Family trip

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thbcthomas

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We are hoping to take our 1st trip to Cozumel during the week of Thanksgiving. There will be 5 of us, but only 3 divers, my 17 year old son, 12 year old daughter, and myself. I am looking for recommendations for a hotel. I am looking for #1 Hotel with Beautiful ocean views with a balcony. #2 Hotel with easy shore diving for my daughter, as she is just now getting certified. Hoping to be able to walk out and go dive. #3 Hotel with a basketball court for my nondiving son. #4 Hotel with things for my kids to do(17,13, and 12) or close to things to do. Thanks for the help!
 
the park royal might check most of those boxes. not sure about the basketball court though.
 
Check out Palmar condos. They have a huge pool that is almost always empty, really nice tennis courts, a small gym, a game room with ping pong table and pool table. It is nice because you can drink the water, there is security, and you can flush the toilet paper.
 
Just saw this, none of your requests are that unreasonable individually , but you may not be able to check all the boxes easily.—especially with Covid.

A few thoughts:

1). People with families (especially non divers ) often prefer All inclusive resorts (especially the beach resorts down south ). People on this board (including myself ) don’t really like them as much because they are far from town and the food isn’t really that great compared to the many good restaurants in town One thing people like about the AIs is they have activities for the kids and the kids get a wristband and more or less roam around on their own. . Covid restrictions will like prevent some of the normal kids activities. Also if they are operating at less capacity , that means less kids. I imagine they have some things, I doubt it will be the same as normal times. . Although they are all beachfront , I am not sure about the views at some of ten southern AIs from the rooms themselves. Also some of the Southern AIs closed for Covid and I am not sure when they re-open

Closer to town -Casa Del Mar is right next to Park Royal (mentioned earlier ), but note they don’t have much of a “beach “. The Palmar condos someone mentioned are also right there more or less. They aren’t really in town , but are a lot closer than the hotels further South (2 miles from town as opposed to 10). Also some restaurants in area due to proximity to cruise ship piers (no cruise ships now ) They have water access across the road but if is more sand placed near the a shoreline than a normal beach (this is common for almost everything except the southern resorts ). Fine for shore diving , but not as good for non divers. Casa Del Mar has privileges at Nachi Cocom beach club about 10 miles south but I am not sure if is open

2). Cozumel isn’t known for its shore diving There are some OK shore dives , but they don’t really compare to the boat dives People tend to do them as night dives, training dives or maybe afternoon muck dives. 90+ percent of Cozumel diving is drift diving from a boat. Currents usually make it a relaxing drift You get out of the water from 1/2 mile to 1 1/2 miles from where you get in depending upon the current that day. It is your Divemasters job to know what the currents are generally doing and keep you out of tricky currents if necessary (stay behind divemaster so you can follow them ).

Given your daughter is a young new diver , you are right to be concerned about getting her in over her head on her first dive in Cozumel. You might try to see about a shore dive or two as check out/acclimation dives but you don’t really want to count on shore diving as her primary Cozumel diving. EDIT: You can do safe checkout dives from a boat in shallow enough water if the dive operator is willing and they know in advance.

With 3 people , especially if Covid capacity restrictions are still in place , you might even see about getting a private boat and just specifying in advance you want to dive very shallow dives the first day or two . A private boat is pretty expensive if they are running at 100 percent capacity on a 6 passenger boat , probably less of a issue is max is 3 or 4 do to Covid. Compliance hasn’t been that great so it really depends upon the shop (with better shops more likely to be following capacity rules ). . If you can’t make a private boat work you might see about getting a private DM and saying you need shallow dives (in advance ).

3. Basketball isn’t that big of a thing at beach resorts as far as I can tell. Casa Del Mar website says it has basketball , but I couldn’t find more info.
 
We are hoping to take our 1st trip to Cozumel during the week of Thanksgiving. There will be 5 of us, but only 3 divers, my 17 year old son, 12 year old daughter, and myself. I am looking for recommendations for a hotel. I am looking for #1 Hotel with Beautiful ocean views with a balcony. #2 Hotel with easy shore diving for my daughter, as she is just now getting certified. Hoping to be able to walk out and go dive. #3 Hotel with a basketball court for my nondiving son. #4 Hotel with things for my kids to do(17,13, and 12) or close to things to do. Thanks for the help!
Blue Angel has all that stuff except for the basketball court and the organized kids' activities.
 
We have stayed at Park Royal many times and loved it. Beautiful rooms all with ocean view (above 5th floor). Three pools, kids club, great restaurants ,gym. They also have a Family Suite that sleeps 6. Much closer to town than the southern resorts. Across the street near Tikila is a great shore dive where you can take your new diver. They rent tanks and have a dive master. Don't use the house dive op, just about anyone will pick you up

We don't stay there any more because we prefer to be in town and enjoy all the great restaurants. We stay at a small hotel , Villa Las Anclas, in the heart of "restaurant row"
Have a great family trip
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

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