Mexico has two coasts from which you can choose to plan a diving trip. The Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean feature the iconic warm blue waters and gorgeous reefs that you’ll see on countless postcards. Mexico’s Pacific Coast is wilder and less well-travelled than Mexico’s eastern Gulf and Caribbean coast.
However, if you visit the Pacific Coast, you’ll have the chance to view deep reefs, wrecks, and a variety of amazing sea creatures, including sharks and whales.
What are the best places in Mexico to plan a diving trip? Mexico’s Pacific Coast contains far deeper dive sites and the possibility of encountering larger and more dangerous sea creatures. The Gulf and Caribbean are often more crowded, but also feature beautiful beaches and reefs that are more suitable for beginner divers.
Mexico’s Pacific Coast dive sites begin in Baja California and extend part of the way down the coast, including offshore islands. Visitors should consider stopping in Puerto Vallarta, Acapulco, Manzanillo, the Revillagigedo Islands, La Paz and Cabo San Lucas. On the Caribbean Coast, tourists have a much larger selection of resort towns and sites to visit.
The entire Yucatan Peninsula is up for grabs for divers visiting Mexico’s Caribbean Coasts. Cozumel, Cancun, Playa del Carmen, Isla Mujeres, Banco Chinchorro, and Tulum all offer spectacular dive sites. The Yucatan Peninsula is also the best place to find cenotes, collapsed sinkholes and cave systems filled with crystal clear spring water.
(Check out the Mexico Yucatan travel guide for more fun things to do during your visit to the Yucatan Peninsula!)
The Best Places to Go Diving in Mexico
The best places to go diving in Mexico will depend on your experience level and the type of experience you want to have.
If you’re an experienced diver or looking to encounter large aquatic life, you should head to the Pacific Coast, which is less crowded, features colder water and much deeper dive sites.
If you’re new to diving, head to the Caribbean or Gulf of Mexico, where you can start out snorkeling and then move up to scuba diving if you’re feeling up to it. The best place to find cenotes is also on Mexico’s southeast coast.
You’ll also probably have the best luck finding guides and tour packages on the east coast, which is much more touristy.
Here are some of the best places to go diving in Mexico:
- Caribbean
- Cancun
- Cozumel/Playa del Carmen
- Banco Chincorro
- Cabo San Lucas
- Puerto Vallarta
- Socorro Island and the Revillagigedos
Cancun is a legendary tourist destination and represents an ideal environment for new divers to try out their skills. The Cancun Underwater Museum is an underwater museum only accessible to scuba divers.
Punta Cancun is another excellent spot to head underwater. Located at the eastern end of the hotel zone, Punta Cancun features exquisite coral reefs and abundant marine life.
Also check out the Isla Mujeres, located just offshore from Cancun, which offers plenty of diving packages, friendly guides, and beautiful beaches. Expect to see plenty of colorful fish, rays, and maybe even some curious sharks. For cheap flights to Cancun, see that link.
The island of Cozumel offers divers the chance to do some deep wall dives – to descend beyond the continent’s shelf and dive into the open ocean. Divers describe this experience as profound and exhilarating.
Divers can also dive around reefs and even encounter loggerhead and Hawksbill sea turtles, which nest in significant numbers around Cozumel. For cheap flights to Cozumel, check out that link.
The Playa del Carmen is also an excellent to place to dive. It’s unique because the sea off Playa del Carmen is a seasonal migratory area for female bull sharks, who return to the area every year to give birth in the warm waters. Check out cheap flights to Playa del Carmen to get started on this thrilling adventure.
Divers can get up close and personal with these fascinating creatures, if you have the right combination of nerves and certifications.
The Banco Chincorro is the largest coral atoll in the Northern hemisphere. New divers can explore the beautiful and healthy reef system, while experienced divers can head to the east side of the atoll to inspect the series of wrecks, some of which are partially accessible.
Divers looking to encounter animals will find plenty of them here, including rays, sharks, and even crocodiles. Divers with nerves of steel can take a guided tour to meet American crocodiles face to face.
There is only one dive organization that guides tours to encounter crocodiles. Though crocs are dangerous animals, if they aren’t provoked, they can be curious and even playful.
Cabo is a paradise for experienced divers, despite the fact that the cold water requires a wetsuit. Divers should head to Land’s End, where the Sea of Cortez meets the Pacific Ocean.
To the east of Cabo, divers can observe schools of rays gliding through the beautiful coral reefs in Santa Maria Bay.
In San Lucas Bay, divers can encounter playful and curious sea lions beneath the ways. At the Gordo Banks, divers with courage can meet hammerhead sharks as well as a variety of rays and large fish.
(Looking for a vacation rental in Cabo San Lucas? We’ve listed the best ones in that article!)
One of the most beloved diving destinations, Puerto Vallarta is an unparalleled destination for divers looking to view large aquatic wildlife.
Experienced divers can travel to El Morro, a technical diving site, to view giant Moray eels. At the deepest point in Banderas Bay, divers can also find a series of caves, tunnels, and arches full of marine life.
South of Puerto Vallarta is a small fishing village, El Chimo, where visitors can swim with endangered humpback whales.
The humpbacks calve and swim with their young in the areas around the drop-offs at El Chimo. Finally, at the Marietas Islands, divers can encounter manta rays and even gigantic whale sharks.
For a better chance to view humpbacks and whale sharks, head more than 250 miles off Mexico’s west coast. The area was recently named a Unesco World Heritage Site and is a specially protected area in part because it constitutes the main calving grounds for Humpback whales.
Mantas are visible all year round, and whale sharks tend to make an appearance and the beginning of the season (November and December). Only experienced divers should attempt the deep dives in this area, especially because the water can often be quite cold.
What Kind of Gear Do I Need for Diving?
To dive safely, you’ll need practice and a certification, which you can get from most tour companies that run the dive sites on both of Mexico’s coasts. Don’t attempt to dive without training.
Here are the pieces of equipment and gear that you will need to go diving:
- Diving mask
- Wetsuit
- Fins
- Scuba Tank
- Regulator
- Depth gauge
- Compass
- Submersible pressure gauge
Diving masks protect your eyes while underwater. Human eyes were not designed to work well underwater, especially in saltwater.
To ensure that you have an enjoyable dive, find a mask that fits you well – it may be worth it to have a professional help size you for a mask. Considering the mask’s importance to having a good dive, find a comfortable, durable mask.
Wetsuits are more important in cold water than they would be in the shallow waters near many coral reefs in the Caribbean.
However, if you want to attempt dives of any depth, especially in the Pacific, you’ll need a wetsuit to protect you and keep you warm. They’re heavy and somewhat uncomfortable, but a good wetsuit is essential to safely diving.
If you want to move quickly in the water despite the weight of oxygen tanks and pack, you’ll need fins.
The fins help direct your movement and move efficiently in the water. You can get open heel or full-foot heels, with a further distinction between bladed or split fins. They’re essential to your movement underwater, so do your research.
A tank is necessary to carry the oxygen you’ll need to accomplish dives. They’re made of either steel or aluminum and carry certain standardized amounts of air. You can rent scuba tanks, but if you’re an avid diver it may ultimately be cheaper to buy your own.
A regulator is a piece of equipment that allows you to intake oxygen from your tank. You won’t get very far without it.
Depth gauges and compasses are essential tools that allow you to monitor your depth and direction, ensuring you don’t go too deep, which could cause injury or deplete your oxygen. Submersible pressure gauges are critical devices used to monitor the amount of oxygen left in your tank.
In order to effectively rise and sink in the water, you’ll need a buoyancy compensator to compensate for the human body’s natural tendency to float. It’s essentially a vest that can take in or release water to help you sink or rise to the surface.
How to Plan an Amazing Diving Trip in Mexico
Before you go on a diving trip, you should assess your skill level and decide on the kinds of experiences you’d like to have while diving.
How To Plan an Amazing Diving Trip in Mexico:
- Determine the best time of the year to go
- Find out when you will see aquatic life
- Discover the temperatures
- Find a guided tour
You can dive at any time of year, especially in the warm Caribbean, but if you want to see aquatic life, you’ll need to pick the times of year they’ll be around.
You should also consider the skill you have or are likely to be able to acquire during or before the trip. You may want to swim with calving humpback whales, but if you aren’t experienced in deep open-ocean diving, there’s not much of a point in attempting to plan around whale migration.
If you do have the experience necessary to see large aquatic life, try to find out the times of year you’re most likely to see them.
Rays and manatees are a commonplace sight in the Caribbean, but you’ll need to plan carefully to see humpbacks calving in the Pacific Ocean, beginning in November. Whale sharks and bull sharks are likewise only visible during certain times of year.
If you’re concerned about weather and temperature, you’ll have more to worry about on the Pacific Coast. The Pacific has markedly colder and rougher water than the Caribbean or Gulf, so you should like invest in a drysuit as well as a wet suit.
Wet suit thickness also corresponds to warmth and effectiveness, so make sure to buy or rent accordingly.
Unless you are a very experienced diver and understand Spanish and Mexican laws and regulations governing diving, or you know someone who does, you should probably take a guided tour or begin your dive experience with an accredited company.
Many dive sites, especially on the Caribbean and Gulf Coasts, are well-known and you’ll be able to find tours with a variety of companies.
A few dive sites are sufficiently technical, remote, or dangerous that there may be only one outfit willing to take you on and authorized by the Mexican government to do so. If you want to swim with crocodiles or humpbacks, make sure you contact the companies that are allowed to outfit those types of trips.
If you want to visit popular dive sites but are concerned about crowds, definitely try to visit in the off-season. In the Yucatan Peninsula, the off-season is from May to October, when everything from airfare to lodging will be at cheaper rates and you’ll have less competition for pictures and dive times.
However, mid-summer is also the hurricane season, so create backup plans in case your trip is cancelled or derailed by weather.
If you want to go off the beaten path and find dive sites and beaches that are only known to locals, you may be able to.
However, keep in mind that “hidden gems” are sometimes hidden for a reason. Many of the most popular tourist areas are also the most accessible and beautiful. If you want to travel through rural areas in Mexico, make sure you’re well-versed in Spanish and prepared for the risks you’ll incur by travelling off the beaten path.
If all of this looks like you could never afford it, you might want to check out the cheapest way to fly to Mexico in order to save a little.
All About Cenote Diving in Mexico
Here is everything you need to know about Cenote Diving in Mexico:
- Canotes are sinkholes/cave systems filled with water
- Usually blue or clear in color
- Can find cenotes all over Mexico
- Can dive to the bottom with the proper training and equipment
Cenotes are sinkholes or cave systems which have filled with spring or ground water. They’re often a magnificent and striking blue or green color, sometimes deep in a forested area. They’re prized for their crystal-clear water, fascinating aquatic life, and mysterious and sometimes unexplored cave systems.
The water in many of the most beautiful cenotes is often extremely clear because it filters into the pool from rain water and is connected to subterranean aquifers. Most of the most famous cenotes are found in Mexico, especially in the Yucatan Peninsula.
While some extremely large cenotes measure dozens of meters across, like the one at the ancient Maya site of Chichén Itzá, most cenotes are smaller and more hidden.
It is possible to dive in cenotes as it is in underwater caves elsewhere in the world. However, you should always exercise caution when diving in cenotes.
Subterranean passageways have frequently led people to become confused or lost, resulting in their death from lack of oxygen. Passageways may become narrow or impassible; you should always swim with a reputable company and keep a close eye on your oxygen supplies.
If you do have the opportunity to dive in a cenote and you’ve taken the proper precautions, you’ll be in for a treat. Many cenotes in the Yucatan Peninsula (there are over 7000) are in close proximity to ancient Mayan sites. The Maya deeply admired the beautiful pools and sometimes conducted sacrificed near or in some large cenotes.
Ik Kil is one of the largest and most well-known cenotes in the Yucatan Peninsula, on the road to Chichén Itzá. Though the pool has become a major tourist destination with a gift shop, restaurant, and Red Bull sponsored extreme diving competition, it is nevertheless extremely beautiful, with deep blue water and hanging vines.
Dos Ojos (two eyes) is another popular destination but requires that divers maintain strong nerves.
There are actually two cenotes here, the “black eye” and the “blue eye,” each connected to cavern systems that span over 38 miles to depths of 350 feet. Divers to the blue eye swim through underwater passageways to emerge in a cave full of live bats.
The black eye, on the other hand, in an exercise in sensory deprivation, as there is almost no visibility in its deep caverns.
One of the essential cenote dives for enthusiasts, El Pit, one of the largest and deepest cenotes in the Dos Ojos complex, is also one of the most spectacular in the Yucatan. It’s widely regarded as one of the best places for diving enthusiasts to visit.
Gran Cenote is a beautiful cenote near Tulum. The bottom is made of clean white sand, and divers can encounter fish, stalactites, and turtles, all of which make their home in the cenote.
The subterranean passageways of this cenote are extensive, making it an excellent place to explore with either a snorkel or scuba gear. Though you probably won’t have Gran Cenote to yourself, there are many different areas to explore, from vegetation-choked cliffs to underwater caverns.
Always make sure to follow posted signage around cenotes, many of which will tell you that you can only use biodegradable sunscreen and warns against litter. Cenotes are beautiful natural areas and should be protected and respected.
Don’t bother the animals, thrown trash in the pools, or pick vegetation. Wherever you are, always remember to enjoy the natural beauty safely.
Along with diving experiance If you’re planning an unforgettable trip to Cozumel, make sure to explore our list of the best tour companies in Cozumel for an exceptional and hassle-free experience.