Thanks for the time and efforts that you all have put in to help guide me to the best solution. I guess we will end up with Presidente or Occidental if no other good idea presents itself. Renting a car sounds handy as well.
What are the pros & cons of buying the dive packages the Hotels offer, compared to buying from a different dive operator?
Finding direct flights into Cozumel AirPort is challenging. We need to connect from Europe anyway. Which hubs inn the US is regularly servicing Cozumel AirPort in July?
Taking the flight service from Cancun looks fun, but i guess we have to pay an arm and a leg to get dive equipment a cross as well?
Renting a car can be convenient enough. Be sure to take ALL of the insurance tho. Isis seems to be the most popular on this forum and it includes insurance.
Converting Norwegian Krones to Mexican Pesos can be expensive at the currency exchanges, but withdrawing Pesos at a
bank owned ATM should be safe and economical. There is one at the airport, others around town if you need more, but your Visa or Master Charge will work at most places. Do not use the ATMs not owned by banks!
Diving with a hotel operator can be simplest, but do investigate their policies for missed dives on the package. If weather or illness keeps anyone from going, and I suppose you'd want to keep everyone together at all times, some will not give refunds.
Medical insurance and Diving insurance are considerations, but the solutions for Europeans can be quite different than for Americans. That's something to discuss with other Europeans, and we have forums here for such.
Many Europeans prefer avoiding US airports because of our poor facilities for international connections, as you often have to clear US Immigration & Customs arriving and TSA departing - so many fly to Cancun if that will avoid US airports. From there, it's really quite easy to take a bus or cab for a one hour ride to Playa del Carmen, then a short ferry ride to Cozumel. Only buy
one way tickets for ferries as round-trip tickets do not save money and can cause delays waiting for the designated ferry leaving. From Oslo however, the flights have particular challenges...
This may well vary with dates, but flying into Cozumel can require 30 hours going, 19 hours returning with a 14 hour overnight stop in Atlanta. You'd want to book a hotel there, in advance. Your costs look to be over 11,000 NOK/$1,400 USD round-trip each.
Flying into Cancun is faster, even tho not cheaper. With two plane changes each way, you can make it in 17 hours each way if those connections are not too tight, and Miami may well be better suited for international connections - altho the return may be thru Charlotte North Carolina. Fares about the same as to Cozumel, but avoids the overnight stop.
Flying to Cancun with only one plane change each way would be preferable, but expensive: Only a couple of hours less travel time, but the fares jump to over 17,000 NOK/$2,100 USD! I wouldn't do it.
Now you could fly into Cancun, but depart out of Cozumel - and that looks best to me. One itinerary the system suggested only gives a little more than one hour in DFW on the return so I would not risk that! Another gives a one hour connection in Amsterdam going - big airport so I don't know if that's enough or not - but it's the same airline so maybe ok, then 5 hours in Mexico City - good to avoid the US changes really; on return, I see 3-1/2 hours in Atlanta, then 2 hours in Paris. If you could do that plan, but maybe leave on an earlier flight to give more time in Amsterdam - I'd go for that.
Now since we're talking about Cancun going, you might want to stop there for one or two nights and do Whale Shark snorkeling before Cozumel! Really a wonderful experience if this is not too complex of a plan?
17 hours plane travel time plus 2 hours taxi & ferry with kids sounds horrible, but I had about as bad last summer just flying across a few states, as it was unexpected for planned for. After driving a few hours to catch a cheaper plane from Abilene to Las Vegas, then we got stuck with weather & plane problems in Texas for hours, then got lost in Vegas at night until we found our way into the desert for our remote hotel - where they'd promised to leave our keys hidden for us after the office closed, and we
hoped the rooms would be okay for a shower and a short night of sleep. Longer trip than yours, but we made it ok - and into Death Valley in the morning. Met a lot of Europeans there.
