My family and I travel every few years to Cabo San Lucas. We love it there, because of the people, because we feel safe, and because there is such a variety of things to do. Whether you are traveling as adults only or as families with children, there is a wide menu of activities to keep you entertained.
Here is a laundry list of the best things to do in Cabo San Lucas: golfing with a lot of nice courses to choose from, deep sea fishing, whale watching, snorkeling, sailing, parasailing, horseback riding on the beach, zip-lining, ATV rides, jet-skiing in the ocean, dinner cruises, night-life at the famous Cabo Wabo, Giggling Marlin, or Mango Deck on the Beach, as well as several others, and I can't forget relaxing - whether that is from your beach chair or at one of the awesome resort pools and spas. While I have yet to conquer all of these activities in my frequent visits to this beautiful destination, I can say with certainty that I have mastered the relaxation part. Since I just returned from Cabo, I am all rested up and want to share our five favorite activities from this trip.
Travel Tip: The ideal time to visit Cabo is January to April for two reasons. First, this is when the weather is most ideal: 80-85 degrees during the day and evening lows of 60. We avoid the late summer months due to it being their rainy season and June-November is considered hurricane season. The second reason is that our favorite activity to do in Mexico is whale watching, which only occurs during January to April.
Whale Watching
At the beginning of the year, humpback whales leave their Arctic feeding grounds and migrate south to the warm waters off of the Baja Peninsula to mate and give birth. While I have been on whale watching excursions in Hawaii and Boston, neither have come close in comparison to what I have experienced in Cabo. Cabo is truly the best place in the world to do this activity. While you can see whales spouting and breaching from the beach, the best way to see them is to take a boat excursion. There are larger boat operators that take large crowds out, but I recommend going with a smaller operation. Right out front of Tobasco's Restaurant on Medano Beach, we booked a private boat for our group of 11 people with Cabo Activities.
You can call my sweet friend, Violeta (business card here to schedule) and she will coordinate you with a guided tour for $20/adult and $10/child (she didn't charge us for the 3-year old). They picked us up right in front of our resort and took us for a scenic float past the famous El Arco at Land's End and past Pelican Rock where the sea lions hang out. From there, we started our journey into the Pacific Ocean in search of whales. For the next hour, we were treated to the most magnificent up close and personal encounters with whales. I can't begin to explain the enormous size of these creatures. We saw full families of whales ... mommas, big ole daddies, and baby whales. They were literally close enough to our boat that I really believe we could have touched them. Not only were our kids super impressed by this, but all of us adults were wide-eyed with our mouths hanging open at how cool this experience was. We knew we were seeing something incredibly special! If you are looking for a whale watching excursion, give Violeta a call. It's worth every penny we spent and we had a much more personal experience than the large catamaran excursions that cost significantly more.
Beach Hopping
You may have seen my blog post about the necessity of having a rolling cooler on beach vacations, because we like to beach hop and take along our own refreshments. I purchased mine at Sam's Club this past summer, but they are currently out of stock. There are many available options on Amazon. We hailed a taxi at our resort early in the morning and headed out to Chileno Beach, which is a public beach, frequented by the locals and known for its calm waters and excellent snorkeling. It was about a 15 minute cab ride and it did not disappoint. As soon as we arrived, we were greeted with a kind local man that set us up with three beach umbrellas ($10 each), some snorkeling gear, and a bottle filled with tortillas for the kids to feed the fish while snorkeling. Interestingly enough, we were all able to stand in the ocean knee deep and sprinkle a few tortillas into the water, and we were surrounded by lots of colorful fish. It was like snorkeling without even having to put your head in the water. :) The kids loved climbing on some cool rock formations and were entertained by hundreds of crabs that would scramble and cling onto the rocks as the waves would wash into the shore. This beach had 2 lifeguards on duty and has clean, easily-accessible restroom facilities. There are no vendors here, so the serenity of this beach is enjoyable - just remember to pack your own food and drinks. We enjoyed a nice picnic lunch from our rolling cooler and then cabbed back to our resort shortly after lunch.
TRAVEL TIP - Take a pair of beach/water shoes to Chileno Beach. The sand here is very coarse and climbing on the rocks is painful without some type of foot protection.
Another beach we visited on this trip was Lover's Beach, which is only accessible by water. you can get there by water taxi from Medano Beach for only a few dollars. Lovers Beach is another one of the calm swimmable beaches in the Sea of Cortez and you can also snorkel here. A short walk through the towering rock formations will land you on what is called Divorce Beach which faces the Pacific Ocean. This beach is great for sunbathing or relaxing, but it is very dangerous to swim on this side due to the rip currents.
Deep Sea Fishing
The Anchorman (AKA my husband Eric), the guys and kids all went deep sea fishing for a full day. While they didn't pull in any trophies on this particular trip, the kids were able to catch some trigger fish and rock fish, and made lots of memories. My son-in-law did have a nice blue marlin on the line for about 10 minutes and got it to within 10 feet of the boat. Much like a lot of fish stories, the big one got away. They booked the day of fishing through Armondo (AKA Michigan) at the Cabo Fire Department. We learned through our conversations with him that the Fire Department is not well supported by the government here, so they rely on the community to support them. They have a store at the department located downtown where you can purchase sun shirts (the kids are wearing them in these images) and other merchandise. They do the fishing trips as a side job to earn extra income and are excellent guides for those with younger children. We were not looking for a massive fish and shark fishing trip -- just a trip to catch some fun ocean fish and they were certainly successful. The sea lions even jump on the back of the boats looking for the left over bait and the kids enjoyed interacting with them as an unexpected bonus.
Snorkeling
While Cabo isn’t particularly well-known for snorkeling, it has some popular areas that are conducive to seeing some vibrant marine life. Chileno Beach, Pelican Rock/Land’s End and Santa Maria Bay are the places to go if you want to snorkel. I have done a catamaran snorkeling excursion, via EcoCat, that travels about 45 minutes by boat to Santa Maria Bay, which is voted Cabo’s best beach. This option generally includes larger groups of people, drinks and food options available onboard, as well as having your snorkel gear provided. Pricing runs about $70 per adult and $35 per child over 5. Going this route may include bonus whale and dolphin sightings. For a cheaper, more kid-friendly snorkel adventure, I recommend you purchase a full face snorkel mask off of Amazon (Adult or Child) before you go on vacation and visit Chileno Beach. If you haven't snorkeled before, it is a nice place to experience it for the first time.
TRAVEL TIP: Take a baggie of bread or fill an empty pop bottle with small pieces of tortillas and water. As you swim, release bits and the fish will flock to the food.
Relaxation
Vacation is time well-earned and there is no shame in taking adequate time to truly relax and recharge your batteries. I personally love every minute that I can get in a beach chair watching the waves roll in. I often, if the pricing is not too steep, will check out the spa options while on vacation. The Pueblo Bonito Rose's Armonia Spa is fabulous and they offered us a 40% discount on any service, so the ladies on the trip did indulge in a full body massage and pampered ourselves in the full spa amenities. I consider that money well spent on personal well-being.
Tell me ... when you vacation, do you go for adventurous or relaxing activities .... or both? Whatever you choose .... my philosophy is that when you work hard, there is no reason to feel guilty for playing hard!
All the beach vibes,
