Cozumel Vacation advice for Diver and non-Divers

[Ari_M]

Hi all,
My folks made a bit of an impromptu offer to take my fiancé and I to Cozumel sometime late February/March timeframe. My mother and step-dad are non-divers, and my fiancé is looking to get certified. I was hoping to get advice on whether or not I should try to do an all-inclusive thing, do stuff a-la carte, potentially do separate lodging for the non-divers? Is Airbnb a thing in Cozumel (and how practical is it for non-Spanish speakers to take care of buying and cooking food)?

Lastly, I was hoping to get recommendations on good dive shops to go with, and which shops I should avoid. I'm hoping to get into diving with a BP&W while I'm down there. Additionally my fiancé is a bit nervous so I'd like to be with her while she's doing her dives. Any shop that can cater to that would be ideal.

Thanks!

 

[MMM]

Your non-diver family members will probably want a place near a beach so I'd look in that direction, whether or not it's all inclusive and depending on how fussy they are about food. Airbnb is big enough in Coz. Super easy and practical to cook even if you don't speak Spanish. If you need help, there are lots of local gringos in Mega and Chedraui you can grab and ask for translation help. I really like cooking down there and my Spanish vocabulary has grown from reading labels and signs in the grocery store!

I dive with a BP&W in Coz and love it. I very much doubt you will find one to rent so hope you already own one. There are loads of threads here about dive shop recommendations so I will leave that to you to search. However, I'd wait until she was certified before you try and dive with her. In fact, instructors may require it to ensure that she looks to them for direction and not you.

 

[drrich2]

My Research Notes from Planning Cozumel Trip - My Research Notes from Planning Cozumel Trip. Might help a little; I'm not experienced with AirBnB, VRBO, etc... You won't lack for good choices in dive op.s; Cozumel is blessed with a number of highly praised ones.

Richard.

 

[Ari_M]

drrich2, I was reading through that shortly after I posted. Thanks so much for putting so much time into that! My issue (as with my difficulties in selecting gear) is that I'm overwhelmed with choices!

 

[Ari_M]

My Research Notes from Planning Cozumel Trip - My Research Notes from Planning Cozumel Trip. Might help a little; I'm not experienced with AirBnB, VRBO, etc... You won't lack for good choices in dive op.s; Cozumel is blessed with a number of highly praised ones.

Richard.

I wanted to follow up on this too, I'll be renting gear for the most part (BCD for me, everything for fiancé). As an experienced diver I doubt you've had much need, but can you recall if any Ops had noticeably good, or in the other direction, knackered gear?

 

[George Monnat Jr]

I've only been there once, 2 weeks ago, and we're both divers. I believe Aldora does their surface interval at a beach resort (El Norte made our dives abnormal), so the non-divers could hang out that beach and talk during the divers' SI. Aldora was awesome overall. If you stay at their villa, you can get on the boat there plus they have a nice little beach-style patio area.

 

[drrich2]

The only rental gear I've personally taken a look at was with Tres Pelicanos, because my BCD has 'an issue' so I rented one of theirs, a non-weight integrated Scuba Pro model that was fine (I think they also had weight-integrated, just not available immediately at that time).

If your crew are big on cultural experiences and shopping/exploring, I might consider staying in San Miguel. If they like beach time and lounging while enjoying resort grounds/amenities, I'd probably consider a southern A.I resort (or the Melia up north), planning a taxi ride to San Miguel a couple of afternoon/evenings to check it out.

If analysis paralysis is aggravating you, remember there are probably quite a number of options you guys could make work and enjoy well. It's possible to have a good time without planning out the most theoretically perfect trip plan (but don't tell anybody I said that).

Richard.

 

[Ari_M]

The only rental gear I've personally taken a look at was with Tres Pelicanos, because my BCD has 'an issue' so I rented one of theirs, a non-weight integrated Scuba Pro model that was fine (I think they also had weight-integrated, just not available immediately at that time).

If your crew are big on cultural experiences and shopping/exploring, I might consider staying in San Miguel. If they like beach time and lounging while enjoying resort grounds/amenities, I'd probably consider a southern A.I resort (or the Melia up north), planning a taxi ride to San Miguel a couple of afternoon/evenings to check it out.

If analysis paralysis is aggravating you, remember there are probably quite a number of options you guys could make work and enjoy well. It's possible to have a good time without planning out the most theoretically perfect trip plan (but don't tell anybody I said that).

Richard.

Wait, so not min/maxing is ok? (kidding)

Thanks for all your great advice, its helping me build out a list of options for my group.

 

[Ari_M]

I've only been there once, 2 weeks ago, and we're both divers. I believe Aldora does their surface interval at a beach resort (El Norte made our dives abnormal), so the non-divers could hang out that beach and talk during the divers' SI. Aldora was awesome overall. If you stay at their villa, you can get on the boat there plus they have a nice little beach-style patio area.

I'll be sure to check them out, thanks for the tip.

 

[ggunn]

drrich2, I was reading through that shortly after I posted. Thanks so much for putting so much time into that! My issue (as with my difficulties in selecting gear) is that I'm overwhelmed with choices!

Well, asking for dive op recommendations just on the basis of "who's the best" in here is not likely to help with that; just about every op has their cheerleaders. What's more important is the specific experiences you are looking for; if you have no preferences then just about any op will suit you.

The good news is that a "bad" dive op will not survive for long in the competitive Cozumel dive market, so even if you pick an op at random you are unlikely to encounter a "bad" one. Where you are staying may or may not influence your decision; while most ops can pick you up at most hotels in the central part of the island, if you are staying far to the south the in house ops may be a better match for logistical reasons.