Cozumel Trip Help

[baptizo]

My wife and I are planning a trip to Cozumel in November. I am trying to figure out where to stay/dive. We have never been there.

My wife does not dive so I want to find a dive shop/charter that will take us both and let her snorkel while I dive. Would like to leave in morning and have two tank dives back by noon and have the rest of the day to hang out/relax.

Any suggestions? Surely I am not the only one that doesn't want to leave his wife at the hotel while I go dive?

Would prefer to stay at hotel that dive boats picks up at to limit traveling around town and has a beach.
Am I asking too much?

Thanks so much for yall's help.

 

[Ron Lee]

Perhaps you could stay at Allegro, Occidental Grand or Iberostar. One or more of the hotel dive ops there make single tank trips and come back to the hotel in between.

 

[baptizo]

Thanks for the quick reply and the hotel suggestion.. But....
What about taking my wife (non-diver) on the boat? That is the part I am not sure about?

 

[Ron Lee]

What about taking my wife (non-diver) on the boat? That is the part I am not sure about?

I don't know about that. With typical first dives being deepish, she won't see anything. Maybe one of the resident dive shop owners would know of a dive op that allows this.

 

[drrich2]

The problem is, a typical coral reef scuba dive is going to be in 30 to 100 feet of water (roughly). That's going to put a snorkeler pretty high up off the action.

Richard.

 

[AFD362]

My wife and I stayed at Iberostar in late June, nice place with good service, food and amenities. They also have a nice beach and pool. The onsite dive op is Dressel Divers, our group did not use them but I have heard good things about them. The dive op we used was not allowed to use the dock at Iberostar so our group had to back pack about a 1/2 mile to the resort next door to be picked up (occidental grand I think). It also had a nice beach so it may be worth checking out also. As far as snorkeling I am not sure, the dive OP we used took us to spots that were too deep but the diving was amazing. We did do some snorkeling around the dock at Iberostar (it was loaded with fish) but once you get away from the dock there is nothing to see. The dive OP does 2 tank dives leaving around 9 ish and returns for lunch then back out for the 2nd dive. If your wife is into a nice beach, pool and resort then she will be happy but the snorkeling will not be that great.

 

[Karibelle]

There are sites that would accommodate both divers and snorkelers, a couple of Palancar spots, Santa Rosa, and others. Blue Angel does offer a dive/snorkel combo boat that would meet the needs of the OP, except for timing. Our trip leaves around 11 a.m. and returns around 3:30 p.m. or 4 p.m. That boat visits two dive sites, and takes snorkels to a suitable spot nearby. Perhaps another shop offers a similar trip with better timing for the OP, I don't know.

kari

 

[divingjd]

Taking her along to snorkel probably won't work very well. Cozumel dive sites, particularly for the first dive, are generally pretty deep, 80 feet or more, and the top of the reef is often 60 feet or deeper. There's not much for a snorkeler to see. There is also fairly heavy boat traffic, particularly on the Palancar sites, so there are safety issues for snorkelers. On top of that, it's live boat drift diving, so it's hard to stay together.

 

[baptizo]

Thanks so much for yall's input. I did not think about the depth of the dives making snorkeling a waste of time.

Kari - can you tell me more about the Blue Angel Dive/Snorkel combo?

 

[diverokc]

I would just ask the dive op's when you talk to them. I dive with dive paradise and in june we had a gentleman and his 15 yr old son and 8 yr old daughter aboard. We dove while she snorkeled around the boat. Yes i agree the depths may not be good for snorkeling ,but i bet alot of dive op's would accomadate you. I know at occidental they do their service intervals back at the beach since they are so close to the dive sites. Since the first dive is usually deeper maybe she can just go on the second shallower dives.