Charlatan16

We are going to Cabo for a week in June and thinking about extending a week and checking out La Paz.

Anyone have advice or recommendations for La Paz? Hotels? There are a bunch of nature-type tours including whales, sea lions, and desert -- but hard to sort them out -- especially, what would be best in June/July?

Any advice will be appreciated,

Thanks

We were just in Guadeloupe after Christmas (on Norwegian Dawn). We had originally picked the mangrove tour with snorkeling, but it was cancelled due to high winds. So we picked another tour to the Cousteau Reserve instead. It included stop at a waterfall (crowded), glass bottom boat (nice), and snorkeling (weird). The whole tour was rushed -- not sure why they were racing to get it done. As with any tour booked through the cruise line, you're stuck with a big group. I had tried to find tours directly through Internet ahead of time -- but everything was either booked, or they didn't respond.

Guadeloupe is also expensive (Euro Zone).

Bottom Line: I wish I had more helpful advice. It was one of the weirder shore excursion days we've had. Did not try to explore outside the port at all.

We booked through Viator for the Pirates Coves plus Snorkeling. It included short, easy snorkeling trip to see "baby" (2 foot) turtles and a sunken ship. The turtle part was actually in a marina anchorage area. Water was perhaps 12m; but completely flat. Gear was excellent. They had snorkeling vests or life vests. Second snorkeling stop had tons of fish over shipwreck in 5-10m water.

There's a separate thread on Pirates' Cove -- a number of ways to get there. Whatever you choose, both their snorkeling trip and the beach break are excellent.

We were just at Pirates Cove after Christmas. Booked through Viator -- including snorkeling (Turtles and sunken boat). Fully recommended.

Snorkeling part was short and easy. Saw the "baby" (~ 10 year) turtles swimming around. The sunken boat had lots of fish. Crew was very friendly and helpful -- gear was very good.

Pirates Cove itself is a great beach. Outstanding swimming conditions. The package we got included chairs and one free drink. They picked us up and dropped us off at the cruise terminal, of course.

Overall, great day trip -- highly recommended.

To answer one of the questions, yes, you can buy tickets for snorkeling if you are a "walk-in" customer.

We were also just at Arashi in late Dec. As OP said, its a great beach for swimming. Perfect conditions. The downside was that while the conditions were excellent, there really wasn't much to see snorkeling. Catalina Beach (next beach to the south) was a little better.

Heading to NZ on HAL Noordam in March. Have excursions picked out for all stops except Bay of Islands. There's a lot to do there, but nothing jumping out at me. Reluctant to go with full-day on bus or full-day on boat. Anyone got suggestions?

We had a great time (Dec 2017) with Curacao-Actief tours. Our tour was snorkeling at Caracas Bay -- but they have others. Booked directly through Internet, hassle-free.