Cozumel, Riviera Maya diving

[kiph]

Our family (two adults, three kids...12-17) are flying into Cancun on Christmas and staying nine days. We've never visited that part of Mexico and are looking to spend time in a couple of places...considering Cozumel, Playa Del Carmen, and points south (Akumal, Tulum). Any advice as to a good way to split the time? We are not fans of huge all-inclusive resorts and try to stay away from more heavily developed areas, like Cancun. Interested in comparisons of diving among these locations, as well as overall interesting places, nice beaches, less full of cruise ship-types.

Thanks in advance.

Kip

 

[Torontonian]

Cancun has a lot of resorts, and nice beaches. You can also go visit mayan ruins. But for diving, Cozumel is world class. For that purpose, it's better to stay in Coz for a few nights. Coz also have nice beaches, but yes there are days with cruises that'll add a few thousand people. Cruises usually don't come in weekends but on weekdays. You can check the cruise schedules to void those times.

Cancun is also 4-5 hr driving to Belize. Belize has some good rain forests, and some very nice diving too. Some nice mayan ruins to visit too, or river tubing. It'll depend what your family's liking, because the teens may not be much into visiting the ruins.

 

[Chocoholic]

I have been able to dive in Playa Del Carmen, Akumal, Puerto Morelos and Puerto Aventuras. I liked the sites close to PDC but PDC itself is quite busy with lots of people. We usually stay in Puerto Aventuras (good diving, close to dive sites, Dolphin Experience) it is a little marina gated community that is quaint but not really 'Mexican feel' to it, Akumal (good diving more turtles but also more turtle grass) is a cute little beach/fishing community but doesn't have a lot to do besides snorkeling and eating out. Both PA and Akumal are close to the cenote sites, relatively close to Tulum and Coba ruins, and close to Xel Ha / Xcaret ecoparks.

You might consider checking out tripavisor.com for more hotel info.

 

[robint]

Our family (two adults, three kids...12-17) are flying into Cancun on Christmas and staying nine days. We've never visited that part of Mexico and are looking to spend time in a couple of places...considering Cozumel, Playa Del Carmen, and points south (Akumal, Tulum). Any advice as to a good way to split the time? We are not fans of huge all-inclusive resorts and try to stay away from more heavily developed areas, like Cancun. Interested in comparisons of diving among these locations, as well as overall interesting places, nice beaches, less full of cruise ship-types.

Thanks in advance.

Kip

non-diving: Do the Mayan ruins at least one full day! Chichen Itza is one of the wonders of the world and very accessible. Check out my report here: Mayan Ruins - Chichen Itza
and my video: Mayan Ruins of Chichen Itza on Vimeo
Other great Mayan ruins in the area are Coba and Tulum, neither of which are a full day but you can do both in a single day.

Get the map/travel guide here: Cancun information
Anyone going to the area should get at least one of these maps, they have all the relavent info - restaurants, hotels, dive ops, roads, toll roads, ALL points of interest like ruins and cenotes with prices and a review of what you get for your money. Seriously, get these instead of one of those books you find at your local bookstore!
The Mayan Adventure map is PRICELESS.

Also, your teen kids will love visiting some of the cenotes and snorkeling in them if they aren't certified to dive. Also, the ziplines through the jungle. Check out some of these tour packages: Tour the Cenotes of Playa del Carmen - Aktun Chen, more.

You can stay in PDC area and dive ops can take you to dive over on Cozumel a couple of days and dive there in PDC a couple of days. Then you can do all the other activities in PDC area (ruins, cenotes, ziplines, jungle tours, etc) the rest of the time.

The area around Chichen Itza is amazing, those ruins plus multiple other smaller sites, restaurants and cenotes, tiny villages to visit. You can stay right at hotel next to Chichen Itza (we did, see my report) and spend more time there in area. If you go to CI, be sure to get a guide (not cheap but you pay one price for your whole group) and they will give you soooooo much information that you just can't get from a guide book.

A few photos from Chichen Itza:

Tulum:

Coba, view from top of pyramid:

this is the only Mayan pyramid in Mexico that you can still climb, I think.


robin

 

[ScubaSam]

There's also an eco park in the Playa de Carmen area. Xcaret - Cancun most amazing eco park

 

[Spratman]

Xcaret, you need to get there early before the water gets hogged up.

If you are looking for a shop, contact Dennis Weeks at Aquanauts Dive Rite Tek Center- scuba, cavern diving, dive instruction, retail on the Mexican Caribbean. Great shop for everything but Dennis is the tops for cenotes....

Hope you have a great vacation.

 

[ScubaSam]

There's also an eco park in the Playa de Carmen area. Xcaret - Cancun most amazing eco park

Xcaret, you need to get there early before the water gets hogged up.

If you are looking for a shop, contact Dennis Weeks at Aquanauts Dive Rite Tek Center- scuba, cavern diving, dive instruction, retail on the Mexican Caribbean. Great shop for everything but Dennis is the tops for cenotes....

Hope you have a great vacation.

I should have been clearer, I meant for the non-diving people. It's a park/ zoo/ marine park/shows, it's not a diving park.

 

[divinglife]

There is a new park next to Xcaret called XPLOR which the kids might really enjoy!! It has crazy zip lines, rafting and swimming through cenotes and some other activities. I've been getting rave reviews from customers. Honestly, people have been so excited about this park, I may dig deep into my poor instructor pockets and go there myself!

 

[Ed Hatfield]

Rent a condo in Playa del Carmen for the 9 days and use it a your home base. Condos are expensive over the Christmas season but you may get a decent price with a 9 day booking. If you spend a couple days here and a couple days there you will end up paying everyones premium price. Chichen Itza wil be a full day exhausting trip but well worth it if you are interested in the Mayan ruins. If you just want to visit a site to say you did it, then Tulum would be your best bet. Xcaret is fantastic for seeing the best of the Mayan culture and the night show is a MUST for Hispanic dance and music. PDC is also your best bet for diving as the dive sites are better than the points south unless you travel all the way to Xcalak. It is also the primary ferry point to Cozumel if you want a day trip for diving and/or shopping. Condo sites are www.homeaway.com and www.greatrentals.com. BRIC is also one of the major companies with condo rentals in the area. A smaller outfit is is www.vimex.com but one of the parteners is the owner of DiveMike (one of the many PDC dive shops) and they do accomodation/dive packages. There are many other dive shops that do similar deals. If you have a dive shop in mind I would check with them first to see what they can offer. Bottom line....consider Playa del Carmen as a base of operations for accomodations and diving....everything else will fall into place. FYI - Cozumel is great but too restrictive especially with teenagers in tow.

 

[kiph]

Thanks to everybody for the great information! I think we may stay further south, in Tulum, to avoid the crowds. All five of us are certified, and we will likely do two or three days of diving, spending other time visiting Chichen Itza, Tulum, Coba, as well as some time in Sian Ka'an. As for diving, we will likely go either north to Cozumel for a dive or two and/or south, to Mahual. Does anybody have opinions as to which of those would be better, given conditions, reefs, etc.? We will likely also do at least one cenote dive.

Thanks again!