JG109
Contributor
Secrets Aura/ Dive House
So, after many years of Cozumel, we have transitioned to “high end” lol. The last two years, we stayed at Iberostar. Yvonne at Island Dreams Dive Travel told me about a package for Secrets Aura all-inclusive/ Dive House, and away we went. A combination of seasickness prone divers (shorter boat ride) and non-divers (shorter dive day) makes the more southern hotels attractive to our group.
Secrets:
The first thing that pops into my mind is the very comfortable beds, like as good as home, I always felt rested in the morning. We had an ocean view room, which was huge, with a couch, coffee table and table and two chairs, always kept clean. Also, a big bathroom, with both a walk-in shower and a jacuzzi tub. The balcony had a table and two chairs also. The mini fridge was always stocked w beer, soda and water. There is also a coffee maker, a steamer, and a safe.
The food was excellent, most of the five restaurants you order off a menu, the one buffet is good for breakfast (opens 7am) if diving, no reservations required at any restaurant, which is awesome for divers as other resorts usually open reservation bookings at 9am while you are 80 feet deep. Best food I’ve ever had in many trips to Cozumel. Service was always good. Two of the restaurants are open air so you look out over the water while eating, very nice. The only issue with food we had was seating. To be considerate, our group of 9 (five rooms) went to dinner at 6 or 6:30, before the 7:30 rush, but we still seemed to get some resistance to making one big table for us. One night, the host just said NO, needless to say, he was wrong lol. Hell hath no fury like a non-diving spouse!
For drinks, whether you were in the beachfront pool or on a beach chair, the servers were very attentive. The back pool is the activities pool, w volley ball and a swim up bar. The resort is adults only, first time for me, was actually nice and peaceful. The SkyBar on the roof is a nice place to meet for a drink before dinner, a perfect view of the water and sunset, nice breeze, and you can get sushi from the attached restaurant. There is also room service, 24 hours a day, we never used it but a lot of folks did. The Coco café is open 24/7 also, so you can get a coffee, a donut etc. any time. There were activities but we got our exercise diving, we played bingo in the pool one day. There was a beach BBQ one eve which was fun and one afternoon a lunch seafood fest with live band. Also, there was evening entertainment, dancers, karaoke, fire twirlers which looked pretty cool, the typical.
The beach had plenty of loungers, no towel cards, just grab a clean towel out of one of the brown towel boxes, which was perfect. My one and only true complaint about the resort is the lack of shade, I think there is one umbrella for every 12 chairs on the beach, one umbrella per four loungers would be reasonable. I heard this complaint many times during the week. They also should put more desk staff on Saturday afternoon, check-in took way too long after a long day of travelling.
Overall, nice quiet clean resort, probably perfect for couples, and I would definitely stay there again.
Dive House
We dove with Dive House (package). We usually get our own boat but did not have enough firm commitments at booking time. You check in at the little tiki hut dive booth on the beach the first day and pay your marine park fee, cash. You do not have to walk to the actual shop, which is a long walk on the beach (heehee). Nitrox is $12/tank, DH had my nitrox tanks on the boat all five days and I analyzed the tanks, which were marked correctly. Dive House picked us up every morning around 8:30 right at the resort dock, normally 2-4 other divers, you dove your computer, dive times were one hour, depth up to 100fsw, which is fine for my group. They have bigger tanks if you need them. We did one reef twice, at our request, otherwise hit different spots all five days. The DM’s were good at pointing stuff out, tons of turtles and groupers, a bunch of green morays and nurse sharks, 3 reef sharks, one eagle ray, an octopus and the usual critters, and after the first day, did not hound you about air, just asked that you let them know when you were at 1000 psi. The DM shot a marker when anyone was ready to ascend and the boat was always right there when you surfaced. We had been advised to bring a large mesh gear bag so after the 2nd dive, you packed up all your gear and left it on the boat. In the morning your gear was on the boat, rinsed and dry. I personally kept my reg and computer. We had one rental BC and one rental wetsuit-no issues. We were on the DiveHouse 2 all week, it appeared to be well maintained with proper safety equipment.
A safe dive operation, no problems, no drama. I would use them again.
I would also highly recommend Yvonne at Island Dreams Dive Travel- good communication and knowledgeable.
So, after many years of Cozumel, we have transitioned to “high end” lol. The last two years, we stayed at Iberostar. Yvonne at Island Dreams Dive Travel told me about a package for Secrets Aura all-inclusive/ Dive House, and away we went. A combination of seasickness prone divers (shorter boat ride) and non-divers (shorter dive day) makes the more southern hotels attractive to our group.
Secrets:
The first thing that pops into my mind is the very comfortable beds, like as good as home, I always felt rested in the morning. We had an ocean view room, which was huge, with a couch, coffee table and table and two chairs, always kept clean. Also, a big bathroom, with both a walk-in shower and a jacuzzi tub. The balcony had a table and two chairs also. The mini fridge was always stocked w beer, soda and water. There is also a coffee maker, a steamer, and a safe.
The food was excellent, most of the five restaurants you order off a menu, the one buffet is good for breakfast (opens 7am) if diving, no reservations required at any restaurant, which is awesome for divers as other resorts usually open reservation bookings at 9am while you are 80 feet deep. Best food I’ve ever had in many trips to Cozumel. Service was always good. Two of the restaurants are open air so you look out over the water while eating, very nice. The only issue with food we had was seating. To be considerate, our group of 9 (five rooms) went to dinner at 6 or 6:30, before the 7:30 rush, but we still seemed to get some resistance to making one big table for us. One night, the host just said NO, needless to say, he was wrong lol. Hell hath no fury like a non-diving spouse!
For drinks, whether you were in the beachfront pool or on a beach chair, the servers were very attentive. The back pool is the activities pool, w volley ball and a swim up bar. The resort is adults only, first time for me, was actually nice and peaceful. The SkyBar on the roof is a nice place to meet for a drink before dinner, a perfect view of the water and sunset, nice breeze, and you can get sushi from the attached restaurant. There is also room service, 24 hours a day, we never used it but a lot of folks did. The Coco café is open 24/7 also, so you can get a coffee, a donut etc. any time. There were activities but we got our exercise diving, we played bingo in the pool one day. There was a beach BBQ one eve which was fun and one afternoon a lunch seafood fest with live band. Also, there was evening entertainment, dancers, karaoke, fire twirlers which looked pretty cool, the typical.
The beach had plenty of loungers, no towel cards, just grab a clean towel out of one of the brown towel boxes, which was perfect. My one and only true complaint about the resort is the lack of shade, I think there is one umbrella for every 12 chairs on the beach, one umbrella per four loungers would be reasonable. I heard this complaint many times during the week. They also should put more desk staff on Saturday afternoon, check-in took way too long after a long day of travelling.
Overall, nice quiet clean resort, probably perfect for couples, and I would definitely stay there again.
Dive House
We dove with Dive House (package). We usually get our own boat but did not have enough firm commitments at booking time. You check in at the little tiki hut dive booth on the beach the first day and pay your marine park fee, cash. You do not have to walk to the actual shop, which is a long walk on the beach (heehee). Nitrox is $12/tank, DH had my nitrox tanks on the boat all five days and I analyzed the tanks, which were marked correctly. Dive House picked us up every morning around 8:30 right at the resort dock, normally 2-4 other divers, you dove your computer, dive times were one hour, depth up to 100fsw, which is fine for my group. They have bigger tanks if you need them. We did one reef twice, at our request, otherwise hit different spots all five days. The DM’s were good at pointing stuff out, tons of turtles and groupers, a bunch of green morays and nurse sharks, 3 reef sharks, one eagle ray, an octopus and the usual critters, and after the first day, did not hound you about air, just asked that you let them know when you were at 1000 psi. The DM shot a marker when anyone was ready to ascend and the boat was always right there when you surfaced. We had been advised to bring a large mesh gear bag so after the 2nd dive, you packed up all your gear and left it on the boat. In the morning your gear was on the boat, rinsed and dry. I personally kept my reg and computer. We had one rental BC and one rental wetsuit-no issues. We were on the DiveHouse 2 all week, it appeared to be well maintained with proper safety equipment.
A safe dive operation, no problems, no drama. I would use them again.
I would also highly recommend Yvonne at Island Dreams Dive Travel- good communication and knowledgeable.
