Cancun vs Cozumel

[Coylefamily]

We r planning the first dive trip with our kids (10 & 12). We are partial to Cozumel, but flight schedule is easier to cancun for the times we want to go. Is the diving as good in cancun as Cozumel? Diving in Cozumel was so easy with the current and it was gorgeous. We would like our kids to have the same experience for their first dive. Need to make reservations soon, so your advice is greatly appreciated.

 

[DandyDon]

Welcome to SB!

I've never dived Cancun, but you certainly won't see the diver support for that area that you do for Coz.

When CUN air fares are more than $100 cheaper than CZM and/or schedules are easier to make, many will do the bag drag to Playa del Carmen and ferry to Coz. It adds 3 or 4 hours to the trip each way tho, and incurs bus/van and boat expenses so it's got to be $150 cheaper for me. With 4 of you, you could bargain with a van in CUN rather than taking the bus, then at the Coz dock - you can hire a private taxi van cheap enough rather than packing in the airport vans like they do.

Returns by way of PDC and Cancun mean you need a noon or later flight out of CUN. Now "open-jaw" tickets sometimes work: fly into CUN, but return from CZM. Did you look at that. Give me your origin airport and dates if you'd like.

I usually find the best deals on Orbitz or CheapCaribbean after additional discounts on air & hotel packages, but that varies. I don't get many good plane fares out of Lubbock.

 

[Coylefamily]

Thanks, fellow Texan. We did the coz to cun ferry one year and it was a killer. Never doing that again, especially with kids and all the equipment.

 

[DandyDon]

Killer? I take the Ado bus alone and it's a drag after 2 flights it takes me to get to CUN, but with a family - you could get a good deal on a private van. Most Texans can get non-stop flights to CZM or CUN so that makes things a lot easier. From what I have heard of Cancun diving tho, I'd still go to Coz even with the bus or van & ferry. Hope you can find flights you do like.

Got the kids on your DAN dive insurance? Since you are still kinda new and they are very new, I do suggest hiring a private DM for the first couple of boat dives.

 

[Dirty-Dog]

My wife and I have about 50 dives in the Cancun area. The reef structures are not as elaborate as they are in Cozumel - swim throughs are not as long, for example - but the animal life is essentially the same. We've encounted schools of 20-30 Baracuda, Stingrays up to 5' across the wings, Spotted Eagle Rays, Eels of all sorts and sizes, Nurse, Black Tip, Gray Reef and Bull Sharks, Torpedo rays, Porcupine Fish, Blowfish, Lionfish (which we kill on sight), French Angels, Queen Angels... we even saw two 8' Marlins on a safety stop during our last trip.

We love Cozumel, and plan to be there for 10 days in December. But if Cancun fits your travel plans better, you won't be disappointed. Cancun diving is under-rated, perhaps because Cozumel is so close and so well known.

Get in touch with Alvaro at AlwaysDiving. He'll make sure you have a great time.

And spend one evening at Coco Bongo while you're there. You won't regret that either.

 

[Coylefamily]

Thanks so much for the encouraging words. We went ahead with scheduling the Cancun trip. Just much easier with our time schedule. Figure we can take a day trip to Cozumel if we want. Thanks for the advice for the dive center. That is our next hurdle to start to work on. We have a friend going with us that is a very experienced diver, so he may want to go off and do some more adventureous dives than what we plan to do with the kids.

We also think that Cancun will provide some activities that the we will enjoy besides the diving. HAs anyone tried the Aqua World place? It is across from the resort we are going to stay in and I hear they have dolphin swims, etc that the kids might enjoy.


Thanks for everyones input.

 

[WicketsMom]

I spent four days in Cancun once and have no plans to return other than just passing through. It's a good place to go if you are 18 and want to drink, drink, and drink some more. There definitely wasn't the nice atmosphere that we always love in Cozumel, but we may have just been at a bad resort (Oasis). (Think "Girls Gone Wild" or Panama City Beach, Florida at Spring Break.) The only dives we did were off of Isla Mujeres, and were OK but not even close to as nice as the dive sites on Cozumel.

We have flown into Cancun and done the bus/ferry trip a few times, but not since our son was born. (We were able to get decent airfare into CZM directly and just did that instead.) You definitely get a better true Mexican experience in Cozumel vs. Cancun in my opinion.

 

[DandyDon]

We also think that Cancun will provide some activities that the we will enjoy besides the diving.

Lots of possibilities. I don't know anything about the Op you mentioned, but you will be in a good position for a day trip to Isla Mujeres or a snorkel boat trip to swim with Whale Sharks. Chichen Itza and Ek Balam ruins are not far and the toll road gets you to both quickly.

Have a good trip! ilot:​

 

[AGUINNES]

There is a dolphin swim at the aquarium at Las Isla outdoor shopping center, also a pretty cool shark tank. It is a nice place to place to walk around, lot's of restaurants on the lagoon. Aqua world has a bad reputation for just about anything. Go with one of the smaller dive outfits like Scorpio and in all likelihood your family will be the only ones on the boat...maybe a couple other divers but definitely not a cattleboat.

Cancun diving is pretty easy. A couple of wrecks at 80' but everything else is reefs in the 30-60' range. Reefs are nothing like Coz but there is actually more fish to see in Cancun.

Unless you are going during spring break there is no reason to worry about rowdy crowds of students.

 

[damage]

Cancun is a great place to dive and is very near Puerto Morelos and Playa del Carmen, and relatively close to some cenotes; if you stay in Cancun I recommend you to contact scorpio divers, they are very professional and can arrange tours to all the places I mentioned above and even
Cozumel.

There are very good places to dive in Cancun lots of fishes and some wrecks too the profiles are easier than in Cozumel so anybody can enjoy a good dive.

As some guys said; I think Cancun is underrated, but just because Cozumel is very near.