Question Wedding + Honeymoon in Mexico - Dive Suggestions Needed!

[MattPNW]

Hi All,

My fiancée and I are getting married in Cozumel on January 19th. We're planning some dives in Cozumel before the wedding, but are looking to do some more diving for the "Honeymoon Lite" which will follow immediately. We have done a good bit of diving in Cozumel and in fact got engaged there. (See attached pics - Yes, I used the actual ring. No, the ring was not dropped).

Our current plan is to take 3 weeks off...

• Week 1 is some Cozumel diving and the wedding.
• Week 2 is not going to be diving related and instead we're going to go inland to some places like San Miguel de Allende, Mexico City, and others to experience some of the old culture.
• Week 3 is TBD and we'd like it to focus on diving. Initially we are thinking to to hit Cabo San Lucas/La Paz for some Baja Diving. I've done a little bit there in May and September, but am not really sure what the diving landscape is like at the end of January/early February. I can imagine it's a lot colder in the water compared to Caribbean warmth.

Questions to the audience

1. What would you see on land within Mexico during week 2? Looking for some good history, culture, churches/buildings, or something really unique.
2. Is the Sea of Cortez/Baja Pacific side worth doing in January compared to other warmer months? We live in Seattle and trips to Cabo are not very difficult.
3. If not Baja, where else would you recommend for that final week of diving that financially would not be too draining? An idea could be something like Belize, which geographically is very close and neither of us have been to. I'll rule out expensive liveaboards. ($1.5K+ per person)
4. Free for all. Anything you want to suggest?

Thanks in advance for all the feedback! Hoping to hear lots of ideas.

 

[Lorenzoid]

Sounds like a great plan! I regret I don't have specifics to suggest. I think your intuition of seeing sights in and around Mexico City is spot-on. I'm guessing you have good flight connection options to Seattle through Mexico City. You couldn't go wrong sticking with the sights listed in all the tourist publications/blogs. They have been repeated in guidebooks for decades because they're worth seeing. I could name a few, but nothing that could not be found in a few minutes of Googling.

Baja seems like a great way to finish the adventure, though I see your logic that a trip down to Los Cabos from Seattle could be done anytime. Nevertheless, ask yourself if you are actually going to get around to doing it. I used to live in San Diego, and somehow life got in the way every time. If it were me, and I had three weeks set aside for this, I think I would get in my Los Cabos trip while I had the time and budget.

Are you set on diving the third week? Might you consider spending more time in the Yucatan doing non-diving things, and then move on to Mexico City?

I did a combination of Belize (on a shoestring budget) and Cozumel once. It made sense geographically, yes. But if I had to do it again I would want to allocate more budget and get more out of what Belize diving has to offer. The outer atolls are where it's at, in my opinion, so you might look at something like Turneffe Island Resort. But if a liveaboard is out of budget, a dive resort may be too.

 

[MattPNW]

Sounds like a great plan! I regret I don't have specifics to suggest. I think your intuition of seeing sights in and around Mexico City is spot-on. I'm guessing you have good flight connection options to Seattle through Mexico City. You couldn't go wrong sticking with the sights listed in all the tourist publications/blogs. They have been repeated in guidebooks for decades because they're worth seeing. I could name a few, but nothing that could not be found in a few minutes of Googling.

Baja seems like a great way to finish the adventure, though I see your logic that a trip down to Los Cabos from Seattle could be done anytime. Nevertheless, ask yourself if you are actually going to get around to doing it. I used to live in San Diego, and somehow life got in the way every time. If it were me, and I had three weeks set aside for this, I think I would get in my Los Cabos trip while I had the time and budget.

Are you set on diving the third week? Might you consider spending more time in the Yucatan doing non-diving things, and then move on to Mexico City?

I did a combination of Belize (on a shoestring budget) and Cozumel once. It made sense geographically, yes. But if I had to do it again I would want to allocate more budget and get more out of what Belize diving has to offer. The outer atolls are where it's at, in my opinion, so you might look at something like Turneffe Island Resort. But if a liveaboard is out of budget, a dive resort may be too.

Appreciate the feedback! What did you enjoy most about Belize? I think Belize could be a very practical thing for us given the location, but it could come down to price. It's far easier to get to Cabo than Belize and I've done 2 or 3 dive trips to Cabo now.

 

[Lorenzoid]

Appreciate the feedback! What did you enjoy most about Belize? I think Belize could be a very practical thing for us given the location, but it could come down to price. It's far easier to get to Cabo than Belize and I've done 2 or 3 dive trips to Cabo now.

Two or three trips to Cabo!?--why add it on now? I enjoyed topside activities in Belize, too. Lots of nature to see. Ziplining and "cave tubing." Mayan ruin sites. As for diving, my mistake was to follow the budget backpacker crowd and take day trips out of Caye Caulker and Ambergris cayes; while it was certainly fun, I learned there are better options.

Now that I think about it, how about Xcalak? (See SB threads.)

 

[MattPNW]

Two or three trips to Cabo!?--why add it on now? I enjoyed topside activities in Belize, too. Lots of nature to see. Ziplining and "cave tubing." Mayan ruin sites. As for diving, my mistake was to follow the budget backpacker crowd and take day trips out of Caye Caulker and Ambergris cayes; while it was certainly fun, I learned there are better options.

I've done Cabo, but she has never been. I've had a great experience during the other months, but I've not tried in the winter. The sealions out of La Paz for example are just amazing. The Oceanic Mantas coming around La Reina are also a site to see... an then you've got the schooling hammers at Gordo Banks. A ton to see, but I'm torn on it being the winter. I love the geology of the area as well, and that's a selling point. It's very different than the Mayan jungles, sinkholes, and reefs of QROO.

What are the better options that you'd like at in hindsight compared to the budget backpacker? Budget isn't EXTREMELY tight, but coming off of a wedding it would be nice to keep cost down, vs taking a $4,000 liveaboard out to the Socorro's for example haha.