Cozumel Review

We spent a week in Cozumel, Mexico this past April.  My husband and I had never been there before, but most of the members of our 15+ group were returning to the island for their second, third, and fifth year.  After spending a week on the island, I absolutely love it and am hoping to return there again next spring.

As a small island off the coast of mainland Mexico, the island can be broken up into four distinct parts: the main "downtown" section, the rest of the town of San Miguel, the southern resort area, and the eastern, uninhabited side.  Cozumel is known mostly for its scuba diving and fishing, but there are also remote beaches, loads of cheesy tourist shops, attraction-type beaches, etc. 

The members of our party went scuba diving, fishing, snorkeling, shopping, to the fun beach attractions, and to various restaurants.  We also spent a fair amount of time laying on the beach and swimming in the pool at our condo complex.  Hey, with the gorgeous water next to me, I don't need to do much more than lay in the sun with a frosty beverage to make me happy!

All of the locals, waitresses, bartenders, taxi drivers, etc. that I met were unbelievably friendly and polite.  They all took American dollars too which was very convenient! When my husband and I had to walk about a mile through a completely residential area we felt totally safe.  There may be crime or unpleasant Mexicans on Cozumel, but we didn't see any of that during our stay.

If there is anything negative to say about Cozumel, Mexico, it would be that so many cruise ships dump their thousands of passengers onto the island each day.  Shopping, dining, or hailing a cab between the hours of 11 and 7 is a risky proposition because the island is just overloaded with people from the cruise ships.  We tried to go to Carlos and Charlie's twice around 9pm, but it was so completely dead that we just walked out and headed on back to the room.  At 3pm, though, the place was hopping.  Same thing with Margaritaville.  Lunch there at 1pm was absolute insanity with drunk women dancing around in bikinis.  Post-dinner drinks at 10pm found mostly empty tables and unenthusiastic bartenders.  The island is thrown into upheaval when the various cruise ships are in port.

We are hoping to return to Cozumel next year during my school's spring break.  I say "hoping" because air fare to the island is astronomical at the moment due to increased fuel prices and a reduced number of flights out of the local international airport.  We paid less than $500 per round-trip ticket last year, including taxes, fees, etc.  I've seen air fare range between $700 and $1300 in the past couple of months.  My husband and I could probably swing $700 flights (plus room, plus dinner, plus drinks), but there's no way we could swing $1000+ flights with all of the other expenses involved.  We even thought about doing a long weekend in November, but that plan was quickly abandoned when we saw what the April prices were.  We need to save that money and hope that fares come down soon.

Overall, we had a wonderful trip to Cozumel, Mexico.  In fact, we even got married during the week that we were there! All I wanted to do was lay in the sun, listen to good music, drink some drinks, and swim when I got hot.  Everything on top of that was gravy.  We fished, we drove around the island, we shopped, and we dined...  it was a great experience.  We'll be back as soon as it is financially feasible.