Mexico and sea of Cortez recommendations

[beachys]

We have not been on an west coast cruise and I am looking for some recommendations for things to do at the different ports.  We love history and some of our favorite port days have been spent just wandering ports by foot and going to different historical places. Which one of the ports would be best suited to wandering on foot?  Which should we pick excursions?  Any must do things?  I'd love to see whales,  but we are going at the end of March,  so I understand that season would be coming to a close.  

 

Our ports are Cabo, Loreto, Pichilingue, Mazatlan, Puerto Vallarta. 

 

Thanks!  

[Theosprey247]

Mazatlan there is a blue line that you can follow (starts across the street from the terminal).

PV I believe requires a cab to get to the Malecon or the Zona Romantica. 
 

Don’t know about the other ports. 

[Ine]

Loreto is easy to do, the tender comes close to the very nice center. Pichilinque, you need transportation to go to La Paz. 

[canadjineh]

Hi beachys:  We were on a cruise to West Coast Mexico in early March 2020 (just before COVID closed everything down) and really enjoyed a tour (private for the two of us, but cheaper per person if you have a small group or a family) of Las Labradas Petroglyphs.  Here's more info from Wikipedia:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Las_Labradas_(Sinaloa)

We went with Mazatlan Tours by Johann & Sandra - not cheap but our guides were a scientist and a student researcher and they were very informative.  The little museum was very interesting and the homemade lunch with a local family was enjoyable too.  The tour site is:  https://www.mazatlantours.org/las-labradas-petroglyphs.htm

They picked us up right at the cruise port.  I'm not certain it would be safe right now as you are travelling quite a ways out of town on fairly deserted highway to get to the park and Sinaloa is in an uproar due to cartel violence as of Thu Jan 5/2023.  Please check with them for further info on whether they are even running this tour at the moment.

[SDPadreFan]

Old Town Mazatlan is a wonderful place to wander around. The "Blue Line" walk to/from the cruise ship terminal is very easy and totally safe. Or a cab from the port is also easy and not terribly expensive. If you go - be sure to check out the one of a kind feature at the top of the 26 stained glass windows in the Catedral Basílica de la Inmaculada Concepción. No other Cathedral in the world has this feature. Also worth checking out is the very unique Nidart Gallery (9am-3pm, closed Sundays) just a 1/2 block south of the impressive historic Angela Peralta Theater (Teatro Ángela Peralta). Other great places include the central market Pino Suarez Mazatlan Market (make sure to wander all the way to the back to see everything). There are also several nice public squares that are nice to wander around (including Plazuela Machado, Plaza República and Plazuela Hidalgo).