How far are the cenotes from Cozumel?

[evilclown]

I'll be in the cancun area, thinking about staying in Cozumel. How far are the cenotes dives? Any other recommended dives in the area (Playa, Holbox, Akumal, etc) or should i just stick to Coz. Any suggestions?
Thanks!!!

 

[driftwood]

Your questions are too general. Like asking, what is there to see in Rome while I am in Italy. You go from Holbox to cenotes to Coz, while you want stuff for your Mother to do while you are diving. Need to set priorities and do basic research.

 

[TSandM]

Most of the cenote tours are run on the mainland. To get there from Cozumel, you take a ferry (about half an hour) and then you need transportation from Playa del Carmen to the caves (about 30 to 60 minutes, depending on site). At least some of the Cozumel dive ops can arrange a day of cenote tours for you, or you can arrange it with a mainland dive op who will meet you in PDC with a van.

There are caves on Cozumel, and German Yanez is a cave instructor/tour leader who lives there, but I don't know if he leads cavern tours in the Cozumel caves. At least in the one I've dived in (Aerolito) there wasn't that much of a cavern zone.

 

[deco_martini]

We dove Dos Ojos (sp?) the last time we were in Coz. It wasn't too far of a ride once we got to the mainland. It was worth the trip, but only because it was our second trip to Coz. We did it on our last day of diving, so those were our "long stop" dives. (each of those dives was less than 30 feet)

 

[evilclown]

Your questions are too general. Like asking, what is there to see in Rome while I am in Italy. You go from Holbox to cenotes to Coz, while you want stuff for your Mother to do while you are diving. Need to set priorities and do basic research.

Thank you so much for your response. It is so informative and helpful! People like you are what make this forum such a special place, can't thank you enough.

 

[mikerault]

Just got back. Give Scuba Caribe a call, they can take to Kukulcan and Little Brother on the mainland which are good beginner sites (never out of site of a possible exit, pre-run lines, etc.) I took the ferry from Cozumel, they picked me up at the dock and delivered me back there at the end of the day. Here is a link to some of my pictures, I was having camera issues so they aren't the best but it will give you an idea (Cenote pictures start at around number 36.) We were about 11 KM out of Tulum when we dove the Cenotes if that gives you a reference point.

Cenote Pictures

 

[deborahdelamar]

Another idea would be to cavern dive from Cancun -- you eliminate the round trip ferry & shoot straight down the Cancun-Tulum highway to the cenotes.

If you're going before the end of summer, you may want to snorkel with the whale sharks (north of Cancun.) I've never been diving in Cancun but there are recommendations & reviews here at Scubaboard.

There are some interesting ocean dives from Playa del Carmen: Tortugas Reef (lots of Turtles), Barracuda Reef, Sabalos Reef and the Mama Vina wreck.

But you won't beat Cozumel's awesome & easy reef diving at any other Riviera Maya location.

 

[driftwood]

Thank you so much for your response. It is so informative and helpful! People like you are what make this forum such a special place, can't thank you enough.

You are welcome. You caught me on a good day. Sorry, but you just sounded lazy to me. Try using the search function or a map. Combined with your question in the Mexico thread, the area you asked about covers better than 100 miles of coast line, has around ten big tourist areas with thousands of hotels containing hundreds of thousands of rooms, and three islands that are hours apart and very different from each other.

Effectively, a trip to the cenotes from Coz is a full day with a early morning wakeup and late afternoon return. Plenty of previous threads on the subject.

 

[TSandM]

You know, the fun thing about SB is that there ARE people on the board who are happy to wade in and explain such things, even if they've done it before. As for me, I love talking about the Riviera Maya and the diving there (because I'd move there, if I didn't have to work for a living). So I don't mind saying things over again, or helping people reframe their questions to get more precise answers.

 

[driftwood]

I agree with you completely. My visceral reaction to evilclown's post can be best described by Cluelessness.