Shore diving in Cozumel

[ReefHound]

One more question, so it looks like there is no direct flight or even a same day flight from Phoenix all of them are overnight lay overs my main airline I usually fly usair has direct 4 hour flights to Cancun I'm thinking of just renting the car at that airport and driving over and taking the ferry over to Cozumel. Is the drive a long one lot of traffic what time of the day would be best?

No, I would not recommend this. Partly out of my own ignorance as I've never taken the car ferry. Nor have I ever heard from a tourist who has. It is not meant for tourist transportation. It is a cargo ferry that allows cars, not a car ferry. From what I've heard it runs on a sporadic schedule with long waits. It might even be once a day. And you better check if they even allow rental cars on it or the rental agencies allow their cars to be on it. They can be funny about things like that.

Your best bet is to fly into Cancun and take a shuttle down to PDC then the passenger ferry across. Search here as there have been dozens of threads on the infamous "bag drop" some with detailed instructions and photos. If you have a group you can arrange a private van for 4-6 people for about $70 one way. If it's just two of you take a shared shuttle or a taxi. If you want to go cheap take the ADO bus for $10/each. Cart guys will get your stuff from the PDC dropoff to the ferry dock for $5 or less. The ferry is about $12/each.

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Now as to the shore diving, call me crazy but I love it! I guess the people who say it sux or is not that good are used to vacation diving with dm boat service. I always boat dive when I go to Coz but I shore dive too. Each has it's advantages. The advantages of boat diving are well covered so I'll tell you why I like shore diving.

Flexible schedule. I can rent a tank and drop in any time of day. Of course if I want to drop in at 10pm or 6am I'll need to have rented my tank when the house shop or wherever was open. I like to do an afternoon shore dive after a morning boat trip. Maybe I'll have lunch first or not. Maybe I'll take a nap first. I'll decide how I feel when I get back to the dock. I'm on nobody else's schedule.

Bottom time. In 20-25 feet of water I can log 2 hours on an AL80.

I can loiter all I want. There's usually less current and no group to stay with so if I want to hover in a spot and watch a pair of butterflies or damsels for 15-30 minutes I can. Great for video and photography plus you have more natural light at 20 feet. I love drift diving but I've often had to leave something interesting because the group was getting too far ahead.

Marine life. I see more stuff on shore dives than on the reefs. Seriously. You don't have the towering pillars of coral but you certainly have lots of fishes and critters in the rubble. Except for a large manta or shark I don't think Ive seen anything on the reef that I haven't seen from shore. The parrots and groupers are not as big but the juvie versions are just as interesting to me. Last month I saw more lobsters and skates and lion fish (unfortunately) on one shore dive than all the reef dives combined.

Cheap. I hope someday I can say that cost is no object but until then I can double my Coz dives for the cost of rental tanks, usually $5 or $6 each.

 

[Tailspin]

We stayed at the FiestAmericana this past March and did both boat and shore diving with the house op, Dive House. Shore diving was really cheap, I think it was something like $7 for an 80AL tank and weights.

The FA has an excellent sand beach / swim / snorkle area out front for non-divers as well.

Our best shore dive was to have someone drive us up past the Money Bar where there is an access road to the shore, and then we would wade in and drift back to the FA (about 90 minutes or so). It was great and as others have said, while the depth is 'only' 20-25 feet, we saw a ton of stuff and I got some of my best pics on those shore dives.

 

[mstevens]

In terms of getting from Cancun to Playa del Carmen in order to take the ferry, there are numerous ways to do this. Renting a car is among the most expensive and hassle-laden, especially since you'll have to drop the car off someplace that won't likely be very near the pier and will need to pay one-way rental fees.

We're actually doing this in September, but will drive to Playa del Carmen via Piste where we'll spend the night to visit Chichen Itza. We rent from Rentadora Isis Playa del Carmen, which will deliver a car to the airport for a fee. They're in the Casa Tucan hotel on Calle 4, which is about 5 minutes' walk from the ferry when we drop the car off the following day. The only thing that makes it worth the expense and extra steps to rent the car is that we're driving it for a couple of days between the airport and the ferry.

There's the ADO bus that's quite cheap, runs often, and gets you to within a few blocks of the ferry terminal. There are also private transfer services that cost more (but still less than car rental), go on your schedule, and drop you off a little closer to the terminal. There is no way for you to get to the actual ferry pier by motor vehicle - the closest is a little parking lot about 2 blocks away.

Traffic on most of highway 307 is not usually bad. The worst parts will be within Playa del Carmen, which is developing quite a traffic problem. It's 56 km (35 miles) from the airport and typically takes 45-60 minutes.

 

[Blastman4444]

The research I have done is the cargo ship operated by Transcaribe that takes cars over does allow rental cars and avis didn't have a problem with it infact they said it's done more then you know they 3-4 times a day the problem I have is it takes over an hour to get accross plus the slow process of loading and unloading the big cargo ship with cars. I'm not sure what we will be doing I really want to dive in the first part of the week so I have a few days before we fly back we can do other things like snorkal or sight see. I like the idea of 20-25 feet as well my wife's sea sickness is also agervated by the fact she has a bad side effect of drowsyness to antihistmines which is what is in all of the meds given for sea sickness. I'm glad to see some good posts on places to go for shore diving in Coz. If the water is smooth I think she will be fine on the boats. I really don't want to be a solo diver always coming back to tell her what I saw on the last dive trip. She really wants to see a shark when we were in Grand Cayman I saw 2 reaf sharks she was back at the hotel in bed sleeping off the patch medication. We are going to be staying in one of the condo rentals the 2 i'm looking at have no bad reviews on tripadvisor the prices are about the same we get a full kitchen.

 

[cruiser]

When shore diving in Cozumel, I like to stay at the Scuba Club Cozumel because they have stairs that easily get you into and out of the water.

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And I know this isn't Coz-related, but if you and your wife like shore diving, I recommend CocoView Resort in Roatan.

 

[ReefHound]

Good to know on the cargo ferry. Did you get the schedule and frequency?

I like the shore dive at Hotel Barracuda. They will let you walk through the lobby and rent a tank at Dive Paradise even if you're not staying there. You have lockers, rinse tank, and entry/exit steps within 50 feet. I prefer giant stride entry off the pier. Just to the south a few hundred feet there is the wreckage of a small plane, artificial reefing materials, and a few hundred feet further is enormous amounts of collapsed pier rubble.

You can also shore dive off the VillaBlanca pier and rent tanks near there from a few shops. I think Scuba Mau if back at that location and Papa Hogs is there.

Some places like Scuba Club or Blue Angel won't let non-guests onto the property at all.

 

[Karibelle]

Good to know on the cargo ferry. Did you get the schedule and frequency?

I like the shore dive at Hotel Barracuda. They will let you walk through the lobby and rent a tank at Dive Paradise even if you're not staying there. You have lockers, rinse tank, and entry/exit steps within 50 feet. I prefer giant stride entry off the pier. Just to the south a few hundred feet there is the wreckage of a small plane, artificial reefing materials, and a few hundred feet further is enormous amounts of collapsed pier rubble.

You can also shore dive off the VillaBlanca pier and rent tanks near there from a few shops. I think Scuba Mau if back at that location and Papa Hogs is there.

Some places like Scuba Club or Blue Angel won't let non-guests onto the property at all.

Here is the schedule for the car ferry. Bienvenidos a Transbordadores del Caribe | Cozumel, México

And I'm not sure where you've heard that Blue Angel won't let non-guests onto the property. Perhaps you had that experience in the past? In all the years I've been working there that has never been the case. It certainly is not true today. Everyone is welcome.

kari

 

[ReefHound]

Great! I happily stand corrected and look forward to a new shore dive on my next visit. Of course, it will be in addition to not instead of a daily boat trip.

 

[Karibelle]

Maybe by then I will have located the frog fish on that shore dive that was photographed by a recent guest, and can take you to it, ReefHound.

 

[scubawife]

If you want a nice resort, why not stay at the Cozumel Palace! I've never heard of anyone shore diving there but you can walk about a 1/2 block north to the Hotel Barracuda and shore dive there. Last winter it was $6 for tank and weights - but I was boat diving with them so maybe they want more for a walk in.

The entry at the barracuda is very nice. Plus theres a bar and lockers there too. There is a collapsed pier near there and it's always a treat to dive. Many people finish their part 2 dives there. Perhaps the biggest downside is that between 10am and 3pm on heavy cruise ship days it gets pretty overrun with cruise ship crew - but we've never had any issues wit them.

Last winter I found my first sea horse on this dive. It was so cool to just sit and watch it for several minutes with no one else around and barely any curent to fight. Of course that was the only dive where I left the camera behind.

Aquaworld at the Palace will rent you tanks to shore dive. We stay at El Cantil and I saw quite a few people diving from there last time I was down. I even went over and asked about it. You just have to be careful about what time of they day you choose to go out since there can be a lot of boat traffic around the Palace and El Cantil at pick and drop off times.