My first trip report:
We just completed our second dive trip to Loreto, Baja, Mexico. We took our first trip there for Thanksgiving in 2022. It was so easy and inexpensive, we decided to try it again, Sept. 2023. We’re already talking about coming back in 2024.
Thanksgiving November 2022
Sea temperature: 72 (a little cool for us). 5mm wetsuit + vest with hood
Weather: Around 75-80 degrees during the day, but very windy (15-25mph). In fact, they closed the port one day due to high winds so we were unable to dive that day. Dive sites were limited because of rough seas so we were only able to dive on the lee side of Coronado Island. We dove the same 4 sites for the entire 5 days we were there. Visibility ranged from 25-40’.
Late September 2023
Sea temperature: 87! I wore a 3mm wetsuit and was warm at times.
Weather: Hot! 95-100 degrees every day, winds < 10mph. Flat, glassy water most mornings. Due to the calm seas, we dove all islands: Coronado, Carmen and Danzante. Very little current anywhere. Visibility ranged from 40-60’.
Loreto is a sleepy little town, with 1 pedestrian street of shops and restaurants. There’s a pretty mission church, built in the 1600’s, which rings its bells several times a day. We were told that high season is Dec/Jan/Feb for whale watching. When we visited at Thanksgiving, we thought it was quiet, except for one day when a cruise ship anchored for the afternoon. But coming in low season—September—the town was nearly empty. Restaurants were mostly empty. Dive boats were empty. That said, our hotel says they are full.
For both trips, we stayed in La Mision Hotel, right across from the port and overlooking the water. We stayed in their biggest room, ocean view, marble floors, A/C, big balcony. $221 per night…. A bargain in our book! We ate every breakfast at the hotel and had a few dinners and lunches there too. We even ate our Thanksgiving dinner in the hotel. The food is great and the service has been fast & excellent. One thing to note about the hotel: there was a lot of street noise until 10pm or so. It wasn’t a problem later at night, but during the day and evening, we could hear car stereos and loud engines as they drove by. Besides the hotel restaurant, we ate many dinners at Jr’s & Georges on the pedestrian street and El Cielo, across from the mission—both excellent. Loreto has a nice, relatively new, airport. We had our hotel arrange the airport transport so we didn't have to rent a car.
Diving: We’ve been impressed. We thought the diving was better than Belize, Grand Cayman, Turks/Caicos, Kona or Maui! There were a massive number of grunts at Danzante. Our dive guide told us ahead of time that we ‘wouldn’t be able to see the rocks for all the fish’. He was right. They were thick—walls of fish, waterfalls of fish, as far as the eye could see. There were also lots of Sargeant Majors everywhere we went, both trips. Beyond the impressive number of grunts and sargeant majors, we also saw a number of spotted eagle rays, bullseye rays, reef rays big and small, eels galore, stone fish, jowl fish, turtles, angel fish, nudibranch, the usual. But the magic for us was diving with the Sea Lions. We were not able to dive with them in November due to the rough seas on the point where the sea lions hang out. But on our more recent September trip, we dove with them 5 times. We were often the only people diving there. The sea lions would play around us, race past us, come up to our faces, but always stay just out of reach. We were told that the sea lions only rest in Loreto and don’t mate, so there are no aggressive males to worry about. In the panga, going to/from our dive sites in November, we saw huge pods of dolphins (100s) all around the boat. But we never saw them on a dive. In September, we saw a small number of dolphins around the boat, but only one time.
Dive shop we used: We dove almost exclusively with Dolphin Dive Baja and highly recommend them! We tried another dive shop one day in November, but they were harder to work with and put us with an impatient dive guide in a group of 8 (even though they advertised smaller groups). With Dolphin Dive Baja, on the other hand, we have either been by ourselves or with only a few other people. We have sometimes paid extra to be with our own guide and have our own panga—Nice! The dive guides have been enthusiastic and fun—full of information about the geology, birds and fish. On one dive, my mask strap broke in the middle of the dive and my dive master immediately gave me his mask to use and used my broken one himself for the rest of the dive. Maria, who runs Dolphin Dive Baja, was super easy to work with. They let us keep our dive gear on the boat/in their shop. So in the mornings, we could roll out of bed, catch a quick breakfast and simply walk across the street from our hotel to the port (5 minutes)—it’s as easy as it gets. I could not recommend them more.
What else to do: Loreto doesn’t have much going on, so it’s ideal for folks like me that like it quiet. When we went in November, we took one day to go hiking at Tabor Canyon. I can’t remember the guide we used (got the company from tripadvisor) but he was great. The hike was relatively short but required some sketchy climbing at the end. We’re avid backcountry hikers but getting up past the second pool was a challenge. Hiking was out of the question for us in September due to the high temps. Other than hiking, it looks like there is also golfing south of Loreto. We’re not golfers so I can’t report on that. Fishing and kayaking are also popular but we didn’t do either of those.
We just completed our second dive trip to Loreto, Baja, Mexico. We took our first trip there for Thanksgiving in 2022. It was so easy and inexpensive, we decided to try it again, Sept. 2023. We’re already talking about coming back in 2024.
Thanksgiving November 2022
Sea temperature: 72 (a little cool for us). 5mm wetsuit + vest with hood
Weather: Around 75-80 degrees during the day, but very windy (15-25mph). In fact, they closed the port one day due to high winds so we were unable to dive that day. Dive sites were limited because of rough seas so we were only able to dive on the lee side of Coronado Island. We dove the same 4 sites for the entire 5 days we were there. Visibility ranged from 25-40’.
Late September 2023
Sea temperature: 87! I wore a 3mm wetsuit and was warm at times.
Weather: Hot! 95-100 degrees every day, winds < 10mph. Flat, glassy water most mornings. Due to the calm seas, we dove all islands: Coronado, Carmen and Danzante. Very little current anywhere. Visibility ranged from 40-60’.
Loreto is a sleepy little town, with 1 pedestrian street of shops and restaurants. There’s a pretty mission church, built in the 1600’s, which rings its bells several times a day. We were told that high season is Dec/Jan/Feb for whale watching. When we visited at Thanksgiving, we thought it was quiet, except for one day when a cruise ship anchored for the afternoon. But coming in low season—September—the town was nearly empty. Restaurants were mostly empty. Dive boats were empty. That said, our hotel says they are full.
For both trips, we stayed in La Mision Hotel, right across from the port and overlooking the water. We stayed in their biggest room, ocean view, marble floors, A/C, big balcony. $221 per night…. A bargain in our book! We ate every breakfast at the hotel and had a few dinners and lunches there too. We even ate our Thanksgiving dinner in the hotel. The food is great and the service has been fast & excellent. One thing to note about the hotel: there was a lot of street noise until 10pm or so. It wasn’t a problem later at night, but during the day and evening, we could hear car stereos and loud engines as they drove by. Besides the hotel restaurant, we ate many dinners at Jr’s & Georges on the pedestrian street and El Cielo, across from the mission—both excellent. Loreto has a nice, relatively new, airport. We had our hotel arrange the airport transport so we didn't have to rent a car.
Diving: We’ve been impressed. We thought the diving was better than Belize, Grand Cayman, Turks/Caicos, Kona or Maui! There were a massive number of grunts at Danzante. Our dive guide told us ahead of time that we ‘wouldn’t be able to see the rocks for all the fish’. He was right. They were thick—walls of fish, waterfalls of fish, as far as the eye could see. There were also lots of Sargeant Majors everywhere we went, both trips. Beyond the impressive number of grunts and sargeant majors, we also saw a number of spotted eagle rays, bullseye rays, reef rays big and small, eels galore, stone fish, jowl fish, turtles, angel fish, nudibranch, the usual. But the magic for us was diving with the Sea Lions. We were not able to dive with them in November due to the rough seas on the point where the sea lions hang out. But on our more recent September trip, we dove with them 5 times. We were often the only people diving there. The sea lions would play around us, race past us, come up to our faces, but always stay just out of reach. We were told that the sea lions only rest in Loreto and don’t mate, so there are no aggressive males to worry about. In the panga, going to/from our dive sites in November, we saw huge pods of dolphins (100s) all around the boat. But we never saw them on a dive. In September, we saw a small number of dolphins around the boat, but only one time.
Dive shop we used: We dove almost exclusively with Dolphin Dive Baja and highly recommend them! We tried another dive shop one day in November, but they were harder to work with and put us with an impatient dive guide in a group of 8 (even though they advertised smaller groups). With Dolphin Dive Baja, on the other hand, we have either been by ourselves or with only a few other people. We have sometimes paid extra to be with our own guide and have our own panga—Nice! The dive guides have been enthusiastic and fun—full of information about the geology, birds and fish. On one dive, my mask strap broke in the middle of the dive and my dive master immediately gave me his mask to use and used my broken one himself for the rest of the dive. Maria, who runs Dolphin Dive Baja, was super easy to work with. They let us keep our dive gear on the boat/in their shop. So in the mornings, we could roll out of bed, catch a quick breakfast and simply walk across the street from our hotel to the port (5 minutes)—it’s as easy as it gets. I could not recommend them more.
What else to do: Loreto doesn’t have much going on, so it’s ideal for folks like me that like it quiet. When we went in November, we took one day to go hiking at Tabor Canyon. I can’t remember the guide we used (got the company from tripadvisor) but he was great. The hike was relatively short but required some sketchy climbing at the end. We’re avid backcountry hikers but getting up past the second pool was a challenge. Hiking was out of the question for us in September due to the high temps. Other than hiking, it looks like there is also golfing south of Loreto. We’re not golfers so I can’t report on that. Fishing and kayaking are also popular but we didn’t do either of those.
