Good places to dive around Playa del Carmen?

[SusieQ]

Hey everyone,
I'm going to Playa del Carmen from July 26th-August 14th and I'll be staying in Casa Tucan. i need your input on good and bad dive shops and give me some ideas on awesome places to dive.
Ideas on non-diving things to do would be appreciated as well.
Thanks guys!

 

[Rig Magician]

I used Tank-Ha while i was there. they run there boat across to coz, that is one that needs to be done. we also dove Tortugas great dive there. we saw about 12-14 turtles on that dive. they also do cenote dive's that are awsome. Poncho is one of the cenote guides and a really good guy we ended doing 2 day's of cenote's with him.

 

[icyman]

I used Tank-Ha while i was there. they run there boat across to coz, that is one that needs to be done. we also dove Tortugas great dive there. we saw about 12-14 turtles on that dive. they also do cenote dive's that are awsome. Poncho is one of the cenote guides and a really good guy we ended doing 2 day's of cenote's with him.

Is the boat the guys from Tank-ha a nice sized boat? I was considering doing some dives with these guys as well. Can you give more info about their professionalism. I am taking a group of about 10 people there so I am worried and was considering them or some people I had dove with before.

 

[Rig Magician]

I think they have a picture of there boats on there web site. They have several 2 or 3 boats. the smaller ones used by all the dive shops there they use for local divings. it is about 26' but kind of narrow. the large boat that they use to go to coz is 30+. it got rought the day we went across for the trip home and the driver did his best to make it as comfortable for every one. it still wasn't a bad trip but i am used to rough boat rides. as for there professionalism, I think they were top notched. they made sure everyone gaot there max time down, I don't think we cut one dive short. don't get me wrong we didn't let anyone run out of air. the first person to get to 750PSI would share with the dive leader and then when the next person would get there we would surface. they were real good about pointing out thing on the dive. Martine was one of our dive masters and Ivan was the other for the boat dives, both were very good and very safe. if we don't go to bonaire next year we will go back the PDC and dive with them again.

 

[Sue-ba]

Akumal is a little farther south from Playa. There are 2 good dive shops there. The reefs were in better shape than Coz. No drift but some surge.

 

[Rig Magician]

I just uploaded a pic of the dive boat, i will try to put it here, if not it will be in my pic gallery.

 

[SusieQ]

Thanks for the input everyone. =D

 

[ednedfred]

Hi Susie,

I have an entire trip report for Playa (Ocean and ceynote). Search ednedfred and look for Playa trip report. A couple of points for you: 1). If you've never visited a ceynote, you must do so on your visit. Diving in an overhead environment may sound somewhat scary but it's not. I visited Chikin Ha and Taj Mahal and they are both different and very, very cool. Water is a bit nippy so make sure you have at least a 3 mil. I dove with a shorty and a hood and I was fine. 2). The Mama Vina is a neat 80 ft. wreck on a sandy bottom @ 90 feet. It's fun to dive and easy to penetrate. You'll see all types of fish there. Most of your other ocean dives are between 40 and 80 feet. Nice drift dives with coral (not as big as Cozumel) and tons of fish. Visibility is typically great +100 feet. I dove with Abyss and they were great. Hope you have fun!

 

[O2BBubbleFree]

I just got back from Playa del Carmen, and didn't dive

I was booked with DiveMike, but on the day we were to go the harbormaster determined it was too rough for small boats.

I saw some advice on another thread that I should have listened to: If you want to dive cenotes, dive Playa. If you want to dive OW, dive Cozumel.

Of course there are options. If the Playa harbor gets closed Coz is only a short ferry ride away, and there is always a leeward side of the island. Or dive the cenotes.

We really enjoyed Playa, though, and plan to go back.

WRT dive shops, even though I didn't dive with Mike, I enjoyed talking with him and wouldn't hesitate to use his shop. He has a lot of good reviews on the board, as well.

http://divemike.com/

 

[Dana272]

Last year, I stayed in PDC. I dove with Dressel Divers (at Iberostar resort). Diving was OK but way too expensive. I took the ferry over to Coz one day and met up with Staff Divers. No complaints. Good experience.