Question How does Cozumel compare to other dive destinations?

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

Dove Cozumel for the first time in October '23, it was excellent. We logged six dives; Paradise Reef, Paso de Cedral, San Clemente, Palancar, Tormentos and Chankanaab. Saw a decent amount of marine life, navigated through rocks/caves and was generally happy with the health of the reefs. Would definitely go again.
 
In the Caribbean, I would rank Cozumel close to Turks & Caicos (LOB about a decade ago) and Cayman Brac (about 8 years ago). I'd probably rank it ahead of all the other places I've been: Bahamas, Roatan, Curacao, Bonaire, St. Lucia, Grenada, Florida. I list the years I was in T&C and Cayman as I understand things have changed with recent coral bleaching.

I would rank Cozumel near/above Hawaii but below all the other Pacific places I've been: Palau, Thailand, Philippines, Socorro, French Polynesia (Rangiroa), Sea of Cortez.
 
In the Caribbean, I would rank Cozumel close to Turks & Caicos (LOB about a decade ago) and Cayman Brac (about 8 years ago). I'd probably rank it ahead of all the other places I've been: Bahamas, Roatan, Curacao, Bonaire, St. Lucia, Grenada, Florida. I list the years I was in T&C and Cayman as I understand things have changed with recent coral bleaching.

I would rank Cozumel near/above Hawaii but below all the other Pacific places I've been: Palau, Thailand, Philippines, Socorro, French Polynesia (Rangiroa), Sea of Cortez.
20 years ago my son and I spent a week in Coz. It was our first open water experience. At the end of the week we asked one of the more seasoned divers how Coz compared to the rest of the Caribbean.

His answer: "Well, I can't say that Cozumel is the best diving in the Caribbean, but I can't think of any place which is better."

After multiple trips to Coz and most everywhere else in the Caribbean, that statement still rings true for us.
 
As mentioned, it cannot compare to any Diving in Pacific, period.
It is one of the better dive destinations in Caribbean. Bonaire and Curaçao are better than Cozumel IMHO.
We found Roatan, Belize, Dominica .... to be a disappointment compared to Cozumel.
Cozumel is easy to get to, has great restaurants and good diving. In cooler months (Late Nov to early spring) Eagle rays are common.
Some small reef sharks and black tips are sometimes seen. Nurse sharks are common.
Not as much fish as Bonaire.
 
Love love love @ggunn's comment "Cozumel is a big liveaboard"!! Great take!!

I wholeheartedly agree. I think it's the best diving in Carib/eastern US, maybe second only to Little Cayman and the Bloody Bay Wall. But then again, Coz and Little are very different kinds of diving--Coz obviously drift diving with spectacular reef structures and Little mostly wall diving, albeit with some amazing swim-thrus, too. And, Coz is a fraction of the price of Little, both in terms of getting there and the rest.

Re safety, most on this Board have been many more times than me, but in my trips I've never seen or heard of any issues.

In short, can't recommend it highly enough.
 
We love Coz for all the reasons stated above. I love drift diving, the visibility, the topography and the nice cross section of Caribbean marine life (although fish density is low compared to say Bonaire). Turtles, rays, nurse shark and a great selection of reef critters is almost always available. We have been going for years so it's also a very familiar and comfy place for us and we have friends all over the island to dive and dine and chill with which makes it feel like a home away from home. The food is amazing and I've never one single time felt unsafe even walking at night back in the neighborhoods. Don't go looking for trouble and you probably won't find it. It's way easier to get to from LAX than say Bonaire or other Caribbean spots but not as easy as Hawaii. I am headed to Fiji in two weeks so I'll let you know but I'm hoping to be impressed (which is why we are headed someplace else vs another trip to Coz). I dove in Tahiti when I was first certified 30 years ago and remember a lot more vast reef coverage of hard plate corals and a very strong 'south pacific' coral atoll feel with larger life and way more sharks. I have dove a ton in Maui and Kona and although the lava tubes and turtles and mantas are amazing, I miss the variety of hard and soft corals/sponges and general reef decoration that you'll get in Coz. After a week in Bonaire even though we love the freedom I missed the variety of sites and certainly the FOOD that is available in Coz. Have not done any Indo pacific but I'd expect that the harder to get to a location is and the less people diving the better the health of the reef...Coz is very popular. It's also had issues with coral disease and bleaching recently which have left some of the areas in less than ideal condition however this is true for much of the Caribbean from what I gather. Many people I know say "wow you're going to mexico is that safe?" and then we have a fatal gang shooting less than 20 miles from my "ultra safe so cal neighborhood" so safety is just a bubble you build around yourself here in the good ole USA. Stay off the scooters, manage your dive profiles and don't drink too much and Coz is probably as safe or safer than your home town. Have Fun!!!
 
It is hard to say about how good it is because people use different weighting systems for coming up with what exactly is good.

I recently dove Fiji (first time in the Pacific). I really liked it. Decent acropora corals and some soft corals. Most of the fish were on the small side and a bit shy (really nice variety though).

For where we have in common: Belize (Turneffe Atoll), Caymans (Little and Brac), and Turks and Caicos (Grand, South Caicos and Salt Cay). The Caribbean has really good gorgonians, and where healthy large hard corals, great sponges, and the acroporas are Elk Horn and Staghorn (both of which get to impressive sizes, As far as the fish, you get a variety of grouper, snapper, grunts, jacks, blennies, jawfish, hamlets and so on.

Cozumel - is drift diving. The farther south you go on the island the better the reefs. If you stay on a resort in the south, you get short boat rides, There are a plethora of dive ops and most of them are quite good. It is an idea to pay up and get one that does small boats with small groups. Dive masters tend to be quite good. Because it is drift diving, people tend to sight see and look more at the big stuff. The macro stuff is there is you slow down and look for it. The dive masters on the last op, actually found nudibranchs fairly often. The routine is drift until you get low on gas and then go up and do your safety stop. The last group had an early group and a late group (they put two dive masters in the water. Oh, and most of the dive ops know each other and look out for each other. I have popped up with the boat nowhere in sight but there has always been someone else nearby (rarely happens, the boat captains are very good at following bubble). It is just a matter of asking them to give our boat a call and it will come over,

At Cozumel, the corals in the south can be pretty good but the diversity is kinda low. You can see some nice larger fish. It is not as good as some places but it is better than many. You will also usually see turtles, nurse sharks, sometimes a reef shark and so on. Oh and it has the unique splendid toad fish which is a really cool looking critter. You will usually see several during a trip if you have a good dive master.

Unlike many places, Cozumel has a very good restaurant scene. The resorts can have great to good food, You can get a taxi into town and hit a restaurant and then go back to the resort. Diving is usually 2 dives per day. Some places you can do another dive.

Last time I went, was in August. The currents were pretty mild (well except once for part of a dive). So that was nice. Before that, we went in April and the currents could go up to ripping. Usually it was fine but sometimes it was fast enough as to make diving a bit challenging as far as looking at things (unless you managed to duck behind a coral head).

So it is not my favorite place to dive in the Caribbean. But it is well worth going to.
 
Although the diving in Cozumel (or anywhere in the Caribbean) is not first class, it is a great resource for those of us in the States to get a very satisfactory dive experience at a reasonable price and easy accessibility.
 
We're fairly new divers -- we have about 200 dives each. We've been to Belize, Turks & Caicos (LOB), Grand Caymen, Kona, Maui, Bali, Cairns (LOB)/ Heron Island/ Hamilton Island Australia, Rottnest Island Australia, Raja Ampat (LOB), Fiji, Bora Bora, Rangiroa & Loreto (Baja).
A lot of people have a skewed idea of experience levels, and that seems to include you. :wink:

Many years ago I was diving in Cozumel with a very large operator with many boats that bragged about their ability to match divers by ability and get the best divers to the best sites. I was disappointed by the results of that, and they showed me the problem by showing me their list of divers. I had 125 total dives at the time, and no one else on the list had nearly that many. If the two of you had been there that week, we would have been put on a boat together as the most experienced divers.

Like pretty much all the world's dive sites, Cozumel has sadly deteriorated since I first dived it, but it is still pretty darn good. I suggest you go, and be sure to do the following...
  1. Do a search to make sure you are going to a dive operator that can get you to the better sites. (Some cater more to beginners.)
  2. Absolutely do not tell then you are "fairly new divers," because they will make sure you get on the "fairly new divers" boat going to the "fairly new divers" sites.
 
Absolutely do not tell then you are "fairly new divers," because they will make sure you get on the "fairly new divers" boat going to the "fairly new divers" sites.
Don't make a judgement; just tell them how many dives you have.
 

Back
Top Bottom