Diving in Playa Del Carmen

[wadeeyre]

Hi everyone, i am new to diving and I was hoping to get some advice before my trip to Playa del carmen. I am heading down in about a week and need to complete my open water certification and would like to complete my advanced open water at the same time. However there seem to be about 10 places down there listed on the web. Has anyone been down to Playa del carmen and found a provider that is really really good?

Cheers,
Wade

 

[ramblinpaul]

Hi everyone, i am new to diving and I was hoping to get some advice before my trip to Playa del carmen. I am heading down in about a week and need to complete my open water certification and would like to complete my advanced open water at the same time. However there seem to be about 10 places down there listed on the web. Has anyone been down to Playa del carmen and found a provider that is really really good?

Cheers,
Wade

Wade,

In April 2005 we used www.gocenotes.com, and I was impressed with their level of service. We did the "All of Yucatan" package which was great.

I was especially impressed when the Dive Master who was on my first 2 days of diving and came along for pleasure on his day off for our third day. To me it was a sign of how much these guys loved diving, and wanted to make everyones vacation great. The other DM's were all professional as well.

 

[tangfish]

I went with Dive Mike's shop, they were reasonable in price and did a fairly good job. The best thing to do is to just walk around and chat some folks up in shops. You'll quickly separate the good from the bad, then it boils down to price. I wrote a short report on diving in the Mayan Riviera if you care to read it.

 

[ffde31]

Hey Wade, I have used Phantom Divers in Playa, Gonzo was our DM. He is very knowledgeable and you'll enjoy the diving. They have a website if you want to check it out. www.phantomdivers.com

 

[pammyk]

I always go to Cozumel to go diving...as a matter of fact...I am leaving tomorrow morning and will be there for a week. The last time we were in Cozumer...last Feb...we took a boat ride and did a dive in Playa del Carma. I think the site was called Tortuga (something like that) due to hundreds maybe even thousands of turtles there. Unbelievable! I hope you can dive there. Shallow dive. What fun! I'm hoping we can do that one again next week. Have fun and safe diving!!!

Pam

 

[ramblinpaul]

I always go to Cozumel to go diving...as a matter of fact...I am leaving tomorrow morning and will be there for a week. The last time we were in Cozumer...last Feb...we took a boat ride and did a dive in Playa del Carma. I think the site was called Tortuga (something like that) due to hundreds maybe even thousands of turtles there. Unbelievable! I hope you can dive there. Shallow dive. What fun! I'm hoping we can do that one again next week. Have fun and safe diving!!!

Pam

Yup it's called Tortugas. It's a great little drift dive, with plenty of it's namesake in attendance.

 

[divingjd]

I was there in January and had a great time. I dove with three different dive ops: Abyss (ocean dives), Tank Ha (ocean dives), and Yucatek (cenote dives). All three were good; well-run, safe, fun. I chose to do most of my diving with Tank Ha. They have slightly bigger boats than most of the other ops, although they are still only taking 6-8 divers. You have a little more room on the boat, making it easier to gear up, plus you can use a giant stride entry. On some of the smaller boats, you are not only required to do a back roll, but you are so close together people are falling on you or bumping into you. The prices were all about the same. I also liked the people at Tank Ha. Yucatek did a great job for the cenotes. I would go with them again for cenotes, but would go with Tank Ha for a nicer boat for ocean diving.

 

[barrmust]

tank-ha between 8th and 10th on 5th avenue.

 

[billeelou]

tank-ha in january-outstanding!!!!

 

[StewartG]

I always go to Cozumel to go diving...as a matter of fact...I am leaving tomorrow morning and will be there for a week. The last time we were in Cozumer...last Feb...we took a boat ride and did a dive in Playa del Carma. I think the site was called Tortuga (something like that) due to hundreds maybe even thousands of turtles there. Unbelievable! I hope you can dive there. Shallow dive. What fun! I'm hoping we can do that one again next week. Have fun and safe diving!!!

Pam

Shallow dive? I'm a brand new OW diver. To me 80' isn't that shallow!

A friend of mine runs a dive shop down there. I was all set to dive with him to Tortuga about two weeks ago. Unfortunately, about an hour before we were set to go, he sank his boat.

Long story...

I'm back in Playa end of July - I plan to dive Tortuga then.

P.S. Playa del Carmen is probably my favorite city to visit and in which to hang out in the entire world. That place rocks... I am a regular on another forum that is all about Playa. Good place - good people - good diving!