Scuba Diving in Cozumel


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Cozumel Island - Since that time, the waters around Cozumel have been claimed as an underwater marine park to protect the abundant variety of Caribbean tropical fish. The island of Cozumel is easily accessible and offers a wide variety of diving and snorkelling for all levels. Cozumel offers the adventurous scuba diver many wall and drift dives a short distance offshore, as well as many boat dives by dependable dive charters.

Explore Cozumel's dazzling white sand beaches, tame jungles and historical Mayan culture, meanwhile return to relaxation by sipping on a cold drink at reputable dive resort. Whatever your tastes, you will not be disappointed by Cozumel's temperate weather and abundance of life on the island and in the water.

Details

Price Includes

(SD-5385-P)

7 nights at Reef Club Cozumel

5 days of 2 tank boat diving

All meals and drinks

Day and night entertainment

Non-motorized water sports

Tips and taxes

Round trip airport transfers

Price Excludes

airfare

Suitability / Level

Basic Open Water

Itinerary & Highlights

Scuba Diving
All boat dives in Cozumel are considered drift dives, allowing divers to exert little to no energy while drifting by stingrays, turtles, nurse sharks, and not to mention an expansive variety of colourful fish and coral. The crystal clear, azure blue waters of Cozumel presents a vast array of sea life for every experience level.

Being part of the second largest reef system in the world Cozumel offers three main categories of dives:
1- Shallow near shore coral gardens (like Paradise reef)
2- Vertical walls with dramatic drop-offs (like Santa Rosa wall)
3- Coral Pinnacles and Caves ( like Palancar)

Some key dive sites are:

Palancar Gardens - Beginner to Intermediate
Just inside the Palancar Wall, dominated by coral mountains plunging from 30 feet into the abyss, lie two broad reef beds. They gently slope north to 70 feet and are filled with cuts and valleys, finger canyons and tunnels. Novice divers can safely view the massive pinnacles at the drop-off's edge, swimming among whip and brain corals and cleaning stations every few kicks.

Palancar Horseshoe
This U- shaped crescent of towering coral pinnacles rises from a sand ledge at 100 feet and climbs almost to the surface, forming an amphitheater for troupes of grouper, Creole wrasse and Bermuda chub. Just north of the horseshoe there lays a labyrinth of caves and passageways that weave throughout these ancient towers teeming of life.

Colombia - Advanced to Intermediate
Although Palancar is better known, many Cozumel veterans place Colombia among the world's most majestic wall dives. The coral mountains rise from beyond the limits of visibility to within feet of the surface and support rich coral beds in the shallows. Over the wall's edge, you sail through steep valleys, drifting from mountain to mountain, as if on an aerial tour of the Grand Canyon. Light streams through the sea fans and black coral in silhouette patterns often broken by the outline of eagle rays and schools of black tip shark.

Santa Rosa Wall
Another reason so many divers repeatedly visit Cozumel is that reef systems are so large and they require multiple dives to see. Santa Rosa's southern end is a solid coral ridge rising to 45 feet before drastically giving way to buttresses reaching up from 130 feet. These mountains are riddled with tunnels and cuts covered in thickets of rope sponges, tube and barrel sponges. Be prepared for the black groupers who get in your pace and green morays eels angling for a handout.

San Francisco
Beginning on the South end of Old San Francisco beach, this half-mile reef is broken into three sections by approximately 60 yards of sand. This is one of the shallowest wall dives and is loaded with life. Playful green moray eels and large grouper skim along between 35 and 50 feet, posing for that perfect vacation snapshot.

Tormentos
Tormentos Reef is Cozumel drift diving at its swiftest. Cruise along a sandy bottom at 60 feet past coral spires in a line so long their called Upper, Middle, and Lower Tormentos. Drifting by all three is not difficult when the current is really flowing and it is here divers learn why school of margates, snapper and chub chill in the coral valleys.

Maracaibo
This is one of the southern most dive sites on the island and it is very exposed to currents and topside surf. This end of the island drops off gradually, making Maracaibo a wall dive, but a very deep one. Due to its more remote location, it is not uncommon to see schools of hammerheads or shoals of eagle rays as divers drift in the midwaters high above the ocean floor. This is not a dive for those who need to be up close and personal with the wall for the midwater drift is where the most of the action lies.

Barracuda
Located on the north end of the island, this area of the reef can be dangerous and is best for small groups of experienced, drift current divers. Due to the severity of the conditions, the Port Captain heavily monitors and restricts most tourists diving in this area. Even in good weather, the current runs 2 to 3 knots and down-currents are not uncommon.

Accommodation & Centre Details

Reef Club Cozumel

This 2,000 foot beach front resort has been labelled the " most fun all-inclusive" in Cozumel.
All rooms have A/C, fans, direct dial international telephones, new bedding and mattresses, cable TV, and hair-dryers. With something for everyone, have a drink on the new beach front deck at La Casona or take a nap in a hammock by the beach, work out in the gym, leave the kids at the kids club and relax with a massage in a palapa by the ocean.

With warm, clear, turquoise water and 20 miles of some of the world's most spectacular reefs, Cozumel is one of the best diving destinations on the planet. Sand Dollar Sports is the dive operation located on the resort with daily guided trips to any of the 17 dive sites on the island and a full selection of rental gear.

Scuba Diving in Cozumel

Details

Itinerary & Highlights

Accommodation & Centre Details

Holidays Extras