Cabo San Lucas cruise port guide
Baja California Sur, Mexico · from CaboThings, the offline iPhone guide
Where ships dock
Cabo San Lucas tender pier (marina)
Cabo is a tender port: ships anchor in the bay and tender boats bring you to this pier in the marina. The boardwalk, downtown and the water taxis to the Arch are all on foot from here. Allow extra time for the tender line on the way back — the last tender leaves before all-aboard.
Usually a morning-to-afternoon call · the last-tender time is in your ship's daily program
All-aboard is in ship time. Check the daily programme and be back at the gangway 30 minutes early.
Top places near the pier
Walking times come from the app: straight-line distance plus 30% for streets, at an easy 4.5 km/h. Places further than an hour on foot show the distance instead.
Lisa Andres · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons Water Taxis to Lover's Beach
The panga fleet that runs the marina–Arch–Lover's Beach loop all day. The essential Cabo experience for about the price of a cocktail.
Thelmadatter · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons Whale Watching (Cabo Marina)
Humpback whales fill the bay from mid December to mid April — breaching, tail-slapping, mothers with calves — and small-boat tours from the marina put you almost among them.
Sportfishing Fleet
Cabo calls itself the marlin capital of the world, and the fleet that lines the marina is why — striped marlin year-round, blue and black marlin in late summer and fall, dorado, tuna and wahoo.
Countedx58 · Copyrighted free use · Wikimedia Commons Cabo Wabo Cantina
Sammy Hagar's cantina, the downtown institution since 1990: live rock bands nightly, tequila by the flight, and a crowd that ranges from spring breakers to retirees who saw Van Halen.
Alexis Doine · CC0 · Wikimedia Commons Museo de Historia Natural de Cabo San Lucas
A small, earnest natural-history museum on the plaza downtown — fossils, the whales, local geology, and the story of the peninsula — in a historic school building.
Cristo Vlahos · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons Puerto Paraíso Mall
The air-conditioned mall on the marina: Cinemex cinema, a bowling alley, Luxury Avenue's designer boutiques next door, chain restaurants and clean restrooms — the town's refuge from a hot or rainy afternoon.
Thelmadatter · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons El Squid Roe
Three floors of controlled chaos on Lázaro Cárdenas: waiters dancing on tables, shot girls, and a nightly party that peaks around 1 AM.
ProveIt at English Wikipedia · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons Playa Solmar
The long Pacific beach on the back of Land's End, below the Solmar and Grand Solmar resorts — wide, dramatic, and strictly for walking: the surf is enormous and the drop-off steep.
Antheasadira · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons Mango Deck
The loudest beach club on Médano: bikini contests, MC on a microphone, buckets of beer, spring-break energy all year.
Lee Coursey from Decatur, GA · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons The Office on the Beach
The original Médano beach restaurant since 1979 — tables in the sand, a view straight at the Arch, fish tacos and margaritas, and a Mexican fiesta night on Thursdays.
Mercado Mexicano
The downtown handicrafts market on Hidalgo: blankets, silver, pottery, tequila and a hundred t-shirts, in a warren of small stalls where bargaining is expected.
Thelmadatter · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons Divorce Beach
The Pacific face of Lover's Beach, a hundred steps through the rocks: huge, empty, and beautiful, with a shore break that kills swimmers every year.
Pedro Iván Hernández… · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons El Arco (The Arch)
The granite arch at the very tip of the Baja peninsula, where the Sea of Cortez meets the Pacific — the symbol of Cabo, reachable only by boat.
Thelmadatter · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons Pelican Rock
The rock just off Lover's Beach with the best easy snorkeling in Cabo San Lucas — sergeant majors, angelfish and the occasional sea turtle in a few metres of protected water.
Thelmadatter · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons Lover's Beach
The famous double-sided beach at Land's End: a calm swimmable cove on the Sea of Cortez side and, through a gap in the rocks, the wild Pacific side called Divorce Beach.
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Ready-made port days in CaboThings
Each is a timed plan in the app, starting and ending at the ship (18 in all for this port).
- Land's End Day
The Arch, Lover's Beach, Médano and a cantina — the classic first day - Corridor Beach Hop
Santa María, Chileno, Palmilla and the surfers at Costa Azul - San José del Cabo Day
Birds at the estuary, the mission, gallery streets and Flora Farms - Todos Santos & Cerritos
A surf lesson, the Hotel California, and a Pueblo Mágico - East Cape & Cabo Pulmo
The living reef, a shady beach and the kite town - La Paz & Balandra
Mexico's most beautiful beach, then the Malecón at sunset — a long day
Getting around: what the app tells you
- The 'free' breakfast is a 3-hour sales pitch
- Anyone at the airport, the marina or your hotel lobby offering free tours, cash, or a 'resort preview' in exchange for '90 minutes' is selling timeshares. The 90 minutes is three hours of high-pressure sales, and people do sign. 'No gracias' and keep walking; it's not rude, it's expected.
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