Question How does Cozumel compare to other dive destinations?

[divingjd]

I realize you’ve just booked a trip to Bonaire, but let me offer a slightly different perspective. A Cozumel experience can vary significantly depending on who you are diving with, where you stay, and where you go topside. I’ve been there over 20 times. On trip number 4 or 5, I told my wife I thought I was probably done with Cozumel. I’d been staying at Fiesta Americana and diving with the in-house dive op. It’s a good dive op, but bigger boats and a mass-market operation, mostly diving the Palancar sites and nearby shallower sites. Those sites can be mob scenes and have unfortunately become a little beat up. They are closing sites on a rotating basis now to relieve some of the pressures on those reefs. The Palancar reef structures are pretty spectacular and the marine life can be pretty good. If you like hunting macro life, probably not the greatest. The current makes it hard.

Then I dove with one of the “boutique” valet dive shops, Aldora. They have several small boats and are usually able to group divers by skill, experience, and interests. This doesn’t just mean that you dive with people with similar air consumption, it opens up opportunities to dive sites most dive ops never visit. The Columbia system puts Palancar to shame. Punta Sur, Punta Sur Sur, Maracaibo, and Maracaibo Shallows are just spectacular. I’m talking about reef structure, a healthy environment, and marine life. We only see boats from a few other dive shops at those sites. This is a completely different experience from the average Cozumel experience and is what keeps me coming back. We also go up North, to San Juan, Barracuda, and points north. Again, very few shops go there. We also go to the East side, to Los Islote and other sites.

I’ve been to Bonaire, Aruba, Roatan, Cayman Brac, Little Cayman, St. Lucia, Cancun/Isla Mujeres, and Playa del Carmen. Bonaire, Little Cayman, and Cozumel are the stars. If money and time were unlimited, I would probably pick Little Cayman every time. If I wanted to shore dive, go slow, and poke around looking for critters, I would choose Bonaire. Cozumel has some of everything. Being relatively inexpensive and easy to get to tips the scales.

I haven’t had a chance to dive the Indo-Pacific, other than a few days in Thailand (Andaman Islands) tacked on to a business trip to Thailand. The marine life was amazing, the reefs less so. The Caribbean doesn’t really compare. If you can deal with cold water, try the West Coast. Some of the best diving I have ever done was in California’s Channel Islands and off Vancouver, BC.

Similarly, the cruise ship, touristy, hawker experience in Cozumel is easily avoided. It’s pretty confined to a few blocks on the waterfront. That’s not your focus in this discussion, but it’s pretty easy to have a more relaxed experience.

 

[Lorenzoid]

I had heard so much buzz about Cozumel, I was just curious how good the diving was, in comparison to other places.

I think we "hear so much buzz" about Cozumel because we're Americans, more than because it's world-class diving. Our media/friends bubble--ScubaBoard very much included--gives us an outsized impression. Similarly, I believe European divers hear so much buzz about the Red Sea.

I think you'll enjoy Bonaire. I would have mentioned it--my wife and I have been to Bonaire more times than we have been to Cozumel--but I kept my reply to the specific question you asked.

The Red Sea is pretty good, too, by the way, and flights from the US can be less expensive than from the US to Asia. The coral and marine life are less diverse than Asia, but what is there seems to thrive pretty well (in my unscientific observation), perhaps tolerant of higher temperatures.

 

[tridacna]

Don't make a judgement; just tell them how many dives you have.

Not so sure about that. I reckon 100 NJ dives is the equivalent of about 1,000 Caribbean dives.

 

[ggunn]

My husband always jokes that when in Cozumel I spend zero dollars shopping(except at Megamart). I too cannot stand the hawkers. I never step foot in their shops or engage with them. I give credit to those on this board who engage and talk with them. I prefer not to go down the rabbit hole. I love Cozumel and wish I could tell you that the hawkers will leave you alone with a simple 'no. gracias', but in my experience, they get even more persistent. I used to walk around the square, but anymore I feel like Robert Stack walking through the airport in the movie 'Airplane!' I still visit the island every year, but the hawkers are definitely the only(big) negative that I can say about the island.

If you don't go into town when the cruseros are ashore, the hawkers won't be a big deal, and neither will the sidewalks be full of drunken tourists wearing balloon hats. In my normal two week stay on Cozumel I am typically in town during the day maybe two or three times, but when I get approached by a persistent hawker, the solution is very simple: I just keep walking. These guys will not stray far from the storefront for which they are trying to snare customers.

Another thing: You cannot control what others do, but you can control your reaction to them. I say "no, gracias", smile and show them the hand, and keep walking while deciding not to let it bother me. It always works for me, but as always, YMMV.

In my experience in going to Cozumel some 40+ times, the shop hawkers have been a vanishingly small part of the experience. It is certainly nowhere near a make-or-break factor in deciding whether or not I will go to the island.

 

[JFS]

I realize you’ve just booked a trip to Bonaire, but let me offer a slightly different perspective. A Cozumel experience can vary significantly depending on who you are diving with, where you stay, and where you go topside. I’ve been there over 20 times. On trip number 4 or 5, I told my wife I thought I was probably done with Cozumel. I’d been staying at Fiesta Americana and diving with the in-house dive op. It’s a good dive op, but bigger boats and a mass-market operation, mostly diving the Palancar sites and nearby shallower sites. Those sites can be mob scenes and have unfortunately become a little beat up. They are closing sites on a rotating basis now to relieve some of the pressures on those reefs. The Palancar reef structures are pretty spectacular and the marine life can be pretty good. If you like hunting macro life, probably not the greatest. The current makes it hard.

Then I dove with one of the “boutique” valet dive shops, Aldora. They have several small boats and are usually able to group divers by skill, experience, and interests. This doesn’t just mean that you dive with people with similar air consumption, it opens up opportunities to dive sites most dive ops never visit. The Columbia system puts Palancar to shame. Punta Sur, Punta Sur Sur, Maracaibo, and Maracaibo Shallows are just spectacular. I’m talking about reef structure, a healthy environment, and marine life. We only see boats from a few other dive shops at those sites. This is a completely different experience from the average Cozumel experience and is what keeps me coming back. We also go up North, to San Juan, Barracuda, and points north. Again, very few shops go there. We also go to the East side, to Los Islote and other sites.

I’ve been to Bonaire, Aruba, Roatan, Cayman Brac, Little Cayman, St. Lucia, Cancun/Isla Mujeres, and Playa del Carmen. Bonaire, Little Cayman, and Cozumel are the stars. If money and time were unlimited, I would probably pick Little Cayman every time. If I wanted to shore dive, go slow, and poke around looking for critters, I would choose Bonaire. Cozumel has some of everything. Being relatively inexpensive and easy to get to tips the scales.

I haven’t had a chance to dive the Indo-Pacific, other than a few days in Thailand (Andaman Islands) tacked on to a business trip to Thailand. The marine life was amazing, the reefs less so. The Caribbean doesn’t really compare. If you can deal with cold water, try the West Coast. Some of the best diving I have ever done was in California’s Channel Islands and off Vancouver, BC.

Similarly, the cruise ship, touristy, hawker experience in Cozumel is easily avoided. It’s pretty confined to a few blocks on the waterfront. That’s not your focus in this discussion, but it’s pretty easy to have a more relaxed experience.

The northern part of Vancouver Island is amazing and puts Cozumel to shame as far as wildlife goes. Double the life there....

 

[morecowbells]

If you don't go into town when the cruseros are ashore, the hawkers won't be a big deal, and neither will the sidewalks be full of drunken tourists wearing balloon hats. In my normal two week stay on Cozumel I am typically in town during the day maybe two or three times, but when I get approached by a persistent hawker, the solution is very simple: I just keep walking. These guys will not stray far from the storefront for which they are trying to snare customers.

Another thing: You cannot control what others do, but you can control your reaction to them. I say "no, gracias", smile and show them the hand, and keep walking while deciding not to let it bother me. It always works for me, but as always, YMMV.

In my experience in going to Cozumel some 40+ times, the shop hawkers have been a vanishingly small part of the experience. It is certainly nowhere near a make-or-break factor in deciding whether or not I will go to the island.

I wish that I had your easy going temperament. I only go into town in the evenings. The hawkers are still obnoxious. A couple of years ago my husband, sister and myself were walking near the square when one hawker kept blocking our path and yelling to my husband "hey Mr. Mormon Big Love, take your wives shopping!" I actually cracked up, but I think they are even worse in the evening. I also think they are more pushy with females. You are right about it not being a deal breaker when visiting the island, it is just an annoyance.

 

[lionfish-eater]

I wish that I had your easy going temperament. I only go into town in the evenings. The hawkers are still obnoxious. A couple of years ago my husband, sister and myself were walking near the square when one hawker kept blocking our path and yelling to my husband "hey Mr. Mormon Big Love, take your wives shopping!" I actually cracked up, but I think they are even worse in the evening. I also think they are more pushy with females. You are right about it not being a deal breaker when visiting the island, it is just an annoyance.

If it's a gift shop, I say something like "No thanks I just ate."
Then I watch their confusion as I keep on walking.

My buddy usually engages them and then asks if the sell books or socks or some other thing they don't have.

 

[ReefHound]

Reefs all over the world are dying from warming and things like stony coral tissue loss disease. I recently visited dives sites in Fiji I had dived 22 years before. Bommies that were thriving with coral and fish are now rock towers with a little life at the top.

That's why it's not really possible to compare different destinations if you experienced them more than 5-10 years apart. You can't compare Cozumel today with some other destination in 2005 and say the other place was better because the reefs were so much more vibrant and full of life.

 

[ReefHound]

I think we "hear so much buzz" about Cozumel because we're Americans, more than because it's world-class diving. Our media/friends bubble--ScubaBoard very much included--gives us an outsized impression. Similarly, I believe European divers hear so much buzz about the Red Sea.

I think it's just that Scubaboard is mostly American. I follow the forums of places I like to dive and while I think the Red Sea matches Cozumel for numbers of divers their respective forums is night and day. There is 100x more activity in Cozumel forum. You can go to a place like Sharm and see the place chock full of divers with dozens of large boats loaded with 50 divers going out every morning yet look into the Red Sea forum and not see more than a couple new threads this year and almost no conversation discussing the topside scene.

And maybe that's another part of the "buzz". It's so much easier to find current information on just about anything in Cozumel.

 

[ReefHound]

If it's a gift shop, I say something like "No thanks I just ate."
Then I watch their confusion as I keep on walking.

My buddy usually engages them and then asks if the sell books or socks or some other thing they don't have.

Key part is "keep on walking". Maybe your buddy enjoys it but these hawkers have heard it all. To them, any response at all is encouraging. If I'm casually strolling and in a good mood I might say no thanks in some way and keep going but if I'm on a mission I either ignore or wave my hand without making eye contact. I'm a fairly fast walker and I'm not about to break my momentum.