Trip Report One week each: Cozumel Hotel/Dive Paradise, and Iberostar/Dressel Divers

[ggunn]

To be clear, the time back at the resort on the SI is only 5-10 minutes....enough to pee at the near-dock toilet but not to change clothes or get lunch.

The reefs were fine, for Cozumel. Sponge-dominated not lush with corals. Go elsewhere for fields of healthy hard and soft corals. Good fish life, but not that diverse. A few turtles, rays, sharks. No trumpetfush.

 

[Charred]

I always find it fascinating that people think the "short" 30 min boat ride (each way) to the reefs is fine but a shorter taxi from resort to town for a meal is too far. You are not trapped on the resort just because its not walking distance.

Dont compromise on your vacation. Stay at a southern hotel, enjoy the short boat rides and nice resorts and grab a taxi into town when you want a visit/dinner/shopping/walk around. If you pay in peso's its ~$15USD one way.

 

[ggunn]

Dont compromise on your vacation. Stay at a southern hotel, enjoy the short boat rides and nice resorts and grab a taxi into town when you want a visit/dinner/shopping/walk around.

I agree; don't compromise your vacation because of any of it, including the transit times to the dive sites. Stay at an all-inclusive southern resort, or not, depending on the experience you want to have.

 

[Brodydog]

I agree. Don’t compromise on your vacation. Stay in a place that’s feels like home away from home, dive with your favorite dive shop, and eat at all the places you love if that’s your thing.

For us going to Cozumel is almost as much about eating at all our favorite places as it is about the diving. We aren’t beach people. It wouldn’t make sense for us to stay an all inclusive if we’re eating out every day. It really isn’t about transit times. It’s more about what we enjoy and where we want to be. But I understand why some enjoy the AI experience. Everyone has to find their own niche.