Diving cenotes & staying in Tulum or Riviera Maya area

[Eternum]

Hi folks,

My family is making plans to dive cenotes and become certified for cave diving.
We prefer to stay on a beach (maybe south of Maya Tulum Retreat and Resort?) as my wife likes walking on a long sandy beaches.
Are there any operators that can pick up from a beachfront hotel or we need to rent a car and be ready to drive to a dive shop or dive place? How does it generally work in that area?
Or perhaps we can stay in Riviera Maya and still dive cenotes or it is relatively far from the most popular cave dive places?

Appreciate any tips and recommendations.

 

[bamafan]

I would find the instructor I am interested in taking the class from and ask them. Most have their own vehicle and would probably do it.

 

[Norwegian Cave Diver]

Contact Protec Tulum. They are a first class shop. Represent XDeep gear also if that helps. They have a shop in Playa too.

 

[Ontwreckdiver]

If you stay at a hotel between Playa and Tulum, most dive op's will pick you up. There are a lot of cenotes between Puerto Adventuras and Tulum.
I highly recommend Nicolas from CenoteXperience - Cavern, Cave and Ocean Diving in Playa del Carmen Yucatan Mexico - Inicio I have been diving with Nico and Martin for over 7 years. They are great guys and excellent dive guides. They run a small family shop in Playa. Tell Nico that Steve from Canada sent you.

 

[Diver Dave1]

I dove cenotes with Dive Aventuras in Playa. They were great, will pick you up and do all transportation arrangements. They are on by the beach and have resorts and restaurants within walking distance. The owners are great to work with.

 

[Jack Hammer]

Zero Gravity in Puerta Venturas

 

[ibj40]

I dove cenotes with Dive Aventuras in Playa. They were great, will pick you up and do all transportation arrangements. They are on by the beach and have resorts and restaurants within walking distance. The owners are great to work with.

Another vote for Dive Aventuras. Check with them for package deals.

 

[scubadiver888]

Hi. Just hopped onto here to look into cenote diving in Mexico. This thread is exactly what I was looking for. I'll check out the recommendations.

Booked a vacation down by Akumal for next Spring and needed to find a guide to take me cenote diving. I'm only there for a week and want to spend some time with the girlfriend (not a diver) doing excursions and stuff. How long would an intro to cave take? If I was only going to be diving 3 or 4 days, would that be enough time?

If it isn't, I can always use this time to talk to some instructors and see how I like.

Thanks everyone for this list of recommendations. If anyone has other suggestions, I'd be happy to hear from you.

Darrell

 

[wedivebc]

If you are just wanting cenote tourist experience any old shop will likely do. If you are looking for cave training from a first class shop, that fills tanks for all the other shops then Protec is the only place to go. They also have a shop in Playa (same owners) if you prefer the night life. The Tulum shop is a couple of miles from the public beach so a car would be helpful. I usually rent from Easyway near Cancun airport and drop off as I fly out.

 

[scubadiver888]

Thanks wedivebc. Second thread you helped me on.

I'm kind of liking ProTec from the description above. I'm diving BP/W right now but I was actually going to switch to XDeep sidemount. This trip might also turn into an intro to cave. So definitely want to go with someone who would become my dive instructor for full cave in the future.

Darrell