By Elana Riedel
Is there any good shore snorkeling in Baja California Sea of Cortez Mexico? I am looking to make a family vacation in Cabo San Lucas, La Paz, or Loreto. Some members want to go snorkeling. Does anyone know of any resorts which have snorkeling from their beach? Thank you.
La Paz has a string of beaches with good shore snorkeling: Caimancito, Balandra, Pichilingue and Tecolote for starters. And really you’d be remiss not to plan a boat day to swim with the whale sharks or sea lions. There’s an all-inclusive near Pichilingue but that’s pretty remote from the fun in La Paz. Not much shore access in Loreto but just south of there, Nopolo has a resort hotel and a beach where you can swim to a small reef.
We found some very good shore snorkeling at Playa Chileno and Playa Santa Maria in the “Corridor” between Cabo San Lucas and San Jose del Cabo. At both beaches the best snorkeling was to the right (west) side of the beach, as you face the water. Playa Chileno has some large coral heads growing in the generally rocky cove. The big thing of course is to get away from the sand bottom of the swimming beach, all the fish, soft corals, the few hard corals, and the odd turtle are always over the rocky ground.
There aren’t much for hotels on these beaches, just a couple of extremely high-end ones that I’m sure would be nice to stay at if you can afford to, but we stayed at a decent hotel across from the Playa Palmilla area and it only took about 10 minutes to drive to either Chileno or SantaMaria. Both had good large parking lots.
In Cabo San Lucas there’s decent shore snorkeling at Playa Coral Negro / Playa Empacadora. We actually had sea lions swim right up to us while we were snorkeling there, which was cool. You can also swim and hike along the shore there to Pelican Rock and Playa del Amor if you’re adventurous and persistent.
Most of the beaches in front of hotels in the Cabo area (either San Jose or San Lucas) have very large waves, which make swimming too dangerous to even bother trying.
We snorkeled off the beach at Playa Los Frailes, in the Cabo Pulmo area. It was good but nowhere near as good as a boat trip out to the Cabo Pulmo Reef.
Same in Loreto, a couple of places that were alright near the shore but they couldn’t hold a candle to the offshore islands.
The shore snorkeling is really lame in the Bahia LaPaz, with the exception of Playa Balandra in a few spots (which were still only mediocre). What sets the La Paz area apart is the Whale Sharks at El Mogote, the Sea Lions at San Rafaelito and Espiritu Santo, and the reefs near those islands too. These are the best snorkeling areas in the Baja California Sur but are only accessible by boat. We were in crystal clear water that was calm as a mill pond, when a mother whale and her calf were spotted. We motored over to have a look and they hung out right around the boat. I couldn’t resist it and slipped into the water with my mask on. Absolutely amazing! Despite the boat captain being peeved because we weren’t supposed to snorkel with the whales.
The snorkeling with big marine animals is out of this world there. It is worth every penny to have the experience of a lifetime! In just over 24 hours we had snorkeled with sea lions, whale sharks, whales, and a Bull Shark (which was beautiful but also a bit more intimidating than we had wanted to see).
So while the shore snorkeling is decent in a few places, once again it’s the boat snorkeling that makes it world-class. While it’s not as pointless as going to the Florida Keys and expecting to find amazing sea life while just shore snorkeling, it’s also no Coral Triangle.
But it’s so much more, from waterfalls in a cactus-filled desert to little mining towns high in the mountains to endless beaches with thundering breakers crashing on them, it’s just an awesome part of Mexico to visit.
What company were you with when you saw the whale and got in the water? I so appreciate ethical companies.
Hi! We LOOOVE Baja snorkeling. We have gone two times, spring of 2018 and 2025. We used Tours Loreto out of Loreto. I will echo those above who say you need to take a boat to the islands for the really good snorkeling! If you stay at Loreto Bay Golf Hotel some operators will pick you up on a small beach by hole 15, VERY convenient as you can avoid the drive into town and all the marina tour-sorting chaos. Isla Danzante was some of the best snorkeling I’ve ever done, I was also entirely alone in the water – very wild.
Check out Magdalena Bay Whales for remote glamping (a bit of a drive, but worth it). In the spring they have grey whale tours by boat and in the fall there is marlin bait ball snorkeling, kinda extreme but looks awesome. We plan to go back to glamp with our five and seven year old kids soon.
Also, please realize that “ethical whale snorkeling” is kind of an oxymoron in this context. It looks like the tour operator told the guest it was not permitted to go in the water with the whale and the guest did anyway (I get it) but Mexican law is quite strict regarding whale swimming and these are in place for the protection and well being of the animals. Let’s please respect them.
Snorkeling from the beach as you did ask for is possible at Cabo Pulmo, south of La Paz. It’s the only reef you can reach at Baja California without a boat. If the sea is not too rough, the snorkeling there is nice – but if you are an experienced snorkeler you will have been to better places in the world.
Another place is Bahia Magdalena, where sometimes beach snorkeling is offered, but it’s sandy water and brings no real benefit.
As Ian wrote, snorkeling with the Whale Sharks or Sea Lions from La Paz with a tour is a must, if you as a snorkeler stay in that region.