Best way to organize week of diving/land activities Riviera Maya/Cozumel

[1976]

Hi, first time visitors to Mexico, have 7 nights flying in/out of Cancun. We definitely want to do some diving, but also a bit of just relaxing and seeing a few sights (definitely Tulum, not sure about others - have travelled in Belize/Guatemala so not keen on just going to more touristy versions of what we've already seen).

We are fairly inexperienced divers (18m only), with 5 dive holidays behind us (Maldives, Cuba, Egypt, Belize, Jordan). We really want to go to Palancar reef (if that isn't too difficult for us). We would also like to see some cenotes but probably snorkelling (not sure where/if this is possible?). Basically we want to maximise what we can do that is unique/special to this area.

So we aren't sure where to base ourselves. With 7 nights would prefer to stay in one place, but it seems that perhaps staying on Cozumel would be better for diving. So would 4 nights (3 days diving) there make sense, then come back and stay on the mainland for 3 nights and do a sightseeing excursion and cenotes from there?

Or is it just as easy to dive Cozumel sights if staying on the mainland?

Don't really want to spend the whole time on Cozumel and have to potentially make 3 day trips over to the mainland for other activities.

Many thanks for any help!

 

[lthomas132]

Consider staying around Playa del Carmen. Somewhat cheaper than Cozumel, much better beaches and plenty of places to eat along Ave. 5. From Playa you can get a dive trip (2 tanks) to Cozumel via the ferry or one shop does a private boat trip to Cozumel. Cenote diving is even easier from Playa. I've been there many times, staying at Hotel Cielo Hotel Cielo Official web site - Playa del Carmen Hotel, Riviera Maya Mexico, very clean, nice boutique style, one block off the beach, just around the corner from Ave. 5, no pool but a great little restaurant on the ground floor. We dive with Fantasea Dive, Diving Playa Del Carmen, Dive shop, Cenotes, Technical and full Cave diving. Jason is a great instructor for the novice, and is a certified cave instructor. There are several other high quality dive shops, so you can just wait and sign up with one there. Take the ADO bus from the Cancun airport, $10 one way on very nice, modern buses. The ADO terminal is right by the ferry dock and on Ave. 5, close to everything PDC. Have fun!

 

[1976]

Thanks for the info - we were originally thinking of staying the full week around PDC but then wondered if it would be better to dive from Cozumel itself.

Will look at your suggestions.

 

[TSandM]

It's an hour and a half of travel, if everything is seamless, to get from Coz to Tulum.

If I were you, I'd set the trip up to have several days on Coz, and then move your base of operations to the mainland to do the cenotes and the ruins. BTW, the ruins at Coba are not in the least touristy, except that there is a station at the entry to rent bicycles or guides. (I highly recommend a guide, as there is no signage at all, including how to get anywhere, and it is a big site.). It is quite possible to arrange a day in the cenotes through a Cozumel dive operation, but it will take too much time to do that and see the ruins in a single day, so you'd be looking at at least two days of taking the ferry over and then vanning from Playa to wherever.

For snorkeling, you have the option of places with beautiful open water basins (some with a lot of marine life!) or places where you can get back under the overhead. Of the latter, NoHoch and Pet Cemetery are probably the best, but neither permits you to snorkel without joining a guided group (and there are good reasons for that). For open water and some ability to get into the overhead, Cenote Eden is a good one (I love the open water basin there). Casa Cenote has a gorgeous open water area and you can go on your own, and swim through some canyons in the boulders. There is a ton of life in the water. But there is no real overhead there for snorkeling.

From the sound of your trip, I gather you wouldn't be planning on renting a car, so you can talk to your guide about what you would like to see, and they can pick a cenote for snorkeling that will suit you.

 

[1976]

Thanks very much for your information. Happy to consider renting a car but figured probably everything we do maybe bar a ruins trip would be with a guide/group/tour so not sure how much use we'd get out of it.

I need to research the cenotes more - we don't want to dive in any caves as we aren't certified and don't want to do the course, so we just want to experience it however best we can.

It sounds as if Cozumel diving from a mainland base would be preferable to mainland activities from a Cozumel base, so I think we just need to decide whether to split the time or stay on the mainland the whole week.

 

[t4e]

Tulum ruins are at the far end from Cancun aiport, couple of hours drive
it all depends where you're staying on the Mayan Riviera
PDC has the advantage of having the ferry to Cozumel right there, you could even just go for the day and dive
as for transportation, i would not get a car, the collectivo is way too cheap and runs so often. its not worth the worries of a rental car, you just get out on the highway and wave them down, the ticket is something about $1.00 per trip

 

[NYCSurfer]

We stayed in PDC and I dove with Tank Ha. They had at the time a package that included a 2 tank dive locally, a trip on their boat (which saved at least 2-3 hours over the ferry) to Cozumel for a two tank dive, and a two tank cenote dive at Chac Mol. Good operation and since I was the only person that was diving the the cenote on that particular day, it was just me and the DM. Never at hint that they wanted to cancel on me. I was impressed.

 

[gopbroek]

You might consider spending at least the first night in Cozumel. Easy trip over on the Ferry and you could get everything set up with a valet op and get a good night’s sleep at one of the plentiful hotels in the downtown area and that way the next morning there will be minimum stress getting set up for the first dive, which is always the most stressful of each trip. With one of the many valet ops, like Tres Pelicanos (shameless plug to my ‘LDS’) they can take care of any personnel gear for you so you are not having to lug it back and forth on the ferry. After that if you want the activities of Playa or late afternoon snorkel trips to the Cenotes you could base yourself in a Playa hotel. The 7AM morning ferry to Cozumel gets in at about 7:45 and a trip by cab from the pier only takes 10 minutes or less to the Caleta (harbor). The ferry runs about $14 PP each way, and then an easy Cab ride to the Caleta, some ops may set up transport from the pier to the boat for you. For the mainland side, if you rent a car (and I always do if I am heading south of Playa) look at Easy Way car rental, they are pretty easy to deal with and basically honest (not something I would claim about the on airport companies). I would try do at least one night in Tulum and consider a trip south to Xcalak for a day of diving with XTC (good road 3 ½ hrs south of Tulum). If you go to Xcalak contact the XTC dive shop in advance and they can set you up. Coba is about an hour inland from Tulum and is my favorite of the ruins.
I started diving on the mainland and then took a trip to Cozumel in late 2012 and haven’t made it back over since, the dive sites in Cozumel are fantastic and you will enjoy all of them. I have done about 180 dives on the island since then and still do not tire of it. I keep planning on getting back to Xcalak which has some great dives but I can’t seem to get past Cozumel.

 

[TSandM]

I don't know what your tolerance for annoyance is, but I personally would neither base on Coz and dive the mainland, nor the reverse. The business of schlepping gear to the ferry, waiting for the ferry, getting off the ferry and getting transportation to wherever you are going to dive is not bad if you do it once, but if you do it repeatedly, it becomes fairly irritating. If you are going to dive Coz, stay on Coz; then, when you are done, grab your belongings and relocate to the mainland to do the cenotes and ruins. Then you only have one "schlepping" trip you have to do.

There are many operations offering snorkel and/or diving activities in the cenotes. Places like NoHoch have an on-site operator; I believe Pet Cemetery works through an operator elsewhere, but I'm not really sure how they arrange their trips. They have a storage building with vests and equipment on site now, so maybe they are doing their own. Snorkeling is usually done where you can swim a little under the roof, but still be in completely open water (obviously!), and it gives you a taste of what the decorated areas look like. The diving is cavern diving, and depending on site, you may not ever be anywhere where it's really dark at all. Eden and Chikin Ha are examples of sites where the cavern zone is very open and has a lot of light. They are, however, not very decorated places. Taj Maha, Dos Ojos, and Grand Cenote have more "cave-like" cavern dives, and give you a taste of what the caves proper look like.

It all depends on your tastes and your comfort level. No cavern tour will take you into anyplace which is tight around you, or which is truly dark.

 

[1976]

Thanks for your detailed help everyone.

If staying on the mainland, I was (perhaps naively) not thinking of taking the ferry over to Cozumel to dive, but more hoping to go with a dive operator who runs boat trips directly from the mainland. Perhaps this is not the set up in this area as people seem to talk about the ferry all the time, so I will do some more reading on here!

We are not particularly constrained by budget - we like to get good value, but prioritize convenience (and obviously safety) over economy when diving.

Many thanks!