Isla Mujeres OR Cozumel snorkeling?
 

We are staying at the Fiesta Americana Grand Coral Beach in Cancun. Which place, Isla Mujeres or Cozumel would be the best and the easiest place to go snorkeling? Can you snorkel right off the shore in both places? If we take the ferry over to either one, what then...do you walk to all the places to snorkel or do you need other transportation once you arrive at the island? How about other activities (bars, etc), would you need to make arrangments for transportation there? As you can see, I am unclear to most of this. How about a guided tour? <BR><BR>Thanks for any and all the info you can provide!!!<BR><BR>Craig

I've stayed on both Isla Mujeres and Cozumel. Snorkeling is definitely better off Cozumel - much more variety and more places where you can snorkel from the beach. Isla is fairly limited, However it will be a lot quicker to get to Isla Mujeres than Cozumel from Cancun. I wouldn't recommend a tour. You can take the ferry over on your own and take a cab from where the ferry docks. There is a park, but it's quite expensive. There's a hotel next to the park and you can snorkel there. There's still an admission fee (I think 20 pesos), and it would be fun for an afternoon. They would also have facilities where you could have a drink, clean up, etc. The town on Isla Mujeres has loads of bars and restaurants, so you could head back there afterwards. <BR><BR>To go to Cozumel on your own, you'd first need to go to Playa del Carmen (about an hour from Cancun) and then take a ferry from Playa. That's another 45 minutes, so it's quite a long trip for just a day. Cozumel is a much bigger island than Isla Mujeres. I actually enjoy it more, but it's easier to do a day trip from PDC than Cancun. <BR><BR>There's a couple of other places where you can snorkel south of PDC. Akumal is good and you could make a day trip from Cancun - just take the bus or even rent a car for the day. We've done that a few times. You can then stop wherever you want. Driving is easy down the coast.<BR><BR><BR>

We were in PDC/Cozumel two weeks ago. If you want good snorkeling, definitely go to Cozumel. I am not sure, but there may be a ferry from Cancun to Cozumel, so you may not have to drive down to PDC to catch the ferry there. You can find good snorkeling off shore at various spots in Cozumel (just avoid Playa Corona like the plague). You might even want to go on a snorkel tour since many of the best reefs off Cozumel are only accessible by boat (can recommend Eagle Ray Divers for tour).<BR><BR>Sorry to disagree with the previous poster, but snorkeling in Akumal is worthless - weedy, rocky bottom, cloudy water, little viable coral, few fish, strong waves. <BR><BR>Isla Mujeres had good snorkeling when i was there 30 years ago but I have heard that that the reefs there are badly deteriorated.

Perhaps time of year makes a difference - we enjoyed snorkeling at Akumal, but we've only been there in February or March, never the summer. But I agree - Cozumel is good.

Just curious, xxx - why avoid Playa Corona??