Stay on Coz but do some mainland stuff too?

[Lorenzoid]

My suggestion is to break up your trip, and spend a few days on Cozumel, then return to the mainland and spend a few days in Tulum to dive the cenotes and see Mayan ruins. (Or do the reverse and stay in Tulum first.) I do not know why you would want to do "more diving at the end of the trip before flying home." Just take the bus back to Cancun for your flight home.

 

[divv]

My suggestion is to break up your trip, and spend a few days on Cozumel, then return to the mainland and spend a few days in Tulum to dive the cenotes and see Mayan ruins. (Or do the reverse and stay in Tulum first.) I do not know why you would want to do "more diving at the end of the trip before flying home." Just take the bus back to Cancun for your flight home.

To clarify: overall I'm looking at around a month. As envisaged, I would spend around a week at the beginning diving Cozumel, then the middle part of my trip I would be visiting some towns in Central Mexico - Guadalajara area, then return to Cancun area for around a week before I fly home.
For a while today I considered changing some dates around, and finishing all the diving at the start of my trip, before going to GDL, but I have been looking and accommodation around there is also now more expensive or unavailable later in the month/early January, so I will most likely have to stick to my original plan of diving beginning and end, and flying in and out of Cancun.

I'm not sure if it makes sense?

 

[Lorenzoid]

To clarify: overall I'm looking at around a month. As envisaged, I would spend around a week at the beginning diving Cozumel, then the middle part of my trip I would be visiting some towns in Central Mexico - Guadalajara area, then return to Cancun area for around a week before I fly home.
For a while today I considered changing some dates around, and finishing all the diving at the start of my trip, before going to GDL, but I have been looking and accommodation around there is also now more expensive or unavailable later in the month/early January, so I will most likely have to stick to my original plan of diving beginning and end, and flying in and out of Cancun.

I'm not sure if it makes sense?

Wow. Guadalajara is the other end of Mexico. So I assume you are flying between CUN-GDL. I suppose when one is visiting for a month, from the other side of the world, distance seems smaller. If I were to visit South Africa, I would probably visit both Capetown and Kruger, so I certainly do understand the thinking.

I assume that an "open jaw" flight from SA is too expensive or otherwise not feasible? I mean, the obvious itinerary would be to fly into CUN and out of GDL or Mexico City. You could do some diving in Puerto Vallarta, which is relatively easy to get to from Guadalajara. The Pacific coast is very nice.

edit: Ah, now that I read the previous posts more closely I see you are transiting through the US. It seems you have the flight situation figured out.

 

[divv]

I have looked at all options - through US, not though US, in at CZM, in and out at CUN, in at either and out at GDL!
Overall, to fly into CUN/CZM, then on to GDL and from there back to SA (I think this is what you mean by open-jaw?) does work out cheaper than including a flight back to CUN, however at this stage finding accommodation for GDL for the later dates is proving a challenge.. BUT I will look into the PV aspect.. maybe that can work.

Thanks!

 

[divv]

Ok as an update, I checked out the PV idea but I have to ditch it because I simply DO NOT do cold water and I'm informed that the January temps are 16 - 24 degrees C.

The only place I could find in Tulum on my dates was a hostel and from the reviews its pretty noisy and not in the best area. Otherwise I can get a place in PDC called Isabella's Beach Club - its right on the beach but I cannot find any reviews on it which make me a touch nervous....?
So I'm still considering staying on Cozumel on using the ferry when needed...

 

[ReefHound]

Hi Dogbowl, thanks for the input.
From what I could see the flights were much cheaper return to Cancun as opposed to a multicity scenario.. The reason I was looking at going back to Coz at the end was because I could find what seemed to be reasonable accommodation there, as compared to what was available in other places (PDC etc).
I was thinking of 2 - 3 days of coming to the mainland and the rest of the days on Coz so I wouldn't be using the ferry every day but being new to Mexico/ Coz I have no idea what its like which is exactly why I'm asking for (and appreciate!) the input!
(I'm 50 so neither young nor old.. )

Maybe Christmas week is different, but in my experience there is greater availability and cheaper rates for PDC than Coz.

Last few years we have been flying into Cancun because fares are so muich less. Sometimes we do a split trip (next one is in two weeks) where we do the bag drag to Coz, stay and dive 4 or 5 nights, then ferry over and stay in PDC 3 nights. It's a bit more relaxing and makes the return trip to the airport less stressful and time consuming.