We just got back from our 4th trip to Playa in the last 2.5 years. Really like it there, obviously. The reefs in both are very nice, Playa doesn't have the wall structure that the south end of Coz does but they do have some very nice sites, Jardines, Cerebros, Barracuda, Tortugas, Jason's "secret spot", I've been on them all and have seen big schools of fish, 4 kinds of eels, turtles, pipefish, seahorses, rays, all kinds of fun stuff! As Nicolas mentioned the cenotes are close as well.
This time we came down with me and another diver and two non divers. We dove cenotes the first day and brought the two non divers along, they had a BLAST at Grand Cenote just snorkeling around. It's laid out really well to just hang out and enjoy the water. It's quite shallow in parts. While they did that we went down the road to Temple of Doom, dove there and came back to dive Grand Cenote. The next day we all took the ferry to Coz and dove there, the non-divers hung out and shopped in town then taxi'd it to the dive shop so we could all jump their boat back to the ferry dock. All very painless and we got to spend a lot of time together! The last day we dove Playa, met at Jason's shop at 8:30 and was back to the shop by about 1:00 or so. (Which is typical for Playa sites.) Then met the girls at the beach. It was wonderful! You may be able to shave some time off that because we went to about the furthest site away from Playa for our first dive and had to wait for a diver that never showed.
I always dive w/ Jason "playacountryboy" on the board here.
Playa del Carmen Diving, Dive Packages and Fishing in Playa del Carmen, Cozumel and the Riviera Maya, Mexico - Fantasea Dive He's a great guide and going to Coz is SO painless with him, on the ferry, hop onto the dive boat, pick up the other group if there is one and hit the dive sites. Lunch included back at their shop then back onto the boat to head to the ferry dock. No screwing around with taxi's or schlepping gear all over town.
