Cozumel dive or or Tank-Ha for Cozumel dive?

[vacationcrazy]

I'm staying in playa next week and I plan to do 1 or 2 days of diving in Cozumel. Curious if people recommend the cozumel direct with Tank-Ha or taking the ferry and using a Cozumel-based dive op. Thanks!

 

[lthomas132]

Tank-Ha has large enough boats for the crossing, not sure about the charge. That would be easy as long as you don't get seasick. We have always used Fantasea Dive; they'll book with another dive shop in Cozumel for the boat/tanks, etc. and go with you on the ferry which is more stable than a smaller boat. You'll get picked up at the ferry dock, do 2 dives, lunch in Cozumel if you want, back to PDC by early afternoon.

 

[PlayaCountryBoy]

Good morning guys! I would also like to add that Tank Ha has been sold. The purchase did not include their boat that had the Cozumel permissions to go over there. The original owner retained that boat with those permissions since it was and is the only Playa boat which holds those Cozumel permissions. Now, every dive company here in Playa must use the ferry over and subcontract spaces out on the local Cozumel boats. There are over 150 boats over there in Coz, so the Playa dive ops have a large selection to choose from.

 

[lindenbruce]

As stated there are a lot of operators out of Cozumel. But if looking for a recommendation try Aldora Divers. I have spent my last three trips with them and was very happy. B.

 

[MMM]

If you can find a dive op that will wait for your ferry arrival, I would DEFINITELY use a local Cozumel dive op. But you have one other thing to consider, and that is selecting a dive op that picks up in town (there are a handful) at one of the two piers adjacent to the ferry terminal. Otherwise, you are looking at a $10 taxi ride (each way) to caleta, where most boats depart. Takes about 15 minutes. So the no-brainer is to use an op that will pick you up/drop you off in town.

 

[Carlos Danger]

+1 for Aldora here as well. Tank-Ha was one of my favorite ops in Playa. Hope the new owners keep it going.

 

[bigbluemarble]

Dive Balam (10 minutes outside of Playa at the Royal Hacienda hotel) makes direct trips to Cozumel with their own boat. The captain (or one of the captains) is a former Tank-Ha employee who made the trips to Cozumel with T-H's boat so he has years of experience crossing the channel.

It is definitely more comfortable to take the ferry, especially on choppy days, and as others have said, you can relax and enjoy lunch on the island after the dive.

 

[zeppelindiver]

Another vote for the ferry, we have taken the Tank-Ha boat over twice & while Tank-Ha was (is still?) a great shop the crossing was very rough, especially coming back. We have also done the ferry & found it much more relaxing, we can recommend Deep Exposure as a great operator out of Cozumel to go with. They have a larger, more comfortable, enclosed boat than most shops, they will pick you up at the dive boat pier right beside the ferry terminal, they provide a great lunch & will take you to sites away from the crowd. They even added a second DM to the boat at no extra charge after talking to us & realizing that they had 6 divers, 3 of which were very experienced & 3 of which were newbies. That way the experienced divers could dive with one DM & the newbies with the other & everyone had a great time. Definitely the best operator that we have been out with over several trips to Cozumel.