Diving Cozumel from Cancun

[shedthegear]

I am staying in Cancun for 7 nights and would love to take 2 or 3 day trips out to Cozumel to dive. (Most are 2-dive trips)

Any suggestions on a good operator (out of Cancun)?

Any good dives local to Cancun?

Never dove Mexico before, so any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

[ggunn]

I am staying in Cancun for 7 nights and would love to take 2 or 3 day trips out to Cozumel to dive. (Most are 2-dive trips)

Any suggestions on a good operator (out of Cancun)?

Any good dives local to Cancun?

Never dove Mexico before, so any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Staying in Cancun and diving Cozumel is somewhat problematic. It takes 2-3 hours each way if you go overland to Playa del Carmen and take the ferry across, and making connections for a morning Coz dive means a very early departure from Cancun.

You can book a Coz dive with Aquaworld out of Cancun, or so I hear, but they are a cattle boat operation and it's a very long boat ride (about 50 miles) from Cancun to the dive spots off the southwestern corner of Cozumel.

If you want to spend 2-3 days diving Cozumel, it might be worth considering to move your base there for a couple of nights.

 

[Ron Brandt]

Gordon is right. If you miss the ferry at Playa you can ruin the dive day for everone and can be problematic.

Hell,try Aquaworld and let us know.

At christmas we had people come in from Cancun to dive, but they have done the trip before and planed for it. They came over to Coz the afternoon befor dive day,got hooked up with an inexpensive room for the night and had a great time the next day.

Ron

 

[5615mike]

Staying in Cancun and diving Cozumel is somewhat problematic. It takes 2-3 hours each way if you go overland to Playa del Carmen and take the ferry across, and making connections for a morning Coz dive means a very early departure from Cancun.

You can book a Coz dive with Aquaworld out of Cancun, or so I hear, but they are a cattle boat operation and it's a very long boat ride (about 50 miles) from Cancun to the dive spots off the southwestern corner of Cozumel.

If you want to spend 2-3 days diving Cozumel, it might be worth considering to move your base there for a couple of nights.

Ditto

 

[Shoc369]

My husband and I are staying in Cancun from May 8-17 (we have too many non-divers in our group). We will be diving in Cozumel. I have researched every possible way to do this the most efficiently and this is what we are doing (you may want to give it a shot):

We arranged dependable transporatation through Brant
(the www.entertainment-plus.net guy) so we will not miss the ferry, and a car will be waiting for us upon our return from Coz. I e-mailed about 10 dive ops in Cozumel and based on the responses I received (and other reviews), we will be diving with Raul Platas from www.bottomtimedivers.net He has been wonderful! He has been so-o-o-o-o helpful in our planning. He has towels, fruit, snacks, water, parkas available for our use. He does not charge more money to the farther reefs. He is also being very flexible due to our unique situation of staying in Cancun.

Here is what our day is going to be like:

Leave Dreams Cancun Resort: 4:45 a.m.
Arrive Playa Del Carmen: 5:45 a.m.
Catch ferry from Playa to Coz: 6:00 a.m.
Ferry arrives in Coz: approx. 6:45 a.m.
Raul will pick us up right at ferry pier (he will be holding a sign)
We will be on the first dive site around 8:00 a.m.
We will dive 2 tanks at two different reefs
Boat will drop us off at a beach for surface interval (where we will have lunch) and pick us back up 1 1/2 hours later
We will dive 2 more tanks at two different reefs
Done diving by 5:00 p.m.
Raul will drop us back off at ferry pier
Catch the 6:00 p.m. ferry back to Playa Del Carmen
Ferry arrives back in Playa approx 6:45 p.m.
Car will be waiting for us at 6:45 p.m.
Arrive back at Dreams Cancun at approx. 7:45 - 8:00 p.m.

Raul also gave us the option of coming on the 8:00 a.m. ferry (so you'd have to leave Cancun at 6:45 a.m. instead of 4:45 a.m.), but it would obviously push your arrival time back by two hours. We wanted to get back to have dinner with our family, so we opted for the ungodly 4:45 a.m. departure - but you don't have to! There is an 8:00 p.m ferry back to Playa if you choose to do the later schedule.

All in all, this trip will cost us about $50.00 more each than if we arranged through a Cancun dive op. BUT we are getting 4 tanks of diving instead of 2, personalized service and we are getting a private car for transporatation directly from our hotel (not a bus from a dive shop, a public cab or multiple public buses). And MOST importantly to us - we got to pick the 4 reefs we want to dive. We already decided on them with Raul and we will be on a fast boat with no more than 6 divers.

So this can be done if you are so inclined! You can also arrange this scenario with 2 tanks of diving (either a.m. or p.m. but we figured since we were traveling such a long way, we might as well dive 4 tanks). We have dived 4 tanks in a day in the past and we know it is not a problem for us. Raul also has Nitrox tanks available.

If you need more specifics, feel free to post back here or PM me. Good luck!

P.S. Aquaworld no longer takes their own boat to Cozumel. In fact, every dive op in Cancun, that goes to Cozumel, will bus you to Playa to catch the ferry, including Aquaworld. There are no longer ANY boats (other than private charters) that go directly from Cancun to Cozumel for diving.

 

[ggunn]

Here is what our day is going to be like:

Leave Dreams Cancun Resort: 4:45 a.m.
Arrive Playa Del Carmen: 5:45 a.m.
Catch ferry from Playa to Coz: 6:00 a.m.
Ferry arrives in Coz: approx. 6:45 a.m.
Raul will pick us up right at ferry pier (he will be holding a sign)
We will be on the first dive site around 8:00 a.m.
We will dive 2 tanks at two different reefs
Boat will drop us off at a beach for surface interval (where we will have lunch) and pick us back up 1 1/2 hours later
We will dive 2 more tanks at two different reefs
Done diving by 5:00 p.m.
Raul will drop us back off at ferry pier
Catch the 6:00 p.m. ferry back to Playa Del Carmen
Ferry arrives back in Playa approx 6:45 p.m.
Car will be waiting for us at 6:45 p.m.
Arrive back at Dreams Cancun at approx. 7:45 - 8:00 p.m.

Let us know how that works out, OK? That's a pretty tightly timed out and fairly complex schedule, and such things are, in my experience, less commonly successful in Mexico than in the US. Good luck.

 

[Shoc369]

Let us know how that works out, OK? That's a pretty tightly timed out and fairly complex schedule, and such things are, in my experience, less commonly successful in Mexico than in the US. Good luck.

Gordon-

Everything should be okay because we have safeguards in place in case something happens. That's why I said to PM me for more specifics. Raul knows that if we miss the 6:00 a.m. ferry, we will be coming on the 8:00 which would still work because they usually take their first boat out around 8:30 or 9:00 and will wait. On the way back, we can call Brant if we miss the 6:00 p.m. ferry so our car will be waiting at 8:45 p.m instead. The only really "complex" part of the schedule is getting to and from Playa on time. That's why our local transporataion was arranged through someone who actually lives in Cancun and does tours, transportaion, etc. for a living so he guaranteed that our private cars will be waiting at the right times. Once we arrive on Coz, Raul will handle everything on the island. But, nonetheless, we will cross our fingers and I will post when I get back to let everyone know how this went!

 

[ggunn]

Gordon-

Everything should be okay because we have safeguards in place in case something happens. That's why I said to PM me for more specifics. Raul knows that if we miss the 6:00 a.m. ferry, we will be coming on the 8:00 which would still work because they usually take their first boat out around 8:30 or 9:00 and will wait. On the way back, we can call Brant if we miss the 6:00 p.m. ferry so our car will be waiting at 8:45 p.m instead. The only really "complex" part of the schedule is getting to and from Playa on time. That's why our local transporataion was arranged through someone who actually lives in Cancun and does tours, transportaion, etc. for a living so he guaranteed that our private cars will be waiting at the right times. Once we arrive on Coz, Raul will handle everything on the island. But, nonetheless, we will cross our fingers and I will post when I get back to let everyone know how this went!

I disagree; the whole thing is complex compared to my routine, which is to roll out of bed, gather my gear, and get on the boat. ;^)

But anyway, I wish you the best of luck with that. Maybe we'll run into one another; I'll be there May 8-22 and diving with Blue Angel. I'll be the one in the 3mm shorty with yellow sleeves, a beat up canvas hat that used to be white, and a Grateful Dead Tshirt.

 

[McRatliff]

We just got back from cancun, yes it would be a full day. Just as Ron stated you can find a cheap room in coz. Plus don't pass up the cenotes(very nice). We dove with scubacaribe and things were ok. Most shops in cancun can set you up with a coz trip.

 

[Shoc369]

Gordon-

Yes it is very complex compared to your routine and I'll admit that looking at it from that perspective - it is very complex compared to my usual as well. Why did you have to make me see it like that?!? Now every minute will feel like an hour commuting to and from Coz! Well at least we're only doing it once and the rest of the days I can roll out of bed, eat breakfast and dive right off of the hotel pier with Solo Buceo! We actually will be diving in Coz with Bottom Time Divers on Thursday, May 12th. I'll be the 5'4" 115 lb., long haired girl all in black gear from head to toe! DH wears black and yellow. If I see Blue Angel's boat I'll keep an eye out for you! (Long shot but you never know!). Anyway, take care.

Stephanie