Belize , Thailand or Cozumel

[Pomerenke]

Hello everyone! I am new to this site so I hope I do this right. I need help on a decision between a trip in late January to early February to either Belize, Cozumel or Thailand. I know the diving in Cozumel and Belize would be fantastic but I don't know how good thailand will be. A little history. ...I am an Advanced open water diver, nitrox certified and peak performance buoyancy certified. My wife is recently open water and nitrox certified. We live in San Diego and dive here. She has some diving under her belt but I want her to have a great experience in the clear waters. It is our late honeymoon so it's special. Which of these 3 is the better choice? We want to do a week of diving and then a second week of land activities. I've put in so much time on this and can't decide. Any help would be greatly appreciated. We are considering liveaboard in these places with exception to cozumel which doesn't offer any. Thank you.

 

[Pedro Burrito]

I've been to Cozumel twice and Belize once. I'll be going to Koh Lanta, near Krabi, Thailand at the end of this month so I cannot tell you about Thailand yet.

Belize offers much in the way of water and land activities. I only dove but the resort my wife and I stayed at organized lots of land activities too. We saw the liveaboards in Belize but did not stay with one. We stayed here: The Best of Belize Hotels & Belize Resorts | Welcome to Hamanasi! It's the resort that I compare all my other trips to.

Cozumel is wonderful for diving and eating and drinking. Eating, drinking and sleeping were the only land activities I did there. I think you need to go onto the mainland for extensive land activities. I enjoyed Cozumel and would go there again.

I'm told the diving in Thailand is great. I'm not into land activities but my wife and daughter will be doing some of those while I'm off diving.

You probably won't be disappointed in your choice. Have fun!

 

[Pomerenke]

Thank you for responding. I think we are going to dive roatan, utila and then head to belize for a few more dives and land activities. Sounds crazy but we want this to be an epic trip.

 

[MikkelBC]

Maybe you can elaborate on what kind of land activities that your wife and yourself enjoy? I have not been to Cozumel or Belize, but I have been on liveaboards in Thailand every year for the past 6 years and visited Thailand twice that many times, so I can tell you about what you might expect from Thailand.
Personally, I would try to avoid too much transportation from place to place as that tends to interrupt relaxation and spoil the honeymoon mood.

 

[Pedro Burrito]

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A ScubaBoard Staff Message...

Moved from the Thailand forum to General Travel

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[Iago]

Cozumel has a pretty great marine park with lots of reefs and stuff to see. The water is warm, but the clarity has been iffy the past week. I can't speak for Belize or Thailand, but travel to Cozumel is pretty easy and the place is on sale right now due to the strength of the dollar. US to MEX is running almost 17/USD. Lots of places are still priced in Pesos, so a good 38 Peso beer is about $2.50. Same with meals and groceries (about .6 to .7 of mainland US.)

Not much for land activity, but there is a ferry and flights to the Yucatan cheap.

---------- Post added December 16th, 2015 at 02:17 PM ----------

If you want something really epic on the diving side, look at 'Garden of the Queen' off Southern Cuba. Only accessible by liveaboard and only about 500 divers a year get to dive the park.

 

[DeputyDan]

If its a dive trip go to Cozumel.
If its an adventure trip go to Belize.
Thailand is to far to go for one week (In my opinion).

Edit: Saw that you wanted two weeks - one diving and one adventure.

I would go to Thailand in this case - It will be much easier to get to Belize later.
Save Cozumel for when you want to get away for one week and just want to dive and relax.