Cozumel, Riviera Maya diving

[Torontonian]

Do you mean Mahuhual? That's a small fishing village at the cruise port of Costa Maya. Two years ago it was wiped out by hurricane and was rebuilt. The diving there is actually quite good, reported what Cozumel was like 30 years ago, until it developed to having 130 dive ops.

They had huge plans to develop the area, but the hurricane put a halt to that, and they were rebuilding. Some cruise ships are now returning, so that helps. If you go there, you might find most shops a bit primitive (i.e. won't have 3* accommodation) and you'd want to stay with your bottled water, etc. But diving is prestine. There is Maya Palms that has some good reports as a resort and good dive op. So that's a possibility if you go there.

 

[CenoteXperience]

I would recommend staying in Playa del Carmen, it is very well located respect many places in Riviera Maya, and you have many different activities to do and very accesible. Reef diving in mainland is beautiful, full of sea life and nice corals, Cozumel is well known forthe impressive wall diving, and the cenotes are very unique places you should try if you are around here.
If you want to stay away from all-inclusive resorts, this guys can help you to find some nice small hotels or condos, Pactia Riviera Travel | Receptivo Turístico de la Riviera Maya
Hope you enjoy you holidays.

Hope

 

[driftwood]

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!

Tulum is the last place I would stay. If you want to avoid the crowds and have great beaches try Akumal.

The reefs are essentially dead north of Tulum till you hit Puerto Adventuras. Tulum has issues dealing with its black water sewage, don't add to it.

 

[Stephanie Kidwell]

Cozumel diving was awesome!!! My husband and I dove with Mayan Aqua Dive (MAD), based in Cancun, but they had a trip in connection with a Cozumel-based group called SCUBA Mau. We had a great time with SCUBA Mau (and MAD) - they picked the dive sites based on the weather as well as the skill-level of the divers, they were very safe, and they were really friendly and knowledgeable. They divemaster even saw that I was freezing (it was raining) and loaned me his dive shirt (and gloves for the wreck). I don't know about Mahual, but Cozumel is so diverse in the dive sites that I'm sure you'll find something appropriate. Have a great trip!

 

[kiph]

Do you mean Mahuhual? That's a small fishing village at the cruise port of Costa Maya. Two years ago it was wiped out by hurricane and was rebuilt. The diving there is actually quite good, reported what Cozumel was like 30 years ago, until it developed to having 130 dive ops.

They had huge plans to develop the area, but the hurricane put a halt to that, and they were rebuilding. Some cruise ships are now returning, so that helps. If you go there, you might find most shops a bit primitive (i.e. won't have 3* accommodation) and you'd want to stay with your bottled water, etc. But diving is prestine. There is Maya Palms that has some good reports as a resort and good dive op. So that's a possibility if you go there.

Yes...Mahuhual. Glad to hear the diving is supposed to be back following the hurricane. Still trying to decide if we will make it that far down.

Thanks!

 

[kiph]

Tulum is the last place I would stay. If you want to avoid the crowds and have great beaches try Akumal.

The reefs are essentially dead north of Tulum till you hit Puerto Adventuras. Tulum has issues dealing with its black water sewage, don't add to it.

Thanks, Driftwood, for the real-world advice. We are looking at Akumal. We are considering Tankah, too, which we also hear has nice beaches. Not sure about the diving, but we're ok heading up to PDC or Cozumel for diving.

 

[driftwood]

Both Tankah and Akumal have literally world class white sand beaches. Just depends how isolated you want to get. Akumal is around 30-45 minutes from PDC/ferry and most of Tankah is serviced by a very rough dirt road. I would add another 20-30 minutes travel time each way depending where in Tankah you end up staying.

In either case, I would plan to make a major grocery stop in PDC before venturing south. The Super Chomak in Akumal has very high prices and all the restaurants are expensive for what you get (try a $6 hotdog). Both locations have close access to the cenotes, but the ocean diving has seen much better days.

One thing that I would be sure to get is the Riviera Maya map from Cancun information. Worth more than its weight in gold and if you plan on spending anytime in PDC, get that map as well.