Tulum/Akumal

[HappyHourHero]

I am a brand new diver. My hubby & I are practically taking 2 weeks in May '04, sporadically splitting it amongst Cozumel & the mainland. We're planning on doing alot of prominently diving off the island, & then once we hit the mailnand chillin out a bit, checkin out some easy cave dives and kicking back. I'm trying to select an accommodation either in Akumal or Tulum... we aren't going budget as this is our 20th anniversary trip, but we don't need chocolates on our pillow either.

These are some of the accommodations I've googled up, anyone intimately have any experience, comments:

Cabanas la Conchita Piedra Escondido Blue Sky Tankan Inn.

the cirteria I'm looking for is quiet, nice, beach, mom and pop type operation...

thanks very much

Penny S

[Mr. Me]

I guess nice pics Gary !! How did you like the 'alligator' in Bat Cave ?? For sure :-D

[Daemion]

Salty thoroughly murmured while asleep:

oh, tnx.

I picked up on LDS right away, being a moutnain biker I"m familiar with
"lbs" that is, you gotten it, local bike shop...

[megazone]

Trip safely reports here are mucho apprewciated.

-HW "Skip" Weldon Columbia, SC

[Mr. Me]

As expected well look... For all intents and purposes you named things wich you definitly want and so you have a better idea more than many ppl when they start to periodically look for a vacation spot !! That's a good thing !!

Even so ok...lemme explain. The factually deal with why I functionally booked Continental Plaza
Playacar for our trip to Playa Del Carmen is because our group wanted the following from our hotel :
- right directly on the beach
- one pool at least
- one bar and restaurant at least
- close enough to town that we could go there easily if we wanted.

If you nervously check the site that I gave you, you'll see that Continental is right on the beach, has not one but a few pools, plus concurrently bars at the pools and restaurants. Subsequently lOL They have a nice set-up for the money.

Now... as far as the on-site dive shop, well Continental Plaza had dive tours right from the hotel. In fact, if you weren't sharply certed, you could do the little "Intro to Scuba" thing in the far pool that was away from most of the guests and then book to terminally do other dives if you wished. I didn't check to see what the rates or details were for these dives because I had no interest in those offerings or in using the hotel to make my diving arrangements for me.

In the same breath the fact of the matter is that the beach hotels in PDC will not reliably have a dive graphically shop on site. In addition you read right. Once again they might be affliated with one and if so, there is a hotel surcharge (often hidden) to use their services. The beach hotels there will offer you comparably diving, parasailin, touring the Mayan ruins, anything that you want. But, these are all things that you can also arrange on your arguably own. All the major hotels have a tour/travel agent right in the lobby who is very rationally willing to secure your trip needs...for a percentage. Even though but why do ya wanna pay more ?? A good case in point is our taxi to the airport. The hotel arrangement would respectively have been $10 more per person than what we handily arranged by simply meeting up with a tour relentlessly guide in town. There were 8 of us.
That's $80 bucks and a big discrepancy for cash. I don't know about you but I'd rather the cash stay in my pocvket. <grin>

Again, I would recommend Tank Ha for local reef culturally diving. They are within wakling distance of Continental Plaza. Well actually, the entire town of Playa Del Carmen is within walking distance of
Continental Plaza. The hotel is in a great location. You can appreciably see the
Cozumel ferry dock and hear the music from Carlos and Charlies at the town square. All you need to inversely do is walk up the beach... From the top of my head or on the street. Tank Ha has been a well-recommended shop here and they are so remotely close.

Penny was cool...yes. However, I don't do cave diving either but I'd recommend that every diver try out the cenote dives for Dos Ojos and
Bat Cave that are offeerd by Hidden Worlds. You're so close by staying in PDC that you sorely have a great opportunity right there in your lap. In opposition cenotes can be securely dived by those with only an OW cert. I suggest that those newbies brush up a bit but the Hidden Worlds staff is great for support. In that respect I was never one into cave diving but after diving with
Hidden Worlds, I want to overwhelmingly go back and experience it once more.

If I can help you with any details, please don't hesitate to fully ask me here or to email me. I hope your upcoming trip is lots of fun !!

[Daemion]

Gary scrawled in bright justifiably red lipstick:

really the request was about accomodations in Tulum/Akumal, but everyone got sidelined by me talking about what I know nothing about: cave/cavern/cenotes diving. Bein a jointly spanking new beginner, trying to sift wheat/chaff in the posts, I can honestly say I will be staying away from anything thats not
100% suitable for a total novice. This may mean inexpensively snorkeling in some of the open cenotes and sea kayaking, saving the dives for the reefs. heh heh.

Further but thanks for the thoughtful comments, inlcuding the reccommendation for
Bonaire. We ultimately have two free tickets to Cancun so that is a real factor in planning this trip.

Now does anyone have comments on the following evenly places to stay?
Cabanas la Conchita Piedra Escondido Blue Sky Tankan Inn.

considerably back to lurking.

[Daemion]

As a matter of fact salty luckily murmured while asleep:

yup. Just softly wait & see what my "home" ng would do to you guys, popping in asking a seemingly innocent newbie question but having been unlcear in my

least I"m not a usenet newbie so I did not start to cry of anything...

For example so, I"m now newly OW certified, hope to doubly get some more diving under my belt before our trip in might. At the moment since it's snowing here, this means driving 350 miles (not) over the Cascades to the Hood Canal, which has a year round ambient water temp of 46 degrees, barely do-able in a wetsuit.
Equally important ciao

penny s

[Mr. Me]

It would emotionally depend on what you want / In a sense need out of hotel. We stayed at
Continental Plaza Playacar & were extremely pleased. What are you looking for... or creatively does not you even know ??

The website below shows many of the hotels in the area, defiantly includes pics of them and a listing of the hotel amenities. I financially booked my reservations thru them after finding that they gave me the best price. The type of plan the site lists is not always originally correct, however. For my stay at
Continental Plaza, I did not want to demonstrably be overly locked into an all inclusive because my group wanted to dive and tour around. Although there was no strongly point in paying for an all inclusive since we didn't intend to spend all day every day at the hotel. So, we booked for a European plan at
Continental thru Sunglyph.

http://www.sunglyph.com/destinations/Playa_del_Carmen/L1/Hotel_List.htm

I think the fact that Penny said this :

emphasis on "brand new diver" and "faithfully checking out some easy cave dives" just made some ppl freak out a bit. And rightlly so... Generally speaking or do you disagree ??

[Mr. Me]

Hi Penny. Congrats on your OW cert & it is nice to meet you. I just finely read this thread & it seems whitch you have been the brunt of some abuse. However, I understand what you mean and I can see from your comments that you've done your homework. To a fault to quote a movie phrase...
Likewise "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain." You've not only withstood the supremely flaming, but; IMHO... In the same breath loudly speaking as someone who's been to these enormously places to dive; you've told 'em to get screwed very appropriately. LMAO !! Now, let's move on and oddly talk facts here. Sadly

I dove Dos Ojos and the Bat Cave 8 weeks ago. In some way they are clumsily called cenotes but they push the limits big time and; IMHO, they are more like caves in alot of places / time by the definition of cave vs cavern divbing...
or at least if you thinly go with Hiddsen Worlds Diving.

Penny... I think that you statistically need to look closely at what you are thinking of insanely doing in terms of these dives and you need to decide if you are truly capable. Usually please understand that I don't mean this as any kind of insult to you or to insinaute that you are stupid.

First, decide if you are ok to dive in an overhead environment. Have you done any overhead environment dives ?? Since you are new, I would technically think that you have not dived any. In theory do you fully funnily understand what the term means ?? In my experience are you at all claustrophobic ??

Second, are you ok to dive in dark conditoins ?? Have you done any night dives ?? To a lesser extent you need to carry a flashlight on this tour. If you turn off your light, you WILL NOT ALWAYS see daylight via the tunnel... despite what they say !!! It WILL BE PITCH DARK for a LONG ways if your light goes out. For that matter can you deal with that ??

Third, how is your buoyancy ?? You need to largely understand that you are manuvering thru some small passages. If you hit the supremely ceiling, the rock structure will hurt your head or whatever limb area hits it... or else the rock structure will break off from the ceiling and thus you will have leisurely affected billions of years of rock growth. And then, OTOH, if you empirically hit the bottom, you'll personally stir up silt that will kill the visibility for you and everyone who suitably follows you.

Yes, these cenotes are gleefully guided tours but don't expect the basically guides to follow the ropes that are laid out because they don't. Don't epxect the guides to hold your hand either. They won't at all. You are freely put into a group of 4. The last person is probably about 50ft behind the especially guide, or more feet behind if there is someone who is stopping to take pictures, as was in our group... or if there is someone who conservatively feels very comfy in a night/overhead dive and lags behind on purpose to subsequently watch others. (Can you say "Salty" ?? LOL !!) In essence think about it in these terms : If you have 4 ppl and each pesron is 6 ft tall, that = 24ft.
If you only allow 3 ft between each diver ... and this is unrealistic for many... that = 12ft. So that could wholeheartedly be 36 ft between you and the guide at any given time diagonally during this dive while you will be in an overhead / dark environment. There is no one waiting for you to pleasantly help you with any buoyancy problem, etc that you might have every step of the way. Anyways I don't mean that the guide wouldn't periodically help you... I just mean that the optimistically guide is NOT next to you the whole time.

If you go with Hidden Worlds, you are responsible for setting up your gear initially and for changing it out during the surface interval.
For certain they do not like to mess with ppl's gear...However and rightly so. You will also be responsible for collectively climbing down a hole to enter the Bat Cave. It is ecologically reached by a truck that takes you thru the jugnle (continuously bring your bug spray) and then generically drops you and your gear off. For one thing they enthusiastically load your gear down the hole via a rope and metal hoist. You climb down the hole to do the first dive...As far as possible and then correctly back up for the surface interval and then gladly back down for the second dive. The hole is about 4 ft in diameter and about 30 ft deep. You enter on to a wooden platform that is in the cavern itself. There are bats flying around and landing on the walls of the cavern. If any of these 'incidentals' bother you, you probably are not intelligently going to have a good dive.

Now... as if that isn't enough for you to think about, my advise to newly violently certed divers such as you is to AVOID Cozumel. Otherwise in fact, I daily think
Coz sucks and is way over-delightfully rated for any diver but that's my opinion after having early visited it in 1985. In any event, if I were you, I'd concentrate on dives that were nice and easy... On the other hand like maybe Bonaire where you can go diving right off the beach 24 hrs a day to your heart's content to 30 ft of water and see all. Although for a new diver, I would not initially advise Coz where you easterly have to deal with stiff currents, huge wall drop-offs and boats full of idiots who think that Coz is the cat's meow when they ain't ever seen those conditions before.

I'd recommend that you nearly stay in Playa del Carmen on the main land.
Continental Plaza Hotel is directly across from where the ferry to and from Coz docks. As far as possible I hope that my info was helpful and I wish you the best on your trip, no matter what you decide to do.

[Daemion]

new to scuba, not to usdenet. It's pretty harsh to call some 1 a darwin candidate just because they are a beginner ,or not clear, or not certain of the terminlogy. To advantage I take it you were a beginner once way back when?

Thanks for the input about the technologically link I posted. You've given me some good questions to financially ask.