Need resort advice for AI south of PDC, por favor

[Confluence21]

Greetings,

I am an experienced diver looking for advice on an AI resort that can provide an onsite dive shop for my wife and I, a nice family atmosphere for my 18 month old, with relatively decent range of dives. We'd prefer to be south of PDC because it seems like their might be more non-diving activities nearby (shopping and boom-boom in Cancun are not for us)

Our travel agent has suggested:
Rui Playacar
Gran Bahia Principe Tulum km 251
Barcelo Maya Tropical Km 266,3
Dreams Tulum km 234

My instinct suggests Gran Bahia Principe Tulum first with the Barcelo Maya Tropical next.....also, since my wife hasn't been diving since pre-baby, she'd probably like a short refresher/simple shore dive to get herself re-acquainted with diving skills....any advice, kind folks?

Thanks in advance,

C.

 

[PlayaCountryBoy]

I would reccomend Riu Playacar. It's close enough to Playa you could walk or take a cheap taxi into or around town. Whereas the other hotels are within walking distance of nothing, and taxis would cost you around 30 USD each way to go anywhere. If you stayed at Riu I could offer you beach pick-up if you were to go out we me diving. Riu also offers babysitting services. Let me know if I can be of any assistance on this side or if you have any quesitons regarding diving in and around Playa del Carmen.

 

[Byte Me]

My wife and I stayed at Dreams Tulum last year and really enjoyed it. Maya Diving is the shop there and they turned me onto Scuba for the first time and I was hooked. The kid stuff there was great although yours is probably a bit young for a lot of the stuff they did. It's also a very quick cab ride to the Tulum ruins which were fabulous to see. Other than that we stayed on the grounds the whole time we were there. There isn't a whole heck of a lot going on off the resort other than the ruins, we didn't bother going into Tulum on the cab drivers advice. We probably would have either come up to PDC or hit Tulum but we were only there for 4 days.

From what I've read on here and a couple other boards though the diving down there isn't quite as good as it is a bit further north towards PDC. My wife and I are coming back down in November staying in PDC at Riu Palace and I'm right now trying to work out hooking up w/ Jason for some diving!

Hope this helps - I'm happy to answer any other questions for you about Dreams.

 

[Confluence21]

Gracias Jason and Byte,

I appreciate your advice; I thought there might be more response from experienced divers who had been to the area.....oh well, looks like the choice is gonna be nearer Tulum, even though the diving might be better up in PDC.

Dive Safely,

C.

 

[docmartin]

there is the club catalonia and the royal tulum in xpu ha (about 20 min south of playa). they are AI but i can't vouch for their quality because i have not stayed there. they probably have on-site dive shops. what i can tell you is that the beach is to die for and you are only 3 miles from puerto aventuras. That's were Dennis Week's Aquanauts is located. this operation is highly recommended and you will find nothing but praise when you do a search.

 

[paulw]

I just stayed at Rui Playacar in August for 8 days and had a great time, I really liked the hotel and we walked to town several times it isn't far. The diving was great and I went over to Cozumel once for a day of diving there. I dove with The Abyss and really liked them but I had to take a taxi to town and back (I didn't want to back pack my gear) but if Jason can pick you up on the beach at RUI well then you are set, I would go for it. Just MHO.

 

[driftwood]

The first thing you need to do is go to Can-Do Maps and travel guides and get all the maps for the areas you are likely to visit. In your case especially the Riviera Maya map. They are the best travel guides to the area and are pure gold. Also checkout Playa del Carmen, Mexico's Virtual Guide Book : Playa.Info, it's the best board for the coast south of Cancun to get any questions answered.

Either Tulum or Akumal would be a GREAT place to stay. Both have world class beaches with little to disturb you. I am not really impressed with the diving along the coast, the area's claim to diving fame are the cenotes, but all diving is good.

 

[Brewone0to]

There is also locogringo.com message boards forums. We stayed at Akumal Beach Resort. We loved it. Cenote diving was great.

 

[driftwood]

Locogringo is GREAT for real estate listing (used them several times), general Akumal info, and I love their aerials of the entire coast from Tulum to north of Puerto Morelos. Playainfo has a much more active forum to get questions answered.