pelan-pelan
Contributor
Stayed at the Omni in Puerto Avenuras and dived with Dive Aventuras who are based in the hotel. Had read some negatives on Tripadvisor about the Omni which do not match our experience. The place was clean and we saw the pools and pool area being thoroughly cleaned every morning.
Dive Aventuras made us welcome. They are helpful. They handle diving for people from the surrounding hotels and condos, but provide a personalised service. They try to keep you teamed with the same dive master and grouped with divers of the same ability/dive requirements. They do 4 dives a day which usually last about 40 - 45 minutes. They are on a tight schedule for getting people back to pick up their transfer home. But if you speak to the staff they will try to organise longer dives according to who is on the boat. The max we saw was 7, but most were less than that. On one dive it was only 2 and we know others also had only 2. If you can be flexible about which of the four dives you do then this helps. We had a 66 minute dive with only 2 of us. Diving is easy - 5 mins out, basic sand chutes and reef, schools of reef fish, turtles etc at only 20 m. If you like small stuff say so and they will help you find some interesting things.
Went onto Valladolid and can recommend Hotel Maria de la Luz, booked over the internet. It is a basic hotel but clean and functional. Best described as top-end back-packers but perfect for a few nights. Right on the central square. Recommend trips to Ek Balam and Chichen Itza but get to them early as possible - they open at 8. If you can only manage one - then Ek Balam.
Holbox - snorkelling with whale sharks. Mind blowing experience. A good whale shark tour will cost 85 - 90 USD and will start 7.30 or earlier and last about 8 hours, with max 6/7 per boat. It will include unlimited time with the whalesharks (obeying rule of 2 persons at a time) and when all swimmers cry "enough" they will go back inshore for snorkelling (nurse sharks), possible a trip up the lighthouse and quietly motoring into the lagoon to look for flamingos, white herons, shoals of barracuda in the shallows. Lunch included, vegetarians and special diets no problem. Snorkel gear included but your own is better. Trips like this from Casa las Tortugas or Mawimbi.
Beware the rip offs - 75 - 80 USD for 4 hours, two swims, 10 people per boat. How are your maths? Sometimes it takes nearly 2 hours to find the creatures, and some of the 10 people may not be competent in the water, and the rule is only 2 people at a time in the water, and the boats "share" the whalesharks so 2 from your boat and then 2 from another boat etc, and 2 hours back. I can't see how everyone could get a swim. These trips operate a 2-swim only rule anyway. Do the maths per hour, the extra 10 USD for 8 hours is a no-brainer.
We came back from our trip absolutely ecstatic - and tired. Some of our boat got 6 swims.
Note - if you do not have a wetsuit (to give buoyancy) then the rules are that you must wear a life jacket. These will inhibit your snorkelling - so take a wetsuit (a shortie is OK), a rash vest is not enough. And when you get in the water be prepared to swim like the blazes - these things hardly move a muscle but power along. Also - no flash photography - so choose your camera gear.
The best way to do it is to take two days out and travel up to Holbox (maybe take in some other sights en route), overnight then do 7.30 am start. Stagger onto the evening ferry and sleep in the taxi all the way back to Cancun/Playa. In truth, you will want to stay another day on Holbox.
Cannot recommend Casa las Tortugas and Mawimbi highly enough. Peaceful, away from it all on the beach. Didn't see Mawimbi's rooms but everyone in their beach garden looked happy. Casa las Tortugas is beautiful. They both offer air con, breakfast, beach snack bar, beach garden with loungers.
Beware hotels who are handling the day trips from Cancun. It may be that all they are interested in is pushing the 4-hour tours through. Hotel guests are incidental. An example is Hotel Faro Viejo. Don't like posting negatives but a factual check would be that FV does not have any sun loungers or a proper beach garden, and they are charging 110 USD per night. Walk along the beach, other hotels that are cheaper can manage loungers for their guests. What a shame about FV - their rooms are delightful and the housekeeping staff are excellent. But we got no hot water (not even warm), food was unspeakable, at 8.30 am fruit at breakfast was finished, coffee was stale and the flies were doing the backstroke in the milk. Even the cheap poussadas in the town advertised hot water and provided it - we talked to back-packers.
Dive Aventuras made us welcome. They are helpful. They handle diving for people from the surrounding hotels and condos, but provide a personalised service. They try to keep you teamed with the same dive master and grouped with divers of the same ability/dive requirements. They do 4 dives a day which usually last about 40 - 45 minutes. They are on a tight schedule for getting people back to pick up their transfer home. But if you speak to the staff they will try to organise longer dives according to who is on the boat. The max we saw was 7, but most were less than that. On one dive it was only 2 and we know others also had only 2. If you can be flexible about which of the four dives you do then this helps. We had a 66 minute dive with only 2 of us. Diving is easy - 5 mins out, basic sand chutes and reef, schools of reef fish, turtles etc at only 20 m. If you like small stuff say so and they will help you find some interesting things.
Went onto Valladolid and can recommend Hotel Maria de la Luz, booked over the internet. It is a basic hotel but clean and functional. Best described as top-end back-packers but perfect for a few nights. Right on the central square. Recommend trips to Ek Balam and Chichen Itza but get to them early as possible - they open at 8. If you can only manage one - then Ek Balam.
Holbox - snorkelling with whale sharks. Mind blowing experience. A good whale shark tour will cost 85 - 90 USD and will start 7.30 or earlier and last about 8 hours, with max 6/7 per boat. It will include unlimited time with the whalesharks (obeying rule of 2 persons at a time) and when all swimmers cry "enough" they will go back inshore for snorkelling (nurse sharks), possible a trip up the lighthouse and quietly motoring into the lagoon to look for flamingos, white herons, shoals of barracuda in the shallows. Lunch included, vegetarians and special diets no problem. Snorkel gear included but your own is better. Trips like this from Casa las Tortugas or Mawimbi.
Beware the rip offs - 75 - 80 USD for 4 hours, two swims, 10 people per boat. How are your maths? Sometimes it takes nearly 2 hours to find the creatures, and some of the 10 people may not be competent in the water, and the rule is only 2 people at a time in the water, and the boats "share" the whalesharks so 2 from your boat and then 2 from another boat etc, and 2 hours back. I can't see how everyone could get a swim. These trips operate a 2-swim only rule anyway. Do the maths per hour, the extra 10 USD for 8 hours is a no-brainer.
We came back from our trip absolutely ecstatic - and tired. Some of our boat got 6 swims.
Note - if you do not have a wetsuit (to give buoyancy) then the rules are that you must wear a life jacket. These will inhibit your snorkelling - so take a wetsuit (a shortie is OK), a rash vest is not enough. And when you get in the water be prepared to swim like the blazes - these things hardly move a muscle but power along. Also - no flash photography - so choose your camera gear.
The best way to do it is to take two days out and travel up to Holbox (maybe take in some other sights en route), overnight then do 7.30 am start. Stagger onto the evening ferry and sleep in the taxi all the way back to Cancun/Playa. In truth, you will want to stay another day on Holbox.
Cannot recommend Casa las Tortugas and Mawimbi highly enough. Peaceful, away from it all on the beach. Didn't see Mawimbi's rooms but everyone in their beach garden looked happy. Casa las Tortugas is beautiful. They both offer air con, breakfast, beach snack bar, beach garden with loungers.
Beware hotels who are handling the day trips from Cancun. It may be that all they are interested in is pushing the 4-hour tours through. Hotel guests are incidental. An example is Hotel Faro Viejo. Don't like posting negatives but a factual check would be that FV does not have any sun loungers or a proper beach garden, and they are charging 110 USD per night. Walk along the beach, other hotels that are cheaper can manage loungers for their guests. What a shame about FV - their rooms are delightful and the housekeeping staff are excellent. But we got no hot water (not even warm), food was unspeakable, at 8.30 am fruit at breakfast was finished, coffee was stale and the flies were doing the backstroke in the milk. Even the cheap poussadas in the town advertised hot water and provided it - we talked to back-packers.
