Playa Del Mar vs. Cozumel for diver/non diver couple

[CPDiver]

I am hoping some of you can give me some quick advice.

My wife and I are looking to hit Mexico the first week in Nov. We are both divers, but due to a small medical issue she may/may not be able to dive. If I knew she could dive we would go to Cozumel.

However, if she can't dive and has to count on a lot of beach time Cozumel seems to present a big problem. the beaches at most Cozumel hotels look to be either non existant or sub par. The Melia looks like a great beach. But I thought I recalled the diving being far from the Melia, and not easily accessible. Is this true?

If we stay south of cancun on the mainland the hotels and beaches are great, but how is the diving? Is my only choice for diving to take the ferry to Coz? Is there worthwhile diving just off the mainland?

I am grateful for any thoughts you have.

 

[divingjd]

If you mean Playa del Carmen, it could be a good combination of beach and diving. We went to Playa in January and had a great time. The beaches are good and there is some pretty good diving there. You could also take the ferry over to Cozumel, but that gets to be a bit much every day. We took the ferry over to Cozumel one day and dove out of Playa three days. I dove with Tank Ha and Abyss. Both are good operations, but I liked the Tank Ha boats better. They are bigger, so you have some elbow room, but they still limit the number of divers. I would definitely recommend Tank Ha. One day I dove the cenotes with Yucatek. A cenote dive is a guided cavern dive. You only have to be open water certified, but you go in a very small group with a cave instructor. A cavern dive has to keep you within a specified distance from the entrance, and you can almost always see an entrance. It's very cool. If you are not very comfortable with your buoyancy control, it can be a little nerve-wracking.

Playa is a fun town. It has gotten pretty touristy, but many of the tourists are from Europe, so it feels different than Cancun. There are some good restaurants, too.

We stayed at a hotel in town called Hotel la Tortuga. Very nice and very reasonable. It's a few blocks from the beach, but if you stay in a big AI resort on the beach, your room could easily be the equivalent of a couple of blocks away, so don't rule it out on that basis.

I highly recommend Playa as a compromise dive/beach vacation. I don't know too many places that could keep both a diver and non-diver (even a temporary non-diver) happy. Let me know if you would like any more info, or search for my other posts on Playa.

 

[ramblinpaul]

I concur with divinjd, Playa del Carmen was a great fit with for my non-diving wife and me last May.

I used www.gocenotes.com, and did the All of Yucatan package (3 days of diving - Playa, Coz, and Cenote). My wife joined us on the Cozumel dives for a few extra $'s as a snorkeller (no guide). This allowed for a good variety of diving, along with a few days on land to spend time with my wife.

Everybody ended up happy!!!

If you dive the cenotes do it the last day, because they used Dos Ojos which is completely fresh water (some of the Cenotes have a mixture of fresh and salt water). If you do it on the last day of diving then all your gear gets a good, thorough, rinsing from diving in the salt water.