Actually... I wanted some advice...
Now the things are in motion and we have booked the flights to Miami, but up to that.... Well so many options in the Caribbean! We have decided to use roughly 10 days diving, and spend rest of our holiday in Miami to see the city and surroundings. We arrive to Miami at the first week of June.
For the diving, we have been wondering basically Freeport and Cozumel. In talks have also been Belize (ReefCI) or Cancun / Isla. The ReefCI would be best for us, since we really appreciate nature and don't want to support bad behavior in reefs / nature, which is a possibility always when going to to "touristy" places. Sadly that is not possible, as it does not fit our schedule.
We also checked few liveaboards but it seems that they either cost shitloads of money or are not fitting to our schedule either. Cancun seemed too touristy for us, so we passed that. As a comparison, we have never been in Phuket as we dont like the too crowded and noisy places.
Having said that: Anyone been on Cozumel and Freeport diving? The thing that puzzles us is that if you check from dive report what CAN be seen on those sites, Grand Bahama has more stuff in there. Especially sharks and bigger stuff (the POSSIBILITY to see these is really important, especially whale sharks). Is it really so that in Cozumel there are none of the same possibilities than in Freeport / Grand Bahamas?
Diving Grand Bahama- Guide to diving Grand Bahama with marine life & Dive Centre information
Diving Cozumel - Guide to diving Cozumel with marine life & Dive Centre information
We have gathered the following pluses and minuses for both:
Cozumel:
+ Decent priced diving
+ People seem to appreciate the place, but for us its a mystery. We have places like Similan Islands as a reference.
+ Cheap living
+- Food? Decent amount of restaurants.
- Things to do? We are not sure if there is anything else than diving?
- Only small stuff to see while diving - according to dive report (no possibility to whale sharks, sharks, mantas, whales, dolphins etc.)
? Is it easy to get to Playa del Carmen (since there would be a lot of things to do)?
Freeport:
+ Seems to have lots of stuff to see underwater (according to dive report)
- Expensive to dive
- Expensive to live
+- Food? Decent amount of restaurants
- Not much else to do than diving (?)
Do I got it right?
