Diving in Playa del Carmen

[Maggy]

Hi! I'm new to this board and also new to diving. Took my OW certification in April and have done a total of only 10 dives (all in the Caribbean).

In late October I have been asked to go to a conference in Mexico and the hotell is situated outside Playa del carmen. Since we come all the way from Sweden, my two fellow collegues and I are going to spend 3 days there before the conference starts. I would love to do a couple of dives and the collegues would like to take a Discover Scuba diving course.

Do any of you have a suggestion for a good, serious diving operator in Playa del Carmen. Or do you recommend us to go to Cozumel? Never been to Mexico.

Any help and suggestion very much appreciated.

Maggy

 

[bjdrslr]

Maggy
I just returned from a Dive of a lifetime in Cozumel. We dove the Palancar Caves. They are in 70 to 110 ft. We went with an outfit in Cozumel called ALDORA DIVERS ( www.aldoradivers.com )
The owner, Dave guided us personally. We dove with Steel Extended capacity tanks. This gave us more than 60 minutes per dive. I recommend you go to Cozumel and contact Dave. Tell him that LOSTCAMERADIVER sent ya.
Brian

 

[bjdrslr]

PS when you dive there, be on the look out for my SONY camera in its dive case? I lost it there with all the excitement of the dive
Brian

 

[Ice Mike]

M,

We were in Playa del Carmen last april. Did some diving around playa del carmen, cozumel and the cenotes.

If I may give a bit of advice. Don't go to cozumel, stay on the mainland and go to the cenotes.

Cozumel is great, but the cenotes are something different all together. They are unique to the region and probably unique in the world.

Make sure you find out what the cenotes are (e.g. internet) and decide for yourself if you think you could handle diving in them.

The cenotes would be a reason for me to go back mexico. Cozumel or the diving around playa del carmen not.

IM

 

[RussR]

Stay in Playa del Carmen and dive with Tankha (www.tankha.com). They run their boats to the sites off cozumel and also do the cenotes

have fun!

 

[bvmjethead]

I've never dove anywhere but PDC, so I really can't speak with experience.

However I can say this, there are plenty of places to dive on in and around PDC.

IF you should get bored (haha) the nice thing is there are tons of other dive locations all over the Yucatan, nearby Cozumel and inland Cenote diving....

I'm pretty sure you could spend a lifetime diving within 100 miles of PDC and never see everything.

Good luck and have fun.

 

[guggie]

Does anyone have concern over this newly certified diver doing 70-110 foot dives? These may be their first deeper dives.

 

[Maggy]

Thanks everyone. I will check you suggestions.

You are right Guggie, a dive in a cave in 70 - 100 ft is not what we are after. I'm only allowed to dive at max 60 ft and the other two shall do a resort course which means max 40 ft. So we will look for a site that could suit us all.

I'm also think that for us, the most exciting is to see the fish and coral, even if I think a cenote sounds interesting. We don't have that much tropical fish at home.

Thanks again, Maggy

 

[Peter Guy]

I, for one, am NOT concerned that someone might be diving in Coz/Playa on 70-100 foot reef with a DM. I am concerned however with someone who has not been in current before because there can be some "fun" drifts off Coz that might cause an inexperienced diver significant anxiety.

HOWEVER, someone with only a few dives should NOT consider going into a Cenote. While not deep (maybe 20 feet), the caverns are fragile and anyone going in should have good (better than the "average" diver!) buoyancy control, some facility with non-silting kicks and a decent SAC rate. I don't think someone with 10-15 dives will have that.

BTW, there are no "Scuba Police" that will check to make sure you stay above 60 feet! Just remember, an OW cert is merely a license to learn how to dive.

 

[eatsleepfish]

Contact Jason at www.fantaseadive.com he is an owner/operator there in Playa Del Carmen. He will provide you with excellent and personalized service! My wife and I just got back last night from five days down there. We dove two days with Jason and had a blast! Very personable and very fun! I would recommend him to anyone. We dove Friday on reefs and saw many turtles, eels, lots of fish and coral. Saturday we dove Cenote Dos Ojos......WOW....it was amazing. Jason brought his camera along and made an awesome video.

Give him a call.....you'll be glad you did!

Thanks again Jason.