Help Deciding On Dives - Cancun Or Cozumel?

[Jayfarmlaw]

Cozumel is amazing. Dave with Aldora and Christy with Bluextsea are supporters of this site so they deserve a look. I have also dove with Dive With Martin and Blue Magic and very happy with both. We dive with Aldora for the huge tanks and long dives now, but have never had anything remotely close to bad service with any operation. The mainland does offer cenote diving which is on my list to do, but will have to be on a solo trip.

If you don't want to do the overnight, many of the operations will offer a cruiseship dive that will leave at 9 or 10 am. That should be plenty of time to catch the bus to Playa and ferry over.

Email several operations and ask what they have available. Some will give a discount for U.S. Cash. Biggest difference will be where they leave from, where they spend their surface interval, and tank size. Most will use "6 Pack" boats so no more than 6 other divers. If they don't.....I would pass. Also...if you have the opportunity for a night dive.....absolutely take it!

Aldora does a 2 tank evening dive , one afternoon and one night that leaves at either 3 or 4 so that may be an option as well. Im Sure other operations will too.

Good luck, have fun, and safe travels! Drink a Bohemia Obscura at The Thirsty Cougar for me!

Jay

 

[dcrownover]

Thanks everyone for the great input!

 

[BRT]

If you're up for a long day then try the ferry slog to cozumel and back. Cancun and Cozumel are different, but how different will they be? You're diving only one day in Cozumel? If you ended up at some of the better dive sites on your one day you'd see a difference between Cancun and Cozumel, if your dive operator takes you to the more general sites you aren't going to see that much difference. You can somewhat influence this with whom you pick to dive with, but I can name a half dozen dives in Cozumel that if you ended up on them because of reasons such as you end up with a boat full of newer divers, or your dive operator was limiting your dive site choices due to they don't know you and you're showing up for one day of diving and they haven't had a chance to see what caliber of diver you are, you aren't going to experience much different than you would have in Cancun, but you'll spend a large part of your day making it happen. Basically all the same marine life exists in both places (same eco system, not that far apart) Cozumel has greater variety of giant towering coral formations, giant swim throughs, deep walls... (question is would you really get to see any of it? other than that the shallower reefs between Cozumel and Cancun are almost identical)

I could hardly disagree with this more.

 

[diver 85]

CZM---------& DON'T look back.........& check out Aldora-----they dive with 120 steels.......

PS--I've never heard anyone trying to compare Can-coon to CZM--like comparing sweet apples to rotten bananas........

 

[BRT]

I've only dove Cancun a couple of miles off the hotel zone but I have a lot of years diving from Puerto Morelos. It is beautiful and I love it but very different from Coz.

 

[mmmbelows]

I could hardly disagree with this more.

Everyone has an opinion. Mine is based on actually diving all of the Yucatan (cancun, isla mujeres, cozumel, the cenotes, playa del carmen, akumal, tulum) at least once a year for the last 20 years.

The question isn't- I'm deciding between a week of diving between cancun and cozumel which is better, the question is about one day of diving combined with the issue that he is on a vacation with his family at a resort in Cancun, those are tremendously different situations rather than COZUMEL IS THE BEST!!!! He will have a long day lost from his family and if he ends up on paradise or horseshoe or gardens, chankanaab, san francisco or a dozen other shallow sites he isn't getting any diving different than what he would get in cancun, anybody thinking differently doesn't have enough experience diving both locations to make an accurate comparison and is just cheerleading at the expense of what's best for the OP.

 

[BRT]

I have been diving Q. Roo almost every year since 1996. Missed one year I think. Have not done Isla Mujeres or Playa but have dove close to Playa. Also Xcalak and Majahual if it makes a difference. Cozumel is very different from the mainland. The best? Depends on what you want.

We took a fisherman friend to Coz this year to dive for a day. He dives from the North Cancun hotel strip to far South of Puerto Morelos. Has dove Isla Mujeres too. Does it a maybe a couple hundred days a year. Coz blew him away. He couldn't stop smiling.

 

[divingjd]

I think I'm with mmmbellows on the day trip to Cozumel. I did it once, shortly after I got certified. I've been to Cozumel many times since then. Haven't been back to Cancun in years. But, if you are staying in Cancun and only have a day to got to Coz, you might be better off to dive around Cancun. There are lots of fish and some decent dive sites there. Visibility would be better at Cozumel, but there may not be as many fish. Most Cozumel dive ops won't take you to the sites that really set Cozumel apart until you've been diving with them for a day or two. If you only have one day, you probably won't get to the best sites. The first ferry leaves for Cozumel at 7:00, so you won't get to the Cozumel ferry dock before 7:45 and it will be hard to make the standard departure times for many dive ops. Some will set up trips with later departures, but you will probably be with people from the cruise ships. The day trip to Cozumel is a really long day, with a very early start, and you may not get the big payback you would get from several days on the island. For three days or more, go to Cozumel and stay there. For one day when you are staying in Cancun, I'm not sure it's worth it. I didn't see what the big deal was about Cozumel when I took the day trip. It wasn't until I spent a week there that I really appreciated Cozumel.

 

[dcrownover]

Everyone's point of view has been very helpful. I think on this trip I'll get in Cancun dives including a PADI course (drift, photography, navigation, deep diver - one of those). Manta Divers is just down the street from the hotel and reviews seem good. Your input has inspired me to plan a future trip just to Cozumel to do many dives there. It's semi-inexpensive from Atlanta to get there.
Thanks again!

 

[Debvenice]

Cozumel is awesome! We dove with Deep Blue; nice small boats; very professional outfit. I would recommend Chiaki or Alessandro, but they are all good.