San Carlos Mexico

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AZ_Zoner

Contributor
Scuba Instructor
Messages
352
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5
Location
Valley of the Sun, AZ.
# of dives
Where do people stay and who do you dive with when you go to San Carlos?

I've only gone down twice and would like to dive more often down there. We've stayed at the San Carlos Plaza once and at the Condos Pilar once.

Condos Pilar is a hit or miss on how nice the condo is. We missed big time when we there the last time. But we did get a full refund, which was totally unexpected.

San Carlos plaza was nice and clean. There is a nice beach there with a few palapas. Food was kinda of bland but it's not to far out that you can drive back into town for meals.

We dove on the Nomad, which is a very nice dive boat and is run through Saguaro Diving in Mesa. We also did a one-day boat with Gary's, one of his smaller boats. I can't recommend Gary's boats. Crowded, Very Crowded. And the seas that they took us out in was a very unsafe.

If anyone else has any recommendations I'd like to here them.
Especially dive sites. We hope to head down towards the end of June.

CB
 
I dive with Surface Time in San Carlos. They are located right next to Tequilla's restaurant and about 500 feet from the Marina Terra hotel. They have a nice shop, nice staff, and certainly don't run a cattle boat operation. Even if you don't dive with them you should stop by the shop. I think it is easily the best equipped in town.

They have two boats. One is fairly small, they take out 4 to 6 normally. If you only have 2 or 3 in your group you might get it to yourself. The other boat is larger, but not set up like a typical dive boat. The dive deck is a little small, but it is very workable. The rest of the boat is very spacious and comfortable for your surface intervals.

As for where to stay. The Marina Terra was nice the last time I stayed there, but that was about 5 years ago. I've known poeple who stayed in some of the lower budget places (Gringo Pete's, Creston Motel, etc). All said the rooms were adequate, but not fancy.
 
I just got my open water cert at san carlos. went through desert divers in tucson. their shop down there is called ocean sports, and have really great crew and not crowded.
 
just recently got OW cert. down in san carlos, stayed in a private condow my dive master hooked up for my crew. dove with garys dive shop. yes the boats were what i would a little over crowded. you try to go somewhere and you would slame into someone! and the same situation with the water, it was so choppy i thought i was going to have to swim back to shore. but the crew was really nice and good fish tacos. i got cert. through the dive shop here in tucson. had greattime with our class of 12. great instructors!!!
-James
 
I stay at Gringo Pete's, cheap, large, has a kitchen, sleeps 6, no bugs, no frills, and cold ac... what more could you ask for? Definitley not fancy but you are supposed to be diving the whole time right?
 
divrnr,

Does Gringo Pete's have private bathrooms, or are they shared?
 
private baths and nice full kitchen with dishes and silverware...
 
We dive with El Mar dive shop in Mesa. They own a dive shop in San Carlos as well (same name) which is convenient. They did a great job - the bus ride down had videos, games, prizes, and was a great group. Stayed at Plaza Las Glorias - very nice hotel for San Carlos! Big, clean rooms, nice property. Highly recommend them. Check them out at www.elmar.com
(Their local dive shop is huge, tons of gear, and the staff is excellent!)
 
i'm from california, do you san carlos like the reservation? If so, I stay in globe, that way i am on US soil most of the time, avoids some of the problems you get on a roudy night on some parts of the reservation, (reads: drunken people). You can stay at any of the nice hotels there in globe, although there are some dumps there i would certainly avoid.
 

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