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LimitedSlip7
Contributor
One more thing, would any of those places offer a decent shore night dive?
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All of them do, in my opinion.
deepsea21
Contributor
Cold and El Nortes. December is as far as I'll push it and I've had great weather in mid-late December and also some chilly weather (for me on a dive vaca) in December. I did visit once in February... That was cold and windy with an El Norte tossed in for good measure... Last time I'll do that. In my opinion, December and March are kind the borderline months and Jan and Feb are no-goes. Great for the gringos on the cruise ships getting getting away from the winter but not so great for diving.
Why don't you look into Blue Angel. PRetty close to town, decent shore diving (and snorkelling) and an on site dive op. REstaurant on site with lots more nearby.
One experience does not a trend make. Notes can happen, of course, but in their absence the weather during the winter months is, IMO, delightful.
jonhall
Contributor
Chances are that most of the dives you do will be in the National Marine Park. Think you'll like it a lot more than your local quarry. Personally I've found diving in Coz to be some of the easiest diving I've done, even when currents were a little stronger.
Stayed at El Cid La Cieba several years ago. They have an optional AI. We paid for 3 consecutive days and ate out the rest of the time. Easy walk to shopping center across the street (not sure how many shops are open) and a couple of restaurants. Short taxi ride to town. Also a nice tennis court if you're into tennis.
Their beach is elevated from the water but there is stairway down to the water and some good snorkeling. Night dives are also done here. There used to be a small plane wreck a little ways out. There is also a dock where dive ops can pick you up. They had a resort dive op, but there was no website for them, so we booked our dives ahead of time through another dive op.
A lot of the resorts offer day passes so that will take a little research to stay clear of cruise ship crowds. El Cid had a few who used their beach, but there were only a couple of venders on the property as I recall. I usually look up cruise ship schedules when we travel to help in scheduling activities other than diving.
and Cinco Soles from the waterfront back a couple of blocks. True, they get day passes to some of the big beach clubs, but I don't go to them much, anyway.
As to timing, Feb thru Mar is the worst if time for crazy currents and Norte storms. Mid April to June is prime time. This is based on my 25 years in Cozumel
Dave Dillehay
Aldora Divers
Dave Dillehay
Aldora Divers
jonhall
Contributor
So a quick search led me to about 6 resorts that offer day passes. I've stayed at 2 of them. As mentioned earlier, one was El Cid which only had a handful of people from a cruise ship; the other, Melia, was so far away from the cruise pier (north of town) there couldn't have been more than a few people.
As we stay at resorts through our timeshare, I now know that one of the other places I want to stay (Occidental which is farther south from cruise pier) is also a day pass resort, but I've been there a few days, diving, and it wasn't packed with people either. I just take what I can get and live with it.
Playa Azul could meet all your needs, is not AI and is rather close to town for taxi rides. Great little beach
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