Cancun>Coz 1 day trip worth it?

[beth_castroll]

howdie fellow divers.

I've been reading up on a trip to cancun dec4-9th. Done the research.
Ben with Mayan Aqua & Miguel at Manta Divers seem to be the best rated shops so we just need to decide which one.

However, we will be diving 3 days and want to do a cenote dive for sure, but we are not sure if it is worth the extra time and energy to dive 1 day cancun, 1 day cenote, 1day cozumel, or if our vacation energy and dollars would be better served doing 2 days in cancun and a cenote dive and save the Coumel diving for a trip specific to the area in the future. We are both novice divers with less then 20 dives. Also we have never drift dived and have heard currents in Cozumel can be strong.

Any advice would be appreciated.

thanks and happy diving!,

Beth

 

[ben@scorpiodivers.com]

hey beth,
2 days in cancun and one day to cenotes, cozumel is a 10hr day for 1.5hrs underwater, it just doesnt make sense plus at $150 its not cheap either!
we ve got some sweet sites on our gps, a little farther out that make the difference so my advice, stay local in cancun and go to coz for your weeks vacation next time!
hope to see you in dec.
ben

 

[Spratman]

You cannot go wrong with Ben. Of course, I've dove with him for a number of years now. You won't get better service, staff, boat or dive sites. You never have to worry about getting dumped on a crappy reef. It just doesn't happen.

Coz is a long haul. There are some great restaurants in Cancun. I would recommend Captains Cove, La Parilla and La Placitas. (last two are downtown). If you like to party at night, check out the Coco Bongo. Also, Ben can give you some first hand advice, too...

I hope the weather is good for you. Airfare was prohibited for me this year.

Have a great trip and remember to post a trip report. Any questions, you can PM me.

Jack

 

[tzeilstra]

I would also recommend Ben. I was a first time Cancun diver last year and felt very well taken care of by Mayan Aqua Dive. His prices are very reasonable and everybody does a great job. I would also say that keeping your ocean diving to the Cancun area while making sure not to miss the cenotes would be the way to go. I'd love to get to Cozumel some day but to me, vacations are all about relaxing and I don't consider that much travel in one day to be relaxing!

 

[flyhimd]

Hi Beth and welcome to diving! It's addicting...so much to see. Cancun wins for sea life: fish everywhere. Cozumel wins for coral complexity and exotic formations, but there are sooooooo many dive sites there...and depending on the whims of the weather and dive boat, you may or may not see the to-die-for things. Set aside three or four days next vacation and do Cozumel right.

Meanwhile, Ben recommended a good plan: stay with Cancun this trip, but do a day at the cenotes. It's a totally different type of diving (YouTube "cenote diving" and you'll see some very cool stuff). It will be memorable.

You WILL go back to Mexico after this trip...it's an amazing place to dive, and amazingly affordable. If our new president gives us another $600 stimulus, I'll be on the first flight out of Maryland to stimulate Mexico's economy.

By the way, I did my rescue cert with Ben last year, and he has a great operation. Manta's fine too (got open water and advanced open water with them). You definitely did your homework, but my guess is that Ben will probably be able to give you, as novices, more personal attention.

 

[ShakaZulu]

Beth has 0-24 dives and you guys are recommending the Cenotes...no wonder they are in such a poor state and being destroyed on a daily basis???

If you the instructors and dive operators don't protect them, then who will?

 

[Oside Jimc]

IMO a day trip to Coz from Cancun is a poor value proposition, ALL day for a couple of short dives, no way ever again. I did it last year from PDC and would not repeat (Next year I added 4 days to our vacation so we can stay on Coz). Just do an extra day in Cancun w/Ben and you'll be sipping a cold one hours earlier than you would if you did the day trip.

 

[Tigerman]

I did the stay-in-cancun-daytrip-to-cozumel routine myself last year and I had a blast. The daytrip to cozumel was worth it to have a look at cozumel, but the cozumel divesites did not impress me beyond the huge coral walls. The colors wherent impressive, the sealife wasnt impressive (unless you call other divers sealife) and if Im going back Its unlikely ill stay on Cozumel or even go there diving.
As far as the Cenotes goes and people complaining about "you have too few dives" I call BS on that. You do need to have good bouyancy control and not be prone to panic for sure, but I dont see number of dives as the key to any of them. The cenotes is AMAZING if youre ready to dive them.

And as far as Ben and MAD goes - I agree with the ones already recommending them. They are great to dive with!

 

[bertschb]

I actually think the day trip to Cozumel is worth it. I've been to a few places (Honduras, Belize, Costa Rica, Caymans, Palau, Thailand, etc) and Cozumel is still my favorite place for diving. The structure is stunning and the visibility (for me) has been much better than any other place I've been. If you don't do a day trip this time then I definitely would recommend going there for a dedicated trip down the road.

 

[riftvalley84]

IMHO, the cenotes should be for cavern certified divers only. We went on a cenote dive near Playa del Carmen, but were under the impression that you would always see light. Not so! One of our dives took us 11 minutes in complete darkness (with the exception of our flashlights). This does not seem safe to me. What if our dive guide had a health issue & he became disoriented or unable to lead us? If that happened there is no way we would have gotten out. At the very least, there should be 2 DMs for every group.