Cancun, Puerto Morelos, or Playa

[gianster]

Where is the best diving in the Mainland Riviera Maya. Cancun, Puerto Morelos, or Playa?

 

[Spratman]

All have good diving. Probably for reefs, I'd say Cancun and PDC. I've always dove the reefs off Cancun and they get a bad rap, mostly because everyone makes the Coz comparison. Apples and oranges really. Marine life is better on the QR coast. Your more likely to see turtles in PDC. Depends where you are staying.

 

[Ed Hatfield]

Of the three it is certainly Playa del Carmen that has more dive sites and a greater number of options for dive operators. It also puts you closer to the cenotes so that you can incorporate that into your dive planning. It also has the ferry terminal so that you can include a day trip to Cozumel for diving as well. Usually when I plan a week trip that is primarily for diving I can pre-arrange 3 2-tank reef dives (with optional 3rd tanks in the PM or a night dive), a 2-tank cenote and a 2-tank day on Cozumel. I have also done 3 tank cenotes and 3 tank Coz day trips but it depends on how much diving you want do. I did a '6 day 17 tank' trip to Playa last July with 3 dive buddies. That trip was with GeoFish. In the off-season they didn't have students going out in the PM as often so we did 3 full dives each day. I had the schedule all pre-arranged so they knew what days we would be in the cenotes so that they could take the students out then.

If this is a family holiday and you want quick and convenient 'one or two days of diving' then it probably won't matter where you go because you can use a resort op (if you don't mind that most of the divers will be inexperienced and the DMs will cater to their needs). Even then I would make the effort to get to Playa or Pt Morelos and dive with one of the established dive ops.

 

[gianster]

Thanks for the reply. This is a family holiday and only get to dive 2 days. I'm staying at a resort very close to Puerto Morelos. So Cancun and Playa are about the same distance North and South. I'm an experienced diver and don't want to use the resort OP. What I've found out so far is Aquanauts is in Puerto Morelos and I would have to take 5 minute cab ride to the shop since they don't provide transportation. Scorpio in Cancun who gets high praises on this board will pick me up and back off but it's 25-30 minutes(No big deal), and Jason @ Fantasea in Playa doesn't offer tranportation either so I would have to take a 30 minute cab ride south and back up. Decisions decisions!

 

[Ed Hatfield]

Sounds to me like giving Ben at Scorpio Divers is your best bet. As long as the $$ compare OK with Aquanauts then I think that you will be happy with a extra few minutes travel.

www.scorpiodivers.com

Enjoy your vacation!! Let us know what you decide and a post vacation report.