Place to stay: long sandy beach + diving

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

Eternum

Registered
Messages
13
Reaction score
1
Location
US
# of dives
100 - 199
Hi folks,

I am trying to find compromise for a place to stay in January. My son and I are both divers and place like Blue Angel would work perfectly fine for us. However, my wife needs long sandy beach. She likes to walk for hours and she got used to places like 7 Miles Beach in Grand Cayman, or beaches in Turks. Four or five years ago we stayed at Iberostar and I do not recall anything particularly wrong with that place. I do not care if that is AI or not. Probably non-AI closer to the town would be ideal, so we can go to different places to eat. But at the end AI or non-AI does not really matter as long as it is good place on sandy beach and within reach for dive operators. Any suggestions?

Thanks!
 
You can walk a long ways staying at either the Allegro (when they reopen) or the Occidental Grand.

Go to Google Earth to verify that.

You can add the Iberostar (walk north) and the Sabor/Aura complex if you do not mind ironshore at the waters edge or in the water near the shore. You would also have to transit the Carlos and Charlies area going south from Sabor/Aura.
 
If you're into AI's, the Occidental Grand has a nice long sandy beach. But it is NOT close to town. (very short boat ride to the reef though :-D ) Really, it's the only drawback to the place. We stayed there a few years ago and although AI's aren't our deal, we were quite impressed with the place. BIG rooms, beautiful grounds, the food was good when we were there, not the same thing day-in and day-out on the buffet's. Not much to do at night and the cab fare to town will put you into shock, but if you are the "stay on the compound" types, it's quite nice.

If you stay at BA, she could beach comb just to the south along Villablanca beach. There are also some public beaches, just to the north.

I usually spend some time at the little bit of beach located just behind the dry dock beside Blue Angel's pool, it's small, but I've wasted many an afternoon poking around the sand and coral deposits there by the wading pool.

for the most part, any beaches at the hotels and resorts are man made. the natural coastline along the channel is mostly 'iron rock' limestone. I think maybe some of the hotels up north have more beachline, but then again other than Aldora, they are not very "diver friendly" as most dive ops don't pick up in the northern hotel zone.

for long stretches of natural sand, you need to head over to the "wild side", the Caribbean/ East side of the island. she could take a cab down to Rastas, LOTS of sandy beach to explore down that way, and of course on up the road to the east side.

Chen Rio, Playa Bonita & Mescalitos also have nice beach access.

St. Martin Beach (just to the south of the Coconut's area), is probably one of the prettiest stretches of sand in the Caribbean, but since Andale Bar closed, (unless if someone has re-opened that space), there are no services there.
 
You can walk a long ways staying at either the Allegro (when they reopen) or the Occidental Grand.

Go to Google Earth to verify that.

You can add the Iberostar (walk north) and the Sabor/Aura complex if you do not mind ironshore at the waters edge or in the water near the shore. You would also have to transit the Carlos and Charlies area going south from Sabor/Aura.

When I try Google Map to search for Occidental Grand, it points me to Allegro on the Cozumel map and says "Closed". Is this the same hotel?
 
There are three hotels at the southern end. Iberostar, Grand and Allegro from south to north.

Just north of Allegro is Nachi Cocom then Mr Sanchos beach clubs.

What they show for the Grand is the Allegro. Click on the Earth view to the lower left, zoom in a bit and you will see the other hotels. Also scroll north until you run out of sandy beach.
 
Maybe a compromise would be to stay in Playa for a few days (nice sand over there), and you and the boy can do a cenote or two or the bull shark dive, then move the party over to the BA for a bit!
 
If your wife was content at the Iberostar & knows that the sand is soft vs the hard packed sandy beaches most of us think worth walking I'd make a repeat visit. I've stayed at both the Iberostar & the Grand but there was several years between those stays so no guarantee things were the same. I was not happy with the food or service at the Grand relative to my stays at any of the other places I've used over the years but I didn't go for the Royal Club option ( or whatever it's called).
The Grand has MUCH nicer rooms & a nicer beach, & the Allegro (currently closed due to a fire) has an even nicer beach however I've read that the food is similar. I liked the food at the Iberostar & so did my wife but we are from different ethnic backgrounds so don't go by that but you've ate at the Iberostar already so have an opinion.
All of the southern resorts share the same beach, and from the Iberostar you can walk way down to Playa Palancar & a bit farther if inclined ( & in shape) & all the way north to the Sabor / Aura. The Iberostar however doesn't let other dive ops pick up at their pier without them paying a fee (not my idea of a good AI policy) so add that into the deciding homework.

You can find photo tours of the Iberostar, Grand & Allegro here. Picasa Web Albums - Larry
 
The shoreline anywhere near town is going to be ironshore - pitted and eroded stone - and occupied by businesses.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

Back
Top Bottom