Trip planning advice

[jejton]

Considering a trip to Cozumel this May. Will be our first. We are both AOW, Nitrox certified. Not the biggest fans of drift diving but considering giving this a try anyway, particularly since it may end up being the most reasonably priced option. Trying to decide between staying at a dive resort vs vacation rental or hotel and independent dive op. We wont be eating resort food for the most part so vacation rentals that allow us to prepare our own food are an attractive option. We may go out to eat once or twice in town while there. OTOH, being able to get the full dive service that some of the resorts offer, options to throw in some shore dive and minimal to no travelling to get to pier or pickup area are a plus. This will be a dive trip for one week so want to get in as much diving as possible, with other activities not a priority (maybe sit at a bar for some music at the end of the day). What advice can you share?

 

[wateraddiction]

look at Villa Aldora -- sounds exactly what you're looking for.

 

[jejton]

Thanks. Just reached out to them as it does look like it may fit the bill. One thing I'm curious about. They mention the onsite reef, and I've seen posts here that mention shore diving, but their website mentions only snorkeling. Do they provide tanks for independent shore diving on site ? Also, do dive operators pick up from there, aside from Aldora Divers? In case, we opt to go with another operator.

 

[wateraddiction]

My understanding is that if you dive with Aldora (and they've long been considered one of the best shops on the island) that you're provided with tanks for shorediving when staying at VA. I haven't stayed here yet (I have young kids) and the villas didn't exist when I was certified with Aldora but their shop was just outstanding and their divemasters were excellent across the board. They set such a high standard and I find I'm continually comparing other operations to Aldora and the only ones that even came close were in Bonaire.

 

[WildHog]

We just got back from Cozumel. We stayed at all inclusive Iberostar Resort and they have a dive shop within. I was told was that if you don't stay in the resort you have to pay $150/day to access their beach and dive shop.
My personal recommendation would be to book a resort that has a dive operation on site. This way you only pay for air. Take a look at this Iberostar. My dive house goes there every year. The price for a week was about $2200 CAD and included the flight and one checked luggage/person.

 

[MarkH]

Thanks. Just reached out to them as it does look like it may fit the bill. One thing I'm curious about. They mention the onsite reef, and I've seen posts here that mention shore diving, but their website mentions only snorkeling. Do they provide tanks for independent shore diving on site ? Also, do dive operators pick up from there, aside from Aldora Divers? In case, we opt to go with another operator.

I stayed there in Dec. last year. They provide free steel tanks and weights (and snorkeling gear) at the hotel. The tanks are smaller than the ones they use on the boats. The area out in front of the hotel is a wall that drops to sand and seagrass about 10' deep. In my opinion, it's great snorkeling. As far as scuba diving, I did a dive there to sort out weighting before going on the boat dives. I also wanted to take some macro photos, which are hard for me to do while snorkeling. If I wasn't taking photos, I'd probably just snorkel it since it's so shallow and you can see everything anyway. These are the photos I took while snorkeling there:villaaldorasnorkeling
These ones are from the scuba dive I did there:villaaldoradiving.
This was the video from snorkeling:

 

[jejton]

Both Aldora Divers and Villa Aldora look like they would suit our needs. I am a bit concerned about Villa Aldora's cash only payment policy. I can't recall ever having paid cash in the past 2 decades to stay anywhere. I really would hate to see that money lost with no recourse if anything were to go awry (cancellation on my end or theirs). As for AD, they seem like a good shop but also seem to be pricier than most other ops I've looked at. Thoughts?

 

[morecowbells]

Most dive ops in Cozumel will store and clean your gear after diving; which is why Cozumel is known for having 'valet dive' services. I do not stay at dive resorts, but opt for condo rentals. Personally I like staying on the south end of the island since it means shorter boat rides to the reefs. Most dive ops will pick you up at various piers. The downside to staying south, is the lack of restaurants. I don't use Aldora, but they have been around for a long time and have a good reputation; ergo, I wouldn't be worried about losing money.

 

[MarkH]

We found the cash-only thing to be strange too. It seemed like a lot of money to be carrying in your pocket. You don't have to pay until you arrive so if you cancel at the last minute, you don't have to pay anything, unlike many other hotels that you prepay with a credit card from a booking site well in advance. With those, there's often a penalty or no refund if you cancel within a couple days of the visit. We took out USD cash at home before we left so there was no hassle with finding a safe ATM late at night when we arrived. As far as Aldora Divers, they are the only operation I dove with so I can't compare with the others. It is pretty much the most expensive operation in town as far as I could tell. Their selling point is that they use larger tanks than the other ops so you get longer dives. For me, the main selling point was the convenience of being picked up in the morning by the boat literally a stone's throw from my room. I could have chosen a cheaper dive op, but saving $20 for me wasn't worth it to deal with early morning taxis or whatever to get to the docks in town to meet up with all the other dive boats. Keep in mind, the published dive trip prices are just the base price and then there are all the add-ons like taxes, marine park fee, gear rentals, etc. Nitrox cost an extra $20 per tank and for many of these long dives at an average of 60' depths, Nitrox wasn't optional. My 2-tank trip ended up costing close to $300 Canadian (over $200 US) plus a tip. That's almost double what we pay for local dive charters here in Canada. As far as the hotel Villa Aldora goes, we booked it for a few reasons:
1: The snorkeling. My wife doesn't dive, but we like to spend much of the day in the water so the convenient snorkeling here was the main reason. We didn't have to worry about driving to a beach, finding parking or figuring out where we were going to stash our wallets, keys, clothes, etc. when we were in the water.
2: The location. It's just outside of town so it's quiet with no loud thumping music from nearby bars or beach clubs, but it's close enough that you can walk or bike into town. The hotel has a bunch of bikes that you can use for free. There is a strip of a few waterfront restaurants between the hotel and downtown for an ever quicker walk or bike ride. I've heard a negative is that it's North of town, while the diving is South of town so the distance makes for longer boat rides to the reefs. I personally didn't feel like the boat rides were long or anything so that wasn't an issue for me.

As a final observation, the staff at the Villa Aldora were helpful and friendly. They have a kind of social meet-and-greet for the guests about once a week where they put on cake and snacks and beer/drinks. We're pretty introverted so we didn't go, but I guess it's a good way for normal people to socialize with each other. Our unit (Crystal Suite) didn't have a full kitchen, but it had a fridge/microwave/coffee maker and a drinking water dispenser. We were pretty disappointed by many of the restaurants in town. Maybe we're spoiled by good Mexican restaurants up here in Canada, where they have lots of fresh, spicy ingredients. Almost all the restaurants in Cozumel we went to, including a few local places well away from downtown, were very plain and bland. The tacos were usually frozen meat, chopped up and cooked in a microwave and then put in tortillas with no sauce or salsa or vegetables. We thought it must have been a mistake, until we went to other places and they were mostly all like that. We ended up going to one of the big supermarkets and getting various spicy dishes (mostly mole) from their deli section, some fresh salsa and a stack of tortillas and making our own at the hotel. Having that on the balcony of the hotel with some beers a few feet from the water watching the sunset beats any crap restaurant.

 

[jejton]

Most dive ops in Cozumel will store and clean your gear after diving; which is why Cozumel is known for having 'valet dive' services. I do not stay at dive resorts, but opt for condo rentals. Personally I like staying on the south end of the island since it means shorter boat rides to the reefs. Most dive ops will pick you up at various piers. The downside to staying south, is the lack of restaurants. I don't use Aldora, but they have been around for a long time and have a good reputation; ergo, I wouldn't be worried about losing money.

I was referring to Villa Aldora, not Aldora Divers, requesting payment only in cash. And its not just about them purposely stealing my money, but as well know many things go wrong with a trip and by paying with credit card, theres added protection and (often included trip insurance).