Playa del Carmen / Tulum / Cozumel in September/October

[yeahiii]

My girlfriend and I are planning to stay for about 2 weeks in the area of Playa del Carmen, Tulum or Cozumel end of September / early October. We know its hurricane season but were lucky all 3 years before while staying in Dominican Republic.

Anybody been there during that time? What weather can be expected there usually? I heard south of this coast hurricane risk is lower than in e.g. Cancun. Is this true?
In DR we had a couple of days with like 1 hour rain which was totally fine for us.

If anyone has recommendations for a resort and dive center we would really appreciate. We are still looking for a great 4-5 star all-inclusive resort as this should be a "not-only" diving vacation. Same for good dive spots. We've never been to this area of Mexico before and would like to find a resort close to good dive spots especially during September/October (if you can recommend any spots, please tell us!).

We both will have ~20 dives logged by that time.

 

[Asteve]

I would split the trip up into parts. I would spend about 9/10 days in Cozumel diving, then move over to Playa del Carmen making it my landbase for the rest of the trip doing land trips.

This what I wrote 2 years ago.

We did a trip last Feb. We thought we'd do a few days in Playa del Carmen. We flow into Cancun and did the Bus to Playa del Carmen and, the drag to our hotel (was easy). We found a taxi that gave a 200 peso hour rate. Had him give us a tour of Playa del Carmen and two days later had him take us to Aktun Chen and Tulum ( I like to have someone else do the driving so I can look around). We liked Playa del Carmen, it was a fun place. We did a trip to Aktun Chen to snorkel in a Cenotes (rated the best for snorkel). What I did not know is they have a walking tour of 3 Cenotes that were more like small caverns. Well lit and interesting formations. It was great. Think we liked it as well or better than the snorkel cave, which is good. I would say do the cave tour if you can only do one, we did both.

All in all, it was a great trip. We enjoyed the ruins at Tulum, Coba and Chichen Itza. (Note from the wife :Not to be missed: is the evening dance show at Xcharet Park. At 4:00 the entry fee drops a bit, and since we had no particular interest in their beach or inner-tube river rides, it left us with time to see the grounds, the aquarium and butterfly pavilion before the show. We were both awed with this evening performance that gave us everything from history, to the Mayan ball games, to amazing musical performances. Even my husband was impressed with the stage engineering that was involved. Great fun!)

 

[ColoDale]

We like October but usually towards the end but we used to go in September though that is hotter.

We have never been caught by a hurricane but we did miss a couple by a few days or a week. This is over 20 years and 50 or so trips. Keep an eye on the hurricane tracking sites. I don't think being south of Cancun will lessen the hurricane risk. Hurricanes can go North or South. Belize can get hit. Having been in DR I think you know how it goes.

Outside of hurricanes, you can get intermittant rain but then it stops or it can be hot and dry. No way of predicting it. If you are really concerned about hurricanes, get trip insurance.

We have stayed in Akumal, Playa del Carmen, and Cancun but most time is spent in Cozumel. As said by Asteve, you might want to split your trip. There is diving on the mainland side but not as good a Cozumel, cenotes excepted, IMO. If you want short boat rides in Cozumel then stay on the south end of the island. I think turtle mating season is over on the mainland side so less to see.
There are tons of dive ops in Cozumel and if you search here on Cozumel dive Op or operations, you will get many threads and alot of cheerleading. Think about how you want to dive and what you expect from a dive op.

For Cozumel: The Intercontintal should be 4-5 stars. Landmark past the Intercontinental which is basically high end condos people rent seems nice but never stayed there. Cozumel Palace is higher end but is in town. Some might say the Iberostar or Secrets is in that range but are probably 3-4 stars IMO. It also depends on if you want all inclusive or not.

 

[Beyond_Diving]

Fortunately, the last hurricane that came through here was over 10 years ago (Wilma in 05 and Dean - to a lesser extent- in 07). Not to say that no hurricanes will come through this year or next year, but so far, we've been quite lucky. Despite what a lot of people say, there is some really great diving in Playa. It is very different from Cozumel, but great nonetheless. Add to that the cenotes, and short distance to Cozumel (for example, my shop Beyond Diving, offers a Cozumel direct trip). My suggestion would be, if you're not committing your entire vacation to diving, then stay in Playa, dive the days you want to dive, do land based tours, veg out at the resort and enjoy your holiday.
Feel free to contact me directly on info@beyonddivingscuba.com and we can sort you out on some fabulous dives!

Erik

 

[Ontwreckdiver]

I highly recommend you contact Nicolas from CenoteXperience I have been diving with Nico & his brother Martin for over 7 years. They are great guys, excellent dive guides and really love what they do. They do cenote dives, ocean dives and Cozumel dives, so they can set up all your diving needs. Tell Nico that Steve from Canada sent you.

What are you looking for in a resort/ what is your budget? adult only?

 

[kafkaland]

I second the suggestion to split up the trip in two parts, one Cozumel and one Playa. Neither location alone really has enough to offer for two weeks of casual diving plus land trips for two weeks. The weather risk seems comparable to me, although there may be more to do in Playa when bad whether strikes.

Cozumel has fantastic reef / drift diving, but very little else to offer. I'd do maybe five diving days there, then you've seen the best sites that are accessible to relatively new divers. Otherwise there isn't much to do on the island.

Playa has a comparatively rich shore life and beach scene to offer, plus a couple of good land trips like to the Mayan ruins or Vallodolid. The ocean diving there is rather uninspiring compared to Cozumel, but the cenotes are fantastic. With only 20 dives some of the guided cenote tours may be quite challenging. The key is to find the best possible operator (someone mentioned Nicolas Casellas from CenoteXperience - it won't get much better than him), and to be completely honest with yourself whether your skills and training are good enough to venture into an overhead environment like that. There are extensive discussions about the cenote tours on this board - educate yourself and gauge your risk tolerance accordingly. (Feel free to PM me if you have specific questions about this - I'm down there a few times a year for cave diving and have a bit of insight into the situation)

 

[driftwood]

I agree with splitting the trip between Coz and PDC. The ferry takes all the fun out of staying in one location.

Couple of tips. First, find the closest "Lavaderia". Its a wash and fold service at very reasonable rates. Always great to come home with clean clothes and you don't have to pack as much. Second, even though you want to stay at an AI, get out and eat like a local. On Coz, our favorite is Pescaderia San Carlos. In PDC, HC Monterrey or El Fogon are both excellent. Third, try very hard to see Ek Balam. It is the only Mayan ruin that I would spend the time to visit again. A fairly recently excavated site that literally rewrote to book on Mayan art.

Edit, since you are new divers, you might consider hiring a private dive master. Considering how much you are spending on the vacation, an extra $50 a day isn't too expensive. Be sure to tell him/her what you want to see. Good chance that it can be found.

 

[outofofficebrb]

I was there in mid to late September in 2015. Rain was in the forecast every day if you check any weather website, government or not. It was sunny the entire time we were there with maybe 10 minutes of rain every few days. One day we had a torrential downpour with wind and lightning but 30 minutes later it was like it never happened.

It was great - shoulder season. Not crowded, good rates..The diving was excellent. I would still buy travel insurance and/or dive travel insurance because a possibility of a hurricane derailing your plans is possible and offers peace of mind.

I highly recommend diving with Pro Dive. We split our time in Cozumel for drift diving and then did cenotes with them in Playa del Carmen as well. We also did Tulum and went to Chichen Itza. We stayed at a resort that had them as a dive shop because that was what we were there to do -- Dive. That narrowed down our resort. We stayed at the Occidental in Cozumel and it was great. Dive shop right there.

 

[CodeS]

Hi,

I will be travelling up and down the coast diving all of October, I'll be on my own and so looking for dive buddies. Shoot me a pm if you are interested in catching up.

Cheers
Cody

 

[mstevens]

My girlfriend and I are planning to stay for about 2 weeks in the area of Playa del Carmen, Tulum or Cozumel end of September / early October. We know its hurricane season but were lucky all 3 years before while staying in Dominican Republic.

Anybody been there during that time?

Every year for many years. We have a house on Cozumel and our baby died of cancer at the end of September, so we always retreat to there.

What weather can be expected there usually?

It's the tropics. It can get hot. It can rain. It's usually fine. It's probably best if you don't hate being warm, though, and the 3rd week of September is when you're most likely to get rained on. There's more detail about weather here.

The mainland is nearly always a little hotter than Cozumel.

I heard south of this coast hurricane risk is lower than in e.g. Cancun. Is this true?

No.

good dive spots especially during September/October (if you can recommend any spots, please tell us!).

I'm a Cozumel guy. In terms of specific sites, it really truly varies by day. If you have a good captain/divemaster team they will know what's up. We always dive at Maracaibo on September 28. Although it's often impractical to get there unless conditions are just right, for some reason they always have been on that day. (With 20 dives and without a degree of preparation that specific site has a reasonable chance of literally killing you, though.) Apart from special occasions such as that, we leave the site selection up to those who dive every day.

You also need to define what, to you, constitutes a "good dive spot". Some people like dramatic coral formations, others like seahorses. You'll rarely see those on the same dive, though you can certainly see them on the same day. Some people like swim-throughs that terrify others. Some like current, others don't. With your dive experience, you'll want to stick with dives that aren't 160 feet in high current, but some people love those. You get the idea.