Surpise Cancun/Cozumel trip for the fam. PLEASE HELP :)

[htn123]

Howdy,

I was thinking about taking my family, wife,daughter and son for a surprise mini-vacation this Thanksgiving to either Cozumel or Cancun. This will be our first to the area, so there are lots of questions if you guys can help me out, that would be great. Time are from 11/25-28.

First off, I have been diving for a while, free and scuba. Daughter 10 got certified in June. Love the water, very comfortable with scuba, been doing 5 dives sofar in FL, TX.
Wife and son don't dive yet, son is only 9.

I can fly out either Austin, San Antonio or Houston (3 hours drive from Aus but don't mind)
So here are the questions:

1. Cozumel or Cancun? Which one is cheaper? better price for the money?

2. My daughter and I want to do a dive on 26th or 27th( might be too close to flying on 28). So which would be better? coz or cancun? Heard quite a lot about BlueXTsea but it is on cozumel side.

3. Do either coz or cancun place just rent tanks and we can dive straight from the beach? We do have all of our gears so all we need are tanks and weight and we are set.

4. Since wife and son don't dive, which one coz/cancun is good for them to sight seeing while we dive?

Any other suggestion/comments would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Charles.

 

[catbrown]

Charles - well first up it is a big area and does not just consist of Cancun and Cozumel. You may get a cheap good hotel in Cancun, they are very low occupancy at the moment so that could help on the financial side. It is a big busy place with good beaches and lots of hotels and tourist attractions, malls and bars. Try to avoid the all inclusives as you are then tied to their meals and facilities and don't get to see any of Mexico! There are other small towns like Puerto Morelos and Akumal where the facilities, sightseeing, food and drink will be cheaper. There are also some cheaper hotels in Coz too or you could just do a day trip there for diving which is what most of our clients do and stay on the mainland where you will have more attractions accesible for the rest of the gang. I understand that shore diving is done more in Cozumel than we do in the Riviera Maya, most dive shops will rent you tanks.

So you could dive from Puerto Morelos or Akumal or Playa del Carmen on the 26th and then go to Coz on the 27th (11am ferry and back on the 7pm) or vice versa. Your wife and son could do the swim with the dolphins programme while you are diving - they will pick them up from your hotel in the Riviera Maya and bring them back. Your son may enjoy the Crococun Zoo as well. If you opt for a cenote dive, they could go along as well for the snorkelling.

So there are lots of options available. I can help you with info about Puerto Morelos, I'm sure Cancun Mark can help with Cancun and locogringo.com has info on Akumal.

Oh another tip - don't plan every day, nothing ever works down here like that and you need to be flexible

best
cat