Playa del Carmen - Cozumel

[lovescorals]

Hi,
Leaving for Mayan Palace Riviera Maya at Playa del Carmen.
Please advise dive ops with good DMs and small dive groups.
My son and I are relatively new divers (4 years OW divers) and I'd like to have closer supervision by the DM. Not so sure if I want to do caves...
Any tips about the location and the hotel will be welcomed.

 

[LauraLynnee]

Hi LovesCoral-

Last year my husband and I dove with Aqua Safari and had a great experience. The dive masters are extremely helpful and mindful if there are less experienced divers on the boat, just let them know. When we went diving we were newly certified and we felt like they took great care of us. Our first 2 dives we even hired a "private divemaster" to take us around to be sure we received the attention we needed as newbies, his name was Freddie and I'd more than recommend them. Anyway, check them out at aquasafari.com, you won't be disappointed. Have fun and happy diving

 

[divingjd]

In Playa, I can recommend Tank Ha and Abyss. Both are good operations. I prefer Tank Ha because their boats are bigger. They still limit groups to 8 divers, and you may be in an even smaller group, but the boats are big enough to give you more elbow room and allow a giant stride entry rather than a backroll. You are not tripping all over each other. As far as I know, all the dive operations in Playa use smaller boats, so you will never be in a group of more than 6-8. I also dove with Yucatek for a cenote dive. They were very good for that. I did not dive with them in the ocean.

 

[Chris Walrod]

For a short cab ride into Puerto Morelos, you'll receive great care at Dive Puerto Morelos. Great people, great location! We have used them for three years in a row and happy!

 

[Wkndbum]

Hi,
Leaving for Mayan Palace Riviera Maya at Playa del Carmen.
Please advise dive ops with good DMs and small dive groups.
My son and I are relatively new divers (4 years OW divers) and I'd like to have closer supervision by the DM. Not so sure if I want to do caves...
Any tips about the location and the hotel will be welcomed.

http://diablodivers.com/

Dennis will take care of you.

 

[SoggyShoes]

I really recommend Yucatek Divers (http://www.yucatek-divers.com/ ). Yolanda owns the operation along with a nice clean inexpensive hotel (http://www.casadegopala.com/ ) . All her staff speak perfect English (along with about 5 other languages). I did my open water with them and later did my nitrox with them. The instruction was top quality. I never went on a dive with more than 4 others and all their Instructors are really safety conscious and very aware of what’s going on around them. About half of my instruction was one-on-one. I also did several dives that were just me and a DM/instructor. They also have a 14ft deep training pool if you need to work on your buoyancy or try out equipment. They are also pretty flexible on fitting dives to your interests and abilities. I think it is getting a little late in the year but, Yolanda also has a great Whale Shark snorkeling trip. Swimming with the Whale Sharks was one of the most amazing things I have ever done!

Have fun. I can’t wait to go back.

 

[SussexMedic]

I just returned from PDC and dove with Dive Mike on Calle 8 Norte & Ave 5. We did 5 ocean dives and 2 cenote dives over three days and found the DMs great. Our DMs Juan and Armundo were excellent and the largest group we dove with was 4. Be sure to dive the Tortugas for some great sea turtles. Have fun.

 

[geraldp]

For a short cab ride into Puerto Morelos, you'll receive great care at Dive Puerto Morelos. Great people, great location! We have used them for three years in a row and happy!

I will second the vote for diving with DivePuertoMorelos. Also you won't find a closer dive op (unless you use the on-site dive op) - only about a 10 minute cab ride away. I have also read good things on scubaboard about the Mayan Palace onsite dive op, but when I was there they wanted the same price for a one tank dive that everybody else was asking for two tanks.

If you do all your dives locally there on the Riviera Maya make sure you get over to Cozumel at least once during your trip to get a couple of tanks in. The corals and visibility there are worth the extra effort to get over there.

Jerry