Diving in Cancun?

[danelen]

Hey, I just got off the phone with a travel agent and she has a good last minute deal from Houston to Cancun this weekend. It is a quicky though (arrive Thursday evening around 7pm - leave Sunday about noon). No such deals for Cozumel though only Cancun :-( I have been on one quick trip to Cozumel but I don't know a thing about Cancun. We would be staying in the "Hotel Zone" in the north part of Cancun (Oasis Beach Hotel).

My question is, is Cancun is at all good to dive from? Is the boat ride to some decent sites to far to make the trip much fun? Any dive ops recommended? I can't quit swing the funds for Cozumel right now but I am itching to get under some blue water so I am scrounging my low cost options.

Please be honest because I would rather not go if the diving experience will be more bad than good - I am expecting something less than Cozumel of course, I just don't know how much less?

 

[pitah]

You can try dive at cenotes, many persons staying at cozumel do the trip to the peninsula, to do that. i'm pretty sure you can get a dive trip arrange from cancun. Its an amazing experience. I have only dive with playa del carmen's facilities, and they offer dives there. It's not so far from cancun, about 40 minutes.

 

[teamheatwave]

Depending upon your budget and schedule there are a few options:

A cenote dive is awesome. The one I prefer is Dos Ojos - www.hiddenworlds.com.mx If you get there on your own, the dive is only about $50 but if you travel there on a dive ops van service and they make arrangements for you it runs about $125-$135

Manchones Reef located between Cancun and Isla Mujeres is an inexpensive and very beautiful reef. A 1T dive there is about $35 and a 2T dive is about $50.

A little ways off Isla Mujeres is the cave of the sleeping sharks as well as a few wrecks.

In Cancun they have an Interactive Aquarium in La Isla that does a shark immersion where you are inside an acrylic cage which is pretty cool. Both the shark immersion and the cenotes are good for rainy day activities as they are indoor.

If you have any questions about operators, places to go or eat, or any questions in general, feel free to message me.

 

[divegeek]

You can fly into Cancun and drive down to Playa Del Carmen. I dove there about 1 1/2 years ago and it was great. Playa is "across the water" from coz and the reefs are very nice.

I stayed with my family at the Iberostar and dove with Dressel divers. No compaints, but not cheap.

 

[richhagelin]

Take a taxi or bus (either works but the bus is cheaper) to Playa and then take the ferry over to Coz (costs about $8US). Then diove Coz and then reverse the process to Cancun. If your deal is flexible, spend one night in Coz, dive the next day and then back to Cancun.

That way you save money and dive Coz. (Which is much better diving than you will find directly out of Cancun)

Rich

 

[crispos]

Hey, I just got off the phone with a travel agent and she has a good last minute deal from Houston to Cancun this weekend. It is a quicky though (arrive Thursday evening around 7pm - leave Sunday about noon). No such deals for Cozumel though only Cancun :-( I have been on one quick trip to Cozumel but I don't know a thing about Cancun. We would be staying in the "Hotel Zone" in the north part of Cancun (Oasis Beach Hotel).

My question is, is Cancun is at all good to dive from? Is the boat ride to some decent sites to far to make the trip much fun? Any dive ops recommended? I can't quit swing the funds for Cozumel right now but I am itching to get under some blue water so I am scrounging my low cost options.

Please be honest because I would rather not go if the diving experience will be more bad than good - I am expecting something less than Cozumel of course, I just don't know how much less?

If I were you, I'd try going North instead. There is a ferry over to Isla Mujeres, diving is supposed to be decent.

http://www.isladiveguide.com/diveoperators.htm

The ferry dock is about 15 minutes drive North of Cancun along the ocean. You can take a taxi from the Zona Hoteleria where you are staying.

http://www.isla-mujeres.net/generalinfo.htm

This could probably be done as a day trip if it you arranged it with the dive shop and got the ferry schedule. It would be much faster than going down to PDC and across to Cozumel and back.

Have fun and let us know how the diving was.

 

[slimjim]

Cancun and Playa both have marginal quality diving. The "secret spot" is just in between in a sleepy little fishing vilage called Puerto Morelos. It's about a 25 minute taxi ride from Cancun. Contact Paul at Wet Set Divers wetset.com. He show you some good stuff.

 

[Kat]

I spent a week in a small hotel in Puerto Morelos. Enjoyed it very much. It's not as good as Coz f/ diving but it was good. It is a very low key area, think old Mexico. IMHO The hotel zone of Cancun is like Las Vegas w/ a beach. Very Americanized.
Have also done some diving off of Isla Mujeres, which will be easy to get to, if you stay in the hotel zone.
Due to your low cost options, I'd book the trip. You'll get in some diving & as stated earlier - you can dive Coz, even if you don't stay on the island.

 

[danelen]

Thanks all. As you will likely be able to tell by the time stamp on this post, this trip fell through :-(

The much better news is that a better trip is now scheduled for one week to Coz in March! I have to wait a few more weeks but I now have an official dive trip lined up! Thanks to everyone for their comments though, much appreciated.

 

[chicagodiver]

In Cancun they have an Interactive Aquarium in La Isla that does a shark immersion where you are inside an acrylic cage which is pretty cool. Both the shark immersion and the cenotes are good for rainy day activities as they are indoor.

If you have any questions about operators, places to go or eat, or any questions in general, feel free to message me.

Hi,

We're going to Cancun in couple of weeks and are looking for a good operator. I will check the operators you mention but thought I would ask for more info. This is our 1st trip to Cancun. We will be staying at Club International. We are experienced divers and don't really want a cattle boat. We plan to reef dive, but also want to spend at least one day in the cenotes. Any thoughts?
Thanks for your help.