The Dive Sites of Cozumel, Cancun and the Mayan Riviera: Comprehensive Coverage of Diving and Snorkeling

This is the 3rd dive travel book I have purchased writen by Lawson Wood. He covers all the information you will need to plan a dive trip to Cozumel, Cancun and the Mayan Riviera. Besides the 160 dive and snorkel sites there is a brief history of the area and lots of travel tips. If you are a diver you will like the dive site discriptions and underwater photography. This is one of the best books of its kind on diving in the Mayan Riviera area.

This is a good book for someone visiting the Quintanna Roo Coast and Cozumel who is going to use commercial dive operators for most of their diving. For the true adventurer however it is not really adequate. Why? Well say you need to find a reef on your ocean kayak and you are without a dive guide. This book will not really help you find that reef because it does not go into exact reef location detail, it just says like 100 yards off beach X. Well those beaches in Cozumel are long white strips of sand and are prettty much indistinguishable from one another. Also, no information on where to camp on Cozumel and on the Quintanna Roo Coast. It does however have good reef descriptions, general travel info and helpfull advice for tourists.

The dive sites of COZUMEL AND THE YUCATAN, the comprehensive coverage of diving and snorkeling by Lawson Wood is a decent generalist travel guide covering the history, climate, maps, travel tips, basics of diving and snorkeling, brief rating of selected dive sites, nice photos and descriptions of underwater marine environment and animals, ..etc...Four regions are covered: Cancun, Isla Mujeres and Isla Contoy, Cozumel, the Caribbean coast (Cenote dive sites described)in 176 pages. There is some basic travel info(places to eat, stay, and play) however, no reviews are provided to base a decision...lots of phone numbers though. The book rates dive sites by the following factors: Location, Access, Dive Conditions, Min. Depth, Max. Depth, Average Visibility, Basic description of what you may see at the dive site. There are 55 dive sites rated for Cozumel, 14 for Cancun, 12 for Isla Contoy and Isla Mujeres, and 72 along the Caribbean Coast. Each review is about 120 - 150 words. Page 3 of this book acknowledges all the organizations used for the info in this book and the photograph equipment used for the underwater pictures...a good source of contacts.This book is great if you are thinking about traveling and diving for the first time to the Yucatan and want to know what to expect when you get there. Advanced divers looking for more dive site descriptions and dive maps may be disappointed...therefore 4 stars for a GENERAL Travel guide and dive guide together.