Craig66
Contributor
Once again another successful summer vacation for my family.
Not going to give a blow by blow description but just touch on a couple of places and points.
Cozumel in general continues to delight and although we know that as a family we have to expand our horizons it is just so darn addictive. Truly feels like coming home and we have got a rhythm that is hard to break. This is our 5th family trip.
Airport: Continue to wish that when 3 planes arrive that they would put a couple more immigration offices on service as it took over an hour to get through immigration. But then again arriving in the USA it is sometimes as ridiculous and so I can’t totally blame the Mexican immigration although it does put a damper on the start of a good vacation when you cant even enter the country.
Casa Mexicana: Still feels like home from home and Jaimie and his crew continue to go above and beyond for all of his guests. I will say that some of the furnishings are starting to get a little dated and some of the rooms could do with some further updating.
Restaurants:
La Hach; Continues to be an amazing place for lunch and an afternoon swim. The fish and chicken tacos are great and the view can’t be beaten. La Palapita is great for lounging and swimming and the Churro man who comes around with his Churro bucket definitely adds to the atmosphere.
Money Bar – also a great beach to relax and swim and the fish tacos were really really good. Snorkeling not bad but current can be strong and can change in an instant
Kinta and Kondessa – could hold their own in any city in the world. Truly amazing food at very reasonable prices.
Playa Palancar: Amazing food, amazing beach. HINT: Find out when the owner is going fishing. For $600 - 700 you get two grilled whole fish on a huge platter with a bunch of accompaniments. Was really fresh and amazing but was way too much food for the 4 of us but definitely wothwhile
Playa Azul – beautiful beach but avoid the restaurant as it is terrible. Next to it is the restarant Bucannos which is amazing but when we went there Bucannos must have been the base for a ships tour as it was totally overrun by Carnival people and so we ate and escaped back to Playa Azul. I am not Cruise phobic but this was ridiculous
Margaritaville: No I have not lost my mind – with a 10 and a 13 year old the swimming from their pier is great and the use of all their water toys is free. Buy a beer or a soda and tip as much as the beer costs and tip the man monitoring the water toys and the kids can frolic on the toys for hours. Way cheaper than any of the other beaches that have toys and especially as we stay in town it is very convenient.
Chocolate tour: By apt only but very interesting and chocolate isn’t half bad either.
Diving: On this board I would never make the mortal sin of even suggesting that Blue Project was the best dive op in Coz LOL. I was however very very impressed by the service and experience we had with Blanca and Paco
When I look for a dive op I am looking for:
Ease of booking
Valet Diving with small fast boats
Safety and dependability
Great diving
And when I dive with my 13 year old I am looking for a diveop to give us a private DM and personalized service
I know Blanca from many years ago but have never dived with her. I contacted Paco and told him what I needed and within a couple of hours he replied that all of my requests could be met. One more email and we had 4 days of diving setup. A week before I left I sent Paco an email confirming and again within a couple of hours he confirmed that he and Blanca would meet us in our hotel at 6pm on the day of our arrival. At exactly 6pm they arrived. We reviewed our requirements, dive experience and special requests even down to the fruit we wanted on the boat. They took our gear and we agreed to meet them at the Caletta the next day.
When we arrived they were waiting for us as promised and waved the cab in. The boat is a beautiful very comfortable very new and modern boat. We were thrilled to hear that Blanca was going to be our DM, I knew that she had a reputation of being a very safety conscience careful diver and indeed she was. She was great at finding creatures both big and small and as we moved slowly over the reefs I was amazed at what we saw. She was very attentive to my daughter. She has an amazing love not only for what she does but for the reefs and the ecosystem and that comes across in her diving. With my 13 year old safety is a priority and I was very happy with what I saw.
After each dive they dropped us off at a prearranged beach where my wife and younger daughter were waiting for us. As with all valet dive experiences each morning our gear was setup and ready to go.
After trying many different dive ops many of whom are superb I would have to say that for me this experience with Blanca was definitely my best to date in Cozumel and that I am looking forward to diving with her again.
Airport departure: Was upset to find out that the airlines were now charging a fee for checked bags as, as of last year they were forbidden by Mexican law to do so. Security was good. Never had any battery issues. In error I had a wrench in my carry on which security found and I was really impressed at the way they handled it. Naturally it was confiscated but at no time did they belittle me or look at me in an accusatory fashion. Something that TSA could take lessons on. They confiscated it but the officer was so apologetic I had to reassure him it was OK.
Finally something I have never seen before: After pushback all the security officers and ground controllers stood in a perfect line parallel to the aircraft and as we moved forwards they stood waving at the plane and only after the plane had passed did they disassemble and run back. It was a really amazing site and something I have never seen before – to me that summed up Cozumel !!!!
Not going to give a blow by blow description but just touch on a couple of places and points.
Cozumel in general continues to delight and although we know that as a family we have to expand our horizons it is just so darn addictive. Truly feels like coming home and we have got a rhythm that is hard to break. This is our 5th family trip.
Airport: Continue to wish that when 3 planes arrive that they would put a couple more immigration offices on service as it took over an hour to get through immigration. But then again arriving in the USA it is sometimes as ridiculous and so I can’t totally blame the Mexican immigration although it does put a damper on the start of a good vacation when you cant even enter the country.
Casa Mexicana: Still feels like home from home and Jaimie and his crew continue to go above and beyond for all of his guests. I will say that some of the furnishings are starting to get a little dated and some of the rooms could do with some further updating.
Restaurants:
La Hach; Continues to be an amazing place for lunch and an afternoon swim. The fish and chicken tacos are great and the view can’t be beaten. La Palapita is great for lounging and swimming and the Churro man who comes around with his Churro bucket definitely adds to the atmosphere.
Money Bar – also a great beach to relax and swim and the fish tacos were really really good. Snorkeling not bad but current can be strong and can change in an instant
Kinta and Kondessa – could hold their own in any city in the world. Truly amazing food at very reasonable prices.
Playa Palancar: Amazing food, amazing beach. HINT: Find out when the owner is going fishing. For $600 - 700 you get two grilled whole fish on a huge platter with a bunch of accompaniments. Was really fresh and amazing but was way too much food for the 4 of us but definitely wothwhile
Playa Azul – beautiful beach but avoid the restaurant as it is terrible. Next to it is the restarant Bucannos which is amazing but when we went there Bucannos must have been the base for a ships tour as it was totally overrun by Carnival people and so we ate and escaped back to Playa Azul. I am not Cruise phobic but this was ridiculous
Margaritaville: No I have not lost my mind – with a 10 and a 13 year old the swimming from their pier is great and the use of all their water toys is free. Buy a beer or a soda and tip as much as the beer costs and tip the man monitoring the water toys and the kids can frolic on the toys for hours. Way cheaper than any of the other beaches that have toys and especially as we stay in town it is very convenient.
Chocolate tour: By apt only but very interesting and chocolate isn’t half bad either.
Diving: On this board I would never make the mortal sin of even suggesting that Blue Project was the best dive op in Coz LOL. I was however very very impressed by the service and experience we had with Blanca and Paco
When I look for a dive op I am looking for:
Ease of booking
Valet Diving with small fast boats
Safety and dependability
Great diving
And when I dive with my 13 year old I am looking for a diveop to give us a private DM and personalized service
I know Blanca from many years ago but have never dived with her. I contacted Paco and told him what I needed and within a couple of hours he replied that all of my requests could be met. One more email and we had 4 days of diving setup. A week before I left I sent Paco an email confirming and again within a couple of hours he confirmed that he and Blanca would meet us in our hotel at 6pm on the day of our arrival. At exactly 6pm they arrived. We reviewed our requirements, dive experience and special requests even down to the fruit we wanted on the boat. They took our gear and we agreed to meet them at the Caletta the next day.
When we arrived they were waiting for us as promised and waved the cab in. The boat is a beautiful very comfortable very new and modern boat. We were thrilled to hear that Blanca was going to be our DM, I knew that she had a reputation of being a very safety conscience careful diver and indeed she was. She was great at finding creatures both big and small and as we moved slowly over the reefs I was amazed at what we saw. She was very attentive to my daughter. She has an amazing love not only for what she does but for the reefs and the ecosystem and that comes across in her diving. With my 13 year old safety is a priority and I was very happy with what I saw.
After each dive they dropped us off at a prearranged beach where my wife and younger daughter were waiting for us. As with all valet dive experiences each morning our gear was setup and ready to go.
After trying many different dive ops many of whom are superb I would have to say that for me this experience with Blanca was definitely my best to date in Cozumel and that I am looking forward to diving with her again.
Airport departure: Was upset to find out that the airlines were now charging a fee for checked bags as, as of last year they were forbidden by Mexican law to do so. Security was good. Never had any battery issues. In error I had a wrench in my carry on which security found and I was really impressed at the way they handled it. Naturally it was confiscated but at no time did they belittle me or look at me in an accusatory fashion. Something that TSA could take lessons on. They confiscated it but the officer was so apologetic I had to reassure him it was OK.
Finally something I have never seen before: After pushback all the security officers and ground controllers stood in a perfect line parallel to the aircraft and as we moved forwards they stood waving at the plane and only after the plane had passed did they disassemble and run back. It was a really amazing site and something I have never seen before – to me that summed up Cozumel !!!!
