If you decide on the Playacar area, keep in mind that there is some really bad beach erosion happening in that area. Get on the boards at Playa.info and read recent posts, look at pics posted (or links to pics) from people who've been there recently.
Mayan Riviera Diving
- Thread starter jim2386
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Look at Occidential Grand Xcaret. I dove with the operators in the park and had some fantastic dives right off the hotel property.
Noboundaries
Guest
I'll second Aventura Spa Palace as long as no kids are going along. It is at 18 and older only. It is 5 star treatment, but not pretentious, and extremely laid back. It is a huge resort, but it is spread out over what seems like about a half mile. The staff is incredibly friendly. They are pretty relaxed on the pants thing in the couple of restaurants that "require" them in the evening.
We also dove with Dive Aventuras. They are located in the Omni Hotel in the town next to the resort. Call them direct instead of going through the dive shack at the Spa and you'll save money. The shop will pick you and your gear up. Just leave it with them the whole week you're there. Their van picks you up and takes you back to the Spa every day for no charge. 5 minute drive.
Mike Doody is the owner. They have a sliding scale of what each dive costs. If you do ten dives it is $30 a dive. You can get two dives in and be back at the Spa by 11:30 in the morning. Four dives and you're back by 3 to 3:30, 4 PM at the latest.
Their cenote dives are great. Mario is their cavern expert. You won't find a better guide anywhere. And he never shuts up, but he's fun to listen to. He's about 5 feet tall, 4 feet of which is all heart and personality.
Have fun where ever you choose to go. We love the Yucatan.
We also dove with Dive Aventuras. They are located in the Omni Hotel in the town next to the resort. Call them direct instead of going through the dive shack at the Spa and you'll save money. The shop will pick you and your gear up. Just leave it with them the whole week you're there. Their van picks you up and takes you back to the Spa every day for no charge. 5 minute drive.
Mike Doody is the owner. They have a sliding scale of what each dive costs. If you do ten dives it is $30 a dive. You can get two dives in and be back at the Spa by 11:30 in the morning. Four dives and you're back by 3 to 3:30, 4 PM at the latest.
Their cenote dives are great. Mario is their cavern expert. You won't find a better guide anywhere. And he never shuts up, but he's fun to listen to. He's about 5 feet tall, 4 feet of which is all heart and personality.
Have fun where ever you choose to go. We love the Yucatan.
pelan-pelan
Contributor
Thanks for interesting post. We will be diving with Dive Aventuras in the summer. Got good responses to emails but it is helpful to hear a positive report from soneone who has actually been there. Many positives on the board for Diablo Divers but two emails and two phone calls yielded no response - we were asking about packages and on the phone they said they would contact us.
How were Dive Aventuras organised? We can see that they serve a number of hotels. What was the diver to guide ratio that you experienced, and did they split divers up according to ability? Also, was there any flexibility in where they took you?
Which cenote did you dive?
Sorry for interrogation!
How were Dive Aventuras organised? We can see that they serve a number of hotels. What was the diver to guide ratio that you experienced, and did they split divers up according to ability? Also, was there any flexibility in where they took you?
Which cenote did you dive?
Sorry for interrogation!
Noboundaries
Guest
PP, here's our experience with Dive Aventuras. They were our first dive operation experience after getting certified. They went out of their way to ensure we had successful dives.
Dive Aventuras organization: They have several of the outboard motor type dive boats that handle up to probably eight to twelve divers. If there were enough divers scheduled they did appear to have the morning boats loaded according to experience level. The afternoon boats were more of a mix. If there were resort-intro dives or Specialty class divers onboard, they had their own DM. We dove the afternoon boats exclusively (our choice) due to our experience level, which was basically none at that point.
The reefs were all only a 5 to 10 minute boat ride. You geared up, got a thorough brief, and performed a back roll entry. We had no clue what a back roll entry was was until we did our first one there. Yeeeeeeeeeehaw.
There was a DM guide in the water with us on each dive, but no DM trailer. When someone hit the air mins and needed to go up early, the DM sent up the dive weenie and you performed your own safety stop.
As far as flexibility, they had a reef map up in the shop, knew which boats you dove during the week, and appeared to organize the boats during the week so you didn't dive the same reef twice.
We dove the Choc Mool / Kulkukan cenote. It was just me, my wife, and Mario (the guide). Choc Mool was interesting because there were a lot of openings to the surface which gave an amazing indigo blue tint to the water. It had a lot of limestone debris in the water that had fallen from the ceilings over the centuries. There were one or two "tight" squeezes, but I had no problem at all and my personal challenge is clautrophobia.
After 45 minutes in Choc Mool we were back at the entry point. They asked if we were cold and if we wanted to get out of the water. We were fine so they switched our tanks right there and we took off into Kulkukan, the second half of the dive. That dive blew our minds.
Kulkukan was filled with stalagtites, stalagmites, bacon formations, and fossils. There were more tight squeezes and again, no problem on my part. I'll see if I can figure out how to post pictures I took. This dive just sold us on cenote diving. We're diving Cozumel again in a couple of weeks and we left one day open to get in some cenote diving on the peninsula.
Dive Aventuras is a class operation. My brand new dive computer failed after my first dive and the dive shop set me up with a replacement console at no charge. We'll most likely go to the peninsula again in the late fall this year and will be diving with Dive Aventuras again.
Dive Aventuras organization: They have several of the outboard motor type dive boats that handle up to probably eight to twelve divers. If there were enough divers scheduled they did appear to have the morning boats loaded according to experience level. The afternoon boats were more of a mix. If there were resort-intro dives or Specialty class divers onboard, they had their own DM. We dove the afternoon boats exclusively (our choice) due to our experience level, which was basically none at that point.
The reefs were all only a 5 to 10 minute boat ride. You geared up, got a thorough brief, and performed a back roll entry. We had no clue what a back roll entry was was until we did our first one there. Yeeeeeeeeeehaw.
There was a DM guide in the water with us on each dive, but no DM trailer. When someone hit the air mins and needed to go up early, the DM sent up the dive weenie and you performed your own safety stop.
As far as flexibility, they had a reef map up in the shop, knew which boats you dove during the week, and appeared to organize the boats during the week so you didn't dive the same reef twice.
We dove the Choc Mool / Kulkukan cenote. It was just me, my wife, and Mario (the guide). Choc Mool was interesting because there were a lot of openings to the surface which gave an amazing indigo blue tint to the water. It had a lot of limestone debris in the water that had fallen from the ceilings over the centuries. There were one or two "tight" squeezes, but I had no problem at all and my personal challenge is clautrophobia.
After 45 minutes in Choc Mool we were back at the entry point. They asked if we were cold and if we wanted to get out of the water. We were fine so they switched our tanks right there and we took off into Kulkukan, the second half of the dive. That dive blew our minds.
Kulkukan was filled with stalagtites, stalagmites, bacon formations, and fossils. There were more tight squeezes and again, no problem on my part. I'll see if I can figure out how to post pictures I took. This dive just sold us on cenote diving. We're diving Cozumel again in a couple of weeks and we left one day open to get in some cenote diving on the peninsula.
Dive Aventuras is a class operation. My brand new dive computer failed after my first dive and the dive shop set me up with a replacement console at no charge. We'll most likely go to the peninsula again in the late fall this year and will be diving with Dive Aventuras again.
Attachments
Aquanauts, in Aventuras, is the same owner as Diablo Divers if you want to give it another try. Aquanauts Dive Rite Tek Center- scuba, cavern diving, dive instruction, retail on the Mexican Caribbean
pelan-pelan
Contributor
Noboundaries - thanks for the info. That sounds like a straightforward professional op. That'll do us fine! Hopefully we'll get to the cenotes early enough in our time there that we can go again if we get "bitten" - and I think we might judging by posts and pictures here on the board.
Roll on August.
Roll on August.
Noboundaries
Guest
PP, here's a hint on the cenotes. If your last dives are in the cenotes, your gear is now rinsed in fresh water!!!!!!
pelan-pelan
Contributor
That's blown it. We will have to dive cenotes early on and then will be forced to return to get our gear washed. What a drag. 
In fact, we might have to do that twice to make sure it is completely washed through - getting the salt out will be such hard work.
In fact, we might have to do that twice to make sure it is completely washed through - getting the salt out will be such hard work.
That depends which Cenotes you dive!
The ones with the Haloclines are a mix of Fresh water and Salt water.
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