Em and I have been living in Playa del Carmen, Mexico this year and have discovered just how much there is to see in the Yucatan Peninsula. When we’re not teaching English online, we’ve loved exploring the area, seeing all the beautiful sights, and experiencing new things.
This is our first blog post of our series about our favorite experiences in the Yucatan Peninsula – and it’s centered around something we’ve been wanting to check off our bucketlist for a long time: Cozumel scuba diving :) In this post, I’ll share about our experience of getting our PADI open water certification in Cozumel, where we stayed and ate, and the things we saw on the beautiful island of Cozumel.
When Em and I go to the beach in Playa, we look out over the ocean and see Cozumel’s skyline. But even though the island is only a 30-minute ferry ride away and we see it almost every day, we had only ever been to Cozumel one other time (about 5 years ago on a Carribean cruise). However, after this visit, we quickly discovered that Cozumel is so much more than a popular cruise port! The island is the perfect Caribbean getaway.
Scuba Diving in Cozumel
Cozumel is perhaps best known for its world-famous diving. Getting our PADI open water scuba diving certification has always been something on our bucketlist. 70% of the earth’s surface is covered by water so, without being able to scuba dive, we felt like we were missing out on experiencing the incredible life under the sea. And with living so close to Cozumel, we knew we had to take advantage of this incredible location and become PADI certified.
One of the things that makes Cozumel scuba diving so amazing is that the Cozumel Reefs National Marine Park, which is a protected reef, is home to a huge variety of sea life! Our divemasters pointed out so many amazing things, from sharks to tiny sea horses in the coral. And although Playa del Carmen, Cancun, and Tulum’s beaches have been really affected by brown seaweed (called “sargassum”), Cozumel’s western coast and reefs have remained clear and unaffected. It was absolutely beautiful!
Pre Scuba Thoughts
Okay so here were my thoughts before diving. I’m not going to lie, I was a little nervous before we went diving. I mean there is a reason why humans can’t live underwater, right? :) So if you want to go diving but are a little nervous, I’m pretty sure that’s normal. I was actually surprised how easy diving really was! We decided to book our certification with a professional, local dive company so that we would be taught the right way and not just thrown into the deep end (haha literally). And it was an amazing experience!
For people interested in becoming scuba certified in Cozumel, the company we booked with was ScubaTony and they were awesome. One of the things I really appreciated about them was their professional, experienced divemasters and captains (thanks Marc, Javier, and Papo)! They knew the reefs like the back of their hand, were the perfect mix of being fun and professional, and were really patient with us newbies.
Some other awesome things about ScubaTony are that they have top-of-the-line Aqua Lung dive equipment (I can’t say that I ever mastered looking good in the wetsuit, but hey if you’re going to rock something at least make sure it’s the best ;) and they only take out a maximum of 6 divers on a boat (instead of some other boats which had 20+ people). It’s like booking a private travel tour with an experienced guide vs. going on a huge Greyhound bus full of overly excited tourists (which I would imagine would not be much fun when learning to dive).
We got certified with Tim and Fin (check out their YouTube channel and their brand Tripped Travel Gear!), and it was super nice having our own private boat with just the four of us! Highly recommend diving with friends – they made the experience even more fun, and with a small group our divemasters customized our dives to our experience level and the things we wanted to see.
1st Day of Our PADI Open Water Certification
We studied the PADI material, got out the last minute nerves, suited up and hit the water for our first dive.
The first day of our Cozumel open water certification was confined water dives” so we were never in the water much taller than what we could stand in. The instructor made sure that we comfortable breathing underwater and with basic scuba skills. And after the first day, I was excited to get out into the ocean and go a little deeper.
Completing Our Scuba Certification
The next two days, we practiced things like buoyancy, equalizing, and reading our dive computers. With scuba diving, you are always supposed to have a “buddy” to do things together with and to make sure you are okay, and we were joking that scuba diving is also a great form of marriage counseling…except for you can’t talk underwater :) Thanks scuba buddy Emmy! Before we knew it, the first three days came and went, we took our final exams (we passed, yay!) and we were scuba certified!
Cozumel Scuba Diving
After becoming certified, we did four more dives with Tim and Fin and ScubaTony to explore more of the reefs and sea life. Before getting our PADI certifications, I thought that diving would be a cool experience, but I didn’t expect to love it as much as I did! Em and I definitely aren’t experts (ha I may need to work on conserving my air :) but diving felt like getting to experience a whole new world, and we both loved it! In just one week, we go to see several turtles, barracuda, a stingray, moray eel, and two sharks! Everything around the reef is so beautiful and alive! Now that we have done Cozumel scuba diving, we can’t wait to go and explore other reefs around the world.
What to See and Do in Cozumel
In addition to exploring the reefs underwater, we also did a little exploring on land around the island. We toured Cozumel by moped (it took us about 1.5 hours to do the loop), which was super fun! In addition to snorkeling or scuba diving in Cozumel, this is definitely something I’d recommend! We stopped a couple times for food and drinks on the other side of the island. The east side of Cozumel is incredibly quiet and has a little bit of a deserted island feel!
Punta Sur Ecological Park is one of the most popular places to visit on the island. It is home to some of the island’s best beaches and amazing wildlife. And apparently on a clear day, you can see Cuba from the lighthouse. Tickets are $16 per person, so we ended up going down the road to El Mirador and absolutely loved it there! It has a beautiful natural rock formation and is a great place to relax.
There are lots of different beaches to visit in Cozumel, Playa Palancar probably being the most popular. And besides scuba diving, my favorite place was the sandbar of El Cielo – it has crystal clear water and hundreds of starfish! We stopped there in between our dives on our last day, and it was amazing.
San Miguel de Cozumel is the main town of Cozumel, where most of the restaurants are and tours leave from, and where the ferry arrives from Playa del Carmen. This is also where you want to stay! More on that below :)
Where to Stay
One of the biggest highlights of our time in Cozumel was our condo. Located on the west coast of the island, just outside of the main downtown, is Casa Phoenix. The condo is in a perfect location in town, next to two grocery stores and several restaurants, but far enough away from the city center noise.
We could not get over just how amazing this condo is! Located on the 7th floor, the four-bedroom condo has an incredible oceanfront view. Each evening from our balcony, we got to watch some of the best sunsets I’ve ever seen.
There’s a hot tub on the balcony, and one below next to the infinity pool – which was one of our favorite places to hang out after scuba diving.
The condo was so nice that, as excited as we were for scuba diving and exploring the island of Cozumel, it was tough to leave each day haha – it is the highest-rated condo in Cozumel for a reason, and we are so glad we chose to stay there. If you want a place to stay and feel like royalty, definitely check out Casa Phoenix!
Where to Eat
Although it’s an island, Cozumel has no shortage of incredible food! From street tacos to fine dining, there is a little bit of everything. Two of the restaurants we ate at while we were there were El Palomar and Casa Tomas.
After our first day of Cozumel scuba diving, Em and I jumped on our moped and headed downtown to El Palomar. The restaurant is a beautiful 100+ year old house that has been transformed into an oceanfront restaurant. El Palomar has island cuisine that centers its dishes around fresh ingredients from the island. They have red snapper, mahi mahi, and lobster, all fresh from the Cozumel fishermen – even the chicken and beef are usually sourced from the local farmers! The aim of the restaurant is to provide the freshest food while helping out the local fishermen and farmers.
Our favorite drink of the night was a dragon fruit cocktail. It was so refreshing and something that we can’t usually find in the states. Make sure to schedule dinner around sunset so you can eat your meal and watch the sun set into the ocean!
Casa Tomas is a restaurant from the same owner but with a different concept. We went here to celebrate our PADI final exam! Casa Tomas is based around Mediteranean and Spanish cuisine. The atmosphere is fine dining with a peaceful backyard setting. The have incredible meat and fresh baked rolls. It was a great dinner date and a perfect way to celebrate our new certifications!
How to Get to Cozumel
But before you can do anything in Cozumel, the first step is getting there :) For being such a beautiful, quiet island, you would think it’d be difficult to get there – but Cozumel is extremely easy to access. If you are coming from the United States you have three options to get to the island. 1. Fly to Cancun and take a ferry from Playa del Carmen (and come visit us in Playa on the way :) The Ultramar and Winjet ferries are pretty much the same and leave/arrive at similar times. 2. Fly to Cancun and take a short flight to Cozumel. 3. Fly directly to Cozumel (Southwest and American recently announced direct flights)!
Our time in Cozumel was amazing – a very fun and successful week! We got to stay in a dream condo, eat a lot of delicious food, see beautiful views, and get our PADI open water certifications in Cozumel! Thank you so much to ScubaTony and Casa Phoenix for hosting us – we had such an amazing time. Cozumel really blew us away with its clear water and beautiful beaches. We may just have to make a return visit sometime soon! :) But for now, onto some other adventures around the Yucatan!
Here are our other blog posts about our favorite things to do in the Yucatan Peninsula:
Playa del Carmen
Best Day Trips from Playa del Carmen
Isla Mujeres
Swimming with Whale Sharks
