Favorite dive sites in Cozumel

[Dyin-To-Dive]

That sounds great. I am actually going to be there for 6 days, but it's for my anniversary. My wife is not certified and put a limit on how much I can dive......... She doesn't want to sit on the beach by herself. I did manage to get her to agree to take the discover scuba course though. I promised I would go with her AND get in another couple of dives . Wherever I end up, I'm sure it will be amazing.

Does anyone have any experience with Palancar? I know they took over for sand dollar and I'm sure they're a great outfit, I just want to hear from you about any experiences anyone has had.

Thanks for all the responses!

 

[Mike]

Your best bet if you want specific experiences with cozumel dive ops is to go to the Cozumel dive forum here and do a search for the dive ops name. You'll get pages and pages of peoples experiences with the more popular dive ops.

As was said a dive shop like Aldora is a no-brainer if you want the best exeprience you can possibly have in Cozumel. They will silently evaluate you during your dives and if your skills are tight, the 2nd day you'll probably find yourself on a boat with people you don't recognize from the 1st day, and you might be heading out for one of Cozumel's signature dive sites.

 

[scubadobadoo]

First, you will have a blast!

Second, I agree with all the comments above. Mostly I agree that all the sites are good and there are no "touristy" sites for the most part. The combo of rapid drift diving and the fact that the Cozumel sites are really one long reef system make them kinda melt all together specially your first several times there. Therefore, the most important thing to do is to get the right op. They vary DRASTICALLY in Cozumel. Some just stink, are not reliable, and offer beginners like yourself very limited bottom time with quick tours of the reef because well they can usually get away with it. Crappy ops LOVE to tell you that the best sites are deep in Cozumel because the trip is much faster for them due to your limitations with BT and air consumption. IMHO the best diving in Coz takes place in the 30-70 foot range. This depth range gets you great bottom time and a range of reef life along with some swim throughs. Skip those advanced sites mentioned before as they are simply not worth your TIME and TIME (bottom time) is what you want especially when you only have two days.

Third, as has been said, go to the Cozumel forum and start doing your research there. It's filled with wonderful people who will be more than willing to give you passionate advice about that wonderful little island. I'll start now with the advice to consider Blue XT Sea divng. These folks started as internet friends, then we became clients, and now we are lifetime friends. I have a special place in my heart for them and always will.

HAVE A BLAST!!!

 

[DELMIKE]

Any dive in cozumel is a good dive, sure beats the eastern quarry where we dive until vacation. Just enjoy your trip.

 

[ednedfred]

Chun Chacaab is my favorite. Desend to 70 feet and hang at this depth as long as you have air.

 

[DandyDon]

As many times as I've been to Coz, I just don't worry about which site is next much. The DMs and Skippers work for tips so they try to make you happy. On the third day I might request Cathedral if everyone onboard is pretty experienced, and I do try to avoid ever doing Devil's Throat again.

I'm sure you'll have a nice trip whomever you dive with wherever...

...he called me over and had me lie next to a manta ray and he took my camera.

See Southern stingray - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sometimes we see Eagle Rays in Coz waters, but I cannot think of one I saw laying still on the bottom? See Spotted eagle ray - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I've only seen one Manta and that was snorkeling near Holbox. See Manta ray - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[kmurray719]

I'm heading to Cozumel in late June and I'm thinking of using either Divepalancar or Scuba Tony. Either way, I don't want to waste any time diving the "typical tourist" sites. I only have 2 days of diving lined up and don't know where the best dives sites are.

I did manage to get her to agree to take the discover scuba course though. I promised I would go with her AND get in another couple of dives . Wherever I end up, I'm sure it will be amazing.

Everyone's right that even the "most touristy" sites are fantstic and worth doing. I've never run into an issue with too many divers or groups on any site in Cozumel.

I don't have any experience with Dive Palancar, but I have lots with ScubaTony. As a new diver who is looking for a personalized experience, Scubatony would be a perfect choice for you. If you tell Tony and his crew what kinds of dives you want they will take you to the best sites for your needs. They are awesome with new divers and students, and your wife would have a fantastic discover dive experience. Awesome crew, great boat, and super fun. Can't go wrong

 

[Firefyter]

My favorite dive is far and away Columbia Shallows. I've done all the deep sites, I've done Barracuda and all the others up north, but Shallows beats them all to me. It's ~30 - ~35 feet deep at the most, full of life, and beautifully lit. The current is almost nonexistent, so you can take your time and study every coral head there. It makes for LOTS of bottom time, and it's like diving in an aquarium. I've done it as many as 4 times in a single trip and enjoyed it every time. It never fails to put me in my happy place

 

[skankpile]

Palancar gardens is fun and you can swim in/through/around the corrals and pop out near the wall and drift for a while. The current can be strong around there.

Make sure you are good at deploying your SMB if you get swept away from the wall and your group.

 

[mstevens]

I only go to Cozumel twice a year, so I rely on my trusted dive operator to tell me which sites are great right now. That can obviously change from day to day, but it really does change from week to week. For example, there were some black-tipped sharks prowling a particular area and we headed out to see if we could find them. We did. If a DM's buddy found a bunch of seahorses in a particular area yesterday there's a good chance they'll be there today, and so on. It's also the case that there may be a different "best" reef for a given set of weather or light conditions.

Seriously, it's all good. One of our best dives in April was an 85-minute prowl through seagrass with very little current. We found a teensy juvenile cephalopod (which was so small we're still arguing whether it was an octopus or a squid), seahorses, an LED light, and a great titanium dive knife. There was very little coral but there were tons of juvenile fish that we rarely see on the deeper reefs or in faster current.

I was given great advice here in the past: find a small dive operator I like and let them get to know my diving style and preferences. They'll almost always do a better job than a huge resort operator that has a set reef schedule and runs larger boats and thus must cater to a broader range of divers than an op that can split people into smaller, better-matched boats.