Cheap place in carribbean/Bahamas/st. Thomas etc area with great diving for newbie?

[WOODMAN]

Okay, here's my $.02 worth. You have two main themes running through this thread, as I see it. One, you want to find a good cheap place to finish your diving certification and get started on your diving adventures. Also, you have a fascination with the Mayan ruins and would like to explore further here. And all this on the cheap, of course. Well, you have zeroed it down the the area around Cozumel, and rightly so. This stands to give you the most of what you are looking for. You could hardly find a better place to start your diving career, and operators who stand ready to finish your certification abound. We all have our favorites, so I will not recommend one in particular here, but I do know a few that stand out, IMHO. True, shore diving is pretty scarce, but there are a few places where you can make a stab at it. Boat diving is the order of the day, and seeing as how the place nearly always has some degree of current, it is sure nice to have that boat following you and waiting overhead when you come up. All boat dives are divemaster led, but this is especially appropriate for a new diver. Sure, there are some very deep areas with yawning coral canyons to drift over, but there are many more much shallower areas with incredible marine life and coral to dazzle you. Just tell them what you want and what you can do, and they WILL accommodate you. For more (MUCH more) information on this area, go down to the Cozumel forum here and look around and ask a few questions. You will find more than you ever wanted to know, and then some.
Now, as to your second obsessionD)- Mayan ruins... Tulum is certainly the most accessible from Cozumel, and there are any number of ways to get down there and look around. Dedicated tour buses, privately hired taxis or vans, public transport, etc, etc. But my favorite is to rent a cheap car and (apologies to Frank S.)- do it myyy wayyy! This way you can avoid the sponsored stops at the tourist traps that the tour buses always rook you into, and you can go see what you want to see. Of course, this means you have to do your homework and know where you are going, at least to some degree. Also, you can branch off from Tulum and go visit Coba if you like, which is a much bigger site and more accessible. Did I mention that most of those famous ruins at Tulum that everyone recognizes the pictures of are fenced off and unable to be approached closely? Yup, you can't get close to the big stuff, and no-one seems to bother to tell you that until you find out for yourself. :mooner: Coba, on the other hand, will let you get up close to most of the ruins, and, at least the last time I was there, you can climb the main pyramid (incredible view from up there!). Now this may have changed, and if so someone here will no doubt tell us so, but I, at least, found the Coba ruins to be a heck of a lot more facinating than Tulum. Again, visit the Mexican forums here for a wealth of information on these areas, and keep asking questions. Then screw up your courage and do it! Get on a plane and go! I promise you, you will never look back. Good luck- Woody

 

[johnnyscience]

That is Tulum - post #7 above. Same picture is on the linked Wikipedia page. So it's mainland Mexico - generally called the Playa area or Mayan Riviera. Typically you fly into Cancun and then get transportation (bus or car) down to that area.

Just a little offshore from there is Cozumel. Tulum can be done from Cozumel as a day trip - a couple of the dive operators offer it as part of their pkgs. One used to go there with their boat (Scuba w/Allison) - not sure if they still do.

Cozumel has slightly better diving since it's offshore - less runoff etc. means clearer water.

Cozumel also has a lot of deep drift diving (100' +) not suited for a new diver.

It is however very affordable, one of the best dive deals in the western Caribbean. You can often request shallower dives and there is some shore diving at a couple of the resorts - Scuba Club Cozumel and Hotel Villablanca are two of them. Hotel VB also has 3 on-site dive operations so you could pick one for your referral. Last year my friends stayed a week at Hotel VB, room/flights were $700 with an Orbitz discount. Diving/food was extra. It's a long walk to town though.

You're "dual-certificationship" is called a referral. Your PADI shop will give you a referral form to be completed by the shop where you decide to do your dives. It's easier if it's a PADI shop also. Expect to pay slightly extra to complete your cert dives compared to regular dive pricing.

Some of the Bahamas can be pretty pricey - Nassau for ex. - and there's no shorediving there. And your boat dive choices are limited to three dive operators. One of them - Stuart Cove's does cater to new divers - and you'd probably see sharks on some of the dives. No pyramids either - unless you count the waterslide at Atlantis...lol

After doing some more reserach and learning what is where & where I want to go, this sounds like a really good deal your buddy got. Flight & hotel for $700. I assume your friend fly right into Cozumel?

To help keep costs really affordable using a place like Obritz or Priceline is probably the best way to go when planning a trip like this isnt it?

Okay, here's my $.02 worth. You have two main themes running through this thread, as I see it. One, you want to find a good cheap place to finish your diving certification and get started on your diving adventures. Also, you have a fascination with the Mayan ruins and would like to explore further here. And all this on the cheap, of course. Well, you have zeroed it down the the area around Cozumel, and rightly so. This stands to give you the most of what you are looking for. You could hardly find a better place to start your diving career, and operators who stand ready to finish your certification abound. We all have our favorites, so I will not recommend one in particular here, but I do know a few that stand out, IMHO. True, shore diving is pretty scarce, but there are a few places where you can make a stab at it. Boat diving is the order of the day, and seeing as how the place nearly always has some degree of current, it is sure nice to have that boat following you and waiting overhead when you come up. All boat dives are divemaster led, but this is especially appropriate for a new diver. Sure, there are some very deep areas with yawning coral canyons to drift over, but there are many more much shallower areas with incredible marine life and coral to dazzle you. Just tell them what you want and what you can do, and they WILL accommodate you. For more (MUCH more) information on this area, go down to the Cozumel forum here and look around and ask a few questions. You will find more than you ever wanted to know, and then some.
Now, as to your second obsessionD)- Mayan ruins... Tulum is certainly the most accessible from Cozumel, and there are any number of ways to get down there and look around. Dedicated tour buses, privately hired taxis or vans, public transport, etc, etc. But my favorite is to rent a cheap car and (apologies to Frank S.)- do it myyy wayyy! This way you can avoid the sponsored stops at the tourist traps that the tour buses always rook you into, and you can go see what you want to see. Of course, this means you have to do your homework and know where you are going, at least to some degree. Also, you can branch off from Tulum and go visit Coba if you like, which is a much bigger site and more accessible. Did I mention that most of those famous ruins at Tulum that everyone recognizes the pictures of are fenced off and unable to be approached closely? Yup, you can't get close to the big stuff, and no-one seems to bother to tell you that until you find out for yourself. :mooner: Coba, on the other hand, will let you get up close to most of the ruins, and, at least the last time I was there, you can climb the main pyramid (incredible view from up there!). Now this may have changed, and if so someone here will no doubt tell us so, but I, at least, found the Coba ruins to be a heck of a lot more facinating than Tulum. Again, visit the Mexican forums here for a wealth of information on these areas, and keep asking questions. Then screw up your courage and do it! Get on a plane and go! I promise you, you will never look back. Good luck- Woody

Ahh thanks for the input woodman, I'm going to check out the Cozumel forum on here for sure to really get the insight. I've got plenty of time to read & learn & you are correct, two fascinations that seem to be able to get accomplished in one general area. Sounds perfect.

Shore diving is an absolute must, I was just throwing that in there because I know you can help keep costs down with shore diving.

I'm not opposed to renting a car, but isnt it going to be a lot more than an $4-8 bus ride? How much does it cost to rent a car roughly? Plus sometimes those tours do take you good places dont they?

That really sucks that you cant actually get close or touch most of the ruins... I wasnt aware of that.

I was thinking of doing Tulum since its so close, I guess now Coba lol & I was also thinking of trying Chichen Itza.

How far from Tulum is Chichen Itza time wise? I see its roughly 89 miles from Coba to Chichen Itza via google maps, so I'm going to assume it would be roughly an hour & half of driving from there to coba?

From Tulum to Coba, it should be about 50 minutes.

And the ride back to Tulum will be a long one at a little over 2 hours then.

I think it can all be done in one day so you dont you? It would be a long day, but I'd rather try to pack in to a long day then push it to two days & miss more diving. Plus if you cant see most of them up close...

 

[WOODMAN]

Chichen Itza is a loong way from Cozumel, and most people do it as an overnighter, or even fly there. That road from Tulum is one of the loneliest stretches of highway(?) and I have not heard good things about it. I really think you would have trouble combining these two areas in one day, but don't take my word for it. Go to the Mexican forums and ask someone who really knows. Woody