SCUBA Club Cozumel

[Peter Stoddard]

I am taking my 13 year old Jr Diver to Coz Thanksgiving week, staying at Suites Colonial. Check that place out on TripAdviser - great reviews, very near downtown square. Basic, but about $50/night for a 2 bed suite - with apparently a killer breakfast buffet included at a nearby sister hotel. That is what swayed me vs the Keys, where I could find no lodging under $150/night. I have been to Coz many times, and I know a divemaster who is outstanding with young divers if you are interested.

If you do stay at the all-inclusive by all means venture out for a dinner or 2 on or around the San Miguel square. Great cheap meals are to be found in every direction, including some outstanding cantinas few tourists find a little further from town.

 

[Doc Harry]

...but I've had more interesting night dives in the Andaman Sea than on Paradise...

Sadly, I was very disappointed with night dives in Andaman Sea. I've been on Paradise Reef many times, and I only did one 10-day liveaboard trip on the Andaman Sea. So perhaps if I dove the Andaman more often I would change my mind. But I doubt it.

My recommendation remains unchanged. Cozumel is the best.

 

[Mossman]

Sadly, I was very disappointed with night dives in Andaman Sea. I've been on Paradise Reef many times, and I only did one 10-day liveaboard trip on the Andaman Sea. So perhaps if I dove the Andaman more often I would change my mind. But I doubt it.

My recommendation remains unchanged. Cozumel is the best.

I'm curious why it's the best. I've seen some octopus and the usual Caribbean crustaceans on night dives in Cozumel, but nothing mind blowing. I would call it "nice" but hardly the best.

I doubt I've dove the best. The manta night dives off Kona were pretty spectacular. A spooky night dive on the Fujikawa Maru. The town pier in Kralendijk. The memorable Andaman Sea night dives at Black Rock, Three Islets, and South Twin Island in Burma. Mandarinfish Lake in Palau. The night dive off Manuelita with white-tips bumping you in their hurry to get to their buffet. But Indonesia probably has the "best" in my admittedly limited experience. Black Magic off Pulau Sangeang, a smorgasbord of exotica. And Cannibal Rock at night, OMG!

But if Paradise Reef is really the best, why dive anywhere else?

 

[Doc Harry]

I'm curious why it's the best.

Typical night dive on Paradise Reef:

-Schools of squid playing with my dive light
-Sea horses on sea grass
-Giant hermit crabs in the sand
-More than 20 octopi
-More than 30 crabs
-Moray eels attacking and eating fish
etc., etc.


Typical night dives in Asia and the Great Barrier Reef:

-Trevally fish follow you around and gobble up everything and anything before you have a chance to see anything

 

[Mossman]

Typical night dives in Asia and the Great Barrier Reef:

-Trevally fish follow you around and gobble up everything and anything before you have a chance to see anything

And you've done enough diving in Asia to know what's "typical" without having even visited Indonesia, which most would agree has the "best" diving in the world, let alone Malaysia, the Philippines, or PNG? That's like commenting on Cozumel diving having only dove the Florida Keys.

 

[Doc Harry]

I can be in Cozumel in 6 hours for $450.

I can get to the PI or Thailand or Indonesia in about 25 hours for $1,500.

It's a no-brainer.

 

[Mossman]

I can be in Cozumel in 6 hours for $450.

I can get to the PI or Thailand or Indonesia in about 25 hours for $1,500.

It's a no-brainer.

So it's the best because it's the most convenient? With that logic, your Appalachian swamps are "the best".

I can be in Pacific kelp forests in 1 hour for $50 and see octopi, lobster, morays, crab, squid, rays, you name it. But I know it's not the best.