Belize and the Yucatan same trip?

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

blibecap

Contributor
Messages
253
Reaction score
3
Location
Cincinnati, Ohio
# of dives
500 - 999
Hi
We are planing a trip to Belize in October. I was thinking that since we were in that part of the workd why not drop in the Yucatan and do some cave diving? We are certified full cave and was wondering if someone could advise me on the possibility of doing this?
 
Well, what are your questions about feasibility? You can certainly dive the Yucatan in October -- the weather is likely to be somewhat rainy, and there is still the risk of hurricanes, but it is past the peak season for them. Unlike Florida, the Mexican caves don't flood out, so even in rainy weather, you can dive them and the viz is still good.

If you have not been to Mexico before, it is not a bad idea to engage a guide. It's not that you need help IN the caves (although some of the main lines are not easy to find) but more that the locations themselves can be difficult to describe, and knowing who to contact and how to get keys and who to pay can be kind of complicated to sort out by yourselves.

Most of the commonly dived caves are located between Puerto Aventuras and a few kilometers south of Tulum. Flying is into Cancun, and you can rent a car there, or if you are staying at a resort, it may run a shuttle (they generally charge for them). If you are primarily cave diving, I would say you want to stay south of Playa del Carmen, or your commuting will be substantial, although there are all-inclusives in PDC that have very good prices in October, as it is off season.

There are a couple of cave diving shops with bed and breakfast facilities in Tulum, although when I investigated them, the costs ran higher than what we pay to rent a condo and tanks up in PA, where we stay. But if you would like some more information about cave diving there, please feel free to PM me or put them in this thread. There is also THIS thread that may give you some additional material.
 
Have you booked air yet? How much time do you have? Dates?

You can book Open-Jaw tickets, like fly to Belize City, return from Cancun, for the average price of round-trip tickets to either. Prices vary greatly by dates. I use Kayak.com/Sidestep.com for initial shopping; use multi-city link. If you try shopping on an airline site, they're devious computers will watch you and jerk you around on prices.

From Belize City, it's easy to fly to Amergris Cay, and from there there are ferries to Mexico where the Ado bus system starts. I've not done it but read of a few who have. Looks like tickets to Belize City are around $793 RT without doing a lot of searching - there could be better, Cancun around $332 RT, Open-Jaw around $550. On one handy you save around $300 coming back from Cancun rather than flying back to Belize City and home from there, and the ferry & bus would be a lot less I think. On the other hand, if it doesn't work out - for $332, go back soon. :wink:

I always do trip insurance for international trips, more important for a trip like this where things can go awry over distances, and/or storm season - which Oct certainly is for that entire area.
 

Back
Top Bottom