question concerning casa del mar

[smokey braden]

have done some research on this hotel.
besides the rooms they advertise deluxe cabanas that are two stories.
do these cabanas have one or two bedrooms?
does the foldout couch in the living room count as a "bedroom"?
my familly and i need a good dive trip real bad.
this place looks like what the doctor ordered.
thank you for your responces.
regards,

 

[scubawife]

Smoky - I haven't stayed there yet but I did book a deluxe cabana for a December trip and had a few emails with Liliana at the hotel. (Who, by the way, was very helpful and great to deal with. Email reply the same or next day every time, and gave me package price with meals and drinks that on their site expires in Oct).

From Liliana and some recent Trip Advisor reports and posts, the cabana has a bathroom and sofa bed upstairs, and a king bed and bath with shower and large tub downstairs. Upstairs there is also a TV, mini-kitchenette w/ small fridge, micro, coffee maker and purified water. Here's a link to the Trip Advisor posts about the cabanas:

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUser...7-Casa_del_Mar-Cozumel_Yucatan_Peninsula.html (the MARCH 25th one gives a good description)

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopi...562-i66-Cozumel_Yucatan_Peninsula.html#971228

 

[halocline]

I'm not really familiar with the hotel itself, but I typically stay right next door at a small bed and breakfast called village tankah. I love the location; just close enough to downtown to walk if you have some time, but surprisingly quiet, and directly across the street from scubashack, the dive op I like to use. Shore diving there is pretty good; supposedly it's among the better shore diving locations.

It seems like a very nice hotel; kind of mid sized with a nice restaurant and amenities, but pretty quiet.

 

[scubawife]

Mattaboy, quiet sounds good to me. A couple questions if you don't mind. Have you eaten at the Casa del Mar restaurant and if yes, how does it compare to other hotel restaurants? Can you tell me a bit more about the shore diving?

 

[halocline]

Yes, I've eaten there, and it's a nice restaurant, outside but sheltered. I have not eaten at any other hotel restaurants in Cozumel so I can't compare it. I usually end up at La choza or a couple of local places in that area I can't remember the names of. Ernesto's right across the street from Casa del Mar is okay, a little pricey, but workable. Actually, one of my favorite joints is on the ocean side of the island, Punta Morena (I think). But I'm getting off topic...

 

[smokey braden]

thanks y'all for the good info.

 

[JRRKAR]

I just returned from a weeks stay at Casa Del Mar. We had a regular hotel room on the second floor. All the amenitities were adequate. Nothing spectacular, but nothing bad either. We ate quite a few days at the hotel restaurant and it was all good. They don't have a large menu, but you can eat a few meals there and eat something different. We dove with Del-Mar Aqautics which is right over the pedestrian bridge from the hotel. They provided a very enjoyable week for all. We had a group of 27 divers.

We did a lot of dives off the dock in front of the dive shop. Just go in on the ramp, and head north. There is a lot of little things to see and it is a great night dive. We did two boat dives each day and did two more dives each day from the dock. It was not spectacular diving, but it was good. Sometimes off the dock there would be no current, and other times (late afternoon) it usually picked up a little. We would go about 30 minutes north of the dock and then come back. It was about 20'-25' deep. So you can easily get a lot of bottom time.

We did go south towards to the cruise ships, but there wasn't a lot to see. The dive shop recommends that if you go outside the bouys, you should take a float with you since there is a lot of boat traffic in the area. The shop only had two floats for their classes. So we just made sure we didn't surface. We dove all week without any problems.

You can also go to the end of the dock, and follow a 330 degree heading. After about 2 minutes you will come across a large area that someone made a rock wall in the shape of a large oval. They also took a bunch of tires, secured them with ropes to the sand, then put air in the tires to make them float. It is something neat to see. The dive shop said that the one boat owner has been working on this for a couple of years just to play around. It is starting to make a nice little artificial reef.

If you have any specific questions, feel free to pm or post.

Jeff

 

[vel525]

smokey - i stayed at casa del mar a few weeks ago and it's an affordable simple place. we didn't stay at the cabanas, but in one of the hotel rooms. they were old, so not too luxurious, but clean enough. they have a/c and some of the rooms have balaconies to dry your gear overnight.
del mar aquatics is their dive shop and it's very easy to get to. just over the bridge and they supposedly have okay shore diving. i did not do any shore diving so i cannot say from personal experience.
we dove with dive with martin and they were great. they picked us up each morning at the del mar aquatics pier so it was easy for us.
in terms of eating there really isn't too much right near casa del mar. the hotel restaurant is decent, but nothing spectacular. ernesto's is right across the street and the food is excellent, but it's not cheap by any means.
for dinner getting to downtown by cab is easy.
hope that answered some of your questions. good luck.