Cabo San Lucas

[deuces6]

My wife and I are new to diving (completing the last pool dive tonight and the open water dives on 23-25 July). We are heading to Cabo San Lucas on 31 July for a week and are looking for advice from anyone experienced with preferred diving tours in that area; specific recommended companies and experience with them would be much appreciated.

Additionally, we would appreciate any other advice relating to what to do and what to avoid in the area since this is our first visit there. We are staying at Hacienda Encantada, so any comments about this resort would also be welcome.

 

[dwaters]

Welcome to the 'board and the underwater world!

Last time I dove in Cabo was 3 1/2 years ago, so I don't have any current advise, but drop on down to their local forum and check it our:
Mexico - ScubaBoard And here is what I found using our "search":
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/mexico/340862-dive-op-cabo-amigos-del-mar.html
I used Amigos del Mar way back then and was happy with them but I had 40+ dives in by then, so i don't know how they are with newly certified divers. I am sure you will love the dives there...enjoy!!!

 

[UnderwaterBumbleBee]

Hi deuces6-

We're heading to Cabo on Sunday and get back on 7/25. We've booked with Amigos Del Mar, we read good reviews on them and have had good communications with them via email/phone.

We're diving 4 days and have also booked an ATV trip on a non-diving day, researched a bunch of restaurants on tripadvisor....Will try to give you some tips when we get back.

Who are doing your certification with in Colorado?

 

[deuces6]

Thx and would appreciate your current information. Read through your thread about preparing to go to Cabo yesterday and you had some good advice there. Look forward to reading about your experience there.

 

[CNicoll]

Hi folks, We are heading to Cabo for a 10 day vacation starting Aug 18th. We have three divers, including a 13 year old (OW)and a 16 year old (adv w Nitrox) and would Love to hear how your adventures went and who you dove with. We are also looking at the ocean kyaking, and desert buggies. We are staying at The Cabo San Lucas Hilton. I hope you all have great vacations and can't wait to hear how it went!

 

[UnderwaterBumbleBee]

CNicoll-

I'll be posting a trip report but unfortunately our trip wasn't as much fun as we thought it was going to be. Mostly we were a little disappointed with almost every aspect of our trip so it made for an overall less than perfect trip. We used Amigos Del Mar, who I was initially happy with and had read good reviews. We felt they lacked attention to dive briefings, overall safety and general customer service was lacking. One of their small boats burned through two containers of oil on one trip alone, they had to borrow oil from another company and the diesel fumes were awful and there was no where to escape them due to the size of the boat.

We wished we had looked more at Manta dive which is literally just around the corner from Amigos shop and they have much nicer boats.

The fish life is pretty spectacular, provided you have good visibility. Also, there were decent thermoclines on all of our dives and the general temp was around 68 degrees which my 5 year old compressed 3mil wetsuit could not handle so I froze my butt off. Let us know who you dive with, interested to hear different experiences.

We did an ATV tour with a company called Amigos (no relation to the dive shop). Baja Buggy's is right next to their location. You take about a 45min to 1 hour ride to the atv location. They take you through the desert up a mountain/hills and then to the beach which was really pretty. We did about a 3-4 hour tour which included lunch, after lunch you can mess around on the beach with the atv's on your own for awhile and then you head back. It was probably our best day in cabo, we did it the first full day there. We did have a two men who had about 4 teenagers with them. One boy (around 14) flipped his atv over on top of him, his dad had to pull it off of him and he seemed to be okay other than being pretty shaken up. He really wasn't going fast or being reckless but he flipped around a corner which had eroded unlevel dirt. While our guide didn't see it happen, he was pretty concerned and attentive to him for the rest of the trip. Definitely recommend the trip otherwise!

 

[costaricadiver]

I am going to Cabo and Loreto Mexico for 5 nights and 6 days in October or November and am looking for a travel and dive buddy. The trip includes meals, a time share presentation, flight from Cabo to Loreto and back. I am going to bring my dive gear and plan to dive in Loreto. Contact me if you want more details.

 

[deuces6]

CNicoll-

We had four dives while in Cabo the week of July 31-6 August. The first two were with Cabo Pulmo, about 2 hours from Cabo San Lucas. My wife and I had differing experience on these two dives, but we both were a little disappointed with the acquatic life there. I had a bad BCD that created problems with both dives - -the divemaster assured me that the problems with the dives were a result of the BCD and not me (these were our first dives out of a controlled open water environment). We used 5 mil wetsuits there and felt they were appropriate for the water temps, especially with the cooler water in deeper water.

We dove two more dives using Tio Sport, a dive shop right on Medona Beach. We used them because we met a former dive instructor who volunteered to dive with us and she had a good relationship with the dive shop. I cannot assess their customer service or other aspects of their operations since she and her boyfriend (a current dive instructor) focused on us with the dive shop's divemaster on a tour with a family of six divers. I can say that these two dives, occurring in the Cabo San Lucas Bay, were great! Good underwater life, great visibility, and an overall great pair of dives (helped by a good BCD this time). Here we dove with 3 mil wetsuits, and these were comfortable for both my wife and me.

Good diving!!!!

Rich

 

[Gtoph]

Just to follow up on UWBB's post, we actually used http://cabosanlucastours.net to book the ATV's at a decent discount. Other than being late to pick us up (bus broke down, but they called several times to assure us they were still coming, so can't hold that against them at all) it was all smooth and lots of fun.

I'm sure you'll read all about it in UWBB's official trip report when she gets to it, but I would avoid the timeshare sharks like the plague. Initially, we thought we would play the game, but it's just not worth it, particular when you can find discounts for activities on your own and avoid wasting 5 hours of your life and the stress while your on vacation.

 

[sw_scuba]

Look into Manta Dives. I used them in July 2010 and had a great, safe time. Check out loscabosguide for Cabo San Lucas Prepaid Voucher Discount Programs. I saved $100 on my AOW.