Just returned from my first dive trip and have to say the whole experience was fantastic. Hotel Cozumel couldnt have been better. The rooms were clean and comfortable. The pool and grounds were beautiful. The buffet style dining always offered many wonderful dishes to choose from. I especially enjoyed the selections of fruit, cheese, and cold cuts. Above and way beyond all else was the service. If you wanted for anything, all you had to do was ask. One waiter in particular, Juan Manuel, was especially kind and would serve us ceviche and drinks by the pool. He made the entire stay so perfect.
Dive Paradise was also perfect. I was able to receive certification via referral from Tartuga Bay Dive Shop in Greeley, Co with no problems at all. Ramone was the best dive instructor. He made me feel very comfortable at all times. Great first dive! I will definately be back.

I just got back from my stay at Hotel Cozumel and Resort. I read just about every review of this hotel on tripadvisor before booking and I was very well prepared for the reality of the place. We did not go all-inclusive, as most reviews said the food was no good. We didn't eat anything at the hotel as a matter of fact, so I cannot comment on that. We were informed that all guests recieved a 20% discount on food or drinks at the hotel, but you had to wear a blue wrist band and I HATE those, so we didn't bother. We went to Chedraui (grocery store about a 10 minute walk to the North) and bought beer when we wanted it. They give you two liter sized bottles of Cristal water in the room, but they do not replace these. There is a water cooler (just like the one in your office at home) in the hallway where you can refill your water bottles with cold potable water, so you never had to buy any. As for food, you can walk to "downtown" in 15 minutes and find a few restaurants, or there are a few more to the South about the same distance. We also took cabs a lot as they are very cheap ($2-$5) and asked the drivers what they would recommend and got some pretty good more authentic Mexican meals that way. Most of the stuff near the cruise ship docks is not that good. Just like what you can get at home (nachos, quesadillas...lots of cheese on everything.)
The room was fine. We were on the first floor in room 1019, we had a view of the ocean and the street. The patio has hooks and racks for drying towels, bathing suits and scuba equipment. Very handy. The bed is hard (actually on a concrete slab instead of box springs) but I had no trouble sleeping on it. The bathroom is okay. Very narrow and deep tub, kind of tricky getting out the first time. There is some noise at night from the lobby bar and cars on the street, but I wasn't bothered by this too much. I was usauly too exhausted from the activities of the day.
The only real problem I had was with the scuba shop on property, Dive Paradise. They misled me through email before I arrived. Gave me one price for finishing my certification and tried to charge me more than twice as much as that when I was actually there. I didn't have this much money so I did not get to do any diving. My boyfriend is already certified and so was gone a lot on dives and had no problem with Dive Paradise.
The "beach" across the street (with an underground tunnel leading you there) is really cool. I was somewhat disappointed when I first got there to not have a real beach, but you can jump right in and snorkle up and down the coast there and see a lot of stuff, for free. Sometimes there are local people fishing from the shore, so watch for hooks, but there are a lot of fish, crabs, sea urchins along the wall (be carefull) and even more sea life on the bottom which is about 20 feet down.
The pool was very big (but very shallow,) looked clean and had a lot of chairs around for guest use. We never used this though as I prefer to be in the ocean. I can swim in a pool at home.
In the lobby of the hotel you can rent a scooter. $30 a day! Well worth the money. We drove it to the East side of the island one day and marveled at the deserted beaches and beautiful views.
At the South end of the island there are some beach clubs like Paradise Beach where you can play in the water, have a meal and a drink, but we found this to be too touristy and moved on.
All in all I feel like I got a good deal on this hotel ($60 a night) and was satisfied with the cleanliness and comfort of the place.
I found Cozumel to be mostly geared toward cruise ship people. The town kind of shuts down when the ships go out, but there's not a lot to do (other than shop and eat) in town anyway.
Next time I think I'll stay in Playa del Carmen and just visit Cozumel for dive trips.

Hi,

We booked our vacation through Worry Free and stayed at the Hotel Cozumel from February 18th thru the 25th. We knew going in that this wasn’t a 4, or even a 3 star hotel, but our basic concerns were location, cleanliness and ocean view. (An upgrade to an Ocean View room added about $200 to the cost of our trip). We arrived later in the evening on the 18th, and check in was relatively painless. Though the room (1219) appeared to be decent, the cost to upgrade to OV wasn’t worth it, at least to us. OV rooms at this hotel directly overlook the main road, which is the one that runs through Cozumel, AKA Melgar. It was constant non-stop water trucks, mo-peds, motorcycles, VW’s, trucks (without mufflers) until 2:30 in the morning. Even with the balcony door shut, the resounding clamor never ceased. It started up again before 6:00 in the morning. After 2 sleepless nights we requested a move. Though not particularly happy with us, they did accommodate us and moved us to a pool view room (1244). Though this room was definitely quieter, it definitely had paper-thin walls. Oh well. The downside, however, is that this room wasn’t anywhere as clean as our previous room, the cleaning staff was neither as thorough when cleaning or as attentive. (And yes, we tipped.) When we told them that ants had overtaken the bathroom vanity and sink, no action was taken, not even an extra effort to clean the vanity. I did that. They didn’t replace coffee cups; we had to chase them down. They didn’t do anything to out of their way at all.
On the other hand, the pool area was quite nice and had lots of lounge chairs. I would have like to see a few more palapas for shade, but overall it was nice.
The breakfast buffet that was included in our package was pretty good, especially the fresh fruit. However, with the exception of the made to order omelets, the food wasn’t very warm.
For those who dive and snorkel, the area across from the hotel was very nice and had chairs to sit and a place to eat and drink.
So to summarize our experience:
Rooms: paying extra for OV, to stay on an expressway, not worth it IMHO. Air conditioning worked very well.
Cleanliness: Rooms – Very disappointing. Hallways & stairways – very disappointing. Pool area – very good. Grounds – very good. Hotel lobby – very good. Restaurant – good
Location: Excellent: can walk to grocery store and downtown in minutes. Good for divers.
Accommodating Staff: A lot to be desired.
Pool – Large and very nice, however, kids could overtake it (I blame that on the parents)
Breakfast buffet – Pretty good value. (only meal we had there)
Would we stay again? Probably not, because a room that’s clean is key to us. But be your own judge.

The first impression you get when you stay at a hotel is the front desk staff. I was not impressed with them at all. They were almost rude most of the time. We did not stay all-inclusive as we like to venture around. I do not know if this would have made a difference. The food we did eat there was inconsistent. A guest we met at the hotel said the only consistent thing about the hotel was the 2:00pm Bingo game, I found this statement funny but also very accurate. The rooms are o.k., they need some sprucing up. The hallways are very dirty and with all the help around they don't pick up glasses and stuff that is left around very quickly. Our room needed a good going over. They provide a coffee pot but you have to figure out where to plug it in. Our was coated with (probably) hairspray, as it sat on the vanity. The beds are pretty bad, hard to get a good night of sleep. We were supposed to get a 20% discount on all drinks, we found you really had to watch that you did get the discount. We did not make complaints while we were there, so this is my 2 cents now. The pool area is pretty.