We spent a week in Playa Del Carmen during Spring Break 2021, and I wanted to get my Advanced Open…read moreWater SCUBA Certification. Dune Mexico Blue Dream was the perfect shop for me. Overall (TLDR): Small Scuba shop in Playa with some very nice staff and instructors who worked around my vacation schedule to accommodate me getting my AOW while still finding interesting enough dives that my fiance (who already has her AOW) could dive with us and not be bored. They took us on short notice and dealt seamlessly with Cozumel closing unexpectedly when we were supposed to dive there. Overall great service and learning for me at a reasonable price. They are my go to dive shop in Playa. The Story: I booked a week at an all inclusive resort in Maroma for the week of spring break and was playing with the idea of finally getting my AOW certification so that I could do some of the more challenging dives I hadn't had access to with just an Open Water certificate. I did a little research and most of the shops down there had few reviews and not a lot of information available. I ran across Mexico Blue Dream, and their website was helpful and gave me hope. I emailed a month before the trip and they responded quickly. Up until the time when we were about to leave, I was still debating taking time away from an all inclusive resort to get the Advanced cert. I called them the day before we were supposed to arrive, after about two weeks of hemming and hawing, and they fit us in. They arranged a two day dive schedule with 4 dives in Playa and then 3 dives in Cozumel. When we arrived at our hotel, we had trouble contacting the dive shop because evidently the phones around the shop went completely out, but luckily Camille emailed me with his personal cell number and everything worked out just fine. The shop itself isn't the easiest place to find as the address helps you find the block, but the address itself is not well marked on any of the buildings in the area. Best advice I can give you is to look for the big yellow door! We met Damien, our instructor/dive master who has to be one of the most kind and even keeled people around. He was patient in explaining what we were going to do and what we needed to achieve for the certification process. Our first dive was a wreck dive with tight quarters and some decent marine life to watch. I always felt at ease with Damien as he was attentive, without being overbearing, and adaptive to our skill levels throughout our dives. Our second dive was a drift dive and the third was about navigation and maneuvering underwater. I always felt comfortable and secure with Damien. Such a great instructor and person overall. The second day we were supposed to go to Cozumel, but when returned from our first day, we found out they closed docks due to high seas. We transitioned to diving some Cenotes instead for our second day, and those went off without a hitch just like the previous day. The view from the Cenote called "the Pit" was one of the more remarkable geologic formations I have experienced. The Good: Good prices. Great staff who was thorough and responsive. Cute little facility with everything we needed despite not being a large storefront/retail location. They knew their stuff and made me feel comfortable the whole time. Camille was helpful in the office making all the arrangements, and I couldn't have asked for a more zen and knowledgeable instructor than Damien. The Bad: Nothing. The Mediocre: finding the place the first time was a little nerve-wracking because I'm very type A when it comes to being on time, but it worked out just fine.

One of the larger and more established Scuba shops around. It seems to be independent but you can…read moreget all sort of certifications through them. They have instructors all sorts of gear so you can get any certification you desire up to PADI instructor as one of the people on the boat had been trying to get. I think you should give this one a try when you're in Playa Del Carmen.

*An Unforgettable Experience at Cozumel Dive School!*…read more I just completed an incredible 4-night stay in the "Cedral" suite and another fantastic round of diving with Cozumel Dive School! This was my second time diving with them and my first time staying directly at their facility. As a solo diver, choosing to stay at the school was absolutely the right decision. *Fantastic Accommodations & Social Vibe* The space in Cedral is excellent. My room was great overall, featuring a very comfortable bed and awesome A/C. The kitchen was well-equipped, and having an in-room fridge/freezer was a welcome convenience. Beyond the room itself, I really enjoyed the social vibe in the downstairs common area. It was a wonderful place to make friends with both fellow divers and the instruction staff. The diving is great, and the people this business attracts are truly top-notch. *World-Class Team & Exceptional Service* The staff here truly make the experience stand out, and the site manager, Matt Pace, deserves a distinct note of appreciation. I first met Matt a couple of years ago when he instructed me and two of my children for our Open Water certification. When I reached out to him earlier this year to plan some summer fun dives, he was super responsive and helpful with all the early booking information. From the moment I arrived, Matt made me feel instantly welcome as a member of the dive family, showing me around and ensuring I had everything I needed. The exceptional service didn't stop there. After my first day of scheduled fun dives with Jackie, I decided on short notice to try and achieve my Advanced Open Water (AOW) certification in the time I had left. Despite the time constraints, Matt used serious accommodation and hustle to make the schedule work on extremely short notice. Thanks to his efforts, I got the bonus opportunity to learn from several other fantastic CDS instructors, including Buffy, Kyle, and Jordan. Furthermore, on Buffy's encouragement during my second day, I asked to switch from 80 cu ft tanks to larger 100 cu ft Nitrox tanks for my third day. Once again, Matt came through on short notice to make it happen. That exact change allowed me to get so much more out of my Deep and Drift dives. *Bottom Line* Not only is the diving great, but the community and team at Cozumel Dive School are incredible. I am already eager to come back! Whether you are traveling solo or diving with family, I highly recommend booking with them.

My wife and I just got back from our Instructor Development Course (IDC &MSDT) at Cozumel Dive…read moreSchool. All of the staff were fantastic. We were especially grateful for Laurien, who took so much time investing in us as new instructors. Jimmy is also AMAZING, he prepared us so well for our instructor examination among so many other things, and he brings a great sense of humor and experience. And of course we can't forget Ken who poured experience and time into us as freshly minted instructors as well. Really, we are very appreciative off all of their staff, we felt everyone there was cheering us on! Their staff care deeply about the success of their students. We couldn't have done it without them! Along with their IDC program, we opted to stay several extra days to certify as instructors for several PADI specialties as well (MSDT), that was also time well spent. In total we were there for four weeks. From the moment we walked in the door we were welcomed and settled in. The class sizes were just right, four of us in this IDC, and the price was very reasonable. If anyone is looking for a top tier IDC program this is a good one. We hope to be back for more training in the future after we get some experience training new divers back home.

We had a goal of seeing monkeys in the wild and thankfully we had rented a car so we decided to go…read moreon this adventure. This is not a place you can get to without your own transportation. But, it is worth the effort. We had a wonderful guide who spoke great English and worked really hard to find spider and howler monkeys throughout the jungle for us. It was a private tour just for our family that included a jungle walk, a Mayan shaman ceremony, zip lining over a lagoon, canoeing across the lagoon, repelling down into a cenote and then swimming in the underground cenote with the bats before climbing the 30 ft ladder to get back above ground. This is not an adventure for the faint-hearted. My 11 and 14-year-old loved it and thought this was a well worth afternoon. We teamed it up with going to coba which was great as well. I highly recommend communicating via Facebook or Whatsapp ahead of time as there is no cell phone communication out there. However, my Facebook communication worked great and we got there and they had my name on a piece of paper ready for us. I felt like I was supporting the community and the community was very genuine and sincere. This felt like an honest experience and I really treasured the adventure.

Nice place. Mayan families coop, not some cheesy big corporation…read more Track through jungle, see spider monkeys, canoe ride across a lake and finish up at a nice cenote that has some fruit bats. You can bring snorkel and an underwater flashlight to see some skulls too.

My husband and I took a group of people to Cozumel for some of our groups first drift diving,…read moreocean, boat diving experience last week and others came with a vast amount of dive experience. So organizing divers Is like herding cats sometimes. Need i say more. Our first day (we used one tank of our 9 tank package dives) was taken in the small bay right in front of the Barracuda hotel. Success for weight check feeling comfortable etc. Off we were all on our second day nine divers and we go out on the boat with Dive Paradise. On the boat you're the captain a couple of DM's and the instructor. Usually dive boats have a mix of Dive certifications. There's this large guy that steps on the boat. He has a smile from one coast of the Caribbean to the other. I am a new DM. So I am listening and watching everything he is doing and saying. He:steps on the boat and comes out with his best Diego Garcia (and looks like him as well) voice and says I am Hector. Immediately he was someone that I felt I have known my whole life and eases into introductions. He asks everyone all of our experience. Explains in detail what was going to happen that day on diving. His history lesson of dive sites, experiences, life, heartbreaks, and diving was really epic. Our group was so comfortable with him and Dive Paradise it was beyond phenomenal. He took us to swim through, pointed out marine life while keeping close track of everyone as he should. We liked him so much we called the office every day after and requested Hector to be our guide or we would not be diving. Lol Then we came into an emergency with one diver. Hector kept us well informed in case of emergency how to notify him with out further questioning under water every day before we got into the water. I watched how he handled the emergency with calmness, professionalism and exact precision with his quick decisions. At the boat he was the leader and got busy. This diver emergency was all the divers fault dehydration. Nothing to do with Dive Paradise. I will say there is a quiet DM that dove with us and he called out a correct diagnosis, thank you Daniel for your expertise. Dive Paradise executed paramedics at the dock and took our diver to a hospital. The doctor who is well known in Cozumel. I recommend everyone to go to him even if it is not dive related. Dr. Piccolo. Put it in your address book for that area. Dr. Piccolo stayed with our dive family explained in details everything that was going on and assured us that our diver will be just fine. Plus the doctor kept an eye on the patient 4 more days less than 24 hours in the hospital. Wow who does that in the states. Thank you Dive Paradise for a great doctor. Laura the site manager for Dive Paradise runs a tight group there in Cozumel. The staff minus one other person is great to work with. Angel he kept us informed at the dock as well as on task with our wrist bands and his stories. Imagine Angel is Hector's uncle!,!, Niceness must run in the family right? As our diver was released the next afternoon after his mishap Laura (manager of Dive Paradise) picked husband and wife up from the hospital Personally and brought them back to the hotel. Talk about efficient and professionalism and just going out of their way for customer service. People why would you want to go to anyone else? Last weekend my husband and I attended the Scuba Show in Long Beach. We wanted to make sure we introduced ourselves to Michael Penwarden (the owner of Dive Paradise). He was well informed of our dives and experiences. I would have kissed his toes and gave him a hug and said your dive company just rocks the world. But instead I bragged about Dive Paradise, Hector, the staff, and all plus shook his hand and said thank you. Great person. Just an FYI. This isn't our first time with Dive Paradise. I have dove with them before. Just a great company to dive with. Dive Paradise he is someone you need to keep. Or I am going to snag him here in Las Vegas.

I booked 3 excursions through dive paradise along with a room at cozumel hotel and resort. I used…read morethis company because our local dive shop goes here and recommended them. I gave detailed information about needs at time of booking which was several months in advance. It seemed as if the majority of info didnt make it to the booking other than the bookings themselves. 2 of the 3 bookings were done by tulum dive and travel company. I did a separate review for them The excursion itself was well done. The 2 in my party who went really enjoyed. I mentioned however afterwards my son said his bcd was leaking and the owner looked at me like I was crazy and didnt seem to think it was problematic. I was just letting him know so he could look at it before giving it to anyome else. Not to complain. The other 2 bookings I didnt realize the other company was doing. Again it was fine but because there was a 2nd company leading this. I wasn't getting a ton of info from dive paradise who I booked with about these trips The cenote diving trip was excellent The whale shark snorkeling if you are looking at that. You should know. Its taking a ferry, driving about an hour to cancun, then spending an hour plus on a very rough boat ride. You will get 2 chances to jump out of the boat and swim with the whale sharks. All the dive companies running this tour do the sane thing. The boats chase these whale shark around. You jump in next to them. They swim away and you try to swim with them. Your swim will last a few minutes. Then you get back on boat until its your turn to do the 2nd one. I had no idea thats what it would be, if I had I would not have booked this. I thought we would be going to an area we might see them and have a chance to just snorkeling around. You spend a long time sitting to spend about 5 minutes snorkeling and doing what feels like harassing the wildlife. I would not ever do that again. You then repeat very rough ride back on boat with a stop for lunch and a little swim. If your stomach was strong enough to withstand the ride. Get back to the boat dock. Hour ride to playa del Carmen and then a ferry ride back to cozumel. Its a long day. Was it worth nearly $300 per person. No. And in my opinion it should not be described as a magical experience. They should call it what it is but then I guess not as many tours would be sold Anyhow. Asking questions from this company I felt as if I was bothering them.

We got certified for open water diving with Barefoot and the experience was wonderful. The pricing…read morewas very affordable for a 3day training course with two dives/ day. Our instructor Adi was very communicative, patient and easy going. He answered all of our questions and made the process so smooth and easy. The staff were very friendly and fun and gave great recommendations for local food options too. The dives were absolutely mind blowing: water was crystal clear and the ecosystem was just thriving and fascinating. Can't recommend this enough!

I've been on multiple dives, and my travel companion has completed over 50--this was by far the…read moreleast professional and least informed dive operation either of us has encountered. From the start, the experience felt disorganized and impersonal. The dive shop was packed, and many of the dive masters were not local, which became evident in their lack of knowledge about Cozumel's marine ecosystem. Despite diving in a protected marine park, no information was provided about the coral, conservation efforts, or the park's significance. The dive master assigned to us was particularly unprofessional. When fitting my wetsuit, she remarked, "I'd give you a small, but I don't know if it'd fit over your boobs." Inappropriate and unnecessary. This experience was a stark contrast to the local dive companies we later booked with, who were deeply knowledgeable about the coral, marine life, and how tourism has impacted the island. Moving forward, I'll be far more selective about booking with truly local operators. If you're diving in Cozumel, I highly recommend Sand Dollar Sports, where you can actively participate in coral reef restoration and support responsible tourism.

We did out snorkeling tour with them. Amazing service and very attentive. Their trip included 4…read moredives in various reef types. We saw all kinds of fish and the cool thing was they walked us through the fish types before we got in water so we knew exactly what we were seeing. Definitely highly recommended!

Loes and her crew were amazing. If you're looking for a guide and team that is focused on your…read moreexperience (and not drinking), this is the group. Amazing experience for our group of 15. They took the time to explain the sea life we would encounter, took pictures with the go pro to share, made sure everyone was comfortable and provided tasty snacks and beverages for everyone. Loes held our hands in planning our excursion from Playa and even arranged to meet us close to the ferry port so we could depart almost immediately after docking. A+++ outing.

Cannot say enough good things about Playa Scuba. The entire team was incredible. We had very…read moreminimal previous dive experience but wanted to get certified because we loved it so much. Playa made it safe, affordable, and FUN! Aaron, Terry, Kaz, and Klaus were all so awesome. If glee get back this way we will definitely come back and do some dives again. I also recommend diving the cenotes! Unique and incredibly awesome.

I had an amazing experience a couple weeks ago at Playa Scuba Dive Center!! I went down to Playa by…read moremyself and stayed at a super nice and affordable hotel right next to Playa Scuba. It's the perfect location! You can just walk to the beach and also the main street where ALL of the fun stuff happens, like shopping, food, bars, live music, dancing, shopping, everything! I went down to get my PADI open water, and Carolyn was friggen amazing. She was the best instructor I ever could've asked for. I felt so ready, safe and comfortable under the water. I also adored the other staff members and felt like I was instantly family. This is an experience I'll never forget, and I'll 100000% go back to Playa Scuba and dive as soon as I can!

Just left Cozumel and had the best 2 tank dive with GG and Artie . The drift dive was AWESOME the…read moredive masters were so patient and helpful We just sat and they really catered to us switching tanks adding weight during dive Pointing out numerous marine life GG 500+ dives on the reef and Artie knows ever over hang out cropping lobster eel swim thru location Deep blue and all the staff From my initial booking was so impressed with the details of trip location cost boat what to expect how to get there everything was so laid out Thank you thank you You guys will always be our go too It was awesome

This was one of the best dives we've ever done. This company was great. They supplied some fresh…read morefruit as a snack afterwards, mangoes and pineapple, along with water and some type of punch. It was the three in our family and three other people so a nice small group. my daughter decided to have a private guide underwater for the scuba diving. Hearst private guides name was Batman. He was amazing. The one thing I will say is depending on which port your ship comes in if you were on a cruise ship like we were depends on whether you even need a taxi to get to them. We happen to be at the close report, but didn't realize it because we didn't bother googling directions. They were literally like four blocks from the ship port for Norwegian, but there is another port further down. That might be a 10 minute drive. They're located right downtown near a lot of coffee, shops, and restaurants. Great walking.