Cozumel or Freeport?

[jalundan]

Hey guys. I'm not sure if this is the right place, but at least 50% of this is Mexico.

The things are in motion and we have booked the flights to Miami, but up to that.... Well so many options in the Caribbean, and we have never been there so totally lost! We have decided to use roughly 10 days diving, and spend rest of our holiday in Miami. We arrive to Miami at the first week of June.

For the diving, we have been wondering basically Freeport and Cozumel. In talks have also been Belize (ReefCI) or Cancun / Isla. The ReefCI would be best for us, since we really appreciate nature and don't want to support bad behavior in reefs / nature, which is a possibility always when going to to "touristy" places. Sadly that is not possible, as it does not fit our schedule. We also checked few liveaboards but it seems that they either cost shitloads of money or are not fitting to our schedule either.

Having said that: Anyone been on Cozumel and Freeport diving? The thing that puzzles us is that if you check what CAN be seen on those sites, Grand Bahama has more stuff in there. Especially sharks and bigger stuff. Is it really so that in Cozumel there are none of the same possibilities than in Freeport / Grand Bahamas?
Diving Grand Bahama- Guide to diving Grand Bahama with marine life & Dive Centre information
Diving Cozumel - Guide to diving Cozumel with marine life & Dive Centre information

We have gathered the following pluses and minuses for both:
Cozumel:
+ Decent priced diving
+ People seem to appreciate the place, but for us its a mystery. We have places like Similan Islands as a reference.
+ Cheap living
+- Food? Decent amount of restaurants.
- Things to do? We are not sure if there is anything else than diving?
- Only small stuff to see while diving - according to dive report (no possibility to whale sharks, sharks, mantas, whales, dolphins etc.)
? Is it easy to get to Playa del Carmen (since there would be a lot of things to do)?

Freeport:
+ Seems to have lots of stuff to see underwater (according to dive report)
- Expensive to dive
- Expensive to live
+- Food? Decent amount of restaurants
- Not much else to do than diving (?)

Do I got it right? What about the conditions in June? Currents?

 

[Lorenzoid]

Your pluses and minuses look accurate to me.

Cozumel is a busy, touristy place. If you enjoy Mexican culture and food, it certainly has that. The big attraction of the diving is the rugged underwater topography, and there is a good variety of marine life. But few large animals such as sharks. The diving is very convenient because there are many dive operators to choose from, and they will pick you up close to your hotel. As you note, there are economical hotel options.

Freeport, Grand Bahama did not appeal to me. I don't like the feeling of being confined to a hotel/resort. So I tried to get out of the tourist ghetto and see a bit of the town of Freeport. It seemed run down and tired--much the opposite of vibrant, friendly Cozumel (San Miguel town). The most memorable aspect of the diving for me was the shark dives. I suppose Grand Bahama might appeal either to people who love shark dives or who detest places full of cruise ship tourists, like Cozumel.

Overall, I greatly prefer Cozumel over Grand Bahama. I love Mexico. (Please don't tell Mr. Trump.)

Belize has a little bit of everything. Good diving. Beautiful natural places. However, the best diving is out on the reefs, such as Turneffe Atoll. The diving can be expensive because of the long boat ride from Ambergris Caye or, alternatively, staying in a resort out there, such as Turneffe Island Resort.

 

[jbjclj]

I would suggest you post this in the Cozumel subforum. You will get many more responses.

We have been going for 30 years and go twice a year for at least a month each time.

As far as things to do other than diving: trip to Playa to visit the ruins (Tulum, Chichen Itza, cenote diving), help with turtle rescue if you are there during that season, bull shark diving in Playa, sport fishing,

 

[flyboy08]

I've done both, but Cozumel, if you have yet to dive it wins hands down! Cayman would be my second choice....Belize, Roatan and Costa Rica all worthy of consideration.

 

[Jayfarmlaw]

I can only answer your questions about Cozumel. We Go at least twice a year since it is cheap, diving is incredible, and the people are friendly. When the cruise ships are in, it is indeed very touristy downtown (great people watching) ....the ships are usually gone or loading by 4 ish though and it's a completely different place. There is more incredible food than you can imagine, from very cheap to what ever you want to spend. We like to stay downtown (Casa Mexicana) because 95% of what we enjoy is within walking distance. We don't stay at the all inclusives because we enjoy eating out too much and being able to walk downtown. Transportation wise, cabs are cheap and everywhere. You can't look in any direction downtown and not see a cab. Most trips in the central area of downtown are $4 US, but most anything downtown is walkable.

If you wanted to get to the mainland and do Mayan ruins or anything else, it's an $8 to $10 US ferry ride away. There are 3 ferry companies running large modern, air conditioned, boats that start at about 6 am and run up until midnight. It takes about 40 minutes to get there. The ferry is about 2 blocks from the hotel.

The Cozumel reef has something for everyone. From deep walls, swim throughs, pinnacles, to shallow dives filled with marine life. Most diving will be drift diving so it is very relaxing, almost like flying...slower. Very little finning unless you want to look at something, otherwise, just relax and go with it. Up North, it gets a lot faster, but most dive ops only go North by special request.
We generally see nurse sharks, Morray eels, and turtles on almost every dive depending on the dive site, usually rays on every trip, and depending on the time of year, eagle rays. The smaller fish are our favorites and the long, shallow drift dives never disappoint in that area.

We dive with Aldora for their steel 120cf tanks and very long dive times. We have also dove with Blue Magic and Dive With Martin. DWM will be one of the oldest dive ops on the island and if you book several dives in advance, it gets down to the $60 range for a 2 tank morning dive. blue XTSea and Tres Pelicanos have excellent reputations and a loyal following on this board as well. Whatever you do, make sure your dive op uses small, fast boats with no more than 8 divers per boat.

We also just returned from Roatan and the diving at Turquoise Bay Resort was very cheap, and the resort was wonderful. I posted a full review in the Bay Islands forum. It's an all inclusive and I had no complaints that would prevent me from going back. The reef is the second largest in the world but no where near the amount of marine life. If you're a reef/coral guy, it's your place. They run 2 for 1 specials frequently. Given the choice, we would still go to Cozumel. It's like our second home.

Good luck, safe travels,
Jay

 

[jalundan]

Thanks to everyone!

Jay: You mentioned rift dives. We life to take photos underwater and I was wondering if there are sites that supports this? I mean, rift dives are great sometimes, but mostly I like to move myself and focus on the animals / reefs and try to find stuff to photo.

BTW: Heres some of my pics if you guys are interested
https://www.dropbox.com/home/Photos/Thailand2016

 

[jalundan]

Hey. I got the advice on posting this to the Cozumel forums instead of general Mexico. So here goes nothing...

--------------------------------

Hey guys. I'm not sure if this is the right place, but at least 50% of this is Mexico.

The things are in motion and we have booked the flights to Miami, but up to that.... Well so many options in the Caribbean, and we have never been there so totally lost! We have decided to use roughly 10 days diving, and spend rest of our holiday in Miami. We arrive to Miami at the first week of June.

For the diving, we have been wondering basically Freeport and Cozumel. In talks have also been Belize (ReefCI) or Cancun / Isla. The ReefCI would be best for us, since we really appreciate nature and don't want to support bad behavior in reefs / nature, which is a possibility always when going to to "touristy" places. Sadly that is not possible, as it does not fit our schedule. We also checked few liveaboards but it seems that they either cost shitloads of money or are not fitting to our schedule either.

Having said that: Anyone been on Cozumel and Freeport diving? The thing that puzzles us is that if you check what CAN be seen on those sites, Grand Bahama has more stuff in there. Especially sharks and bigger stuff. Is it really so that in Cozumel there are none of the same possibilities than in Freeport / Grand Bahamas?
Diving Grand Bahama- Guide to diving Grand Bahama with marine life & Dive Centre information
Diving Cozumel - Guide to diving Cozumel with marine life & Dive Centre information

We have gathered the following pluses and minuses for both:
Cozumel:
+ Decent priced diving
+ People seem to appreciate the place, but for us its a mystery. We have places like Similan Islands as a reference.
+ Cheap living
+- Food? Decent amount of restaurants.
- Things to do? We are not sure if there is anything else than diving?
- Only small stuff to see while diving - according to dive report (no possibility to whale sharks, sharks, mantas, whales, dolphins etc.)
? Is it easy to get to Playa del Carmen (since there would be a lot of things to do)?

Freeport:
+ Seems to have lots of stuff to see underwater (according to dive report)
- Expensive to dive
- Expensive to live
+- Food? Decent amount of restaurants
- Not much else to do than diving (?)

Do I got it right? What about the conditions in June? Currents?

We like to take photographs underwater and that is really important to us. So the currents play a big role in that. Here's some of my work from last trip if someone is interested. https://www.dropbox.com/home/Photos/Thailand2016

 

[cicopo]

I dove Freeport a long time ago & did the Shark Encounter thing. Other than the Sharks it doesn't compare to Cozumel.

Need a Password to open your link but here's mine.

ci_copo’s albums | Flickr

 

[BDSC]

Definitely Cozumel over Freeport and it's not even close. I've getting ready to do my 8th or 9th trip (I've lost count) to Cozumel. Haven't returned to the Freeport area and likely won't.

 

[imoto]

I did two trips on a Blackbeard's Live-Aboard before going to Cozumel. The coral in the Bahamas was covered with algae and was very unhealthy. There were the shark feeding dives and occasionally we'd see a reef shark. But I wasn't too impressed. But hey, I was diving and that's what was great.

First trip to Cozumel, I was blown away with the large coral formations and a few different fish however, I didn't notice much color and then I realized the dives were at least 30-60 feet deeper than those in the Bahamas. I had a bit of trouble with the current at first, because I seemed to drift a bit faster than others in the group. After a few dives I found going with the flow to be a bit easier.

For diving, I find myself drawn more to Cozumel than the Bahamas. Your mileage may vary.