walking around Cozumel port with family?

[Kova15]

I will be cruising with my Family to Cozumel in June. We are on the Magic and it looks like we are docking at Puerta Maya. My kids are 11 and 2. We plan to do beach days when we are in the other ports so we are thinking this might be a good day to walk around and do a little shopping. We have never been to Cozumel, so I have a few questions

1. Will we be safe walking around the area with our kids?

2. Do you have any must-do places to visit?

3. Or should we just book another beach day? If we do that I am thinking Playa Mia?

Thanks for your help!

[notsodesperatehousewife]

I would get out of the pier area as soon as possible and get your kids to the beach! Playa Mia would be a good choice given their ages. Paradise Beach is also supposed to be good but I've not been there.

[ABQrobin]

Cozumel is VERY very safe. You can walk any street day or night with no problems. People are very friendly. There are some timeshare hawkers who are annoying but other than that, no problem.

[sittingonthedock]

We stayed in Cozumel for a week and had no issues with safety or people hounding us would walk from our hotel on the south side of town all the way to the ferry pier with out any problems day or night. If you decided to do a beach would highly recommend Playa Mia we tried it a couple years ago and enjoyed it very clean food was good and they have a nice little waterpark

Edited March 18, 2015 by sittingonthedock

[sailor05]

If you want to shop and want to get the best deals and get more of an "Mexican feel" then take a taxi to the shopping zone in San Miguel which is just a short ride. The prices will be higher close to the ship terminal. Right outside the terminal there will be a taxi terminal where the prices are posted which makes it easy, but if you go out and flag down a taxi and negotiate you can get there for less. Just check the posted prices first so you know if you're getting a good deal. Then when finished it's super easy to flag down a taxi to take you back to the ship. Just offer them whatever you paid to get there or tell them to forget it and they'll eventually take your offer.

[crewsweeper]

Agree with other posters here but if you're docked at Puerta Maya, you'll find a lot of shops, many of which are branches of downtown shops, inside the cruise port area. If you head for a beach before shopping, you'll need to take a taxi from the port to downtown or from the beach to downtown and then walk around the plaza. So there's extra charges involved in taxi fare. But it's only other cruisers from your ship of maybe one other ship if 2 are docked, that will be in the cruiseport shopping area. Downtown, you'll see cruisers and longer staying tourists and it could be crowded. Worst thing about downtown is that the kiosk vendors and some of the shop keepers do try to hustle you into buying from them. This might be a tad scary for younger children. But usually you can dismiss these guys with a "No Thank You".

[CruisinQueen2013]

We are just back from Cozumel and I can't say I felt unsafe. I'm not a fan of people trying to get you into their store but I didn't think it was too bad in the port area. We did Playa Mia with our 2.5 year old and it was fantastic. They have a beach are and the waterpark was great - especially for our daughter - lots of slides and stuff in the water and it was only about a foot deep. The waterpark is right next to (literally steps away) from the main pool and only about 50 feet from the beach. The food was great too. We would definitely do again.