Maya Palms Resort

[txdivers]

We cruised on the Grand Princess and visited Maya Palms Resort on February 12, 2007 for diving. The resort was better than advertised. Ken (Dive Instructor), Pedro (Boat Captain), and Ana (Hostess) were amazing! We followed the recommended instructions for a taxi outside Costa Maya gate and after a 30 minute ride we arrived at the resort which is south of the dock. Some of our party of 4 hadn’t been diving in the open ocean for several years (but had taken refreshers at home), but Ken was very flexible and took us to the shallow side of the reef where we stayed in the water for about an hour. The visibility was pretty good, would have been better deeper, but we needed to get acclimated to diving again. Dive equipment was new and well cared for. The only negative of the whole visit was that I left my dive booties behind which was my fault. We had a great meal after the dive and toured the site. For anyone wanting some quiet beach/pool time or a flexible dive setting, I highly recommend Maya Palms.

[kathalinamarie]

I agree txdivers, Maya Palms was an excellent experience. I am having difficulty downloading my dive profile from my computer, so a detailed dive report is not easy to do. The facility and staff are just top notch and the diving was great. We dove to right around 100 feet which was our deepest dive to date. The seas were running really rough, so I guess the vis was not as good as usual, but for a great lakes diver, still pretty spectacular. Below I copied my short review from the Costa Maya forum. I would do it again in a heartbeat. Would even consider a land-based vacation there.

 

 

My husband and I went diving with Maya Palms last week and found their hospitality to be outstanding.

 

The only tricky part is escaping the touristy area just outside the cruise ship port and finding the right set of cabs. For us, since we were diving, we were hauling a whole lot of gear so the walk felt like forever! Basically, you need to get outside of the shop area just off the dock. There will be a whole bunch of white cabs and vans. These are not the taxi's you need to catch to get to Maya Palms. Bear right and head out down the road. You should be able to see a bunch of yellow cabs about 200 meters? They were helpful, knew just where to go. The cab ride was $20 each way and you pay after you get back to the port. It was a really interesting ride and we never felt unsafe. It was a beautiful day and the country is really undeveloped and refreshing. When we arrived at the resort, the driver honked the horn and we were greeted by the owners, who helped us communicate when the driver needed to return to pick us up. I was told that the drivers like to make the run out to Maya Palms because it is pretty profitable for them as the other shorter runs are only $2-3 fares.

 

The resort was very clean, all the water is reverse osmosis and safe. The food was very good and the service was excellent. We paid $10 for lunch and $10 for all we could drink. We were diving, so we did not have alcohol, but I had some nice fruity tropical frozen non-alcoholic drinks. The pool was very nice as well. I only wish we could have spent more time there.

 

Our cab came right at the scheduled time, we tipped him more because he waited a few minutes for us because were not quite ready when he got there. Our driver was able to drop us off right at the port, which was great because I was over lugging all my stuff by that point. It did take just about 25 minutes to make the trip.

 

I highly endorse this excursion, absolutely one of my favorites.