I am very late in writing and posting this:
We were there the last week of September for a week and as always we had a blast.
We stayed at Vista del Mar for the first time and for the money (as part of an Orbitz package $36/ night) and location it was excellent. Spend the extra 8-10 bucks a night to get an ocean view room. The location as I said was awesome, being right in town was very convenient and saved us a lot of walking and cab fares. The noise was not a factor, even though we were right on Melgar, except for the second to last night, there was a parade that went by at 4:30AM with beating drums and fireworks. I thought the island was being invaded by the mainlanders, it turns out it was just the parade celebrating Dia de San Miguel (I think that is what it was called). Between this festival and the end of the Mexican Bicentennial the island had a very festive feel even though tourism seemed slow. I recommend to everyone to make a t-shirt before walking around town that says No me gusto Cigarros Cubanos. We started taking bets on how many times we would be asked if we wanted a Cuban Cigar when we walked around town, I think the record on a 10 minute walk was 19 times.
We visited most of our normal favorite restaurants; El Foco, Casa Dennis, Los Otates, Tony Romes, Kinta, Zermatt, Costa Brava, Rasta Bar, Coconuts, a few vendors in the square, Del Sur (new location is beautiful) and we were there for the last night Wet Wendy's was opened before remodeling began. A few of the places we had on our list were closed for remodeling or the fact it was slow season. We tried for the first time Abuelo Gerardo for breakfast, it was good and very inexpensive. Kellys, Woodys, and French Quarter were a few other places we had drinks and snacks at, fun places for a few cocktails at night. We tried 2 beach clubs we had never been to before, Cozumel Club Caribe and Mr. Sanchos. Both were nice, Caribe is very close to town and it has decent snorkeling. Mr. Sanchos was a very nice beach with pretty good (kind of expensive) food. I would still recommend Playa Palancar over either of these two clubs.
We finally after 5 trips were able to do the Tucan Sail, it was worth every penny. The staff bent over backwards to make you comfortable. We were lucky enough to have one dolphin join us for few minutes playing in front of the bow of the boat. The food, the staff, the drinks were all great, I would highly recommend this to anyone.
I have been using Blue XT Sea for my dive op on the last 4 trips and once again they delivered fantastic service and dives. Christi, Pedro and Mago make a great team and it is no wonder they have an extremely loyal following, most of the people on the boat were people we had dove with on other trips. The weather was not the best while we were there and it rained hard after most of the dives so the fact they supply you with a windbreaker to use was excellent. I do have to say doing a night dive when a storm rolls through is pretty cool. I can't say enough about them and I again I would highly recommend them if you are looking for a dive op.
As I said the weather was not the greatest thanks to the remnants of tropical storm Matthew going over the Yucatan, but we still had an excellent time. The people of Cozumel are the biggest reason we continue to go back and we cant wait to return again.
We were there the last week of September for a week and as always we had a blast.
We stayed at Vista del Mar for the first time and for the money (as part of an Orbitz package $36/ night) and location it was excellent. Spend the extra 8-10 bucks a night to get an ocean view room. The location as I said was awesome, being right in town was very convenient and saved us a lot of walking and cab fares. The noise was not a factor, even though we were right on Melgar, except for the second to last night, there was a parade that went by at 4:30AM with beating drums and fireworks. I thought the island was being invaded by the mainlanders, it turns out it was just the parade celebrating Dia de San Miguel (I think that is what it was called). Between this festival and the end of the Mexican Bicentennial the island had a very festive feel even though tourism seemed slow. I recommend to everyone to make a t-shirt before walking around town that says No me gusto Cigarros Cubanos. We started taking bets on how many times we would be asked if we wanted a Cuban Cigar when we walked around town, I think the record on a 10 minute walk was 19 times.
We visited most of our normal favorite restaurants; El Foco, Casa Dennis, Los Otates, Tony Romes, Kinta, Zermatt, Costa Brava, Rasta Bar, Coconuts, a few vendors in the square, Del Sur (new location is beautiful) and we were there for the last night Wet Wendy's was opened before remodeling began. A few of the places we had on our list were closed for remodeling or the fact it was slow season. We tried for the first time Abuelo Gerardo for breakfast, it was good and very inexpensive. Kellys, Woodys, and French Quarter were a few other places we had drinks and snacks at, fun places for a few cocktails at night. We tried 2 beach clubs we had never been to before, Cozumel Club Caribe and Mr. Sanchos. Both were nice, Caribe is very close to town and it has decent snorkeling. Mr. Sanchos was a very nice beach with pretty good (kind of expensive) food. I would still recommend Playa Palancar over either of these two clubs.
We finally after 5 trips were able to do the Tucan Sail, it was worth every penny. The staff bent over backwards to make you comfortable. We were lucky enough to have one dolphin join us for few minutes playing in front of the bow of the boat. The food, the staff, the drinks were all great, I would highly recommend this to anyone.
I have been using Blue XT Sea for my dive op on the last 4 trips and once again they delivered fantastic service and dives. Christi, Pedro and Mago make a great team and it is no wonder they have an extremely loyal following, most of the people on the boat were people we had dove with on other trips. The weather was not the best while we were there and it rained hard after most of the dives so the fact they supply you with a windbreaker to use was excellent. I do have to say doing a night dive when a storm rolls through is pretty cool. I can't say enough about them and I again I would highly recommend them if you are looking for a dive op.
As I said the weather was not the greatest thanks to the remnants of tropical storm Matthew going over the Yucatan, but we still had an excellent time. The people of Cozumel are the biggest reason we continue to go back and we cant wait to return again.
