horn34
Contributor
Yep. The video above is with CenoteXperience. Great group of Argentinians. They are cave/cavern fanatics.
CenoteXperience - Cavern, Cave and Ocean Diving in Playa del Carmen Yucatan Mexico - Home
Playa del Carmen Diving
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CenoteXperience - Cavern, Cave and Ocean Diving in Playa del Carmen Yucatan Mexico - Home
We will be heading to Playa in the middle of October and are diving with CenoteXperience. We originally were going to do one day of diving in Playa, one in the Cenotes and one in Cozumel but we are thinking about switching the Cozumel dive as we will be there in April 2019, plus this might help bring the cost of our diving down a bit too. With that said - we are still trying to decide if we should just do another day of diving in Playa or the Cenotes. For the one day we are for sure diving in the Cenotes - what sites would everyone recommend? My hubby does not want to go into an actual cave - so it would be helpful to have a bit of light coming through. We are AOW certified however we have never dived in fresh water except to get out AOW certification. If we do decide to dive a second day in the Cenotes - what would be some other ones to go to? If we decide on the second day to dive Playa again - what reefs/walls/wrecks would anyone suggest for us?
Thanks!
Thanks!
horn34
Contributor
My two cents.....
Diving around Playa is pretty boring. You will be wading through sargassum to get to your boat. You might get lucky and see a bunch of big turtles at Tortugas, but it's still a "meh" dive. I've done 6 dives in Playa and won't spend a dime on another one unless it's a bull shark dive.
Spend the $15-20 on a round trip ferry ticket and dive Cozumel. I normally stay in Playa and take the first ferry over in the morning to dive with Aldora.
As for CenoteXperience, they aren't going to let you dive in a cave unless you're cave certified. You'll be safely diving in caverns. Since you have your AOW, I'd recommend Dos Ojos and The Pit.
Diving around Playa is pretty boring. You will be wading through sargassum to get to your boat. You might get lucky and see a bunch of big turtles at Tortugas, but it's still a "meh" dive. I've done 6 dives in Playa and won't spend a dime on another one unless it's a bull shark dive.
Spend the $15-20 on a round trip ferry ticket and dive Cozumel. I normally stay in Playa and take the first ferry over in the morning to dive with Aldora.
As for CenoteXperience, they aren't going to let you dive in a cave unless you're cave certified. You'll be safely diving in caverns. Since you have your AOW, I'd recommend Dos Ojos and The Pit.
Coz is better than PDC for diving but I enjoyed my PDC dives lasy year. Tortugas had some interesting stuff and Carolina's Reef, although right in fron of PDC in just 30-40', was swarming with fish. Here's a clip from the latter.
Ontwreckdiver
Contributor
cruzbound. I would dive the cenotes both days. You can dive better reefs pretty much anywhere but you can only dive the cenotes in Mexico. You should always be in sight of daylight even though it might be in front of you. Talk to Nico about your husbands concerns, he is very patient and helpful. Tell Nico & Martin that Steve from Canada says HI!
I'll be curious if, when you finally get to Cozumel, you say, "I wish we had come here on our last visit."
I always enjoyed Jardine's Reef when in Playa. It's shallow, but with lots of critters living there to look at.
I've been to Coz over 20 times in last 10 years so clealy I love it. But in that time I've also stayed multiple nights in PDC about 6 times so I clearly enjoy it there as well, and don't view them as mutually exclusive options. Granted, most of the visits, except for a few cenote-only trips with the boys, have been partial stays when flying in/out of Cancun and where the primary stay was Coz.
As I've said, the diving is overall "better" in Coz, but PDC boat dives beat Cozumel shore dives and I certainly do plenty of the latter. And all of them beat my local lakes so it's hard to not enjoy diving anywhere down there.
Did my first cenote dives today. We did two different dives at Taj Mahal. I liked it and it was pretty cool but ow reefs are more to my liking. I am now in Playa for a few weeks and will probably do one more cenote trip as an excuse to rinse off my gear but I am not hooked as of yet. Did the dives in a 3/2 and was fine but they were not as cold as I was expecting, I think 77 F was as low as I saw.
I have done two 2 two tank reef dives so far in Playa as well. It's not Cozumel but it is decent. Did a 'lion fish hunt" on Tortugas reef. We started at 90' and it was a very healthy sloping reef with tons of sponges. I didn't see one lion fish on that dive but did see two octopi with one fairly large octopus in the process of eating a conch.
Anyone have recommendations on who to do a whale shark trip with or should I just have one of the dive shops I am using set it up?
I have done two 2 two tank reef dives so far in Playa as well. It's not Cozumel but it is decent. Did a 'lion fish hunt" on Tortugas reef. We started at 90' and it was a very healthy sloping reef with tons of sponges. I didn't see one lion fish on that dive but did see two octopi with one fairly large octopus in the process of eating a conch.
Anyone have recommendations on who to do a whale shark trip with or should I just have one of the dive shops I am using set it up?
Doesn't much matter. I think it's just one company operating the actual concession license, everybody offering trips is just booking for them and getting a commission. Actual walkup cost is like $130 but shops and trip operators are adding in RT van transportation and maybe breakfast and calling it ~$180.
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