Los Cabos With Kids: Which Beach, Which Boat, and What to Skip

Los Cabos was built for couples and golf, and it shows. The hotels are adult-shaped, the headline activities have age limits, and – the part that catches families out – a good deal of the coastline here is water you must not swim in.

None of that makes it a bad place to bring children. It makes the choices matter more than usual. This page is about the four or five decisions that actually determine whether the week works.

The flags, first

Every beach entrance in Los Cabos carries a coloured flag. Teach the system to your children on day one, because it is the only safety information here that updates daily:

• green – swimming safe
• yellow – caution
• red – dangerous
• black – the water is closed
• white – jellyfish, the agua mala the lifeguards here fly a white flag for

Beaches go to red on swell and to black after heavy rain, sometimes on water quality rather than waves. That has happened at El Médano in Cabo San Lucas after storms washed rubbish down to the sea. A beach that was green yesterday is not necessarily green today, and nobody will phone you about it.

The two beaches that work

Playa El Médano is the main swimming beach of Cabo San Lucas and the one to default to. It is Blue Flag certified, it has lifeguards and marked swimming zones, it has services along the sand, and you can walk to it from the marina. For a family that wants a beach they do not have to drive to, this is the answer and there is not a close second.

Playa Chileno, out in the Corredor on Highway 1, is the better choice for a day trip. Blue Flag since 2013 – the first in Los Cabos – with a large free car park, free public toilets and showers, and umbrellas to rent at the entrance. There is reef close in, which means snorkelling that does not require swimming out of your depth.

Chileno also has stingrays resting in the shallow sand. Teach the children to shuffle their feet as they wade in rather than stepping down. That is the standard advice on this coast and it is the difference between rays being a non-event and being a ruined afternoon.

What to skip, and why

Playa del Divorcio. Entering the water is prohibited – it faces the open Pacific, with heavy shorebreak and dangerous currents, no lifeguard and no quick way to get help. Its older nickname was Suicide Beach. You can visit it, stand on it and photograph it. Nobody goes in.

Playa del Amor with a toddler. It is beautiful, it is boat-access only, and it has no shade worth the name, no fresh water and no toilet. Whatever you want for two hours in direct sun you carry ashore. Worse for planning: whether a boat can land you there at all depends on the swell, so it is a plan that can evaporate at the dock. Older children, yes. A two-year-old and a nap schedule, no.

Playa Santa María, if your morning is not already under control. It is the prettier snorkelling bay, but it has almost no natural shade – umbrellas and snorkel gear are for hire at the entrance, and parking off Highway 1 is free. It rewards families who are out of the door early, because the wind gets up later and the bay stops being glassy.

The one-hour boat

The single best-fitting boat trip for young children here is the cheapest one on the site. A glass-bottom boat tour to the arch and the beach is one hour at €9.93, with a toilet and bottled water on board, and it takes in the arch, the sea lion colony and a cave.

One hour is the point. It is short enough that a four-year-old is still interested when it ends, and cheap enough that a trip cut short by a crying child is not a financial event. The glass floor gives children something to look at that does not require them to get in the water.

Two caveats. The beach stop is at one of three beaches – Pelican, Lover’s or Divorce – and that is the crew’s choice on the day, not yours. And the listing states no minimum age at all, which is not the same as saying babies are welcome. Ask the operator directly what age they take and whether they carry life jackets in your child’s size, and get that answer before you book rather than at the dock. We are not going to tell you they have them, because we do not know, and this is not a thing to find out on the day.

The age limits worth knowing before you plan

These come from the operators’ own listings, and they are the reason some family plans fall apart.

Whale watching – the best-attested trip here is not suitable for children under five. It is two hours on a small, fast boat, and that is why. Whale season is also legally fixed, 15 December to 30 April, so if you are here in the school summer holidays it is not an option at all. The details are in whale watching in Los Cabos.

Quad tours – the minimum age to drive is fifteen. But the trips run double machines, and the beach-and-desert tour is listed as unsuitable only for children under five, which means a younger child can ride behind an adult. So a twelve-year-old is not excluded, they are just a passenger. That distinction is set out in quad tours at Migriño.

The big day trip north – the twelve-hour excursion to La Paz and Todos Santos picks up between 3am and 5am and excludes babies under one. With small children this is not a hard call: don’t.

The animal park, with a warning about its own listing

There is a four-hour animal encounter and aqua park trip in the inventory, and it is the thing parents search for. What it is: stations with what the operator describes as rescued animals – iguanas, lovebirds, turtles, macaws and camels, with reviewers adding rabbits and guinea pigs – which you can feed, pet and be photographed with, plus a hanging bridge and optional water-park time. No swimming with animals. The listing quotes a starting price of around 115 US dollars per person and states no minimum age; reviews mention two- and three-year-olds getting on well with the guides. It also holds the lowest rating of anything named on this page: 3.8 stars from 30 reviews.

Now the warning, and it is about the booking page rather than the park. Its own inclusion lists contradict each other. The park entry fee of 25 US dollars appears both as included and as payable on arrival. Transport appears both as included and as a per-person surcharge. Photographs appear in the included list, while reviewers report being asked to pay for pictures anyway – and personal cameras are not allowed.

We cannot tell you which version is current, and we are not going to guess at a number that a family of four would pay four times over. Ask the operator to confirm the total before you book, in writing if you can. The camera rule alone is worth knowing in advance.

Sun, shade and the thing we will not advise on

Shade is the scarce resource here, and two of the three best beaches have almost none of it. An umbrella you can anchor properly in sand is more useful than most things you will pack. Plan the water for the morning and the pool for the afternoon, which is also when the wind gets up and the sea gets choppier.

On seasickness, sunburn and anything you might give a child to prevent either: that belongs with your pharmacist or your children’s doctor, before you travel. We do not name products, doses or timings. What we will say, because it costs nothing and needs no prescription: take the morning departure, sit mid-boat, and look at the horizon rather than down.

And on safety generally – what is written above is what operators state and what is usual on this coast. It is not a guarantee about the boat you happen to board. The questions worth asking at the point of booking are the boring ones: what age do you take, what shade is there, is there a toilet, and do you have jackets that fit my child.

A week that works

Médano for the default beach days. One early morning at Chileno with masks. The one-hour glass-bottom boat as the boat trip. The desert on a double quad if the children are over five and the adults fancy it. Whales only if you are here between mid-December and the end of April.

The rest of the boat trips – forty-four of them from €9.93 – are on the El Arco boat tours page, and the land-based activities are under things to do in Los Cabos, sixteen from €30.73. If your children are old enough to snorkel properly, the two bays are compared in snorkelling Santa María and Chileno.