Renting a car and driving in Cozumel

[cvchief]

AH, driving is ok. Head on a swivel. And I can always find a small private lot for a few pesos.

Sharky was the for damage to the car you were driving?

 

[Asteve]

I've had an accident on the island, with minimal insurance, it was a freaking nightmare. I spent the entire day at the police station "being detained" until it was all worked out, and it ended up costing over 3 large to get it all taken care of. ... get the insurance.

We also had an accident, Basically we pull out it front of someone and they swerved and missed us but damage their car. Yep I spent the entire day at the police station until it was all worked out. They typed up a contract that both party agreed too then signed before we could leave. Both car only had liability insurance.
Now the part you will like is since there was no contact between the cars, the liability insurance did not apply. 2K out of my pocket.

 

[ReefHound]

That goes back to one of my points in post #5 - no insurance covers everything.

 

[Asteve]

That goes back to one of my points in post #5 - no insurance covers everything.

Total agree. I guess my point was just because liability insurance may mean one thing in the USA, do not go thinking it means the same thing in Mexico.
And just know if you are in an accident (even if it not your fault) you are going to lose a lot of time dealing with it.
Taxi just make so much sense for a week or 2 week vacation. You get to look around and not worry where you are going or trying to find.

 

[Dogbowl]

Yup! I really didn’t need too much convincing after the first few posts. I think that for me, taxi is the way to go...which means staying in town, again, but that’s ok!

 

[Kicker1866]

Of course, no one has mentioned the occasional nice officer who will allow you to pay your traffic fine on the spot. I remember one time we had been doing the east side bar hop and was headed back through town toward the Money Bar. Was driving a little fast through town and got pulled over. I explained to the nice officer that my flight was in the morning and was it possible to pay the fine on the spot. He was more than happy to accept my $100 fine payment.

 

[kelemvor]

Just wondering about the overall experience of renting a car and driving in Cozumel. We’ve always stayed in town, walking distance to the dive shop and restaurants. I’m curious about renting a car and driving for our next trip, so we could maybe stay further out. Is it more hassle than good? How’s the driving and parking situation?

I stayed at Hotel Cozumel in 2015. While I was there, my buddy and I rented a car. I drove the loop around the island. There was nothing difficult about the paperwork or road rules that I remember. I don't remember things being significantly different than driving in the States. Another diver from our group had rented a vehicle parked it too near to a "no parking" zone in town. They put a boot on it, and he had to go to the police station and pay in cash. If memory serves, I think the cops tried to shake him down for extra money. I vaguely remember it sounding somewhat shady. @1bubbleoff does my recollection match yours?

My take away would be to double check you're allowed to park wherever you park. Don't even get near a no-parking zone. I only parked at the hotel and a restaurant on the dark side of the island which had its own marked parking spaces.

Also, watch out for scams at the gas pump. I've repeatedly heard that those guys will try to scam tourists for a bunch of extra money when we refill. You'll have to be assertive with those guys to ensure you can see the price on the pump and the actual volume of gas that's pumped etc.


If you end up getting taxis, I've heard that you get a much cheaper price by picking up a taxi a block or two away from the tourist areas. However, when we got taxis we did not do that. I'm sure we paid more than locals do, I think it was like $5usd for the 850-meter ride from the mega to the hotel. Worth it though, carrying groceries for four at night would have been a hassle.

 

[ggunn]

We stay at Blue Angel, which is about a mile south of town. I never rent a car and I have never had any trouble getting everywhere I want to go. We charter a taxi van every trip to do the around the island trek; the taxistas are always willing to do it; they stop everywhere we want to stop and never rush us to move on before we are ready. To each his own, but I would rather not deal with all that comes with having a car on the island.

 

[kmarks]

One other thing to remember that most people fail to do: you are charged from when you got on to when you get off, regardless if you are in a group. So if, for example, 4 people get into a cab at caleta and 2 get off at Villa Blanca and pay their fare, the remaining occupants who get off at El Cantil will pay the full fare from caleta and not the difference between the two. That may seem fair when it's strangers and a big distance but less so when it is friends in town getting off a block or two from one another. I always recommend that folks get off together and walk the extra block or two so you don't end up paying double (or more)

We learned this the hard way when we though we were splitting a cab with some friends several years ago. We had met up at Parilla Mission for dinner, then all got in the same cab and they got dropped off at El Presidente before we continued on to Secrets/Sabor and I was shocked to be charged the full price from Centro. If we had gotten out, checked out El Presidente for 5 minutes, and then gotten into a different cab, it would have saved us about $5.

 

[DFDubb]

Never understood why any tourist would want the hassle of renting a car on a small island like Coz which has MOST of it's activity in a small city center area. Cabs are cheap and plentiful and you might learn a thing or two on the ride. I eat so much while I'm there I need to be walking between food troughs. I stay in town and wouldn't even begin to know where I could park a car overnight. I go down there to be in the ocean and put driving around in traffic out of my mind for the duration. Not to mention the nightmare it would be to get in an accident or kill a local on a scooter. 100 peso cab rides are the easiest decisions I've ever made.