La Paz?! What to do?

[CRUISING71]

Hi,

 

What is there to do in La Paz? Is it like cabos? We are thinking of booking on the Spirit and one of the port was La Paz.

 

Thanks

Tibbie

[martinsfo]

La Paz is a very mellow town. It is much larger than Cabo, and much more laid back. The Town is around a bay with a very large fishing fleet. The beaches are north of town, and north of where the ship docks. I liked the town a lot, enjoyed walking on the Malecon. They only thing that did not go well was the weather, it was chilly, with highs only in the 60's that day.

[CRUISING71]

Thanks Martin,

 

We are going in April...hopefully it is hot and nice for us.

 

It was btw La Paz or Puerta Vallarta...so we pick La Paz, since not a lot of cruise ship going down to La Paz.

[swtheart107]

We went to La Paz on our cruise with Carnival Spirit last April and we had fun! We were in that port the longest and at night they have bands right outside the ship its very festive and was a lot of fun! During the day we did a sea lion excursion to Los Islotes (sp?) anyways we really enjoyed it and the weather was nice and hot :)

 

I did not get a chance to go into town but I talked with some that did and they liked it. They said they found really good cheap food and drinks! Also our ship was the only one in port at the time so that was nice less of a crowd!

[CRUISING71]

We are going in April 2010! Is La Paz like Cabos? I heard many good things on trip advisor for snorkeling with sea lion....did you book it with the ship?

 

Thanks,

Tibbie

[swtheart107]

I dont really think that La Paz is like Cabo. Cabo has so many things right off the ship for tourist and La Paz doesnt have all of that yet. I think people that went into town took a bus there but Im not positive.

 

We did book the sea lion excursion through the ship and had soo much fun! You take like an hour boat ride but we were on the slow boat so it actually took a lot longer than that but it turned out to be the best boat! We had less people on ours so we had more time in the water with the sea lions and there are tons of them and they swim right up next to you, very cool experience! Since our boat loaded up quicker we got to go to a second location so snorkel in clearer waters it was really neat we saw lots of different fish! They also serve lunch on the way back and it was actually pretty good!

[jones391]

We were in La Paz on the Spirit April 2009. There is two free bus shuttles from the pier. One to town and one to a beach. My wife got too much sun the day before so we went to town. The town is interesting but I will not return. There is very little to do there. I do not know why they even go to La Paz, it must be because it is the Spirits only 7 day cruse and they can not get into a better port. Enough negativity, I hear the beach was fun from the other passengers or pay and go on a tour thru the ship.

[CowPrincess]

You dock in a working port and it is around a 15 min bus ride to town OR to the beach (going the opposite way from the port). There were lots of vendors right at the port, but no tourism operators that we saw.... I think they restrict access, y'know?

 

If you want to kayak or snorkel, I'd book through the ship. There just didn't seem to be a real "tourist infrastructure" there when we went last year. We went to the beach, there was a complimentary shuttle, and a number of restaurants and palapas. It was very pleasant, and DH enjoyed swimming.

 

Gonna try to attach a pic. Sorry it is a bit "oddly" shaped -- I needed to crop out a person :)

[crufkahr]

Hi Tibbie! (I love your name because when I worked at a Kennel there was the cutest little Cocker Spaniel named Tibby!)

 

Anyway, my niece and I (20 and 37 at the time) did the exact same cruise in April 2007 on the same ship!

 

We did the Sea Lion Excursion. I've been on 4 cruises and lots of cool vacations and this by far was the best excursion ever in my life.

 

They give you wet suits because it is cold, but it's really not that bad, I promise! My niece is from Vegas and a big baby about cold weather and has 0% body fat to keep her warm and she was fine.

 

You get up close and personal snorkeling with wild Sea Lions. They swim right up to your face and just stare at you. There were hundreds of them. They give you food for them as well. They are very tame because they are used to humans.

 

The trip out there is great - lots of interesting rock formations (or whatever you would call them) popping up out of the sea.

 

We also stopped at a really secluded beach. Totally natural - no vendors or buildings or anything. My niece collected some really great shells. The water was gorgeous and very warm because it was shallow.

 

Then the guys doing the tour spotted a school of dolphins on the way back and we were right next to them. I took same great photos and videos of it.

 

If this cruise is like it was before, you'll also go to Mazatlan. I wouldn't recommend going to the island thing with beach volleyball and water sports. I forget the name of it. The vendors were pushy and the food was gross - as in too gross to even eat and I'm not that picky. We did have fun playing beach volleyball, though.

 

Also, you will probably stop in Cabo. We did the Zip Line Tour. I did one in Jamaica which I personally like much better because it was in the tropical forest area. The one in Cabo is through the desert area so it in not as pretty and it was over 100 degrees. My niece loved it. I wimped out halfway through because I thought I was going to over heat - several others did too. If you are in good shape - unlike me at the time - you'll love it and I highly recommend it. They also had a rock climbing portion and this rope bridge crossing with an option to zip over to the other side if you didn't want to do the bridge. If your not in decent shape, I would recommend doing a Zip Line tour in a cooler, more scenic location like Jamaica. (I was 40 lbs overweight at the time and hadn't worked out in over a year - just to put it in perspective.)

 

You are going to have a blast! That is a great ship! It was the best vacation ever because it was the first one my niece and I went on as "adults". I've taken her all over when she was a kid. It was a blast to party with her!

[katlady]

I love La Paz you lucky dog.:) When you get into port it won't look like much.:confused: You will have the choice to take the bus into town or go to the beach. We went to the beach. Smooth, clear water for swimming (sea of cortez). There weren't many people at the beach with us and no vendors bugged us. It was a wonderful beach day. We rented snokel equipment walked into the beach and saw some puffer fish. This isn't the best picture of the puffer fish. Other 3 are of the beach.

[crufkahr]

Thanks for posting them!!! Loved La Paz!