Good thing Canreef sends me an email every time someone posts in my threads haha.

I'm heading back to Playa del Carmen in January! I have never dived with GoPros, but have seen fantastic video from them. They seem to be great value too as you could easily spend $2000 on a underwater housing/light for a video camera.

Unfortunately I don't remember the operation I dove from. Looking at the map, I think it was Dive Mike. I thought they were pretty good. Honestly liked them more than any dive shop I went with while living in Hawaii.

The bull shark dive was really cool. They charge you a lot, but it is worth it. I saw 20-30 sharks on that dive, many of which where within an arms reach. It is seasonal, but you are going at the peak time I believe. It is a cageless dive.

The diving overall can be good. Generally the further south you go, the better the diving. Cozumel was really nice, but it wasn't worth a whole day of my vacation on the bus/ferry just for two dives.

The cenote dives are very cool too, but again they take up most of your day in travel time.

Anyways, have a great time! I love the Mayan Riviera.

Thanks for the tips!

Yeah, GoPro just released a new cam... Hero3+ that's supposed to have better battery life, wider field of view, and auto frames/second for low lighting. I also like the high frames/second rate to allow for some really cool slow motion. The time lapse shots are pretty neat too. I think I've talked myself into getting one.

I think I'm up for the Bull Sharks. I've dove with seasonal aggregations of Lemon Sharks off Jupiter Florida, that's a blast. I am a bit sad my timing misses the whale shark aggregation there, maybe another trip.

That's a good tip on Dive Mike. I'll do some TripAdvisor research on them. It looks like the top TripAdvisor operator is Reef Quest Divers but I emailed them a small question and they have not responded (2 days now)... maybe it's a sign...

Did you find that the dive sites were much different between the Playa del Carmen reefs and Cozumel? I do have quite a bit of free time, but if the diving is pretty similar... that's a waste of time to ferry over.

Greg, which operator are you planning on diving with? Have you used any in the past that you really liked?

Ha ha ha ha!!

I had one place recommended to me but they haven't got back to me so I doubt I'll use them. Previous dives in the area were through a company in Cancun. Long story short - I am not sure who I will use yet. If anyone has suggestions I am open to them. I was thinking of using Phantom Divers - anyone had experience with them?

Cozumel has far better diving. The water is extremely clear. My only complaint was the travel time. Playa/Cozumel have similar reef life, but the dive sites are in better condition in Cozumel and you are more likely to see some of the more "charismatic" life, like turtles, sting rays, etc.

I'm pretty skeptical about Cancun dive shops... I used one of the main ones to get to Cozumel, and again the travel was just crazy. They put me on a bus to a ferry to get to Cozumel, then bused us to a dock where a boat was waiting, then that boat took us to our dive boat. I was fortunate that my dive buddy was fluent in spanish as the shop left us out to dry on the way home (nobody picked us up from the ferry). Then again, it is Mexico, so organization and efficiency are rarely a top priority. If you go to Cozumel and have your own gear, put it in a rollable suitcase as these is a lot of walking and hauling gear on the way.

I went to Cozumel last April/May. I don't have dive certification, but I went on several snorkeling tours. We just rented the boat to ourselves for a few hours and went out to Palencar and Colombia reefs. Palencar was a bit deep for snorkeling at about 50 feet, but it had a lot of current that just floated us along. I saw many, many HUGE Barracuda, but the reef was too deep to really explore. Colombia was awesome! It was about 30 feet deep and had big rock formations all over that came within 15 feet of the surface. Lots of Acropora corals and brain corals and BIG Angelfish. I can dive down about 30 feet with my snorkel so I was able to check it out well. We also went to another one I can't remember the name of. It was shallow - only 15 feet or so, but was all sand with the occasional rock here and there. We saw tons of starfish, but not much else. Clarity was terrible so I was freaked out about sharks.

As a side note, there is a submarine tour on Cozumel that was really great too. It was US$100 per person I think, but it went down to 110 feet and we saw lots of really cool reef life including Nurse Sharks, Sting rays, Angelfish, Barracuda, Lionfish, Octopus, etc. It took us to the edge of the Palencar wall so we could look down into the black abyss. I have no idea how people have the balls to dive down there! :eek:

My experience with the shop I used in Cancun was great, including the dives to Cozumel. I'll have to check my dive log but I think their name is "Manta Ray Divers". If memory serves we went in their own boat across and never took a ferry ride. Fantastic dives in Cozumel and in the Cancun reefs as well. :biggrin:

Goes to show you can't judge them all by a single one! It would have been great if the only travel was aboard the dive boat.

Although I love Akumal, the diving in Cozumel is better hands down. Cozumel is more expensive but it is worth it and I would never consider just a day trip. Cozumel has it all, from deep wall dives, fast drift dives, huge coral pinnacles, turtles, huge groupers, nurse sharks, you name it. It's a 45 minute ferry ride from PDC to San Miguel and sometimes the sea can be very rough. If Cancun dive ops do go to Coz not sure if it would be a pleasant trip on a rough day.
For diving on the mainland, consider staying at or near Akumal. There is some nice diving there and the attitude is much more laid back than the cattle boat operations Cozumel is known for. When we go to Cozumel we tend to go with the smaller shops. When we dive in Akumal we always dive with Akumal Dive Adventures. We get to pretty much decide where we want to dive and we are treated like family.

Maybe you're one of the snorkelers in this photo from our dive at Columbia last year!

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...snorkelers.jpg