Nieuw Amsterdam - Mexican Riviera & Baja Peninsula

Where this cruise calls, day by day

8 ports and 7 sea days over 14 Nights.

1. Day 1

   San Diego, CA

   United StatesDepart

   San Diego is one of the easiest cruise arrivals in the country: the B Street and Broadway piers sit directly on the downtown Embarcadero, with the aircraft carrier USS Midway permanently moored a few hundred yards along the same waterfront. The Gaslamp Quarter is a flat ten-minute walk. It works as both a turnaround port for Mexico runs and a pleasant one-day call.

   • USS Midway Museum, with the flight deck and hangar open to walk
   • Balboa Park's museums and the San Diego Zoo
   • Old Town San Diego State Historic Park, the original Mexican-era settlement
   • The ferry across the bay to Coronado and the Hotel del Coronado

   Getting ashore

   Docks downtown at the B Street or Broadway Pier; the Gaslamp Quarter, Midway and Little Italy are all walkable.

   Best months

   Year-round (Sep-Oct warmest and clearest; May-Jun often grey until afternoon)

2. Day 2 · At sea

3. Day 3

   Cabo San Lucas

   MexicoPort

   Cabo is a tender port, and one of the better ones - the boat drops you at the marina in the middle of town rather than a mile from anywhere. The setting does the work: desert mountains falling straight into the Pacific, with the granite arch at Land's End a ten-minute panga ride from the dock. Expect timeshare pitches from the moment you step onto the boardwalk.

   • Water taxi to El Arco and Lover's Beach
   • Médano Beach, the one bay in town that is safe to swim
   • Snorkelling at Chileno Bay or Santa María
   • Grey and humpback whale watching in winter

   Getting ashore

   Tender port - about 10-15 minutes to the marina, which puts you in the centre of town; heavy Pacific swell occasionally cancels the operation.

   Best months

   Nov-May is dry and mild, with whales Dec-Apr; Aug-Oct is humid and hurricane-prone

4. Day 4 · At sea

5. Day 5

   Mazatlán

   MexicoPort

   Mazatlán's berth is inside a busy commercial cargo port, so the first thing you see is containers and cranes. The fix is a pulmonía - the open-sided golf-cart taxis unique to this city - and ten minutes to Centro Histórico, where Plaza Machado and a restored 19th-century opera house make the case for Mazatlán better than the Golden Zone hotels do. Ships avoided the port for two years over cartel violence before returning.

   • Plaza Machado and Teatro Ángela Peralta in the old town
   • The malecón and the climb up to the El Faro lighthouse
   • Stone Island (Isla de la Piedra) for beach and coconut groves
   • The cliff divers at the Glorieta on the seafront

   Getting ashore

   Ships dock in the commercial port; a pulmonía or taxi reaches Old Town in about 10 minutes, and walking out of the port area is long and dull.

   Best months

   Nov-May is dry and mild; Jul-Oct is humid, rainy and hurricane season

6. Day 6

   Puerto Vallarta

   MexicoPort

   The Terminal Marítima is at the north end of the bay, next to the marina and a cruise-oriented shopping mall, so Vallarta proper - the Malecón, the Zona Romántica, the tiled church dome - is a 10 to 15 minute taxi away. Banderas Bay is deep and calm, humpbacks winter in it, and the town behind the seafront is a real one with an art scene and a long-established gay quarter.

   • The Malecón sculpture walk and the Zona Romántica
   • Playa Los Muertos
   • A boat to Yelapa or the Marietas Islands
   • Humpback whale watching, December to March

   Getting ashore

   Ships dock at Terminal Marítima; downtown is 10-15 minutes by taxi, and timeshare touts work the terminal exit hard.

   Best months

   Nov-Apr is dry and warm; Jul-Sep is hot, humid and the heart of the rainy season

7. Day 7 · At sea

8. Day 8

   La Paz

   MexicoPort

   La Paz is the capital of Baja California Sur and a working city rather than a resort. Ships use the Pichilingue terminal, a ferry and cargo dock about ten miles north of the malecón, with nothing at the gate. The Sea of Cortez is what you come for: sea lion colonies at Isla Espíritu Santo, whale sharks feeding in the bay through winter, and Balandra, a shallow turquoise cove that caps how many people can enter.

   • Snorkelling with sea lions at Los Islotes, off Espíritu Santo
   • Balandra Beach and its mushroom rock
   • Whale shark swims in La Paz Bay, roughly Oct-Apr
   • The malecón and its bronze sculptures

   Getting ashore

   Ships dock at Pichilingue, 25-30 minutes by road from central La Paz; there is nothing at the terminal itself.

   Best months

   Nov-Apr is mild and dry with whale sharks in the bay; Jul-Sep is very hot and humid

9. Day 9

   Loreto

   MexicoPort

   Loreto is a small Baja town on the Sea of Cortez with the first Spanish mission in the Californias, founded in 1697 and still standing on the main street. Ships anchor off and tender in. The setting does more work than the town, which you can see in an hour: the Sierra de la Giganta rises behind, and a marine park of bare desert islands sits offshore.

   • Misión de Nuestra Señora de Loreto and its museum
   • Isla Coronado's sea lions and white sand
   • Blue whale watching in the Gulf of California
   • Panga trips in Bahía de Loreto National Park

   Getting ashore

   Tender port - ships anchor off Loreto and tender to the town waterfront, roughly 10-15 minutes.

   Best months

   Nov-Apr is mild, with blue whales roughly Jan-Mar; summer is brutally hot

10. Day 10 · At sea

11. Day 11 · At sea

12. Day 12 · At sea

13. Day 13 · At sea

14. Day 14

    Ensenada

    MexicoPort

    Ensenada is on most California itineraries because US law requires a foreign stop, and the town knows it. The port is a working commercial harbour with a short shuttle or walk to Avenida López Mateos, a strip of cantinas, curio shops and pharmacies. It is far better than that sounds if you leave the strip - the Valle de Guadalupe, Mexico's serious wine region, starts about an hour inland.

    • La Bufadora, the sea geyser 45 minutes south
    • Valle de Guadalupe wineries
    • Hussong's Cantina, open since 1892
    • Fish tacos at the Mercado Negro

    Getting ashore

    Ships dock; the main tourist street is a 15-20 minute walk, or a short shuttle from the terminal gate.

    Best months

    Apr-Oct is warm and dry; winter here is cool, grey and windy - this is Baja's Mediterranean end, not the tropics

15. Day 15

    San Diego, CA

    United StatesArrive

    San Diego is one of the easiest cruise arrivals in the country: the B Street and Broadway piers sit directly on the downtown Embarcadero, with the aircraft carrier USS Midway permanently moored a few hundred yards along the same waterfront. The Gaslamp Quarter is a flat ten-minute walk. It works as both a turnaround port for Mexico runs and a pleasant one-day call.

    • USS Midway Museum, with the flight deck and hangar open to walk
    • Balboa Park's museums and the San Diego Zoo
    • Old Town San Diego State Historic Park, the original Mexican-era settlement
    • The ferry across the bay to Coronado and the Hotel del Coronado

    Getting ashore

    Docks downtown at the B Street or Broadway Pier; the Gaslamp Quarter, Midway and Little Italy are all walkable.

    Best months

    Year-round (Sep-Oct warmest and clearest; May-Jun often grey until afternoon)