Diving Destinations & fun for kids?

[Lovinight]

I would love advice. My son is 8, traveling with me and my husband. I started diving last year and all I want to do is DIVE DIVE DIVE :eek:

However I want vacations to be a "WOW" experience for my son as well.

I know we will be doing a windjammer cruise in the future despite bad reviews I have $2k credit with them.

I have considered Anthony's key Resort & e few others.

I would love to hear about places that offer "SASSY" or "SASY"? or "Bubblemakers" because I would love to introduce my son to diving as well.

Most of the small dive cruises are a bit more then I want to spend. 2-3K is what I am thinking is reasonable since I would like to travel more and spend less :D

Thanks in Advance :)

[bruce-r]

It is hard to beat Cozumel for the combination of great diving, interesting topside adventures, nice people, and over all value.

 

AKR would be a good choice if you are taking DS.

 

Does your husband dive too?

[Lovinight]

Nope hubby dosen't dive, but he is happy to go anywhere.

If I didn't take care of everything vacation, we wouldn't have one.

:) I am already certified, but trying to stay 100ft & above, Cozumel is deep dives isn't it? Foaming blood left unpleasant images in my mind (from the book)

[bruce-r]

Cozumel is deep dives isn't it? Foaming blood left unpleasant images in my mind (from the book)

Not unless you really want to go deep at a few of the advanced sites in the far south. You can see pretty much everything at 80 ft and above with lots in the 40's. There are some All inclusive resorts on Cozumel that would work pretty well for you. We stayed at the Fiesta Americana last December. My wife and kids don't dive and out of the three of them, only my daughter really likes the water. Everyone was happy staying there. If you do go to Cozumel for diving, you should really only consider the resorts south of town. Dive boats from pretty much all the operators will do pick ups from the resorts to the south. If you stay north of town, you will have to taxi to a pick up point unless you dive with Pepe's or Scuba Du.

 

Ya, I read that book too. :eek:

[turtlegirl2]

I second the recommendation about Cozumel. My DH and I have been for the past four years and the diving is wonderful! We always stay at an all-inclusive on the south end, which is closest to all the great dive sites. The past two years, we've brought DD with us and she has a blast in the kids club while we are out diving (my parents are also with us so she does have family at the resort while we are gone). There is a lot to do for non-divers and divers alike. We are going to try cruise ship diving this year due to a meeting in Miami that lends itself to a quick Bahama's cruise on RC. Have fun on your trip!! :D

[Lovinight]

Do you know the name of the place?

[turtlegirl2]

Hi! We've stayed at the Allegro, the Iberostar (2x) and the Grand Allegro. The last two were the nicest overall, but the original Allegro has the best beach and was a lot of fun. This year we are considering a family Thanksgiving vacation at the Reef Club. I visited it last year during a surface interval and the person staying there showed us his jr. suite and some of the grounds. It was going through some renovations and I've read that they are done with those. It is worth a try and their beach looks great too.

 

We dive with Alison Dennis whenever we go. Great lady from the U.S. who has been in Coz for about 15 years now. She is awesome and has a great crew. Her website is www.scubawithalison.com Check it out! Hope you get a chance to spend some time on Coz and dive the wonderful reefs there. Lots of people fall in love with it and can't stop talking about it (I'm a perfect example!! ;) )

 

Hope this helps!!

Jacque (Turtlegirl)

[bruce-r]

Do you know the name of the place?

at the far south end of the island, that would be the Occidental Grand, probably one of the 3 the nicest AI resorts in Cozumel. Priced accordingly. I would love to stay there if I could get a good deal.

 

reviews

[Jerry_G]

Everybody loves Cozumel. I love the diving but do not have a fondness for the island. Way too commercial. I usually stay in Play Del Carmen at the Riviera Del Sol and dive with Sealife diving. Of course I do make several day trips over to Cozumel to dive. The hotel is about two blocks out of the main town/shopping district known as 5th avenue. The beach by sealife IMHO is the most beautiful beach I have ever had the pleasure to stay at. Being on the Yucutan Peninsula opens up more oppurtunities to visit things like Xelha, the Mayan runes at Tulum, and to dive the Cenotes(underground caverns) with unlimited visibility, fresh water, and a beautiful drive through the jungle. While the diving on the Yucutan side is not as good as the Cozumel side they still have excellent diving. My favorite is the Tortugas. I've never dove there without seeing at least 20 turtles. It is also one of the fastest drift dives I've ever encountered and in about 50 feet of water and nowhere near the walls

[Lovinight]

I was looking for one that loked like it had a descent kids club (for when I dive, I hate coming back to the room and finding my husband and son watching TV when we are on vacation)Tripadvisor could keep me in circles for hours reading mixed reviews. Last year we stayed in Cancun and did the Jungle Tour boat/snorkel, we did the Dolphin swim and the dolphin encounter & the Captain Hook dinner tour.

We loved them all, the Dolphin experience is to much of a production to create reasons to get you to spend more money though.

I am trying to find more adventures. Any ideas?

Xcaret Eco Park & Xel-Ha I already plan on trying to make time to see.

[nancyhi]

OK - i've dove in a couple of places, dragging the kids along, and its not easy finding someplace. the easiest for those with small kids, is doing the cruise, mainly because I know the kids will still be on the ship when I get back. And we get a variety of diving. You're truly lucky that your husband doesn't dive, cuz he can hang out with your son. In Cozumel, there's tons of other stuff to do. we just got back from the Allegro, and while the reviews are mixed, I had a great time. forget the size of the room, and the average rated food. the diving and the dive operator is wonderful. the beach is pretty nice there. There's snorkeling options that your husband and son can do. there's fishing charters. there's a kids club for a couple of hours at a time - 9-1pm, 3-5 pm. otherwise, he may be old enough to enjoy kayaking, or parasailing. They could go to Chankanaab, or you could join them on a day off from scuba. We had lots to do. there's a nice pool there. stay on the poolside farther away from the swim up bar. there's guys who park themselves there early on, and drink all day. you figure it out.

there's a spa, there's taxis to a lot of other things as well, like the Punta sur park a few miles away.

 

Another option you might consider is Turks and caicos, and go to Beaches. Its more expensive, but Turks is a GREAT place to dive, and where I started as a beginner and on my first certified dives at ClubMed. Beaches is near there, and supposed to be a great kids club. Plenty for your husband to do as well. but when all else fails, I hear there's an arcade. But, I do sympathize with you about the TV and the portable games. thats' where I'll find my 13 yr old daughter. watching her Anime cartoons, or playing some Gameboy game. here we are in a wonderful beach area, oceanview rooms with a porch and hammock, and my daughter cooped herself in the room watching movies on her portable DVD player. what are you gonna do?

 

if you try a family clubmed in the carribean, that might be another option, but they've shut down most of the good dive spots to kids clubs, like the Bahamas, st Lucia.

 

Grand Cayman is supposed to be great for diving, and has a kids club at Hyatt.

 

we went to Maui, and my husband and i traded off the kids for a day of diving each. The other took the kids to the beachwhile the other dove. After diving, we did something in the afternoon together, like the Maui Ocean center, or the Lahaina shopping and dining area. Diving was pretty awesome there too. Saw turtles all over and all kinds of different things.

depends if you have a kid who likes the outdoors. there's plenty to do there during day. save the movies and TV for night, cuz there's nothing to do for a whole week at night with kids. i went bonkers. A week was definitely enough. i love oahu for nightlife, but I've never dove there.

 

good luck!

[Lovinight]

Decided to try Xpu-Ha staying @the cocopabana (sp?)

Rented a Jeep instead of Hotel transfers, have plans for Xcaret . I think I will be plenty close to Cozumel for diving, I would love to hear about any other adventures you have done that are memoriable.

[CaesarsNcruisin4me]

I travel to Mexico every year with my kids. They are now 12 and 14. This past Christmas we stayed at the Iberostar Paraiso Maya and had a fantastic time. The food was great, there were lots of activities,great shows, and the beach was beautiful.

 

We stayed for two weeks and are all certified divers but my kids favorite day trip was the ATV's. We chose to do the full day (8 hours) with the ATV's and had an amazing time. They have two seater ATV's so you or your husband could take your son. My kids chose to each have their own but I had to sign a waiver releasing the tour operator of any liability if anything were to happen. My kids knew how to drive them so I wasn't worried. If I remember correctly the tour left from the Hotel Akumal/Tulum. They picked us up and dropped us off at our hotel though. The tour consisted of a jungle tour with a rest break at one of the nearby beaches and we stopped for lunch in a Mayain village where the locals made us lunch and then we toured through the village and met up with monkeys and were able to touch them and some other animals. One of the villagers let us pick some tiny tiny peppers to bring home with us. They are very small but extremely hot. After this village stop we returned to the ATV's and our next stop was the cenotes. We went for a tour through the cenotes and then stopped for a swim in the clear fresh water of the cenotes. Then back to the ATV's where we ripped through the jungle hitting some fun speeds, bumbs and lots of fun. The funniest part by far was when my younger son accidently bumped into a taxi that was parked at the side of a trail.:p Suddenly out of nowhere there were 12 Mexican taxi drivers surveying the small dent on the side and trying to convince me that the large dent on the roof on the taxi was from my son also. :eek: Gosh, I didn't know my son could fly. The appearance of a $100 bill from my pocket quickly brought a smile from the taxi driver who by now had regained his English skills.:rolleyes: Small price to pay for the amount of joy I've received from teasing my son about this and telling our friends about his misadventure. If I remember correctly the tour cost $100 per person if each riding their own ATV or $75 pp if sharing, and this includes all lunch and refreshments. It was a very enjoyable day and I highly recommend it.

 

Oh I should add that that we did the full day and there was myself and my two kids only in our group with the two guides also. When we returned at 6pm we saw the half day group returning and there must have been 40 people and the two guides in that group. I made a comment and the guide told me that the full day group is usually always small as most people opt for the half day. Also the half day group doesn't get to all the spots we were able to go. Definately recommed the full day!:D

 

For diving options- we did a night dive in Cozomel and we were able to get up close to an octupus, crabs, lobsters, 2 eels, and many fish. All the interesting critters come out at night. Best to rent a good underwater light or make sure that the dive operater provides good ones as this can make a world of difference when diving at night. I brought my digital camera with an underwater case and got some amazing pictures. We also did a day dive around the coral reef and saw lots of fish. Normally we only dive around 40 feet as the kids have junior open water certification and are restricted to depths of 40feet. They already have more than a dozen dives in both warm and cold water and enjoy diving very much. Even at 40feet there is still lots to see.

 

:eek: OMG I think I wrote a book. Sorry for the extremely long post.

 

Sandie