Is Cozumel a dive destination or a tourist destination with diving?

[judydivescoz]

Wow, what a question....SeaHound.

I disagree, Rick. I think Cozumel is a destination that should be on all N. American diver's Bucket List. It is drift diving Mecca for the Caribbean. Fantastic swimthroughs and deeper wall dives. Great fishlife, etc. There are good times to go and bad times, dependant on weather. January is not the best time due to possiblities of diving blown out due to norte winds. Best time, IMHO, is April - July.

Personally, after 7 trips to Cozumel, I am not so happy with the topside. In the past 10yrs it has gone very commercial, and I can skip it completely. We stayed at Scuba Club the past 2 years and love it, love being behind closed gates and not having to deal with the crowds and pod people. We do venture into town the last day, non-diving, to shop and pick up more carved wooden masks that i collect and a piece of jewelry for daughter who stays home watching our dog.

I do think a trip over to the Cenotes on mainland, and also the Mayan ruins are fantastic, but I think you should stay over there to get the most from them and skip the hassle of the ferry. I have trip reports, photos, and videos on my website of the cenotes, the Scuba Club Cozumel diving both boat and shore, and also a trip to Chichen Itza.

So... my personal opinion, coming from my trips over the years, is go to Cozumel for a week of dive dive dive and stay at SCC, then spend 2-3 days over on mainland and dive the cenotes a day or two, and a full day spent visiting Chichen Itza by rental car.

a sample video:
[vimeo]11934524[/vimeo]
I shot this past April

more of my videos of Cozumel and mainland trips here: Mexico - Cozumel and the Yucatan Peninsula on Vimeo

robin

Closed behind locked gates in Cozumel and not venturing out????
Aside from the great diving, the best parts are to great food and the friendly local people. The main road on the waterfront is very busy when the cruise ships are in, it is easy to avoid besides, they leave in the early evening. The best food, drink and whatever you want to buy for gifts is found a few blocks back. I would not be a trip to Cozumel without the great local experience.

 

[caseybird]

I can afford 3 trips to coz for the price of 1 trip to the far pacific. So, I go to coz a lot more. Coz has lots of SB divers, I met a lot of them last trip and had a great time. The diving is still very good, it's easy and fun. Go with a small op that can get to the less dived spots, and get together with the other divers and ask for them. Talk to the dive op a day in advance, they can set up interesting dives if they know the group is willing to go.
The plaza has been taken over by the cruise people, there are alternatives. Last trip the town seems to have converted the soccer fields over by the municipal building to a bandshell and alternative to the plaza: there were at least 3 nights with bands or other events. One night was the Miss Cozumel contest, it was a HOOT.
Nothing wrong with Coz.

 

[robint]

Closed behind locked gates in Cozumel and not venturing out????
Aside from the great diving, the best parts are to great food and the friendly local people. The main road on the waterfront is very busy when the cruise ships are in, it is easy to avoid besides, they leave in the early evening. The best food, drink and whatever you want to buy for gifts is found a few blocks back. I would not be a trip to Cozumel without the great local experience.

As I said, I have been to Coz 7 times over the past 10 yrs (stayed at 5 different hotels and diving with several different ops), I have my own personal taste. I do not like downtown atmosphere as much anymore, I don't like all the traffic and honking horns and pod people and time-share harassment, and crowds...my personal taste.
I like quiet and relaxing. I want to dive dive dive and not have to find a restaurant, sit and wait for service, wait for food, wait for check... that is all time away from the water. At SCC I have to only walk a few feet from the restaurant to the tank room to the water or dive boat or my room. Relaxing, low key, but still able to dive at will. That is MY preference for a vacation.

robin

 

[ggunn]

As I said, I have been to Coz 7 times over the past 10 yrs (stayed at 5 different hotels and diving with several different ops), I have my own personal taste. I do not like downtown atmosphere as much anymore, I don't like all the traffic and honking horns and pod people and time-share harassment, and crowds...my personal taste.
I like quiet and relaxing. I want to dive dive dive and not have to find a restaurant, sit and wait for service, wait for food, wait for check... that is all time away from the water. At SCC I have to only walk a few feet from the restaurant to the tank room to the water or dive boat or my room. Relaxing, low key, but still able to dive at will. That is MY preference for a vacation.

robin

To each their own, but the downtown atmosphere when you get back from the pod people zone hasn't changed much in many years; a couple of blocks off the waterfront you are away from all that. Like you say, it's a personal preference, but the restaurants in town are a big part of the Cozumel experience for me, and I still get all the time in the water I want.

 

[jlyle]

I'll tell you a little story. When we first got certified, some twenty years ago, I asked several been-there-done-that divers where they would go if they knew they only had one, last, scuba trip to make. Most of them said, "Cozumel." So, that's where we took our first dive vacation. Since then, we've been around the world a couple of times, gone to Indonesia, Palau, Yap, Chuuk, the Galapagos, Cocos, Papua New Guinea, Hawaii, Malaysia, Fernando de Noronha (look it up), Maldives, Thailand, Myanmar, Seychelles, etc...some, multiple times. We've become been-there-done-that divers. Yet, each year we try to make at least one trip back to Cozumel; does that tell you something?

Yes, there are better places to see big animals; yes, there are better places to see ship wrecks; yes, there are better places to see weird animals; but Cozumel is affordable, is easy to get to, has healthy reefs teeming with sealife, is safe, and should be on every diver's Life List.

Go. You won't be disappointed.

 

[Louie]

I like Cozumel for various reasons:

• It's relatively easy to get to from many places in North America. It's a convenient holiday diving destination if you don't have too much time to spend
• The dives are good - excellent drift dives, reefs in fairly good shape
• There are many accommodations and resorts/shops that are good value for money
• It's safe to walk around and there are many conveniences - such as restaurants etc

HOWEVER, if I was on a diving holiday with unlimited funds and time, I WOULD NOT choose Cozumel as a destination. There are so many destinations that offer excellent diving and on-land attractions that surpass Cozumel.

 

[parrotheaddiver]

I have been going to Cozumel for diving since the 70's....nuff said

 

[RickPeck]

Wow, what a question....SeaHound.

I disagree, Rick. I think Cozumel is a destination that should be on all N. American diver's Bucket List. It is drift diving Mecca for the Caribbean. Fantastic swimthroughs and deeper wall dives. Great fishlife, etc. There are good times to go and bad times, dependant on weather. January is not the best time due to possiblities of diving blown out due to norte winds. Best time, IMHO, is April - July.

Personally, after 7 trips to Cozumel, I am not so happy with the topside. In the past 10yrs it has gone very commercial, and I can skip it completely. We stayed at Scuba Club the past 2 years and love it, love being behind closed gates and not having to deal with the crowds and pod people. We do venture into town the last day, non-diving, to shop and pick up more carved wooden masks that i collect and a piece of jewelry for daughter who stays home watching our dog.

I do think a trip over to the Cenotes on mainland, and also the Mayan ruins are fantastic, but I think you should stay over there to get the most from them and skip the hassle of the ferry. I have trip reports, photos, and videos on my website of the cenotes, the Scuba Club Cozumel diving both boat and shore, and also a trip to Chichen Itza.

So... my personal opinion, coming from my trips over the years, is go to Cozumel for a week of dive dive dive and stay at SCC, then spend 2-3 days over on mainland and dive the cenotes a day or two, and a full day spent visiting Chichen Itza by rental car.

a sample video:
[vimeo]11934524[/vimeo]
I shot this past April

more of my videos of Cozumel and mainland trips here: Mexico - Cozumel and the Yucatan Peninsula on Vimeo

robin

Very nice video Robin. I wasn't trying to put Cozumel down. It's a very good dive destination.

A quote from Mark Twain came to mind when I read your gentle disagreement.

"There is probably no pleasure equal to the pleasure of climbing a dangerous Alp; but it is a pleasure which is confined strictly to people who can find pleasure in it"

Such are "Bucket List" items. They are strictly confined to those who have them on their list. Perhaps because I have been to Cozumel I wouldn't call it one.

As a destination AND a Bucket List item I would recommend Roatan and the String of Pearls phenomena. A truly magical sight that I will never forget. But only if you like night diving and little mating creatures...

Rick

 

[georoc01]

I'm surprised that any LDSs take trips to Coz since it's so easy to do on your own, for less. My first trip was a travel agent AI package and my second was a LDS AI package, but those were before I learned how to turn on a computer, much less surf & post. There are some advantages to going with a group, but not enough for me; I've also been with a singles group - blah! http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/cozumel/348892-so-what-do-i-want-coz-dive-trip.html

The LDS I work with does two trips a year to Cozumel. Its the one Caribbean dive destination with direct flights from Denver. They also package it with getting your OW certification as an alternative to doing them in a local reservoir or driving down to the Blue Hole.

 

[scubawife]

You can't compare Caribbean diving to Indonesia, the South Pacific, etc. Totally different oceans, water temps, currents, marine life... I've been other places in the world but most of my diving is in the Caribbean. Cozumel has become the place we go most often.

Is Cozumel the best diving in the world? No. That's a place none of us have been yet or even heard of (because even the most exotic, hard to get to places, if they're really that good, get popular and eventually start to decline from tourism growth and often unregulated useage)

Is Cozumel the best Caribbean diving? Depends on what sort of diving you like. I'm pretty sure that most Caribbean divers would definitely have it in their top 3 for this part of the world. It's in my top 3... the other 2 being Cayman and Curacao (no particular order).

I've dived some crappy reefs around the Caribbean, near dead ones too, and I can still say that I've never had a dive that I didn't find something interesting and unique to remember. I can also say I've never had a dive in Cozumel that I had to make any real effort to enjoy. The day I find a place that I say isn't worth getting in the water, that's the day I'll hang up my fins.