Beginner needs info on Riviera Maya

[PaScubaGirl70]

Thinking of going to Riviera Maya soon. Any advice for a newbie with no ocean dives yet? Prefer shallow dives to start. Are all the dives drift dives? Water temps, length of boat rides, and weather in August - need info. Also who is a good dive op - no cattle boats please, for beginner. Anyone stay at the Occidental Grand Xcaret?
Thanks for your help!!

 

[divingjd]

Diving along the Riviera Maya is generally not drift diving. The drift diving is at Cozumel, on the other side of the channel. In area between Playa del Carmen and Ixcaret, you will get some shallow (25-50 ft.) spur-and-groove reefs (alternating areas of coral and sand, shaped like your outstreched fingers) and some deeper areas with relatively scattered corals and sponges. Tortugas (which means "turtles") is a popular dive site near Ixcaret. It's not very interesting as a reef, but there are lots of turtles there and a fair number of fish. It is not too deep, maybe 60-70 ft. While you don't get much current along the Riviera Maya, you will find some surge, the underwater effect of wave action. You will be swaying back and forth in the water. The diving is pretty good but not spectacular. I dove with Abyss and Tank Ha out of Playa del Carmen in January. Both were good operations and good people. Tank Ha has bigger boats and takes about the same number of people, so you just get more elbow room. I would definitely dive with Tank Ha again.

We stayed at a smaller hotel in Playa, Hotel las Tortugas. It was excellent and Playa was a lot of fun. There are lots of good restaurants, which is something we really like, so we don't tend to do all-inclusives unless we are going to someplace like Little Cayman or Cayman Brac, where there really is no choice.

 

[barrmust]

i have dove out of ply de carmen and akumal in that area. they have ALL been drift dives. i was in akumal 1 week ago and the water temps were 82 at the surface and 82 at 100 ft. the boat ride out of akumal was 10-15 minutes long for the deeper dives and 5-10 for the shallow dives. tank ha in plya was a 20 minute or so ride. tank ha was a good operation in plya and we used akumal dive shop in akumal. they both had a max of 8 divers on the boat. most of our diving 1 week ago in akumal we had 3-4 people on the boat. a 3 mm shorty was more than adequate for the temps. some people dove with just a skin.

 

[scubawife]

All diving along the RM IS drift diving, however, the current is usually light and often barely noticable. It tend to be just enough that if you had to go against it you'd notice. In the winter months we get more current that you can actually have it move you along a bit. Cozumel current is much stronger.

The RM is a perfect location for a new diver. The diving is easy and most shops use panga style boats with no more then 8 divers. The dives are generally shallower (less then 65ft), and over reef not wall dives, which is usually good for new divers since they can always see the bottom. Boat rides are no more then 10 minutes and the shops usually do three, 1-tank trips daily, returning to the beach for SI's and to switch tanks. They usually let you book a single dive as well, so if you aren't ready for 3 a day, you can do one or two. Times differ a bit with the shop but are around 9am, 11:30 and 2pm.

I've been going to this area and Cozumel a couple times a year each for about 5yrs now and find the diving around Akumal and Aventuras to be the best.

 

[Hutchel]

If you are looking for a dive shop with lots of expertise and experience down there - try wetset.com (Paul is the owner) He's a retired guy that moved down there and runs his own dive shop out of Porto Morales. Small boats - we had private dives all week. Got our Adv Open water while we were there.

Lee

 

[PaScubaGirl70]

Thanks to all of your for your help. I hope to get there soon!!!
Thanks again.

 

[jerryn]

I had Dennis of Diablo Divers take my daughters out on a Discover Scuba dive. I was impressed with his attention to their safety and the quality of the dive he gave them.

Jerry

 

[divingjd]

All diving along the RM IS drift diving, however, the current is usually light and often barely noticable. It tend to be just enough that if you had to go against it you'd notice. In the winter months we get more current that you can actually have it move you along a bit. Cozumel current is much stronger.

The RM is a perfect location for a new diver. The diving is easy and most shops use panga style boats with no more then 8 divers. The dives are generally shallower (less then 65ft), and over reef not wall dives, which is usually good for new divers since they can always see the bottom. Boat rides are no more then 10 minutes and the shops usually do three, 1-tank trips daily, returning to the beach for SI's and to switch tanks. They usually let you book a single dive as well, so if you aren't ready for 3 a day, you can do one or two. Times differ a bit with the shop but are around 9am, 11:30 and 2pm.

I've been going to this area and Cozumel a couple times a year each for about 5yrs now and find the diving around Akumal and Aventuras to be the best.

I stand corrected, it is all drift diving, in that the boats do not moor or anchor, the divers go as a group with the divemaster, the boat follows the divers by following their bubbles, and picks them up at the end of the dive. When I was there in January, any current was of the hardly noticeable variety, so I was not thinking of it as drift diving, but the standard diving procedure is a drift diving procedure.

 

[Boatlawyer]

I just returned from Playa Del Carmen and stayed at the Reef Playacar, which is a very reasonable, if small, all-inclusive. My daughter and I dove a one-tank check dive and a two-tank dive through the resort marina dive operation. Our instructor/dm was Tim, who is from Nova Scotia, and I can't say enough good things about him. The reefs are still somewhat sand-covered from last year's storms, which was even more noticeable to me when I returned to Florida and went diving in Fort Lauderdale. There really is no comparison at the moment I would take South Florida over PDC. I would also recommend the Mayan Tulum Adventure which is a cenote snorkel/swim/zipline/repelling and ruins tour. Our guide was Carlos, who was fantastic.