Interesting couple of weeks in Cozumel: Week 1, 15-22 June, at the Cozumel Hotel by Wyndham, diving with Dive Paradise, and Week 2, 22-29 June at the Iberostar, diving with Dressel divers. The groups were about the same size, 13-14 divers, but only 3 of them did both weeks.
The first week was quite rainy, the second pretty good but mostly humid.
Short summary: Better food and accommodations at the Iberostar, a marginally better dive operation at the Cozumel Hotel; however, the MUCH shorter boat rides from the Iberostar were greatly appreciated, and the ability to walk into town for a meal or shopping was greatly missed. It is a tossup if I were to go back. However, I think for the close-to-downtown location I preferred Casa Mexicana f few years ago….but no AI and no on-site dive operator. Life is full of trade-offs.
Some details about the hotels/food, a few more details about the diving.
Cozumel Hotel was showing its age a bit, but it was more than acceptable, Rooms were comfortable, distilled water available from dispensers in the hallways, room service noticeably better if we remembered to leave a daily tip. The Iberostar is definitely a notch or two up, visually and in terms of comfort. The only really uncomfortable part of the Iberostar were mosquitoes, which were sprayed for every few days. They were in the open dining rooms, too, and our group found that we would try and sit under a fan, far from the lush greenery and ponds, with as many people as possible acting as human sacrifices between the outside and us.
Food was bit awkward at the Cozumel Hotel, partly because of all the rain, which shut off the underground walkway from the hotel to the sea-side of the road. There were nominally three restaurants plus a snackbar at the pool, but one was only breakfast and occasional lunch, and one was limited capacity and needed reservations and had only special meals (Italian, Mexican, etc). The snackbar was quite good. One of the main restaurants – Los Arcos – ended up as the dinner place, many lunches, and some breakfasts. It was a buffet with ample but not overwhelming variety.
The Iberostar food was superior. Much variety, multiple restaurants, draft Dos XX Amber (yea!), many and helpful staff. Quality of the coffee varied; the best was the restaurant El Cedral that had a bar with an expresso machine.
But, we were there for diving, not eating and drinking. The diving day was long for the Cozumel Hotel (Dive Paradise) because the (slow) boats traveled 45 minutes or more to get to the southern dive sites, which are the good ones. Iberostar had a 5 or 10 minute ride to the sites, barely enough to get geared up, and came back to their dock on the Surface Interval! To be fair, two good points about the Dive Paradise operation were they changed over your tanks between dives, and they allowed shore diving from the Hotel. Iberostar (Dressel Divers) said “no shore diving, it’s a Marine Park.” That sounded like BS to us.) At the Dive Paradise location, gear was hung outside to dry (from not enough hanging spots) and they stuffed into little enclosed lockers (without enough room for you and your buddy) and you had to use their key. At Dresel Divers there was no outside storage but lots of space, with only a few places to lock stuff up, and you had to have your own lock.
The DMs were good at both locations, but our Dressel DM (Ana) was superior. Her briefings were excellent, and her u/w group management was also. Boat crews were good.
A highlight of Week 2 at Iberostar/Dressel Divers was a day trip to Tulum to dive (two dives in Chicken Ha) the cenotes. It was logistically well-done, a Dressel operation on both ends, and all had a great time. Two of us were certified cave divers, and one was a cavern diver – trained in the cenotes, by the way – and felt it was well and safely managed.
The typical days at the Cozumel Hotel were two morning dives, a very late (2-3pm) lunch, a too-early dinner (i.e. too soon after lunch), and trying to get to bed to be able to get up at 6am the next day. At Iberostar, lunch was not as late because the sites were so much closer. W were back very late from the Cenote day on Tues of Week 2 because we misse the 7pm ferry and ahd to take the 8pm ferry; dinner was nt easy. We did one night dive Weds with Dressel; it was not really possible to squeeze in a comfortable dinner afterwards.
I was prepared to be unimpressed by Dive Paradise, but ended up happy with them. I was prepared to be unimpressed with Dressel Divers due to the bad rep they have as an IDC and pro-training factory mill, but came away happy and impressed. I’d dive with either one again.
Bottom Line:
Iberostar is a nicer facility with better food, but more expensive and you are pretty much stuck in the south of the island, which is good for the diving. Hotel Cozumel saves you some money but you get some long boat rides, and no easy way (i.e., with them arranging it) to do a cenote day. Pros and Cons.
The bad news: several folks caught Covid on their travel home from Week 1, and so did some from Week 2. Worse, several folks during Week 2 at the Iberostar had some gastro-intestinal disorders likely from the food or water. Montezuma got his revenge, for sure.
The first week was quite rainy, the second pretty good but mostly humid.
Short summary: Better food and accommodations at the Iberostar, a marginally better dive operation at the Cozumel Hotel; however, the MUCH shorter boat rides from the Iberostar were greatly appreciated, and the ability to walk into town for a meal or shopping was greatly missed. It is a tossup if I were to go back. However, I think for the close-to-downtown location I preferred Casa Mexicana f few years ago….but no AI and no on-site dive operator. Life is full of trade-offs.
Some details about the hotels/food, a few more details about the diving.
Cozumel Hotel was showing its age a bit, but it was more than acceptable, Rooms were comfortable, distilled water available from dispensers in the hallways, room service noticeably better if we remembered to leave a daily tip. The Iberostar is definitely a notch or two up, visually and in terms of comfort. The only really uncomfortable part of the Iberostar were mosquitoes, which were sprayed for every few days. They were in the open dining rooms, too, and our group found that we would try and sit under a fan, far from the lush greenery and ponds, with as many people as possible acting as human sacrifices between the outside and us.
Food was bit awkward at the Cozumel Hotel, partly because of all the rain, which shut off the underground walkway from the hotel to the sea-side of the road. There were nominally three restaurants plus a snackbar at the pool, but one was only breakfast and occasional lunch, and one was limited capacity and needed reservations and had only special meals (Italian, Mexican, etc). The snackbar was quite good. One of the main restaurants – Los Arcos – ended up as the dinner place, many lunches, and some breakfasts. It was a buffet with ample but not overwhelming variety.
The Iberostar food was superior. Much variety, multiple restaurants, draft Dos XX Amber (yea!), many and helpful staff. Quality of the coffee varied; the best was the restaurant El Cedral that had a bar with an expresso machine.
But, we were there for diving, not eating and drinking. The diving day was long for the Cozumel Hotel (Dive Paradise) because the (slow) boats traveled 45 minutes or more to get to the southern dive sites, which are the good ones. Iberostar had a 5 or 10 minute ride to the sites, barely enough to get geared up, and came back to their dock on the Surface Interval! To be fair, two good points about the Dive Paradise operation were they changed over your tanks between dives, and they allowed shore diving from the Hotel. Iberostar (Dressel Divers) said “no shore diving, it’s a Marine Park.” That sounded like BS to us.) At the Dive Paradise location, gear was hung outside to dry (from not enough hanging spots) and they stuffed into little enclosed lockers (without enough room for you and your buddy) and you had to use their key. At Dresel Divers there was no outside storage but lots of space, with only a few places to lock stuff up, and you had to have your own lock.
The DMs were good at both locations, but our Dressel DM (Ana) was superior. Her briefings were excellent, and her u/w group management was also. Boat crews were good.
A highlight of Week 2 at Iberostar/Dressel Divers was a day trip to Tulum to dive (two dives in Chicken Ha) the cenotes. It was logistically well-done, a Dressel operation on both ends, and all had a great time. Two of us were certified cave divers, and one was a cavern diver – trained in the cenotes, by the way – and felt it was well and safely managed.
The typical days at the Cozumel Hotel were two morning dives, a very late (2-3pm) lunch, a too-early dinner (i.e. too soon after lunch), and trying to get to bed to be able to get up at 6am the next day. At Iberostar, lunch was not as late because the sites were so much closer. W were back very late from the Cenote day on Tues of Week 2 because we misse the 7pm ferry and ahd to take the 8pm ferry; dinner was nt easy. We did one night dive Weds with Dressel; it was not really possible to squeeze in a comfortable dinner afterwards.
I was prepared to be unimpressed by Dive Paradise, but ended up happy with them. I was prepared to be unimpressed with Dressel Divers due to the bad rep they have as an IDC and pro-training factory mill, but came away happy and impressed. I’d dive with either one again.
Bottom Line:
Iberostar is a nicer facility with better food, but more expensive and you are pretty much stuck in the south of the island, which is good for the diving. Hotel Cozumel saves you some money but you get some long boat rides, and no easy way (i.e., with them arranging it) to do a cenote day. Pros and Cons.
The bad news: several folks caught Covid on their travel home from Week 1, and so did some from Week 2. Worse, several folks during Week 2 at the Iberostar had some gastro-intestinal disorders likely from the food or water. Montezuma got his revenge, for sure.
