Two Dive Experiences, One Destination

The Riviera Maya is one of the only places on Earth where you can dive world-class tropical reefs AND explore underground caverns with 200+ foot visibility—often in the same week. Most divers travel to experience one or the other. Here, you get both. And they couldn’t be more different.

If you’re planning a dive trip to Sandos Playacar or Sandos Caracol, understanding these two experiences will help you choose—or better yet, do them both.

I learned to scuba dive in a swimming pool at Sandos Playacar. Professional instructors walked me through the basics right there in the resort pool — breathing techniques, mask clearing, hand signals, buoyancy control — and then they put me on a boat and dropped me into the ocean on top of the Mesoamerican Reef System, the second-largest barrier reef on the planet.

That trip changed how I think about vacation. I went from someone who had never breathed underwater to someone swimming over coral formations the size of cars, surrounded by parrotfish, sea fans, and nurse sharks — all in the span of a few hours. I documented the entire experience on video: Watch the full dive playlist on YouTube.