Maira Rozado Thomas

Hola! I’m Maira!

I am the founder, owner, and operator of MAR Hosted Trips, and I am so happy to have you here! 

Originally from Guadalajara, Mexico, I started scuba diving in 2008 through an internship in Huatulco, Mexico. I immediately fell in love with the biodiversity of the Pacific, and the quiet coastal life of Huatulco – I knew I could never return to the city full-time. 

After my internship, I continued diving and training around Mexico. Over the years I continued training until I became a PADI Master Instructor, a Free Diver, and a Cave Diver while working as a full-time scuba instructor in Cancun and Playa del Carmen, Mexico. 

In my time in Cancun, I met my husband on a dive boat while he was living in Mexico. Eventually, we decided to start fresh in his hometown in Texas.

In 2016 we moved to Dallas, Texas and I grew connected to the local diving community. I was amazed at how little my fellow divers knew about diving in Mexico! I grew passionate about sharing the incredible underwater world of Mexico with my fellow divers, and in 2018 started experimenting with taking groups of divers to Mexico.

After some trial and error, the concept for MAR Hosted Trips came to be during the turbulent year that was 2020, and the spring of 2021 I took my first group of Scuba Travelers to Isla Mujeres, Mexico!

The online community of Scuba MAR Maids was created in early 2021 and I soon had my first all-women’s dive trip. It was such a beautiful experience, and now the Scuba MAR Maids are a core part of MAR Hosted Trips!

Both travel groups have been growing steadily ever since. Thanks to all the support for MAR Hosted Trips, in 2023 I was able to quit my “day-job” and work on this dream full-time.

Now, I get to travel and meet wonderful, unique divers like you in amazing places around the world!

MAR Hosted Trips

MAR Hosted Trips was inspired by divers. After moving to Texas in 2018, Maira found that few members of the diving community had any idea of the amazing and unique diving opportunities available just across the border!

In 2016 Maira started reaching out to her contacts in Mexico, and began putting together unique, diving-centered adventures. These first trips were met with tremendous success, so Maira kept looking for new and unique dive experiences to share. 

While the trips were amazing, Maira wanted something more. After planning her first few trips, Maira noticed a lack of women-centered diving opportunities. Pairing that with her passion to support women in diving, she created the online community Scuba MAR Maids in February 2021.

Scuba MAR Maids aims to support and encourage more women to get into diving and magnify the importance of female friendships. The Facebook community is home to more than 4000 women who dive, with more joining every day! And every Scuba MAR Maid trip ends with new friends, dive buddies, and unforgettable moments.

MAR Hosted Trips is a nod both to “mar”, the Spanish word for ocean, and Maira’s initials.

What Makes Mar Hosted Trips Special?

We will take you fun places! One of the great things about going on a group trip is that the diving and your activities are planned by an expert with local knowledge. You will dive places and experience things you might never have thought of if you had gone on your own!

You might have noticed that you can’t just click a button and book a MAR Hosted Trip. A big part of the success of MHT is that we also curate the divers that go on each trip. Some trips are great for beginners, others are great for more experienced divers. We want to make sure everyone is safe and taken care of on our trips!

We also require all travelers to fill out a trip information form that tells us a bit about you, so we can match you with the best dive buddies and roommates!

As divers we try not guarantee anything, but we can guarantee you will make lifelong friends on a MAR Hosted Trip!

Every trip MAR Hosted Trips puts together is carefully curated to allow travelers to have a full, local, immersive experience in any destination. Every meal, activity, and of course the diving is planned to give MHT travelers a seamless, relaxing experience.  

We are on the trip because we love to dive, but there is more to the trip than being under the surface! On a MAR Hosted Trip you will also experience local food, culture, music, and activities like hiking, surfing, yoga, and whatever else we can find! 

Maira leads most of the trips, but we have a growing team of Trip Leaders that are trained on each destination so we can offer more and more experiences! On a MAR Hosted Trip you also get to draw on the experience of your leaders to further your skills!

We all know diving is not a cheap hobby! That’s why MAR Hosted Trips offers a variety of dive holidays to meet you where you are. 

From budget-friendly weekend trips to Mexico, to 2 week luxury liveaboards in the Galapagos, we aim to offer something to anyone who wants to dive! 

Ultimately, a MAR Hosted Trip is about connecting with other like-minded divers, experiencing local culture, and diving unique destinations. While we started out in Mexico, MAR Hosted Trips now leads excursions around the world! We firmly believe in being travelers, not tourists, finding unique ways to make genuine connections in every community we visit.

Join our Dive Communities!

There’s more to MAR Hosted Trips than just the journeys! We have Facebook groups for all our divers to connect, learn about the trips, and chat all things diving!