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Baja is a rare land—a peninsula and desert isles, many of them unmarred by infrastructure. Where forests of giant cacti line hillsides and rare endemic animals thrive. The sea is alive. It roils with gigantic pods of dolphins and is home to vast varieties of whales and marine mammals. We’ve been sailing these waters for decades. Mapping out the places where whales return each season to rear their young. Finding the undersea shelves where whales feed year after year. The places where playful sea lions leap off the rocks to swim with snorkelers.
Baja California
Special Offers
Length
8 days
From
$6,400
Prices are per person
Baja California
Special Offers
Baja California
Special Offers
Length
15 days
From
$11,880
Prices are per person
Baja California
Special Offers
Baja California
Special Offers
Length
8 days
From
$6,820
Prices are per person
Baja California
Special Offers
Baja California
California Coast
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Length
12 days
From
$7,930
Prices are per person
Baja California
California Coast
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Exploring the Sea of Cortez by water alone would make for an incomplete trip. On land, an equally spectacular sort of enchantment awaits if one knows where to look.
Sail among pristine islands in search of rare endemic creatures. Encounter whales, possibly up close, for an experience that will never leave you. Snorkel with playful sea lions. Hike up arroyos blooming with life and discover medicinal plants. Get a slice of life in rural Baja towns. Kayak, hike, stand-up paddleboard, snorkel, and actively explore this incredible playground of wildness.
See more Highlights
The whale sightings were fantastic. Touching the gray whales was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Connie C.
From climate conditions to water temperature to packing the right footwear, find answers to the questions Expedition Specialists get most often.
Read moreHenry David Thoreau called it the "tonic of wildness." It’s what Baja California, with its beauty and wildness intact, gives you—a spirit lift. To compound this healthful effect, add the luxury of comfort to the privilege of being here—with a quality of shipboard life and a philosophy of wellness designed to relax and rejuvenate body, mind, and spirit.
Lindblad Expeditions supports stewardship efforts in the places we explore, and one way we do that is through the Lindblad Expeditions-National Geographic (LEX-NG) Fund. Traveler contributions to the LEX-NG Fund in Baja California currently support the Gulf of California Conservation Fund in its efforts to facilitate conservation and research projects across the region.
3/16/2020
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National Geographic Sea Lion
Another day in paradise! We awoke to a gloriously sunny and warm day with beautiful light anchored off of Isla Santa Margarita. Following breakfast, we boarded local pangas (small boats) with local drivers and proceeded out to the mouth, or “boca,” where Bahia Almegas meets the Pacific. There we visited a large colony of birds resting on the sandy beach – cormorants, great blue herons, pelicans, and gulls all clustered together. Periodically a pelican would stretch its bill skyward or a raven would circle overhead, surveying the grounds for prey. The smell of all this wildlife became increasingly more experiential as we got downwind. There were gray whales in moderate numbers around the boats, lumbering back and forth in the wide pass. Blue skies and even bluer water were optimal for the photographers among us as the whales came up to breath or wave their flukes in the air. A few boats saw a whale or two spyhopping, which involves the whale lifting itself vertically out the water. Yet another stellar chance for our photographers. A passing sea turtle made an appearance, as did a sea lion or two. All in all, an excellent morning! After lunch, we headed to shore. Many guests went out on kayaks to paddle around a sheltered cove with a large mountain at one end. The beach was lengthy and covered in shells of all shapes and sizes. Ecology tours and even more choice photo ops came as we strolled the beach, making our way up an arroyo and onto a small road. The island presented entirely new environment to us, complete with a wide variety of cacti and a handful of wildflowers in bloom. The highlight was when Adrian, one of our naturalists, caught a rattlesnake, weighed and measured it, and let guests pet it. He was extremely excited because this is the first time a rattlesnake has been discovered on this island! Dinner consisted of a casual barbecue on the beach with tiki torches, a community fire, and camp chairs lining the shoreline. After sunset, we returned to the ship for the slide show documenting our journey and an evening to chat with friends both new and old. So ends our expedition among the gray whales of Baja California!
3/15/2020
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National Geographic Sea Lion
National Geographic Sea Lion commenced early this morning, navigating along Hull Canal to reach the southern part of the Magdalena Coastal Lagoon Complex, called Bahia Almejas, or Clams Bay. This is a very shallow but equally beautiful section for transiting, made by the peninsula of Baja California, the arid, broken, and foggy Santa Margarita Island and the mangrove-covered Crescent Island. Here, the gray whales come into the lagoon by a channel between Santa Margarita and Crescent Islands, although most individuals are adult males and females that gather to court and mate. On the way down to Almejas, our guest contemplated once more the union of ecosystems here: the mangroves, sand dunes and lagoons that all make this region so rich and diverse in wildlife, and so wonderful to interact with. So far, our guests have already acquired a truer sense of nature and conservation, just by walking and contemplating this fascinating environment. sense that can enrich and even change our minds and daily habits. From the smaller of specimens – the ants, the minute, solitary wasps – to the coyotes, to the gray whales: all have contributed to deepen our considerations and thoughts. With their insights, they lend opportunities for us to reflect back within ourselves and our relation to the outer world. The plants perhaps give us a sense of adversity in the trying desert environment, in which adaptation is the key. Thus, we learn much over the course of this voyage. Kimberly Baldwin, one of our Naturalists, reinforced such reflections with her lecture on the adaptation and gradual evolution of sea birds, followed by a presentation on coastal lagoons as the essential nurseries of the gray whales we have come here to visit. In the afternoon, anchored in Almejas Bay, our guests had multiple opportunities for whale watching and tours to frigate bird nesting colonies stationed among a patch of mangroves. Beside adult frigate birds with their inflated red gular pouches, we saw many chicks in their nests! Countless wonderous things in just one day.
3/14/2020
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National Geographic Sea Lion
Known as the mouth of solitude, it connects Bahia Magdalena to the Pacific. A congregating area for adult gray whales and mother calf pairs. This was the setting for our first full day of whale watching aboard National Geographic Sea Lion . And what a first day we had! Guest experienced a full spectrum of whale behavior – from breaches and spy hops to complete baths in the exhaled mists of surfacing whales. The end of the day resonates with the sounds of Los Coyotes de Magdalena and the Desert Flower Dancers.
3/13/2020
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National Geographic Sea Lion
After breakfast, we traveled to the protected shore of Isla Magdalena and stepped onto a beach paved with uncountable numbers of diverse shells: large and small, intact and broken. One could easily conduct a course in bivalve and gastropod biology just by taking a short stroll. Nevertheless, the real goal of the morning hike was to walk the famous dunes of this region to Sand Dollar Beach that lines Bahía Santa Maria. The dunes and dune ecosystem were stunning, with tracks of lizards, coyotes and jackrabbits winding among desert plants and ancient middens of shells deposited by peoples from the distant past. We viewed excellent examples of the various physical and biological stages of dune creation and progression. Sand Dollar Beach simply must be considered one of the 10 best beaches of North America. A broad, flat beach of fine sand, it spans about eight miles. And although peaceful and serene during our visit, in stormy conditions it would provide any visitor a humbling sense of raw power and energy. The isolation was sublime; other than us Sand Dollar Beach was occupied only by pelicans, cormorants, frigatebird – and, of course, innumerable sand dollar tests of all sizes. After lunch, National Geographic Sea Lion traveled through the mangrove-lined Hull Canal under sunny skies and with a gentle breeze. On the charts, the canal is identified as unnavigable, but with the combination of our ship’s shallow draft and presence of a highly competent local pilot (3rd generation) on the bridge, our safe passage was ensured. We encountered memorable sights: herons, ibises, and egrets among the mangroves; pelicans, frigates, ospreys, and cormorants in the air; coyotes running over the dunes; bottlenose dolphins riding our bow wave; and five solitary gray whales. Tomorrow brings more whales and dunes.
3/13/2020
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National Geographic Venture
There was a sense of excitement and anticipation on board National Geographic Venture as we prepared for our final day of this incredible voyage. From our location at the dock in the town of San Carlos, in Magdalena Bay, we would take an hour and a half bus ride north to the town of Lopez Mateos for one last chance to see, and hopefully interact with, the seasonal residents, the mighty gray whales. So once the buses arrived at the dock, and we loaded into our local panga boats, we were off to find our quarry in the protected waters of the northern part of Magdalena Bay. It was not long before the first whale blows appeared, and the boats slowly approached for a much closer look. Today was our chance to get up-close-and-personal with the gray whale moms and their awesome little calves, and we were not disappointed. After slowly following as the moms exercised their kids during a morning swim, they came to a stop and became interested in our boats, and the excited guests that awaited, not so patiently, for a possible very close encounter. Both mom and her precious little one went from boat-to-boat and gave everyone a thrill as the calf lifted its head out of the water and let the very excited guests touch and stroke its rostrum. At one point, it seemed like some of our travelers might fall right out of the pangas in their over exuberance to have that contact with these amazing creatures! By the end of the morning almost all the guests had a chance to touch one of the calves as they went from boat to boat. Soon it was time to have a wonderful lunch at a local restaurant, and then return for two more hours of whale watching, before returning to San Carlos and having our last night aboard National Geographic Venture . An incredible last day, on an incredible journey in Baja.
Baja California is arguably the best place in the world to see whales in good conditions—humpback, gray, fin, blue, pilot—to name the most likely.
Sven-Olof Lindblad
