Best place in Yucatán Peninsula for an OW and Advance instructions.

[Agustin Barrutia]

hello there!
Booked tickets for my fiancee and me for oct-nov 2016 to Mexico DF. We will be in Mexico 40 days and We'd like to spend 1 week diving and getting certification there and still didnt decide whats the best place to do it. I've already read lots of advices on Cozumel over Cancun and Playa Del Carmen. We prefer a quiet small town over touristic spots with fancy hotels.
What would you say is the best place to get certified? do prices vary a lot between spots?

Thank you very much in advance!

Agustin Barrutia.

 

[gopbroek]

I truely enjoy the diving in Cozumel but for a week off the beaten track to just concentrate on learning to dive I would check out XTC dive center in Xcalak. They seem to run a very nice school and the local reef is very nice.

 

[ibj40]

Check out Dive Aventuras in Puerto Aventuras. I think they fit your criteria perfectly.

(Inserted link to their website since initial post)

 

[PACKRMAN]

+1 for Dive Aventuras. Great guys, great shop.

 

[Diverspoint]

Puerto Aventuras when he says not touristic? On the Riviera and Costa Maya that is Xcalak, Mahahual and Puerto Morelos.

Prices may vary, but if you want smaller groups avoid the big shops.

 

[htatton]

For a quiet, personalized, professional training experience try www.casadelbuceo.com on Isla Mujeres. They did a wonderful job with training me and my sister-in-law. We were 70 and 68 at the time and somewhat of a challenge. They were outstanding.

 

[hanglide]

I'm begging you Get your cert first!!! If it's something you're not comfortable with -no problem, let it go. If you like/LOVE it, you'll have time to make additional plans. If you wait until the end, you can only dream of what may have been had you only known.

Quite by accident, I fell in Love with snorkeling the first day we were in Cozumel when I was 40 or so. I loved the ocean but I grew up in the north east. Putting a mask on only let me see my (very green) fingers in front of my face. On a good day we could see our feet when waist deep. I was SHOCKED to see the Caribbean! We made it a point to snorkel every day, knowing that we would go on a discover SCUBA towards the end of our trip. Well, I have mild asthma and when we went to take our dives, I filled out the medical questionnaire honestly and when they wouldn't take us we were devastated.

In the following years I did discover scuba dives in Australia (3 times), Hawaii and the Dominican (and missed Taiwan and Italy entirely). I didn't have time to get certified at any of the places I was working and to this day I regret the diving I missed.

I finally got certified about 5 years ago and now I'm trying to make up for lost time but, of the places I missed, I've only managed to make it back to the DR to dive.

Do your research. This is a great place to find a good dive op. If it's something you think you might enjoy, take the time and try it sooner rather than later. I don't have many regrets, but I REALLY wish I had started diving 30 yrs earlier

 

[northernone]

The sad reality is to have a dive shop doing well you need tourists, to have a quality instructor you need either enough students or high enough cost to pay his salary and it takes tourists locations to do this since the local economy doesn't leave much extra for recreational dive training.

Perhaps an exception would be a small owner/ instructor shop in a tiny place.

Met good instructors in tulum, playa and cozumel.

All the best with your introduction to diving! Hope you and your girl love it!