Where tostay and who to dive with in Cozumel?

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I'm planning to go to Cozumel this October. Do most of these operators offer Nitrox dives or do you have to specifically ask for Nitrox operators?
 
I did not actually dive nitrox. I did look into it though, and do not recall any of the shops not offering Nitrox tanks. I believe it will cost you an extra $5-$10 per tank. I think Alison was one of the cheaper people to offer it with an extra charge of either $5- $7 a tank. Please do not hold me to that. I did not check into whether or not they had an 02 sensor to double check the mix. This may be something that you want to check into so you can take one.

I have a Suunto Cobra, (pretty conservative) and only had one dive where I was low on NDC time and had to go shallower. The bottom of the reef was aound 50 feet, so I went up to the top of the reef, aroudn 30 feet and floated along there till my buddy and I started to run low on Air. My SCR was under 20 some dives it was as low as 17. I was averaging between 50-60 minutes per dive, at average depths of 50 feet or so.

HTH

Mike
 
I loved Scuba Club Cozumel - just back from a 10 day trip. All inclusive, good food, great hammocks, no TV or phones in the rooms.
Diving- great DMs (they knew where everything was - I saw 8 sea turtles my first dive), small groups of 6 to 8, boat captain and crew were super attentive and picked you up almost immediately. We ended up rescuing 2 different groups of divers in a 7 day period because their boat/captains were not attentive. No way do I want to be floating around without someone watching for me when I come up. Planning on using Scuba Club Cozumel again!
 
Stayed at the Hacienda San Miguel. It's small, quiet, attractive, and the rooms have kitchenettes. Continental breakfast is delivered each morning. We loved it.
I dove with Aqua Safari, which was about a 15 minute walk (or $3 cab ride). They run 4 big, comfy boats. The afternoon 1-tanker is only $9 if you do a morning 1 or 2-tanker. Excellent DM's, everyone plesant to deal with, I'll dive with them on my next trip to Coz.
 
There is no doubt that pretty much any group you dive with-- you will enjoy. However if you want the best--there is one that stands out----Aldora Divers.

I stayed at the Reef Club (do not recommend), and spoke with several great divers, instructors, masters---that were diving with Sand Dollar Sports ( the dive operator on site), and these folks were pleased with there experience. They spoke very highly, BUT when I told them about my experiences with Aldora, they were amazed.

I took my regulator to Aldora divers they day before the dive so they could change to a din fitting. Aldora dives steel 120cf tanks, and I didn't have a computer so they gave me one to use at no additional cost (standard equipment for there diving). The next day was picked up at the pier at my hotel, and they had everything ready. Small, fast boat with a larger than normal crowd they told me---- seven divers. No problem for me at all.

I dove with two different divemasters of Aldora Divers. Let me know if your interested in names and characteristics. Both where very, very thorough and professional. One was more conservative and the other was more adventorous like me.

Aldora Divers offered much better bottom times, just to give an example of one days diving. With the computers we comfortably reached a depth of 140 ft, several swim throughs, that were awesome, and the wildlife was spectacular. The divemaster either saw or just new the hideout of a beautiful toad fish that he fished out of a hole for us all to see. Total time of dive was 55 minutes. Then next dive of the day dipped to a maximum depth of 90 ft and spent more time in interesting shallows around 40 to 50 ft with a total botom time of 1 hour and 17 minutes.

When speaking with other divers, they were only getting 30 minute dives with there operators. So no doubt dollar for dollar--Aldora Divers gives you your moneys worth.

During suiting up on the boat, the divemaster and captain did all the working allowing us divers to relax, they even donned our gear. Great special attention. And when the diving was done for the day, they put all of our gear in a bag they supplied and took it back to there shop to wash up and the next day when they picked us up on the pier, there it was clean and ready to go.

During our surface intervals we went to a resort beach to relax and have a snack, (rather than spending the interval on the boat like other operators do), and the manager of Aldora met us there to see if there was anything he could do to make our diving better. It was amazing the attention they give to the divers, rather than concetrating on turning more divers and profit, as it seems that most operators on the island want.

I know I'm forgetting some details, if anyone has any questions feel free to ask. I was so pleased with Aldora I plan on leaving a new thread on them. So forgive me if you read this again.
 

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