Playa del Carmen Diving

[Da real diver]

I'll be heading to Playa del Carmen in July and would love to do some scuba diving. We are staying at hotel call paradisus. From your experience of those who have dove in Playa del Carmen,

Do the hotels have a service to pick you up in front of your hotel kind of like Cozumel does?

What scuba shops would you book through?

I'm not going to take a ferry to Cozumel because we're going there with some friends diving in September. So I think that would be a double tap wasted vacation days.

Anyway any advice from the experiences or recommendations would be appreciated.

 

[lthomas132]

Diving is so-so at best off of PDC. Do the cenotes, you won't regret it! Yucatek Divers (Yucatek Divers, Playa del Carmen) is one of the best. Not sure about pick ups.

 

[npole]

Do a single day at PDC for the sake of it (you may ecounter big vreatures in July, including the whale sharks...) then spend the rest of the dives doing as many cenotes as you can, it'll be awesome. You'll be then in Cozumel in September and you can concentrate on the reefs there without spending time back and forth with the ferry.

 

[Da real diver]

Thanks a lot for the replies. Npole, my wife doesn't dive and it seems to me that Cozumel are all day trips ftom pdc, so I really didn't want to leave her alone at the resort. so thank you for confirming that and also I figured I could catch lot of those Reef in September besides I want to Cozumel last year as well.

I was going to do two pdc dives and 1 cenotes dive, but I'm a switch that around 2 to Cenotes dives and 1 pdc dive

 

[Da real diver]

I would think this is a dumb question but a dive light is probably a must for Cenotes?

 

[npole]

I would think this is a dumb question but a dive light is probably a must for Cenotes?

Eheh.. of course it is, in certain passages it is nothing else than cave diving with overhead for tens meters (despite the rule says that you must have always open access). But don't worry, they will provide you with one (just before to be sure). I'm not sure about your experience so don't be offended, it's to be sure: you need to be AOWD (at least) and have a "good" buoyancy control. Depending of your certification and OP, they may want you to prove your skills with a check dive (day(s) before) prior than going there.

 

[ReadyTo Dive]

We went Hugo at Blue Life in PDC and had a great few days of PDC and cenote diving. Moc-Che deep was a pretty nice reef; they also will pick up from the A.I.’s. Have fun!

 

[Ontwreckdiver]

I recommend Nicolas from CenoteXperience - Cavern, Cave and Ocean Diving in Playa del Carmen Yucatan Mexico - Home I have been diving with Nico & his brother Martin for over 7 years.They are great guys and excellent dive guides. They have a small family dive shop in Playa. Tell Nico that Steve from Canada sent you.
A light is required for cenote dives. I know Nico will supply them if you don't have one.

 

[jonhall]

you need to be AOWD (at least) and have a "good" buoyancy control.

I was just OW when I dove cenotes so not sure if that is accurate or not, but good buoyancy control is a definite.

Do the hotels have a service to pick you up in front of your hotel

Not sure where your resort is but it could have a dive op onsite; if not, there are dive ops that do pick up. Dressel Divers picks up along a big stretch of PDC. If you are more north in PDC, I would recommend the short (15-20 min) taxi ride to Puerto Morelos to dive in the protected marine park. Agree with others about so-so diving in PDC (it may have been the stretch we dove along), but Puerto Morelos was pretty nice. It wouldn't be a whole day like the trip to Coz.

 

[Dogbowl]

Many (most?) shops will take OW divers (no AOW required). However, I agree that good buoyancy is essential. Some caverns go up and down between 0ft and 40ft like a roller coaster. You'll need to watch your equalization and your ears!