What are the Nicest Lodging Choices Set up for Convenient, Good Diving

[sullivan]

My wife and I are looking into our first trip to Cozumel and I’m having difficulty finding a resort. For people that have visited Cozumel frequently, what are the 2-3 highest end/nicest properties on the island which are set up for convenient diving with a good operator?
When don’t necessarily need a huge resort with tons of amenities although I would not rule out such a resort. We’re not interested in tiny B&B type places. A nice beach and/or pool would be ideal. Since it is our first time visiting Cozumel, on site food or proximity to several restaurants would be ideal. By way of comparison for anyone who has visited Provo, we usually stay in Villa Renaissance or LeVele and when we go to Grand Cayman we usually stay at Coral Stone Club or Discovery Point Club.
Many thanks for any suggestions.

 

[Sideways]

As far as the "Complete" package I'd say Blue Angel. Not too big, nice pool area, great dive shop, fast smaller boats. Also a restuarant/bar. The only drawback for us is it's a mile or so outside of town, which we go to about every night.

 

[bbarada]

Scuba Club Cozumel!!

 

[Mossman]

My wife and I are looking into our first trip to Cozumel and I’m having difficulty finding a resort. For people that have visited Cozumel frequently, what are the 2-3 highest end/nicest properties on the island which are set up for convenient diving with a good operator?
When don’t necessarily need a huge resort with tons of amenities although I would not rule out such a resort. We’re not interested in tiny B&B type places. A nice beach and/or pool would be ideal. Since it is our first time visiting Cozumel, on site food or proximity to several restaurants would be ideal. By way of comparison for anyone who has visited Provo, we usually stay in Villa Renaissance or LeVele and when we go to Grand Cayman we usually stay at Coral Stone Club or Discovery Point Club.
Many thanks for any suggestions.

Basically, [almost] any hotel/resort with its own dock and situated south of town is ideally set up for convenient diving with a good operator. The reason why: good operators will pick you up right at the dock and will store your gear for you, obviating the need to combine a hotel and dive op in one. (I say almost, because some hotels may not permit this, a sort of embargo against outside dive ops in order to favor their in-house one).

The highest end non-all-inclusive of this sort would be El Presidente. There are a few high-end all-inclusive resorts that have good to excellent on-site (and included) food. I can personally recommend two of these: Cozumel Palace, which is just south of town, easy walking distance to shopping (and restaurants/bars, though you're already paying dearly for that at the Palace rates), and Secrets Aura, which is one of the "southern" resorts, a very expensive cab ride from town, but IMO a more "island" feel with a beach and tropical flora. Both of these, as well as many others, have on-site docks that permit one of the many high-end dive shops on the island to pick you up, your dive gear already set up and ready to dive. The southern resorts have the added bonus of being very close to the more popular dive sites, thus a shorter boat ride that may give you an additional 15-30 minutes of sleep in the morning and more margarita time in the afternoon. Nothing is more convenient than simply walking to the end of the dock after breakfast, save for the liveaboard dive experience which Cozumel does not offer.

 

[mstevens]

High-end hotel with a dock for the dive boat? The Intercontinental Presidente, hands-down.

I wouldn't use their in-house dive op since there are excellent small boutique operators that will pick you up there and provide a better dive experience. The same is true of nearly any other hotel on the island.

 

[sharky60]

First of all, most places are "convenient for diving". If the hotel/resort doesn't have it's own dive op, or you choose to dive with a dive op that is not associated with the hotel you choose, most dive ops pick up at most of the hotels/resorts that are seaside on the island. south of town that is. Most dive ops do not pick up in the Northern Hotel zone as a rule.

Blue Angel would be an excellent choice as Sideways said. Our Cozumel home for the past 7 years or so, it has 22 large, comfortable rooms, all facing the ocean. has it's own and very popular dive operation on site and the restaurant is very good.

Aldora Divers/Villa Aldora is another great choice. They ARE in the northern hotel zone, but have their own EXCELLENT dive operation, so they obviously will pick you up at the fabulous Villa Aldora. Again a small, beautifully laid out compact property, small pool & beach area and a short walk or bike ride (they have bike for you to use) to town.

If you want a more 'all inclusive' type stay, Scuba Club is quite popular as well. Just south of town. No TV's or phones in the room, if that's important to you, but always a highly recommended spot.

If you are into shore diving, all three of these places have excellent shore dives as well...

this of course is a VERY short list of the many great places to stay and wonderful dive operations we have on the island.

 

[DjDiverDan]

While I don't mean to belittle either Scuba Club or Blue Angel, neither are what I would classify as "High End" - they are both fine, but really more toward the Budget end of the scale in terms of facilities. The fact is that Cozumel requires some tradeoffs. My two biggest loves of Cozumel are the diving and the dining - Cozumel is really kind of unique in terms of the number of very good restaurants at all price points. But most of the restaurants are downtown, in San Miguel, which is a long boat ride from the reefs, and there are NO hotels or Resorts close to downtown which have ready access to any meaningful beach area. The closest thing to a "high end" resort downtown is the Cozumel Palace, which is an easy walk to town, but it is All-Inclusive, meaning that if you want to go to the local restaurants for lunches or dinners you'll pay for the same meals twice. It still doesn't any meaningful beach area, though you can snorkel or shore dive right out back. For real "beach", you need to go way south, to places like Sabor or the Occidental. They are very convenient to the reefs, but I don't think that I would use the house Dive Op at either location. You might have to pay an extra fee to have another Dive Op use their pier, but it would be worth it to get the best quality Dive experience. Occidental is probably the highest end Resort (but I could be wrong - I don't do All-Inclusives on Cozumel, I like the variety and quality of restaurants far too much), but the far South Resorts are all All-Inclusive and very far from town. There are some nice resorts North of town, but those are very inconvenient for diving, and you will probably have to take a car or taxi to the Caleta every morning to meet a Dive Boat. If diving is a major part of your vacation plan, I'd rule out the North Hotel Zone (with the possible exception of Aldora Villas, which is owned by and served by Aldora Divers, one of the most popular high-end valet dive operators on the Island; I'd recommend Aldora as a Dive Op even if you aren't staying there).

 

[Ron Lee]

In what universe is Blue Angel "high end" lodging?

Mossman gave you three good options. Villa Aldora has several condos that are nice but I do not know if they fit into your concept of high end lodging. Aldora would be my suggestion for a dive op regardless of where you stay.

Perhaps a condo or home setting might work as well.

 

[DjDiverDan]

As a non-All-Inclusive alternative, the Presidente is probably a pretty good choice. It is still a ways south of town, but not as far as the others, like Secrets, Sabor, or Occidental, and it has beach and ready access to diving. If you were going to rent a car so you could drive into town for dining and shopping, Presidente could work well. You might also check into the newly remodeled (pretty much completely gutted and rebuit!) Fiesta Americana, which is also closer to town than the far South Resorts, and it has a nice beach area and easy access to diving.

 

[Zeagle Eagle]

I think he said "high end". That would leave Blue Angel and Scuba Club out. Cozumel Palace is the top of my list although the beach area is rather rocky. Presidente is good; but, too far out of town.