Sounds like Cozumel is in your future.
There are many dozens of dive ops so you can find whatever type op you want, from cattle boat to 4-6 packs. I had great experiences with Dive Paradise, their express boats not their cattle boats. Forum faves include Aldora, Blue XT Sea, Liquid Blue, and others.
I would recommend staying in town, close to all the shopping and restaurants. To go all-inclusive or not is a perpetual and contentious issue on this board. If fine dining and learning about the local culture is a big part of your vacation, then you might prefer a la carte. If you're all about the diving and just need quick and easy calories to sustain life, then perhaps AI is best. I'm a big fan of AI because you can usually get your money's worth just from the drinks and snacks, even if you do eat your dinners in town. Anyway, you'll get a lot of opinions on it, that's mine.
The drawback about staying in town is there are no beaches, at most hotels have created little sandy areas next to the ironshore coastline. The southern end of the island has the best beaches but it's a $15 or more taxi ride just to go into town. In this case, AI becomes even more tempting. The northern end also has good beaches but it's hard to get dive ops to pick you up there.
Best time of year is whenever you can stay the longest.
The winter is high season, temperatures will be a welcome warm break from our winter but not sweltering. Summer will be lowest prices but you have to dodge hurricanes. However, despite the double whammy in 2005, hurricanes are pretty rare in Coz. It's really a 12 month destination.
:happyjaz:
