The Arch takes twenty minutes. Los Cabos takes a week.
Which boat actually lands you on Lovers Beach. What a snorkel morning at Chileno costs. Whether the dune run beats a whale day in February. Reviews of every tour you can book in Cabo San Lucas and San José del Cabo.
The Arch, a deck on the Sea of Cortez, the Migriño dunes, a whale.
The four bookings a first week at the end of Baja is built around. What each costs, and who it suits.
01The first morningLos Cabos Arch and Playa del Amor Tour by Glass Bottom KayakPaddle out past Pelican Rock to Lovers Beach, before the panga traffic and the afternoon chop.
02The day on deckLos Cabos Luxury Sailing, Snorkel and Lunch CruiseA sailing catamaran down the corridor with a snorkel stop and lunch aboard. The day the rest of the week gets planned around.
03The dune run4×4 ATV Adventure with Tequila Tasting and Mexican Buffet LunchQuads through the sand and arroyos on the Pacific side, finishing at a tequila table under a palapa.
04Whale seasonLuxury Catamaran Whale Watching Cabo San LucasHumpbacks and grays are in the bay from mid-December to mid-April, and a catamaran holds steadier than a panga.
Every good day in Cabo San Lucas starts at the marina steps.
The bay is why people come. Four kinds of day on it, what it costs to board each one, and what you actually get to see.
★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · Los Cabos Arch and Playa del Amor Tour by Glass Bottom Kayak
The Arch and Lovers BeachTwenty minutes out, past the sea lions to Land’s End.
Snorkel morningsChileno and Santa Maria, on the calm Sea of Cortez side.
Sunset sailsOpen bar, the cliffs turning gold, back in time for dinner.
Whale watchingHumpbacks and grays, mid-December to mid-April.
All 99 days on the water →
Cabo San Lucas: a marina, a granite arch, and desert from the last street on.
Everything in Cabo San Lucas →
Medano is the one beach in town you can safely swim off. Everything else leaves from the marina steps or the highway behind them: pangas to the Arch, quads to Migriño, and a tequila table at the end of most of them.
Panga, glass bottom or clear kayak
The shared water taxi drops you at Lovers Beach and comes back for you. A clear kayak costs more and takes you round the far side of Land’s End, where the Pacific swell is honest about itself.
Quads and UTVs at Migriño
Twenty minutes up the Pacific coast the dunes start. Almost every run ends with a tasting and a buffet under a palapa, which is why they sell as a whole afternoon rather than a ride.
Open bar, or a chef on the aft deck
The cheap sails run an open bar and a playlist. The dear ones put a chef on board and cut the guest list to a dozen. Both go out round the Arch before they turn for the sunset.
The days out most travellers to Los Cabos actually book.
Every tour we have reviewed →Camels, quads, a sailing catamaran and the boat to the Arch. The rest of a week here fits around whichever of these you book first.
1
Cabo Beach Camel Ride, Mexican Buffet and Tequila Tasting
Travel from Los Cabos to Rancho Tierra Sagrada for a guided camel ride through desert and beach scenery, followed by an unlimited Mexican buffet and tequila tasting. Guides such as Bill, Pablo, Diana, and Cesar are known for adding humor and local context. Allow extra time for transport and the $25 park fee.
From · $99
Read our review →
2
4×4 ATV Adventure with Tequila Tasting and Mexican Buffet Lunch
from $75
3
Outdoor Ziplining and UTV Adventure from Los Cabos
from $139
4
Los Cabos Luxury Sailing, Snorkel and Lunch Cruise
from $149
5
ATV Tour, Camel Ride, Tequila Tasting and Mexican Buffet Lunch
from $149
6
Cabo Migrino Beach and Desert ATV Tour plus Tequila Tasting
from $75
7
Los Cabos Luxury Sunset Sail with Light Appetizers and Open Bar
from $109
8
Luxury Catamaran Whale Watching Cabo San Lucas
from $129
The desert starts one street back from the sand.
Cardón cactus, dry arroyos and the dunes at Migriño, twenty minutes up the Pacific side. Quads, UTVs, horses and camels all work the same stretch of coast, and nearly all of them finish at a table.
San José del Cabo is the half of Los Cabos that goes to bed early.
Thirty kilometres up the corridor and a different town: a colonial square, an art district that opens late on Thursdays in season, an estuary full of birds, and the surf breaks out at Costa Azul. The airport sits on this side, which is why nearly every transfer starts here.
Every San José del Cabo day out →
What a day out in Los Cabos actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by price. A shared boat to the Arch and a private yacht afternoon are the same bay separated by a decimal point.
Shared boats out to the Arch, taco walks, a tequila tasting, the airport shuttle.
The standards: snorkel cruises, quad runs at Migriño, camel afternoons, whale mornings.
Private yachts, chartered sportfishing, and the small-boat whale trips with a biologist aboard.
Three things that only happen at the end of Baja.
Boat trips and beach clubs exist everywhere. A granite arch you can paddle under, camels on Pacific sand, and a bay grey whales swim four thousand miles to reach do not.
El Arco and Lovers Beach
The granite finger at the tip of the peninsula ends in an arch with a sea lion colony living under it. Lovers Beach faces the calm bay; walk thirty metres through the gap and you are on Divorce Beach, facing open Pacific, where nobody should be swimming. Water taxis run from the marina all day, and the time of the last one back is the detail worth confirming.
- 1Los Cabos Arch and Playa del Amor Tour by Glass Bottom Kayak★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,317 reviews
- 2Land’s End Experience – Arch, Beaches & Marine Life★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,038 reviews
- 3Kayak Expedition to the Arch of Cabo San Lucas, Lovers Beach & Snorkel★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 976 reviews
Camels on the Pacific sand
A ranch on the coast road keeps a string of dromedaries and walks them along the beach at Migriño. It started as a novelty and turned into one of the most booked afternoons in Los Cabos, usually sold with a tequila tasting and a buffet under a palapa once you are back off the sand.
- 1Cabo Beach Camel Ride, Mexican Buffet and Tequila Tasting★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 8,815 reviews
- 2ATV Tour, Camel Ride, Tequila Tasting and Mexican Buffet Lunch★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 3,380 reviews
- 3Beach Camel Ride and Encounter in Cabo★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 768 reviews
Humpbacks in the bay
Greys and humpbacks come down the Pacific to calve and turn the corner at Land’s End, which puts whales twenty minutes from the marina instead of a half-day sail away. From mid-December to mid-April you can watch them breach from the beach, and the boats go out morning, midday and afternoon.
- 1Luxury Catamaran Whale Watching Cabo San Lucas★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 2,107 reviews
- 2Whale Watching Cabo-Women crew-Sightings Guaranteed & Free Photos★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,743 reviews
- 3SMALL GROUP Whale Watch | Cabo San Lucas | Biologist | FREE Pics★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,106 reviews
Four Los Cabos bookings that will not wait for you to land.
Most of this coast can be arranged from a bar stool on Medano the night before. These four cannot. They run on a season, a boat with a fixed number of seats, or a permit.
- 01Luxury Catamaran Whale Watching Cabo San LucasThe season runs roughly mid-December to mid-April. Outside it there is no trip to book at any price.
- 02Cabo San Lucas Private Yacht Cruise with Open BarOne boat, one party. A Saturday in high season goes weeks out and there is no second sailing to move to.
- 03Private SUV Round-Trip from Airport to Hotels in Cabo San LucasThe airport is up in San José, up to an hour from a Cabo San Lucas hotel. Sorting the ride after you land is the expensive way to do it.
- 04La Paz Whale Shark Snorkeling Tour and Lunch From Los CabosThe whale sharks are a La Paz thing, the day starts before dawn, and the number of permitted boats is capped.
Whales in winter, wind on the Pacific side, and the weeks the boats fill.
Los Cabos runs on two calendars. The whales are in the bay from mid-December to mid-April, and the boats sell out first over Christmas and Easter. The Pacific side picks up swell and afternoon wind most of the year, which is why every snorkel stop worth having is round on the Sea of Cortez side.
Cabo San Lucas eats late, and the tequila lesson comes with it.
Half of these are sold as the end of something else: a tasting after the quad run, a buffet after the camels. Booked on their own you get the marina taco walk, a mezcal flight poured properly, and a class that finishes as lunch.
By place, from Land’s End to La Paz
By kind of day, on the water or behind it
Four days in Cabo San Lucas, two up the corridor, one on the Pacific side.
The newest Los Cabos tour reviews.
The rest of the new ones →
San José town : Cooking class,mexican Empanadas y antojitos
Read our review →
Cabo San Lucas Bay: Guided Jet Ski 30 minutes Rental
Read our review →
