The island of Cozumel is only twelve miles off the Mexican Yucatan Peninsula’s east coast and 44 miles south of Cancun. For a long while Cozumel was a quite knackered island that did not get many visitors till Jacques Cousteau did a documentary on it after discovering the first class underwater diving at the Palancar Reefs close by.
Since 1961, Cozumel has been known as one of the very finest underwater diving destinations internationally. Actually for many years since that point, the sole holiday makers visiting the island have been essentially scuba divers. Nonetheless Cozumel changed into a regular ship port of departure in recent times and today it happens to be one of the most hectic with 2 separate terminals. It isn’t uncommon to have 5 or perhaps 6 different cruise ships at port on any specific day. I have been to Cozumel twice, the 1st time staying a couple of days on a underwater diving holiday and the second time for a day thru liner ( also scuba dived during my 2nd visit ). Due to the ship boom, there was a lot of retail development along the key waterfront road of Avenida Rafael Melgar in the island’s only city of San Miguel de Cozumel. There are numerous jewellery and t-shirt shops most with staff standing in the entrances captivating visitors to enter their stores. There also are some nice Mexican crafts shops too. The one problem that we found was that after around four jewellery shops, all of them started to look the same.
It was nearly a retail overload. For those that came for a wilder time, there are some bars like Carlos ‘n ‘ Charlie.
The town’s main out of doors square, Piazza del Sol, is just opposite the key ferry dock to the mainland. There are customarily street sellers and artists in the Square as well local entertainment during some evenings. The artists do some fantastic design with spray paints and their costs are reasonable. San Miguel’s main holiday maker area can be busy in the daytime when the ship passengers are in the town but since most ships depart at dinnertime, the evenings are essentially extraordinarily quiet. The sole holiday makers left at night have a tendency to be the scuba divers staying in Cozumel. The majority of the hostels and resorts are south of San Miguel and aren’t inside walking distance. But there are many white taxis that are freely available.
The bigger and more magnificent resorts are farther south of the town along the southwestern shores.
This is essentially not surprising since most of the finest scuba swimming sites are southwest of the island. I once leased a scooter and zigzagged along the majority of San Miguel’s streets to see the areas. Then I went on the primary road leaving city and went south. After passing by the bigger resorts and going round the southern end of the island, I found the beaches along the southeastern shores. The shores near San Miguel along the crowded west coast aren’t famous for beaches but the southeast part here have some truly impressive ones. There are one or two stops with refreshments and more mementos at costs even better than in San Miguel. After going north again, there’s a road about halfway up the island that goes across and takes you back to San Miguel entering the town’s east side. My scooter tour of the island took just over two hours and cost $25 US for the rental. Cozumel has 1 or 2 traditional Mayan ruins but they don’t seem to be just about as gigantic or impressive as the ones on the mainland.
After having seen some pictures of them ahead of my trip, I did not even trouble to see the ruins. Cozumel is a pleasant port of landing for cruise ships as there are several shopping possibilities. For liner visitors who don’t propose to do any watersports and have a little time after shopping, it is strongly recommended to hire a scooter or 4×4 to tour the island. This is also a pleasant way to spend the final day of a scuba dive holiday in Cozumel.
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