Playa Del Carmen

[jmani]

Greetings all...

So taking the boy to Playa Del Carmen in July for a little "guys" week. Taking my son (14) and my 2 brothers (we are all in our 30's) for a short Monday-Friday trip. My son is looking forward to his first warm water diving, as he was certified here in Monterey CA.

My son is still new to the dive world, and we are looking to do a number of easy shallow dives.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

JTD

 

[cavew0man]

Are you staying in town, or out at one of the big AI's?

 

[battles2a5]

I stayed at Case di Gopala and did some diving w/ Yucatek. I had a great time. The reef diving in Playa is pretty tame so it should be fine for your son. You can always take the ferry across to Coz for a day trip to do some diving over there as well. If you are up for a real treat, do some cenote diving. The caves/caverns in Mexico are absolutely georgeous. Just bewarned, thousands of dollars of equipment and cave training may follow very quickly after your first taste of the caves

 

[Geofish Dive in Playa]

Hey Jmani I just PM'd you and I just wanted to let you know if you have any questions about my message you can email me at geofish.dive@gmail.com or just PM me on here. Take care

 

[WreckRat01]

Hi JTD,
Whatever your choice would be, please, stay away from “Dive Adventuras” (
http://www.diveaventuras.com). I am not into bashing operations, but I have been treated badly there in April 2008. I used GoCentotes (www.gocenotes.com ) and they provided an independed cave instructor/ guide Nicolas (http://www.cenotexperience.com.mx). He is on this forum under CenoteXperience name. I had nothing but great things to say about Nicolas, great guide, very attentive dive instructor, just a pleasure to deal with. Thanks. Serge.

 

[cavew0man]

If you are up for a real treat, do some cenote diving. The caves/caverns in Mexico are absolutely georgeous. Just bewarned, thousands of dollars of equipment and cave training may follow very quickly after your first taste of the caves

I wish someone had warned me about that...

Also, if it's July when you're here, you might want to think about a day trip up to Cancun for Whale Sharks - not diving, but awesome nonetheless.

 

[jmani]

Are you staying in town, or out at one of the big AI's?

No we are doing this trip on a budget as the Wifey is back in school doing a Masters program. She will be out of town for the month of July going to school in Oregon, I figured this would be a good time for a father/son trip. Found a pretty good deal on a "boutique" hotel just off 5th avenue. (I read boutique as dive, but who knows?)

I stayed at Case di Gopala and did some diving w/ Yucatek. I had a great time. The reef diving in Playa is pretty tame so it should be fine for your son. You can always take the ferry across to Coz for a day trip to do some diving over there as well. If you are up for a real treat, do some cenote diving. The caves/caverns in Mexico are absolutely georgeous. Just bewarned, thousands of dollars of equipment and cave training may follow very quickly after your first taste of the caves

I really want to dive the cenotes, but the boy is afraid of "caves". I tell him it is a very open "Cavern" and he wont be in a overhead environment, so we will see how that goes. I have no fear if getting the caving bug, as there are no caves that I know of in California.

John

 

[cavew0man]

No we are doing this trip on a budget as the Wifey is back in school doing a Masters program. She will be out of town for the month of July going to school in Oregon, I figured this would be a good time for a father/son trip. Found a pretty good deal on a "boutique" hotel just off 5th avenue. (I read boutique as dive, but who knows?)

I really want to dive the cenotes, but the boy is afraid of "caves". I tell him it is a very open "Cavern" and he wont be in a overhead environment, so we will see how that goes. I have no fear if getting the caving bug, as there are no caves that I know of in California.

John

There wasn't any cave diving in Alberta, either.... so I ended up moving several thousand miles, on top of the equipment and training costs...

Which hotel? There's actually some rather cool "boutique" ones.

You can also snorkel the some of the caverns, next best thing, if he's nervous. Or combine both - you dive, he snorkels. It really truly is a don't miss experience, if you can work it out.

 

[jmani]

You can also snorkel the some of the caverns, next best thing, if he's nervous. Or combine both - you dive, he snorkels. It really truly is a don't miss experience, if you can work it out.

Think that will be a best of both worlds kinda deal, as my brothers who will be coming do not dive at all. So if we can do a 3 of them snorkle I dive that would be awesome!

 

[cavew0man]

Oh, for sure you can work that out, likely with whoever you end up diving with... I think they pretty much all offer snorkeling too.