Cozumel VS. Stuart's Cove Bahamas! Which?

[Slater]

Ive only dove locally in San Diego & a few resort dives in Cabo & East Cape "Cabo Pulmo"

Well now that my better half & I are certified shes been wanting to plan a dive vacation.

She receaved some $250 vouchers for Stuarts Cove when she purchased her Aqualung Legend & Cobra.

I can care less about diving with the sharks, for me its all about spectacular reefs / marine life & superior visibility.

So those of you that have dove Nassau Bahamas & Cozumel, would love to hear which has more impressive reefs, marine life, & visibility?

From SD Coz is less of a commute & overall drastically cheaper, so want to hear pros & cons to both..

If Coz is your pick, what area is best to stay at to keep things central to best dive area & any other recommendations for that matter?

thanks for the insight!

 

[Christi]

Absolutely no comparrison. Call me biased, but I don't think anyone will disagree with me when comparing these two locations.

Cozumel has some of the most spectacular reef formations in the world, and I don't think there is anywhere in the Caribbean that beats it overall. Cayman and Turks & Caicos have some spectacular walls, but Bahamas is not even in the same class.

Visibility in Cozumel is also exponentially better than the Bahamas!

Come on down!

 

[Chuckitall]

Done both and Coz has maybe 20 miles of dive sites. Nassau does not have that many sites and reefs are much more of an adventure to swim thru and over. There is also no comparison between Coz and Nassau when on land. Coz is much more fun. Much easier for you to get to.

 

[muzikbiz22]

Been to both in the past year, here's what I like about each;

Cozumel - World class reefs, great viz (most of the time), great food & people, cheap, fun
Bahamas (Nassau) - Lots of Wrecks, BIG life (sharks, groupers, Southern Stingrays), Caribbean food (conch & jerk), friendly people, and the whole "shark experience" thing.

I like both for different reasons, but overall you can't go wrong with Cozumel. You get a lot more for your money there. Bahamas can be expensive, but for $795'ish you can get 7 nights at Hotel Cozumel, includes room, food, booze, and dives. Also check out Blue Angel and Scuba Club there, too. Personally, I like diving wrecks and big life. Bahamas has that, as does Cayman and Southern Florida. The reefs in Cozumel are way more vibrant and plentiful than Nassau. I too have a voucher for Stuart Cove, as well as one for Grand Cayman (wrecks & amazing walls). Looks like a lot of dive travel for 2012

 

[Ron Lee]

Interesting view on Stuarts Cove. I went diving in Exuma this year and it was not even in the same league as Cozumel. Is this typical of diving in the Bahamas?

Someone could give me a $500 coupon to dive in Exuma or Cabo. I would toss that aside to dive in Cozumel.

 

[scubafanatic]

The diving in your area is actually VASTLY superior to either Cozumel or Bahamas ! I've done the Nautilus Explorer (Socorro Islands) and the Don Jose (Sea of Cortez), both locations being pretty 'local' to San Diego with respect to travel time/airfare pricing (hence affordable to fly to). The ecosystem health/reefs/critters (especially LARGE animals) in the Socorro Islands/Sea of Cortez areas blows away anything you'll see in Coz or Bahamas. The Bahamas are a VAST area so the quality of Bahamas diving varies a LOT, depending on the area you dive. I've done 2 Bahamas liveaboards (JULIET and the Bahamas 'Explorer Ventures' boat) and I found the reefs very healthy, with beautiful walls, on both trips. I did notice a substantial decline in fish life though, between my 1st and 2nd Bahamas trips....still beautiful walls, but pretty much completely fished out on my 2nd trip, which was skocking/sad! Although it's not politically correct to discuss this, Cozumel was severely damaged by Wilma in 2005, and the reefs will take a LONG time to regenerate, ......I've done 2 post-Wilma trips (02/06 and 08/10). I found that the deeper you go in Cozumel the more likely you are to see decent reefs, the shallow reefs are still sand smothered/scraped clean then covered by algae dead-zones. Strangely, I did find one really nice fairly shallow reef that somehow survived Wilma (Las Palmas). I did that dive several times in 08/10 because of it's healthy condition relative to the devastated zones. In both Bahamas and Cozumel, I'd say the fish/critter life has declined faster than the actual reefs have.....the critter life in both places is pretty weak. If you are wanting to see sharks, Bahamas will have modest numbers...Cozumel will have virtually none (might see a nurse shark or two if you're lucky)......if you want BIG ANIMAL action, forget Cozumel or Bahamas, do Sea of Cortez or especially Nautilus Explorer.

 

[Craig66]

I have done both - Bahamas once and Cozumel about 7 times. I did Coves specifically for the shark component and was not dissapointed but I have done it and it is something I need never do again. Coz on the other hand keeps calling me back. Nassau is also much more expensive, food is not nearly as good (except for a couple of exceptions), Stuart Coves is strictly a "45 mins and you are up" kind of place (it is what it is) and I didnt see near the variety that I see in Coz...... Now if you said a liveaboard involving the more remote sites in the Bahamas that might be a little closer to a tie but Coves vs Coz - no question - Coz wins hands down

 

[Mike]

If you're talking about Stuart Coves, you're actually talking about comparing New Providence to Cozumel, which is vastly different then comparing the Bahamas to Cozumel.

I've dived both and my advice to you is to dive both also, just pick which one to do first.

It sounds like you are brand new divers, if that's true it's really not going to matter one way or the other, you'll be thrilled no matter which one you go to.

But, I would advise you to do some searching on these forums for Stuart Coves, you're going to find an incredibly mixed bag of reviews.

 

[cvchief]

Although it's not politically correct to discuss this, Cozumel was severely damaged by Wilma in 2005, and the reefs will take a LONG time to regenerate, ......I've done 2 post-Wilma trips (02/06 and 08/10). I found that the deeper you go in Cozumel the more likely you are to see decent reefs, the shallow reefs are still sand smothered/scraped clean then covered by algae dead-zones. Strangely, I did find one really nice fairly shallow reef that somehow survived Wilma (Las Palmas). I did that dive several times in 08/10 because of it's healthy condition relative to the devastated zones. Cozumel will have virtually none (might see a nurse shark or two if you're lucky)......if you want BIG ANIMAL action, forget Cozumel or Bahamas, do Sea of Cortez or especially Nautilus Explorer.

Weird. Now correct me if I am wrong, but Las Palmas is the area with small coral heads scattered about a sandy bottom? Great place for finding Splendid Toadfish, though, and fun to swim from coral head to coral head and poke around and look under and such. But that is a SANDY reef....

As for the rest: devastated? Really? Algae dead zones? Really? Palancar Garden and Columbia Shallow, two shallow reefs off the top of my head, don't seem, to me, to be this wasteland you are describing. There is life everywhere.

Nurse sharks: if you mean one or two every dive, then yea. Sometime a few more than that. Probably the most I have seen on one dive was 5 or 6? In the ripping current of Santa Rosa last trip I was fumbling around with camera and looked up to nearly get run down by a nurse shark. (In retrospect, I think he had the light.... ) Usually a few decent sized grouper.

You sure you were in Cozumel? You make it sound crappy. :w-t-f:

 

[Mossman]

I'm also heading from California. I've been to Cozumel and Bonaire and Grand Cayman multiple times, Roatan once, but never to the Bahamas. I have no interest in shark feedings, I've done plenty of shark dives of all sorts, and from everything else I've heard about the diving there, my money and travel time is better spent on the aforementioned places. That said, I might try a Bahamas liveaboard someday if the price and timing were right.

As for the poster who suggested "local" Mexican sites, it's not much cheaper to fly to Cabo or La Paz and you only save about 3 hours of flight time each way. There are day boats available from the Cabo area, where the diving isn't so hot, and from La Paz, where the boat rides will be long. Currents can be very strong in the Sea of Cortez and it's not drift diving. Yes, animal life can be plentiful and large, but viz can also be quite murky. Meanwhile, I've never seen a bad viz day in Cozumel. Also, the Sea of Cortez is frigid water for half of the year, whereas Cozumel waters are warm year-round. A liveaboard would be a nice way to travel the Sea of Cortez and is necessary for the Socorros, but you didn't mention you wanted a liveaboard trip and they can be much pricier than land-based options, at least when compared to a place like Cozumel which can be done on a budget.

For a first dive trip, it's hard to go wrong with Cozumel, though I honestly feel there are other places in the Caribbean better suited for beginner divers (Bonaire would be my first choice as currents are much milder and you can dive shallower, but it can be a pain to get to).