kind, thoughtful, and very patient. He seemed to anticipate the needs of divers on our boat before they even asked for help. Arturo listened to what everyone on the boat (usually 8 divers) wanted to see, and then selected sites based on that. In this way we ended up with a mix of classic Cozumel wall and coral pinnacle dives and some less-visited sites: at Cantarel, we hunkered down to get out of the current and waited while a school of eagle rays made loops over our heads; San Juan had a very strong current and Arturo passed out radio transmitters to each buddy pair before the dive (although he said he’s never had anybody need to use one). Every Aldora divemaster we dove with made the safety rules/expectations very clear while also giving the divers plenty of freedom to explore. We surfaced as a group when one person got to the divemaster’s minimum PSI, but since everybody had good air consumption rates and/or large tanks, the dives were not short – average of 74 min for 11 dives, including deep dives & strong currents. I got the impression that Aldora sorts divers onto boats based to some degree on diving skill (and probably also based on logistic concerns); it was nice to be in groups where everyone had good buoyancy control. Everyone on the boats we were on used Nitrox.
My dad, who got certified in Minnesota when he was young and hadn’t dove since, wanted to try diving again, and did the discover scuba experience with Aldora (short classroom session, pool dive, shore dive, one-tank boat dive - all in one day). He had a good experience with instructor Saul and would recommend this activity to other potential divers. We went along for his afternoon boat dive, which had four students and their divemaster, plus me and my husband and our divemaster. They used the big (maybe biggest?) Aldora boat for this, which was very spacious.
Aldora offered a 10% pay-in-cash discount, with the final bill quoted both in USD and pesos. I noticed that the exchange rate they used was different than what Google told me the day’s rate was, such that the bill was slightly more expensive if paid in USD.
El Presidente Intercontinental:
Very clean, very beautiful, and not at all crowded. Included breakfast was excellent and as a bonus, the restaurant was adjacent to the boat dock, so we could sit with our coffee and watch the dive boat coming in to pick us up. We would definitely stay here again, especially when traveling with non-divers.
We were looking for a quiet place to stay that would have beautiful outdoor spaces for my parents to play with our toddler while we were diving and good enough food that we could mostly just eat there and not have to wrestle the car seat into a taxi for every meal. They don’t sell day passes to cruise ship passengers, and perhaps this was the non-busy season; whatever reason, there were always unoccupied palapas on the beaches and lounge chairs by the pools, and we never had to wait for a table at the main restaurant (El Caribeño). We prefer peace and quiet over activities and music when traveling, and this place was perfect on that account. There was an area next to El Caribeño with the ‘family pool’ and a sandy beach that had waiter service and music playing, but even that was not very loud or boisterous. The other beach areas and ‘quiet’ pool were very quiet; almost no people were at the quiet pool (as a plus, there were several large iguanas living there). Two of the beach areas had sand that went directly into the water so you could wade into the sea (important for our toddler). They also had a small playground and many beach toys you could borrow.
The bed was comfortable, and the bathroom included full-size shampoo, conditioner, and body wash. There was a complimentary mini bar with plenty of bottled water, beer, and Nespresso pods, plus a couple of liter bottles of water for toothbrushing, etc. which were replaced as needed. The balcony had a handy drying rack for hanging up our wetsuits. We couldn’t hear people in the rooms adjacent to ours (although you could hear people in the hallway). There were two ATMs on site: one for pesos, one for USD. A taxi to centro was 150 pesos.
We ate most of our meals at El Caribeño, which had good Mexican food for lunch and dinner priced similar to restaurants where I live in the Washington, DC area. And it’s worth noting again that breakfast really was excellent and there were many options: Mexican breakfast foods, made-to-order corn tortillas with your choice of fillings, made-to-order eggs, fresh baked goods, yogurt and fruit station, oatmeal, veggies, cheese and charcuterie, waffles/pancakes/French toast, breakfast meats… and really, sitting right next to the water watching the boats come in, lingering over breakfast, was such a pleasant experience.
