If you LOVE whales, this place is for you. We just came back from the Baja Adventures/Nautilus four day "Glamping" trip to interact with the beautiful Gray whales in Baja California Sur.
The Pros: The whales. Amazing. Life changing. Beautiful. Playful. This trip gives you four days with the whales. After you take the two hour plane ride from Cabo to the San Ignacio lagoon on your first day you go for a two hour whale watching trip and that is your first encounter/chance to interact with these amazing and majestic creatures.
The next two days you have breakfast, and then head out for two, two-hour excursions with the whales, go back for lunch and then head out for one more two-hour trip. Two days where you get to interact with the Grays for six hours. If you are like us, you could have handled even more time!
The last day you have breakfast and go out for one last two hour whale watching trip before taking the plane ride back to civilization.
The people who run this clearly love the whales and you will appreciate their efforts to respect these fabulous creatures while maintaining a very small carbon footprint.
But there are definitely some things a traveler should know before setting out to San Ignacio. The tents are nice and they provide you with a space heater and electric blankets to stay warm during the cold desert nights. But there is nowhere to place your clothes which makes cramped quarters even tighter. Each tent has a shower that isn't as good as a hotel shower, but perfectly acceptable, especially when you consider where you are (hint: it's the desert).
But the toilet situation is something else. Yes. there is a toilet in each tent. However it is a little portable toilet and you have to slide a lever to "flush" it and then slide the lever back to close the opening to the waste container. If you forget to close it (like my wife did a few times) your tent is going to start smelling bad. This is all fine and to be expected when you are staying in the middle of the desert. But you can't put any kind of paper in the toilet so after wiping your backside, you place the dirty paper into the plastic garbage can next to you. I've pooped in the woods so I'm not very squeamish, but the idea of that poor employee who has to empty the garbage full of poopy paper AND the toilet bottom every day makes me a tad queasy. It's great that they clean it every day but we still found the poopy paper off-putting. Maybe it is just us? But at least you should know.
They attend to your tent each day but that basically consists of making your bed and the above mentioned stuff. They don't clean the sink or anything else but again, not a big deal but something you should know.
They serve three fancy meals a day which is really cool and kind of impressive considering they are cooking in a tent. In the desert! Did I mention you are in the desert? The food was ok but nothing great. I spoke to most of the other whale tourists there and they all agreed the food was average tasting at best.
Each night after the last panga (the boats that take you to the whales) comes in there is a happy hour and they have a surprisingly nice selection of spirits and wines. But beware: the drinks are not free, a tad pricey, and when you pay your bill at the end, they want it in cash. There is also a $35 per person fee for something (I can't remember exactly what) that is also due in cash. My wife and I almost never carry cash, with the exception of small bills for tipping drivers, etc, so we were panicking at the end. Maybe it said it somewhere on the website but I didn't see it. This could be on me but I want anyone reading this to not make the same mistake I did.
And lastly They tell you there is a 22lb limit per person for luggage and they ask you to bring soft sided baggage. My wife and I went on Amazon and bought a big duffel bag and conscientiously kept our clothing choices to 22 pounds each. This was no small feat! You are spending four days, IN THE DESERT, so you have to pack rain gear and enough warm clothing to make sure you are comfortable. Plus my wife LOVES to overpack and makes sure she has enough clothing for any and all eventualities. SPOILER ALERT: They don't check. Everyone else seemed to have whatever luggage they normally have and some of it seemed to be well in excess of twenty-two friggin' pounds!! So there I am, an old gimpy man slinging a duffel bag full of our forty-four pounds of clothing over my shoulder because our normal luggage weighs seven pounds by itself. But you know what? That luggage has WHEELS! Wheels are great to roll your stuff to your tent as opposed to getting a hunchback from carrying a bag you didn't need to bring. I'm sure they try to limit the weight because the puddle jumper plane you take to the lagoon can only hold so much. But damn, that was torturous and completely unnecessary.
A bit of advice. My wife is disabled so some of this experience is on the outside edge of what she can do. There is a lot of uneven ground and there is no pier or any other kind of structure to help people get onboard the boats. The guides and captains were very kind and accommodated my wife's needs (especially from some really kind fellow travelers) as much as possible, but in the end, we basically had to help her walk on an uneven beach into rolling waves to get her onto the boat with a "sit and spin" move that we had down by the last day. I'm not sure many partially disabled people could do this if they were traveling alone.
Tipping. None of us had any idea how to calculate the proper amount for tips. They recommend $300-400. Is that fair? I have no idea. Everyone is super nice and accommodating but it's not like you can just do the old "20%" rule. But the last day they inform you that the captain is a separate tip and has to be in cash. Just wanted to let you know.
So after all this, here is my bottom line: Is it worth it? Hell yeah!! It's a bit pricey but so worth it. It was on our bucket list and it did not disappoint.
But I listed those other things just so the folks at Baja could consider making some minor improvements to help it be an even more spectacular trip.
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