My family and I just got back from spending the holidays in Cabo. This was our first trip to the region. We arrived Christmas Day and spent 11 days/10 nights. It was an outstanding trip, and the longest vacation I have ever taken as an adult. Being new to the area, we did not know what to expect. Here are a few tips we picked up from our trip.
Vendors
Expect to get over run by vendors selling street food, jewelry, excursions, time shares, etc. It can be a bit overwhelming at first, then it becomes fun. Do yourself a favor and avoid buying a timeshare. Don’t take the bait for discounted excursions, free food, etc. Remember you are on vacation. It was expensive to get there, you have limited time and you don’t want to spend half a day mucking around with a high-pressure sales pitch. The internet enables you to rent a room anywhere on the planet, anytime you want. Don’t pay thousands of dollars to joint a club to rent a hotel room.
Transportation
Airport to your hotel
We arrived on Christmas day and were worried there might not be rides available. This is funny now, because the airport was swamped with transportation options. We had to run a gauntlet to get to our ride. Most drivers will ask for $125USD to go to Cabo San Lucas, but the going rate is $65 to $80 USD depending on the size of your group.
Taxis
Taxis seem to be almost all 10-12 passenger blue or green vans. They are available almost instantly at any hotel or tourist spot. They tend to be $12 to $14 dollars each way locally. Your hotel can arrange a ride to and from the airport. It is typically $80 for a cab or $20 per person on the hourly shuttles.
Bus
The bus system is cheap and easy if you know how to use it. For longer distances, there is a bus that runs north and south on Highway 1. It costs $37 Pesos (about $2 USD) to ride from Cabo San Lucas to Cabo San
Jose. This is a large blue/purple coach or city bus. In Cabo San Lucas the bus stops in front of the mall at the harbor on the main drag, HWY 1/ Lazaro Cardenas. In San Jose the bus stop heading to Cabo San Lucas is in front of the Walmart. It comes about every 15 to 20 minutes. If you are heading North get on from the east side of the road. If you want to go south, cross the street and flag a bus form the west side of the road.
In most areas there are local buses that run from the harbor to Walmart, etc. The cost is $1 USD. These are short white school buses with the stops written on their windshields in white paint. The local bus in Cabo San Lucas picks up on the side street in front of the mall on Acurio. Similar buses run in most towns.
Water Taxis
You can’t walk 10 feet in the harbor without someone offering you a water taxi. They all offer a slightly different experience. They mostly pick up / drop off at three locations: the harbor, Medano Beach and Lover’s Beach. Make sure you clarify what you want to do. They typically run about $8-10 USD per person. Almost all of them have a glass bottom of sorts but this doesn’t matter unless you take an Arch tour.
Lover’s Beach is a very popular place to kayak, snorkel, swim, paddle board, etc. It is on the harbor side and the water is calm. From here you can see Land’s End and cross to the Pacific side to watch the waves. DON’T SWIM ON THE PACIFIC SIDE! The riptides will kill you. Just know you will need to take another taxi back the harbor or be prepared to do some significant rock climbing. We did both. My teenagers and I loved the climb, but my wife was not up for it. Note that Lover’s Beach (and Divorce Beach on the Pacific side) have no amenities. There is a guy with the water taxis that sells beer and soda from a cooler, but nothing else. No restrooms.
Medano Beach is the party beach. This area is lined with Spring Break style extra large clubs and resorts. It is also a great place to find jet skis, paddle boards, etc. There is a famous restaurant here called The Office on the Beach with great chile rellenos and breath taking sunset views.
Land’s End / The Arch: At the extreme end of the peninsula is Land’s End and a rock feature call the Arch (El Arco). It is beautiful and a major landmark. The water taxis will offer to take you out and around the arch, sit for a couple minutes for pictures and possibly see some fish in the glass bottom. Then they take you back to the harbor. This is a good way to view the Arch and if you time it right, you can get a great sunset. We took this same route on our fishing trip and saw whales and several manta rays jumping in the surf.
Thing to do
Outfitters/Excursions
You get what you pay for. There are thousands of vendors trying to sell you trips and excursions down at the harbor. Most of them are just marketing for a hand full of excursion outfitters. We had very good experiences when we didn’t seek the cheapest vendor. We booked a low-cost zip line and repelling trip in Wild Canyon. It was close to the city and inexpensive, but the experience was lacking. The guides spoke little English and some of the equipment was very old. We later booked ziplines through Cabo Adventures (see below) and had a much better experience.
On another excursion, we did jet skis and had the option for a cheaper 30-minute ride or a full hour. Almost everybody books the half hour ride. We chose the hour ride. My sons and I were paired with a guide and 3 other half hour riders. By the time we got out in the harbor, there was only about 20-mintues for the 30-minute group. Then our guide left my sons and I to play while he took the other group back and brought out a second group. By the time they unloaded and reloaded and gave them 20 minutes of ride time, we had played for about an hour and 20 minutes. By booking the slightly more expensive hour tour we got more than 3 times the fun of the cheaper trips.
Cabo Adventures – https://www.cabo-adventures.com/en/ This is the most legitimate outfitter in the harbor. They are based at the dolphin aquarium in the Cabo San Lucas harbor. I recommend booking everything you can through them. They offer just about everything but fishing. They demand a slight premium, but you won’t get ripped off. We booked three excursions through them and they were top notch.
Dolphins
We swam with the dolphins as trainers for the day. Our guide, Ivan, was fun and spoke great English. Being up close with the dolphins was exciting. We learned hand signals, had a tour of the facility and spent a lot of time in the pool interacting with these amazing animals. There are several different options to experience and interact with the dolphins depending on your age, budget and timing. If you can, do the full backstage experience.
Outdoor Adventure
We did the outdoor adventure package with Cabo Adventures. It included getting picked up from our hotel and driven to the course. We did ziplines, a Tarzan swing, rock climbing, repelling and a UTV drive. They gave us lunch and took us back to our hotel. The final event was the superman zipline, which was a 4000-meter zip line from the top of a mountain across a huge canyon. It’s about a 2-minute ride and you can get speeds up to 70 MPH! The guides were excellent and spoke very good English! The equipment was very secure. I strongly recommend Cabo Adventures.
Whale Sharks
We booked swimming with the whale sharks, but it was canceled due to extreme wind and high waves. Maybe next time…
Fishing
Land’s End Charters – https://landsendcharters.com Hiram at Land’s End Charters is associated with a fleet of boats. We chose the full-day, all-inclusive trip. My thought was catching a big game fish in Cabo is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Let’s fish all day and if we catch enough, we can go in early. I spoke to several people who have gone on 2-hour trips year after year and never caught anything. We had a great crew and got lucky. We caught 5 bonitas and a dolphin fish close to shore then went to troll deeper waters for game fish. My son caught a 52-inch Wahoo. After that we called it a day, but if we wanted, we could have gone a few more hours. I was extremely pleased with Land’s End. We caught fish and the crew was excellent! They helped us offload the fish and escorted us to a pack and freeze outfit. They filleted, vacuum sealed and froze our fish for transport for about $20 USD. They even held our fish in a freezer until the day of our departure and they open at 6 AM. I was able to walk down and grab our fish right before we left for the airport. Coming back to the harbor was an experience. The sea lions raided our bait well. The fishing boats fly different flags when you return with a catch. We got a lot of cheers coming in with a full line of flags. We ate the Wahoo several ways. It made excellent sashimi and ceviche.
Cabo was a great experience for my family and I. We stayed right in the harbor and loved being able to walk to almost everything. We experienced a lot of great food (for food reviews check out google maps) and plenty of adventure. We look forward to returning in the future.
