Thinking of Mexico in March riviera maya? Any suggestions

[Steve A]

We are thinking of Mexico in March. Riviera Maya. Is this a good time to go for Weather and Diving. We have 48 dives all in the red sea but fancy something different. We love marine life and whilst not expecting the beautiful coral gardens of the red sea would love to sea something bigger. We have never seen a Shark although my wife is in no hurry I would love too. Is it too early to sea whale sharks? Where would you recommend Who would you recommend and what should we expect to be paying in gbp sterling for the diving? Any recommendations would be great.
It is a vacation and as such we would probably be looking at doing between 6 to 8 dives, maybe more depending on what we see. We have our own kit. Are most of the dive ops din or a clamp?
Also we do not wish to push our limits and although we are a/o/w and nitrox, 2 dives in a day with a decent surface interval is fine. We are always conservative in our diving and although our air consumption is good we never push it. We are used to taking it easy on day boats in Egypt and am sure boat diving in mexico will be very different so any advice would be good.
Thanks Steve

 

[TSandM]

The Riviera Maya is a very long strip of coastline, with resorts starting at Cancun and running all the way down to Tulum. I am most familiar with Playa del Carmen, Puerto Aventuras, Akumal and Tulum. Playa has a district of all-inclusive resorts called Playacar -- it's easy to take a taxi from there into the city proper, and it's a real (albeit small) city, with a lot of restaurants and stores. I am not fond of it, because I don't like city noises and city crowding when I am on vacation. But if you like night life, it would definitely be the place to go.

Puerto Aventuras is about 20 minutes south of there, and is a tourist community with a couple of hotels, two all-inclusive resorts, and a lot of condos. The all-inclusive resorts are on the beach, as is the Omni hotel and some of the higher priced condos. All-inclusives make life easy, with a concierge who can arrange things like trips to the Mayan ruins or the Siaan Kaan biosphere reserve. We have stayed at the Catalonia, which has comfortable accommodations and decent food, but if you want a really good Mexican margarita, you need to fare forth from the resort, to one of the many restaurants you can easily reach by walking. PA has a number of dive operators -- we have run our group trips through Dive Aventuras and have been very satisfied with their service. The dive sites aren't far by boat, and a package including 2 dives a day is easy to put together. Dive gear can be stored at the shop, which gets rid of the problem of managing wet neoprene at a hotel.

Akumal is a quieter place and less obviously touristy. I have stayed at Akumal Beach resort, where we rented a small apartment (one room with kitchenette). We could walk to several restaurants for dinner (breakfast was included with the room). There are several dive ops based out of Akumal -- we were recommended Dive with Natalie and Ivan for some students of ours who stayed there, and they were extremely pleased with the experience, and have remained in touch with the folks as friends.

Tulum is a town and has lots of hotels, several all-inclusives, and condos as well. There are a ton of dive operators, and I know nothing at all about them. There are a LOT of good restaurant choices there -- for a foodie, that's definitely the place to hole up.

Most of the dive ops are yoke (clamp), although I think with enough notice, nobody would have a problem sourcing DIN tanks, as they are all that is used for cave diving, which is one of the big diving activities in the area.

According to the Dive Aventuras website, the season for whale sharks is June to September, so you're coming a little early. The whale shark trips go out of an area off Cancun, and nobody says much good about the diving up there, so it's definitely a day trip from where good diving is to be had, and definitely not worth it out of season.

I have not done a ton of reef diving in the area, because I generally do the caves when I'm there, but I was pleased with the reef dives I've done off Puerto Aventuras. They were healthy reefs with a variety of corals and sponges, and some of the biggest green morays I've seen anywhere in the world (bigger than the Red Sea!). I would say that, for quality, the reefs are similar to the good areas of the Red Sea, but you don't have the dramatic wall structures in the Riviera Maya. For that, Cozumel would be better, but I prefer the gentler diver on the mainland to Cozumel's currents.

 

[AlbertaMan]

Hey Steve,

I'm not as experienced a diver as yourself but I just returned from a trip to the Riviera Maya. Unfortunately while I was there it was stormy so the port was closed and I could only do shallow dives on the inner reef. What I saw was beautiful and full of life and I enjoyed it immensely.

I think that if you are in the area you should consider a trip over to the island of Cozumel. I was there last winter and it has beautiful wall dives with swim throughs and is rich in coral and fish. Cozumel isn't as great a place for non-divers or during down time. Your options for lodging on the Riviera side are as varied as can be, less so on Cozumel.

I hope this helps. I included a video I made from my most recent trip. I dove with Wet Set diving adventures in Puerto Morelos.

Cheers,
Caleb W.

[video=youtube;IhlCf2OgDIQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhlCf2OgDIQ[/video]

 

[snowmaker]

Been there a few times and have always stayed in Akumal as a friend knew someone with a house there. We were right off Half Moon Bay and could snorkel just walking out the back. Dove with Akumal Dive Shop. There were always good to us but the person in our group has been diving with them for over 10 years so they take care of use. Reefs close in are OK but I've done a lot of diving so take it for what it is. They were not bad by any means but not great. . Deeper morning dives were the best IMO. Also if you could get them to go North the sites are better but you need a calm day. They would take us North for a two tank dive. This isn't something on their schedule.

Akumal is a great town if you want a quiet laid back time. Lots of good food within walking distance. We would do into Tulum for shopping and dinner some nights. Tulum is a bigger town with some great food. If you want to party type towns Playa and Cancun are the go to. Been to both for the day but at this point in my diving I like the more quiet laid back places.

 

[FT]

Great guidance from the folks above. Cozumel has some excellent eating and the underwater scenery is really something. If you would be OK with the current, and don't mind being farther away from the fabulous Mayan ruins on the mainland, do consider it. Two dives a day is the norm: two-tank dives with a surface interval.
Have enjoyed both Puerto Morelos and Akumal. There's a great little Mexican cooking school in Puerto Morelos. Thought the diving in Akumal was better than in PM: had a nice, relaxing time. Perhaps it was just our luck, but the underwater geography didn't seem to offer a wide variety.
When you say "whale sharks" and "March" I think of Belize. You might wish to hop over to that section of Scubaboard and check out the offerings in Placencia.

 

[wknight0691]

Good morning Steve,

We have dived lots in the Akumal area and found a great operator called Blue Experience. They are based just outside of Akumal and offer a really professional service with small groups that are tailored to the individual divers needs.
As far as I remember they have both DIN and Yolk tanks and offer 60 minute dive times which cannot be said for some of the other local shops!.
Have a look at their web page or TA and I am sure that they will be able to help you out.
Blue Experience Diving, Akumal
Best of all they are run by an Englsih guy and his wife.

 

[FT]

+1 for Blue Experience. What a fine dive op.

 

[jonhall]

Stayed at The Grand Mayan Riviera Maya at end of March 2010. It is located about 20 miles north of Playa del Carmen (and 50 minutes south of Cancun) off of the main road that runs from Cancun down through all of the areas mentioned in earlier posts. One of the most beautiful resorts I've stayed at. It's not all inclusive, but they have several restaurants onsite.

As I recall they had diving on site, but their boat only went straight out from the shore about 500 yards as they did one tank dives for about $50-60.

As for a diving, I did my diving in the small town, Puerto Morelos, about 15 minutes north of the Grand Mayan. There are plenty of places to stay here also. Took a taxi there and back each day I dove. Dive shop was a 1 minute walk from taxi drop off which is about a 1 minute walk to the pier. Went with a small outfit, Dive in Puerto Morelos, operated by a guy from the U.S., Brett Nielson. Paid in advance through PayPal for my wife and I. As my wife became ill on the trip, I was the only one who dove, and there was no problem in canceling my wife's dives (for the record I did not leave my wife alone sick, as there were other family members on the trip Price was not expensive for 2 tank dives. The Mesoamerican reef runs along the coast, so there is plenty of variety in what you will see. Air temp during this time was 83 degrees and water temp 80.

As mentioned above, Cozumel is a great place for diving. If staying on mainland, you can take the ferry from Playa del Carmen, about a 30-40 minute trip. I have been to Coz twice, last diving with ProDive, located on the SW part of island, about a 10-15 minute taxi ride from the ferry pier. ProDive has their own pier that only they go from and is only a few minutes boat ride from dive spots in the National Marine Park.

Whatever you wind up doing, have a great time.

 

[Ed Hatfield]

I have only done one trip to the Red Sea, a liveaboard from Sharm on the Whirlwind. I would recommend Cozumel over the mainland if it is a 'dive vacation' you are after. Playa del Carmen will bustling in March as it is the typical month of school break and most of the All Inclusives will be close to capacity. Depending on where you are flying from I know that AI trips for Europeans are really cheap compared to what we pay from Canada. Even so you might not want to wait too late to book something. I just booked a dive trip myself today and had to settle for my 4th choice. I recommend that for a vacation with diving as a sidebar that you stay south of Cancun and the closer to Playa del Carmen better. This way you are close enough to get in at least one trip to the cenotes, a reef dive off the Playa to Tulum stretch (depending on where your resort is) and maybe even a day trip to Cozumel. I believe the Tank-Ha Dive shop still does a Cozumel day trip directly from Playa once a week. FYI - I have a vacation property in Playa and have used most of the local shops. There really isn't a bad one. Mexico Blue Dream, Scuba Playa, Cyan Ha, Tank-Ha are some of the big ones. Scuba Tribe is my favorite small shop especially if you want to book a cenote dive. Their reef trips are also the cheapest but they use the Mexico Blue Dream boat so he is restricted to the dives that they are doing.

There are so many options in the area that once you have selected your resort (or hotel if you are staying away from the All Inclusives) finding a dive shop will be easy. There are dozens of boutique hotels in Playa. Check out Luna Blue if you are looking for something quaint.

 

[Ed Hatfield]

Since my last post I have learned that Scuba Tribe has closed the shop and booking by referral through their website. Same people and same great service but NO SHOP.