TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

The place is very well located. The amenities, food and most importantly the service are incredible. Shout out to Marisol Martinez, the most joyful and diligent beach server anyone could ask for. Thank you Occidental and thank you Marisol!

Been here many times. Staffing seems to be reduced resulting in more waiting time at bars and dining areas. Must have been low class week when we were there. Half the men wore baseball hats when dining. Birds flying in the restaurant. Dive boats seem to be neglected. Staff of resort was great.

I have decided to make this an informational review with helpful tips and info. Though I rate the Occidental Cozumel an easy 5 stars, your experience may vary depending on expectations, time of visit, etc. This was the perfect vacation for my family and may be the perfect fit for you. - PRO DIVE INTERNATIONAL. DIVE SHOP - A lot of good with the dive shop. They are located right on the beach with a dock just a short walk from your room. It was so nice to grab our gear, meet our guide, stroll down the peer and hop on the boat for a great day of diving. They are also next door at the Allegro. There are multiple boats and sometimes you will swing over to grab other divers next door. The Dive Masters are top notch. We dove with Danny, Andres, and Juan Pablo (J.P.) for 4 days of diving. All were fantastic, attentive, and dedicated to making our dives enjoyable. We were diving with our 2 daughters ages 15, and 16 (newly certified) These dives, and this shop were ideal for newer divers. The Boat captains, crew, the equipment staff, and front desk were great. The diving was amazing. Some of the best we have ever done. Better than Belize in my opinion. So many fish, so much diversity. Great reefs. The bad/not so good. It was difficult to book dives in advance. The hotel is not connected to the dive shop in any meaningful way and I recommend you DO NOT, pre-book dive packages with the hotel. It is fine if you do, but all you accomplish is an extra errand. You'll get vouchers that you have to take to the dive shop and you'll still need to book your dives and pay additional park fees, equipment rentals, etc. with the dive shop directly. If I had to do over again, I would not have booked any diving ahead of time, would have strolled down to the dive shop upon arrival and booked in person, which is essentially what you will probably have to do regardless. We were able to get spots for our first dives Sunday afternoon when we arrived Saturday. If you have a dive computer and know how to use it, bring it. They do not include one in their rental package. The rental gear is fine, but not fancy. If you have specific dive locations picked out, you may or may not get to visit these. They mostly pick what makes the most sense given conditions, how many divers are going out, etc. We were extremely satisfied with the dives that were selected They also do specific excursions to some cool locations at additional cost. Diving is very subject to conditions. If the current is strong or the weather is bad, they do not dive, or will not dive certain locations. For us, this was not a problem. We just dove when we were able and found other entertainment when not. I do want to mention that dives were cancelled 3 of the 9 days we were there. If you are visiting snorkeling sites around the island, or visiting Chankanab, etc. Be aware. If the port is closed/the flag status is red, you can't go into the ocean. - THE RESORT - Amazing. We adore this resort. It is gorgeous. The grounds are kept immaculate. There are tons of trees and shade. Cool fountains, Tons of these cute little racoon/squirrel looking critters called coatimundis. They eat fruit and bugs, are super naughty and love stealing food from room service plates, or items from the house keeping carts. Tons of neat birds. Lots of iguanas. Lizards. Super fun. Especially enjoy the incredible sunrises, sunsets, and the entertainment at night. Way less bugs than you'll find in places like Belize, but I still recommend bug spray often and early unless you don't mind some mosquito bites. Also. Get some reef safe sunscreen. Normal sunscreen hurts the reef and is not allowed. Pay for the royal level. It has access to the best restaurant on site and it's own private whirlpool which is great. We stayed in the master suite which was about the same price as booking 2 rooms side by side (we didn't want our girls to have to share a room with us, so this made the most sense) The master suite is amazing if available. It's HUGE. Ridiculous sized bathrooms, closets, huge living area, kitchenette, the works. Just book it. For the value the $ is well worth it. They stocked it with beer, wine, champagne, sodas, fruit, etc at no extra cost. Also has room service included which was awesome. There are 2 other pools. An adult only pool and an everyone pool on the beach. Both are large with lots of chairs. You WILL run into the typical entitled crap behavior of "reserving" a chair by putting a towel on it and leaving it there the whole day. We were too busy doing fun stuff to fight with mouth breathers over pool chairs but it is a thing. - THE GUESTS - Some really nice people from all over. Met cool people from Canada, the U.S. and other places around the world. We ran into some obnoxious types that get off on complaining and bullying staff which is hard to watch. There were also some spring breakers early in the week that spent several days getting mad drunk by the pool and doing cannonballs. Pretty funny to watch and not a problem for me but they can be noisy, and the staff is too kind and accommodating to tell obnoxious guests to cool it unless it gets super nuts. - THE FOOD - Fantastic to average depending. The royal level restaurant La Caretta is fantastic. Love the staff and chefs. They have a similar menu each night but will make special requests for you if you ask. You need to book reservations in advance for dinner, but not for breakfast or lunch. We ate roughly half our meals there and we all enjoyed it immensely. It does become a bit repetitive, so we sampled the other restaurants as well despite this being mere meters from our room. We had a special traditional Mexican dinner made for us without asking one night. Incredible. Love the staff at the La Caretta restaurant. There is also a Mexican Restuarant, a Greek restaurant, a seafood restaurant and 2 buffets. Also, a pizza place late night. The buffet on the beach is pretty relax and low key. They are open mainly for lunch. We liked both buffets. Some of the food was fantastic, some of it is meh. We liked all of the restaurants. Before our trip I read so many reviews about terrible food and was pleasantly surprised. None of us got sick or had any troubles. I had many drinks with ice, tried most of the food. The drinks are generally good in the restaurants, but the all-inclusive model is not focused on amazing, yummy cocktails. It's more giving the lushes their medicine efficiently and cost effectively. There is almost zero chance the cocktails were not diluted to some extent. Especially at the pool bars. That's probably a good thing. I do not like the all-inclusive model in general, but chose this resort for the dive shop, the amazing grounds and its location/proximity to the best reefs. p.s. Parking is free and ample.

Cozumel as a dive destination is well worth the trip, but be fit and ready to deal with some strong currents and a not-so-together dive shop. Occidental Cozumel, is a good value for family and diver friendly all-inclusive resort life and my room was a short walk to the dive center. The dive masters, from a wide variety of European and American countries, were all great, professional, and I thoroughly enjoyed diving with them. The boats were adequate for near-shore diving. The rental equipment was appropriate for recreational diving. Danny completed my Nitrox certification and was great. The dive shop was at times frustrating and you need to be prepared to "deal" with them. First, even though I contacted Pro Dive International months ahead of time and gave them specific dates, I had to get stern with the shop to get put on two of my first four (two two-tank dives a day) dives, since no one from Pro apparently provided my information to the shop. The only thing the shop did know was that I had paid for my Nitrox check-out (again, this went well). Despite advertising "Free Nitrox" on the website and confirming it through correspondence, this ended up being deceptive - their facility that had been providing Nitrox burned down a year ago, but no one has seen fit to remove the "Free Nitrox" from their advertising. I had planned on diving Nitrox the entire trip and would have benefited from it. I got one tank with my certification and then was told very reluctantly by the shop I would have to pay for any additional tanks. When dealing with Pro Dive International, I stated my desire to dive Devil's throat and was encouraged to pre-pay the excursion fee (luckily I didn't), but again at the actual shop, I was told they did not make that excursion, so another misleading advertisement and disappointment. They only do night dives one day a week (Wednesdays), so if like me you arrived on a Wednesday and were departing the following Thursday, you were out of luck. In summary, the diving was outstanding, as were the dive masters and skippers, the resort a good value, but the dive shop and Pro International are in dire need of professional management, a 20th century dive reservation application, and more honest advertising.

The property is nice but somewhat outdated. The beach has eroded, leaving only loungers. The bathrooms were dirty and some switches and the bathtub looked stained. The food and drinks weren't impressive, except for the omelet line at breakfast and the grill at dinner. The a la carte restaurant was the highlight, but you only get one reservation. Lunch had a great view but the food was never hot. However, the rest of the staff, like Jesus and Marisol, were incredibly helpful and kind, making our stay enjoyable. The entertainment was good, and there are various facilities like a tennis court, spa, disco, kids club, and a late-night pizza buffet. Overall, we had a good time, but next time we'd budget more for food elsewhere and remember to bring bug spray and a swim shirt.