2015 - Mexico

 

We have spent our spring vacation 2015 in Mexico...
16 days all in all, thereof 8 days at Riviera Maya in Akumal, the other 8 days at Isla Cozumel.

 

Hotel "Akumal Beach Resort" and diving with "Akumal Bay Diving Center"
Akumal Bay Resort:
 

The first 8 days we stayed at a newly renovated hotel at Akumal, Riviera Maya.

The name of the hotel is Akumal Bay Resort, a nice 5 star hotel with excellent beach, nice rooms, friendly staff, fine food (try the Sushi Bar!!!) and a dream on a dive center, Akumal Bay Diving.

First some information about the hotel: We got a nice superior room at the upper floor, two story room with balcony and roof top terrace, including whirl pool and deck-chairs.

The rooms are newly renovated and in excellent condition, hotel is an all inclusive hotel, therefore you have a nice minibar that is included in the price.

The restaurants are excellent and the food too. Steak Bar with Brazilian Churazco, the Asian Restaurant, the Mexican Restaurant and the Sushi Bar are place to visit. But also the main restaurant offers nice and excellent food (buffet). The drinks are excellent there as well, wine, beer, cocktails.

Breakfast is excellent too, and besides standard coffee you can ask for all type of variations, Cappuccino or Coffee Latte…

Special thanks to the staff at the restaurants and the different bars. Friendly, polite, always a smile and very nice…

What to do there at Riviera Maya:

Besides diving of course visiting the historic Mayan places, Tulum, Coba and of course Chichén Itzá. We did two day trips to see those historic places, all of them worthwhile visiting…

Akumal Bay Diving:

Small little dive center at hotel Akumal Bay Resort, currently with a small beach cottage, equipment to be rinsed in the pool, but this will all change once the rooms for the dive center are ready.

Diving with Aramis and the team is JUST GREAT!!! We enjoyed it so much to hang around over and of course under water with them.

Excellent diving with excellent staff, competent, friendly, nice. What else do you want? CENOTES of course... This is a must at Yucatan, we did El Pit, deep dive at cenotes up to 35 meters and Dos Ojos with Bat Cave, a cave where you can dive to the surface and enjoy fresh air and bats in the middle of stalactites and stalagmites, how wonderful!!!

The reefs themselves  are not far away from the hotel, just some minutes by boat, shore dive is not possible there (just not deep enough). Diving starts by boat from the north part of Akumal Bay, you have to walk some minutes to the entrance point, weights and tanks are there, the rest you take with you. Doesn’t bother you that much, hence the hotel and the beach where you stay (Akumal Bay Resort) is much better than the once at the north part. 

 

Hotel "Iberostar Cozumel" and diving with "Dressel Divers":

The following 8 days we stayed at Iberostar Hotel in Cozumel.  The hotel is far off from the island capital San Miguel. And this is good as it is…

Why… The hotel is right in the middle of the underwater national park, where they don’t allow fishing at all, and this since more than 30 years… You can see this… Lots of fishes around, turtles, rays, nurse sharks every day, moray eels, barracudas, octopus,  lobsters and crabs everywhere, and not only during night dives…

So ideal location for lots and lots of dives, day dives (4 a day with up to three dive boats, depending how many divers join) and three time a week night dives…

The night dives are a must, we have been lucky hence it was full moon, so even more breathtaking than normally… You can find anything during night dives as well, Turtles, octopus, rays, and almost too many crabs and lobsters hanging around.

And how is the dive center itself? We would have loved to have the guys from Akumal Bay Diving with us there at Cozumel, this would have been perfect… However, Dressel Divers is good as well. We have been lucky to be able / allowed to dive with excellent dive guides, therefore we had lots of fun and breathtaking experiences. Thanks to all of you, Liam, Jake, Erica, Aron and all the rest of the gang… And to the boat drivers, Captain Black and Francisco…

In case you have some time left over and you would like to see historic Maya places we recommend to rent a car at the hotel for one day, drive around Isla Cozumel and visit the nice beaches all around the island, go shopping at San Miguel and the historic center called San Gervasio. Take your time and walk around, the place is constructed like a cross, with the main buildings in the middle and nice and beautiful other buildings at the end of each path, some walking but through nice forests. Watch out, you never know what you will see in the jungle…

 

 

Below you can find a map showing the area and impressions from the hotels, the countryside and from diving at Mexico. 

Have fun looking at the pictures and share with us our nice memories.