Alternatives to Dressel (Iberostar Lindo)

[Bugsy700]

I will be staying at Iberostar Lindo for 7 nights in June 2009. If anyone has been recently how has the H1N1 scare affected diving prices and overall resort operations. Secondly, I read mixed review on Dressel (on-site dive operators). I am thinking about trying an off-site operator and was wondering if any pickup/drop off at the resort. I dont want to involve taxies or rental cars.

Thanks in advance.

 

[cdreamer]

I used Dive House and they were great. They will pick you up at the pier.
They are based at Fiesta Americana - not far from Iberostar.
Have a nice trip!

 

[Mitchell]

Same. Had a great time with them.

 

[cdreamer]

Sorry, I thought you were staying at Iberostar Cozumel. I gave you the wrong answer.

 

[deborahdelamar]

You're staying off the Federal Highway about halfway between Puerto Morelos & Playa del Carmen. You should book diving in one of those towns if you don't want to use the hotel op. I doubt that an independent operator will pick up at that location, but I've been wrong before!

 

[PlayaCountryBoy]

Hiya Bugsy, thanks for the email and I hope we can get together and get some dives in. Look forward to hearing back from you soon!

 

[Eau_Girl]

Hi, I was staying at one of the Iberostar properties north of Playa del Carmen for a friend's wedding. This was back in Feb 04 and this was what inspired my OW course and got me into diving. There are 3 or so Iberostar hotels next to each other. Lindo was one of them.

I opted not to dive with Dressel as they were expensive and had mixed reviews. Plus they didn't give full refunds for multi-day packages if cancelled for weather. i think you got credit for use with them in the future.

It was really windy and there was no diving from the mainland the first couple of days. I ended up going over to Cozumel for my first 'real' dives.

I took the resort shuttle into town a couple of days. However, I had to take a taxi a couple of days because the first bus wouldn't have gotten me to the dive shop in time. The shops couldn't do pick ups at the resort. I seem to recall there were fixed taxi fees from resort to town -- US$20 or there abouts.

A bit out of date, but hope that helps.

 

[Dectek]

If you plan on diving with the same Operation all week you can take your gear into Playa and leave it at the dive shop. Just grab a collectivo into Playa everyday. I think it is 15-20 pecos (depending on the driver) from the IB complex into town.
Tip correctly at the dive shop and you might find everything set up fo you in the morning.

 

[ednedfred]

I cannot recommend strongly enough not to use Dressel Divers. Dove with them once in Cozumel and once in Playa. You go on vacation to relax, even if it is a bit more of a hassle, you'll have a much more pleasurable dive using local dive opts or even another hotel opt than Dressel.

 

[psychocabbage]

We were at Iberostar last year and dove with Del Mar Aquatics (across from Casa del Mar)
They would pick us up daily and we had a great time diving with them (as we always do)

We are going in July and renting a house and they will be picking us up from the dock there.