Scuba diving in Cozumel
Summary
Cozumel is all about the diving and the 30m+ visibility. From what we could see, there were some nice spots outside of the main tourist areas, but the huge influx of cruise ship tourists kind of dominates the main town of San Miguel. If a diver, its a great spot for nice 1-2 day adventure heading over from the mainland, and where you only spend the evenings in the main town. If not a diver, give it a miss unless you can find a quieter spot
We went with Maple Leaf Scuba for 2 dives and they were great. 1st dive – Palancar Bricks (26m), where you work your way through the maze of coral walls which was fun. Highlight was the 2nd dive – Paso del Codral (18m), a long drift dive along the coral floor, one of my favourite dives for its colours and sheer amount to see
highlights
#1 Enjoying the long drift dive along Paso del Codral. The quick current pulls you along for a beautiful journey along the reef and allows you to see heaps of sea-life. One of my favourite dives
#2 Working your way through the coral maze of Palancar Bricks, where you work your way through the maze of coral walls which was fun
#3 Loving the great visibility
Travel Tips for the Yucatan
- Safety – we felt safe at all times. The violence that is happening in so many other unfortunate areas of the country has thankfully not spread to this part of Mexico. The same as in your home country cities, use common sense and you should be fine
- Note on the sargassum (seaweed) – unfortunately the beaches in this part of Mexico have been hit hard over the past years by strong blooms of sargassum (with varying theories as to why). Have a quick research before you go as to how strong the bloom is and the approach the place you’re staying has to dealing with it because it really does change the vibe of the place. The large hotels have armies of staff removing it from their beaches, but the surrounding areas don’t and so the mounds of sargassum will dominate your beach experience both in terms of visually and the smell
- Ubers were abundant and the easiest way of getting around
- Don’t expect everything to be dirt cheap. This part of Mexico has some world famous attractions and is a natural destination for many tourists from the US, so prices reflect this
Experiences nearby
The below map shows experiences nearby with a colour that reflect the Overall Score of those experiences
Similar beautiful diving spots
Score Detail
Background - how many times have you asked someone what a travel experience was like and the response was "amazing" or "awesome"? That response is nice to know, but it makes it hard to differentiate that experience compared to others. That is exactly what these scores are trying to do - differentiate the experience by giving a score out of 10 based on 6 categories and then giving an overall experience score
This overall experience score is calculated by: take the highest of the "Culture" or "Nature" score (1-10) + "Fun factor" (1-10) + "Avoiding the crowds" (1-10) + highest of the "Unique" or "World Famous score" (1-10). Then convert into a score out of 100
Extra detail - the logic being that I find all of the 6 individual scores important, but I don't want to mark an experience down just because it doesn't cover both "Culture" and "Nature", or because it isn't both "World Famous" and "Unique". Take the examples of Safari in The Serengeti and walking through Rome - they both appeal at opposite ends of the nature / culture spectrum, and you can have a fantastic time without needing to appeal to both sides. So, their overall scores aren't penalized for their lack of one or the other, and I've done the same for "World Famous" vs "Unique". But . . . I do think that the "Fun factor" of an experience is important, irrelevant of other factors, and so is "Avoiding the Crowds" (or where there are crowds that add to the experience). So, both of these scores are standalone