Shore diving in Cozumel

[Blastman4444]

This will be our first trip to Cozumel, and I would like to know if any of the hotel's have good shore diving/snorkeling, and a beach near by. We like higher end hotel's not looking for a low budget dive hotel. I'm not stuck on a shore diving hotel either if you think it will be better to just drive to a good dive spot we plan we can do that as well on renting a car. My wife gets seasick, and she wants to shore dive to get more experience before trying to get on a boat again if the water is flat enough to do it. I knowBonaire would be the place for us, but it's little too far for this year. My wife gets sea sick, and we haven't really found a good way to deal with it. She has never really had a good experience because of rough boat rides. If the water is too rough for boat diving we can always shore dive.

 

[islanddream]

We love staying at The Blue Angel Dive Resort; however, it isn't high end....it caters to divers. They do have shore diving which everyone enjoys. As for a beach...not so much, but they do have a pool. As far as getting seasick on the boat, I'm in the same "boat" as your wife. The ONLY thing that works for me is Bonine (sp?) and it works very well. We were recently in Belize and the water on the outside of the reef was very rough. No problem!

 

[Willar]

Shore diving around Coz is not the best. From my experience, the Fiesta Americana hotel will probably fit your desires best. They do have shore diving right by the resort but it's small coral mounds. There are no reefs near shore around Coz. Hotel Cozumel and Scuba Club Coz both have shore diving that is fun but simple with little variety. No real beach at all for these two.

The only area with decent beaches are on the south end. This includes the Allegro and Iberostar resorts. We stayed at Iberostar and loved it but there is no shore diving. The best part about Iberostar is they are very close to the best reefs -- only a 5 minute boat ride where most other resorts are 20-30 minute boat ride away. Therefore, the dive boat returns to the resort for a surface interval between dives so you can have a snack, drink, and potty break. We really enjoyed the Iberostar Cozumel and Dressel Divers, the dive op.

 

[RonFrank]

If your wife can not boat dive she is fairly limited. Going to Coz for the shore dives is kinda pointless. If you have already made Coz plans Ibostar maybe your best bet as it is 5 minutes to many reefs. However if the boat chooses to dive farther north that is their option. You can not expect the boat to go only where you choose unless you charter the entire boat which is only $450 1/2 day for a six pack.

A bigger boat helps. Do NOT put her on a six pack. A 46' Newton would be a good idea. The bigger the better. Coz has a lot of six packs and I would suggest you avoid them.

There are many people who dive and get sea sick. Medication can help.

 

[sinistar]

If you want a nice resort, why not stay at the Cozumel Palace! I've never heard of anyone shore diving there but you can walk about a 1/2 block north to the Hotel Barracuda and shore dive there. Last winter it was $6 for tank and weights - but I was boat diving with them so maybe they want more for a walk in.

The entry at the barracuda is very nice. Plus theres a bar and lockers there too. There is a collapsed pier near there and it's always a treat to dive. Many people finish their part 2 dives there. Perhaps the biggest downside is that between 10am and 3pm on heavy cruise ship days it gets pretty overrun with cruise ship crew - but we've never had any issues wit them.

Last winter I found my first sea horse on this dive. It was so cool to just sit and watch it for several minutes with no one else around and barely any curent to fight. Of course that was the only dive where I left the camera behind.

 

[Blastman4444]

This trip won't be a dive trip exclusive I plan on renting a car and doing other things. I like the 5 min boat ride idea I think she can tolerate a short boat ride like that as long as it isn't 4-5 foot swells. She was fine on a 47' cat we took a snorkeling trip in on the big island of Hawaii. That trip she had a few drinks of alcohol they served with snacks so I'm sure that helped out she can't drink alcohol when diving. Bonine and the other stuff puts her to sleep big time took 24hours of sleep to get rid of the patch.

 

[ggunn]

As others have said, the shore diving around Cozumel pales by comparison to the boat diving there. I do it as a fun add-on to boat diving but it's no substitute, not even close. Ping pong balls to bowling balls. Also, any resort with a natural beach is not likely going to have anything but sand to see underwater as far out as you are likely to want to swim.

But the good news is that Cozumel turns its back on the open Caribbean and protects most the dive sites from the swells. Many of them are typically in very calm water close to shore in the lee of the island.

Staying far south is a tradeoff. The resorts down there are very nice and are a short boat ride from the southern dive sites, but those sites are where you'll typically see the most wave action and it's a 20 buck 10-15 mile one way trip to town in a cab. Many have great beaches but none have shore diving to speak of. Actually, you're not supposed to dive down there at all without an escort by marine park rules.

You are going to love Cozumel. Many of us (like me) are many time repeat visitors.

 

[redacted]

This trip won't be a dive trip exclusive I plan on renting a car and doing other things. I like the 5 min boat ride idea I think she can tolerate a short boat ride like that as long as it isn't 4-5 foot swells. She was fine on a 47' cat we took a snorkeling trip in on the big island of Hawaii. That trip she had a few drinks of alcohol they served with snacks so I'm sure that helped out she can't drink alcohol when diving. Bonine and the other stuff puts her to sleep big time took 24hours of sleep to get rid of the patch.

You might take a look at the Occidental Grand and their in-house op, Dive Palancar. The resort is one of the better AI's on a fairly nice beach with a shallow mostly grass snorkel in their roped off area. They have larger boats and do one tank dives close to the resort. It is down south on the desirable southern reefs. Only problem you need to watch for is they now also service the Sabor from their OG base and that will be a longer ride than the ride from the resort to the dive site. Explain to them your situation and make sure they put you on local boats only.

 

[Blastman4444]

Thanks for the info I think we might just drive to dive spots I'm thinking of renting a car so we can also drive to other areas off the island.

 

[mstevens]

Intercontinental Presidente has quite decent shore diving. It's not going to be the reefs you'll see on a boat dive, but every time we stayed there we did equipment check-out dives and snorkeled quite a bit and always saw interesting things. Paradise reef is just offshore at the Presidente, though it's really too far to kick comfortably.