I am travelling to Cozumel with my husband and 14 year old daughter in 9 days. We will be there 1 week.
We are looking for suggestions on activites.
*We enjoy snorkeling - Should we pay for a tour or is the snorkeling off the beach and the beach clubs good?
*We have visited Mayan ruins in Cancun - Are there any good ones in Cozumel? If so - would you recommend a tour, or is it easy enough to drive ourselves and go at our own pace? Neither of us speak spanish so if we got lost it could be a real problem? Is driving difficult in that area?
*Are there any evening activites - after 8 pm geared towards families with teenagers - other than going to a movie?
Thank you so much for any responses!

Hello Rananda, Normally snorkeling would be wonderful from the beaches and clubs in Cozumel, but unfortunately the near shore reefs were all severely damaged in Hurricane Wilma. There is very little coral left near shore. The deep reefs for diving were not hurt as much.

There are some small ruins on Cozumel of interest. You can easily drive to them on your own. Driving is very, very easy on the island. Get one of those cute little VW Bug convertibles - watch out cause they're not in great shape - and have fun driving around.

As for things to do, if you want to send me an email, I'll be happy to send you my "to do" list. We spend about a month in Cozumel every winter and I've amassed a lot of info for friends and family who visit. I have a file I will gladly share.

TC
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Driving is easy and with good humor and a handful of Spanish words, not speaking Spanish is not a problem.

Getting lost wouldn't be more than a few miles that are easy to retrace at most.

When you take a cab, be sure to agree on the price before gettign it.

Sunday evenings there are often activites on the square. There may be music on other nights as well.

Keith

Driving is totally easy and fun because you can stop where you want and not worry about time. The ruins are small but worthwhile - no tour required. There is an internet site I think called "CozumelmyCozumel" that has people who live on the island commenting on many topics. They provide a wealth of information and you can ask them anything from hotel recommendations to what is ruined and where to do whatever, including snorkeling. My favorite thing is to rent a car, go across the middle of Cozumel-Stop midway at the ruins- continue to the beach, then turn right and go down to Chen Rio and have a huge Shrimp cocktail then swim. Take snorkel and mask with you. Tourist maps detail most beaches and places of interest. You can't really get lost unless (maybe) you go off the road. You can't drive totally around the island, so you go as far as you can and turn around and go the other way.

"You can't drive totally around the island, so you go as far as you can and turn around and go the other way."

Blondlady, not sure what you mean by the above statement. Its quite easy to drive totally around the island -- just head south out of town and keep going. There is only one road and it circles the island. Not sure if Chen Rio is open again. It was blown away during Hurricane Wilma and hadn't been rebuilt when we were there in February, but is most likely open again by now.

The road cuts back across the island. You can go in a circle of sorts, but not around the north side of the island..

Keith

When I was in Cozumel last August, the road was out down by the "Marley" place. So we had to turn around and go back into town, cross the island and down to Chen Rio. We could not make the circle because the road was out. Since the big hurricane came after last August, I assume the road hasn't been reconstructed yet. But, the point is, rent a car, go where you can go, double back IF you have to, and have a ball.

Blondlady - I was there in Feb and the road is in good shape again. Although things were torn up pretty good after Wilma, the population has done an outstanding job of putting the island together again.