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Old Jan 9, 2011, 6:11 pm
  #4  
Delta Hog
 
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: STL
Programs: WN or DL; Hyatt or Wyndham
Posts: 1,073
No snorkeling, but here was our solution, which was great:

VISIT THE EASTERN SIDE OF THE ISLAND. My god, it is beautiful over there. And wayyyyyyyyy more deserted. Miles and miles of beautiful rock formations going to the sea, with the occasional pretty beach. On the land side...scrub, just scrub, MILES of scrub, with no development at all. WILD. I never knew part of Cozumel was wild. It was so pretty.

So the first thing we did was rent a car and drive the entire circle. We stopped and looked at the west side resorts, then saw the east side. I wanted to just stay on the east side after lunch, but kids wanted to visit Paradise Beach with the bouncy toys in the water. Mistake...more later. We lunched in San Miguel (Americanized Mexican at some nameless place, but my fish tacos were very good). Then on to Paradise Beach.

What mass-marketed pablum Paradise Beach is. Absolutely no snorkeling in the area (though they say snorkeling on their website). Literally thousands of people. Paid $20 for a bottle of sunscreen (stupid me forgot ours) and $12 for each of my kids' wristband to climb on the toys. By and large, though, the toys are designed for athletic teenagers to get on...smaller kids or fatter old people have about as much shot at winning the lottery as climbing their "ice mountain". We all hated it and left in less than an hour.

And went to the east side, where we found an actual beach, with ACTUAL SURF (lovvvvvvvvved it, me & son spent an hour body-surfing) and we. Were. Completely. Alone. ALONE. On a beautiful beach. On a hot day. It was amazing.

On the east side, there are plenty of beautiful deserted beaches.
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