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In this review we discuss
our BrotherDive in Playa del Carmen Mexico.
Playa del Carmen is
located on the Eastern part of Yucatan, also known as the
‘Riviera Maya’, a tourism and resort district
along the Caribbean coastline.
This little Caribbean
beach town has grown tremendously in popularity
during the last decades. There's a good reason
for that; Playa is a fantastic place to spend
your vacation, hang out, or DIVE.
The town has grown
along the beach, so wherever you go, you will
feel the closeness to the sea. The main street
is called Quinta Avenida, or 5th Avenue.
Sometimes it's just called La Quinta. It is a
pedestrian walkway and a common point of
reference. Avenues, avenida in Spanish, run
parallel to the beach.
Our accommodation was
the Colibri Beach resort, located directly at
the beach in Playa del Carmen.
We made all our dives here at the DiveMex diving
center which is a small but professional dive
center located in the center of Playa del
Carmen. |
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The hotel
The Colibri Beach hotel is a small but cozy
hotel directly at the beach of Playa del Carmen. |
| It’s a 1
minute walk from to hotel to the main street of
Playa; 5th avenue and only one block away from
the famous party street, Calle 12. The last one
is also directly a small problem… All the big
discotheques are real close to the hotel, this
means you’ll have free music in your room till
06:00 hrs. in the morning.... |
The room
The hotel has around 30 rooms, which all have a
small balcony with a hammock and view on a
tropical garden and / or sea view. The bathroom
in the A rooms is rather small with one sink and
a shower.
You have a safe inside your room, and plenty of
wardrobes for storage. The is a ceiling fan and
a personal air-conditioning on each room.
There is also a TV,
mini fridge and free Wi-Fi. The rooms are
cleaned every day. |
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The restaurant
The hotel itself has no restaurant, however on
the premises directly at the beach there’s the
‘Lido beach club’. Lido offers excellent food
and delicious drinks on the terrace, the bar or
directly on the beach!
The beach itself has plenty of lounge / sunbeds
available.
Guests are offered a complimentary continental
breakfast. |
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Facilities
The hotel doesn’t offer any additional
facilities, but no worries; you are in the
middle of Playa del Carmen! Playa offers all
kind of attractions and hundreds of restaurants
and bars.
Tip: Senor Frogs bar & restaurant, they are
located directly next to the ferry pier to
Cozumel. It’s a great beach club / restaurant
view a nice view over the beach and towards
Cozumel.
In the party street
‘Calle 12’ you’ll find all kind of discotheques
(tip: The blue parot)
On 5th avenue you’ll find many shops and
restaurants. |
Dive center
DiveMex is a small, professional, dive center in
the middle of Playa del Carmen. DiveMex is owned
by the German Dirk Zimmermann and his Italian
partner Anna Paola Colombo. They run the dive
center since 2006. They offer all kind of dives
(even live-aboard), there are 3 main dive
activities in Playa; Playa / Puerto Morales
dives, diving on Cozumel and Cenotes diving.
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Local dives
Local dives are done with small boats directly
from the beach, transfer to and from the beach
is all arranged by DiveMex. In case you’ll be
diving in Puerto Morales you will also be
transferred by car, and in the harbor of Puerto
Morales you’ll be picked-up by boat by a partner
dive center.
There is always a dive guide of DiveMex onboard
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Diving on Cozumel
In order to dive on Cozumel
you’ll need to go by ferry to Cozumel first.
(Tickets are included) The transfer to and from
the ferry is arranged by the dive center (by
bike…), a dive guide will go with you on the
ferry.
On Cozumel you will be picked-up in the harbor
by a dive boat of their partner dive center on
Cozumel, the DiveMex guide will also be onboard.
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Cenotes diving
Transfer to and from the
Cenotes is done by car, depending on the
location of the Cenotes this can take up to 90
minutes. During our stay we dived with Marcel
Taubert, a well-disciplined cave instructor who
guided us through the Cenotes. Marcel is a very
professional diver with lots of humor as well!
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As soon
as we entered the dive center we fell the
‘familiar atmosphere’
The crew exists of mostly young dive guides and
instructors.
The dive center itself is small, and located in
the middle of Playa del Carmen (a 10 minutes’
walk from our hotel and 5 minutes from the beach).
Behand the dive center you’ll find the storage
for your dive equipment, and also the water
tanks to clean and rinse your gear.
They are very flexible if it comes to the dives,
you’re free to choose the locations by yourself
(as long as it fits into their main schedule and
the weather conditions) |
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Our
evaluation
Our ratings below are based on our personal
experiences. They are also adapted to our needs
as divers. Meaning that we’re less focused on
additional features.
Therefore you should only pay attention to our
ratings if you’re planning a diving holiday.
Where we base our score on:
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Accommodation: |
Room size, beds,
cleaning, bathroom, location,
environmentally friendly, etc. |
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Hotel / area facilities: |
Pool, sport
activities, organized trips, TV,
Internet, phone, etc. |
| Dive center: |
Quality of equipment, boats, crew, dive
guides, location, service, marine conservation,
etc. |
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Scoring
matrix
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