The Arch or El Arco de Cabo San Lucas, is a very popular tourist destination in the area.  The arch is a really cool landmark that is located at the very end of the Baja California Peninsula.

There is no way to hike out to the arch or even to Lovers Beach as there are fences and security stationed all over the area.  The only way to see the arch is to hire a local fisherman or tour guide to take you out there.  The lowest cost we got was $10 per person for a tour of The Arch and several other interesting places.  Our guide even let us get off for some time on Lovers Beach to swim and snorkel if we wanted.

We came to Cabo San Lucas on a cruise ship and had a full day to explore the area.  Before our visit, I did a little research and found that The Arch was at the top of the list of things to see and do here and I completely recommend you do it too.

When we arrived at the tender port off our cruise ship, we were literally swarmed with tour operators and guides trying to get us to book through them (just watch the first 15 seconds of our video above to see for yourself.  Many of them were pushy but we quickly found a man (named Manuel) who seemed like a decent guy so we spoke with him about booking a tour to see The Arch.  By the way, if you are worried that you will need to learn Spanish to book a tour, you will be pleasantly surprised to learn that almost all of the tour operators knew English well enough to conduct business.  Luckily for us, my friend knows fluent Spanish and so it helped when there were any misunderstandings or if we wanted to know if we were getting ripped off.



The general cost to see The Arch was $10 per person with an optional/included stop at Lovers Beach.  This price seemed standard and it was fair considering we spent about 1 1/2 hours out there and could have spent more time on Lovers Beach if we wanted.  If you want a completely private tour, you can negotiate any sort of arrangements you want with the tour operator or guide.

The boats are small but many have two “glass bottom” viewing ports where you can sometimes see fish and kelp below.

Once we stepped onto the boat, we were immediately given orange life preservers and told we had to wear them for the entire duration of our ride.

The ride out to The Arch was really smooth for us and we made several “stops” along the way to view other interesting rock formations.  The first rock formation we came to was called Pelican Rock where there were dozens of pelicans and other birds hanging out waiting for fish to come to the surface.   We also saw several divers below here too.  Our guide threw some tortillas in the water and about 50 fish came to the surface fighting for pieces.

Our next stop was Lovers Beach which is a secluded area in the early morning but popular and busy beach after the morning hours.  We stopped here for about 1/2 hour to see the interesting rocks and walk around the beach.  The beach is really nice and touches the Gulf of California and also the Pacific Ocean.  We were told not to swim on the Pacific Ocean side due to the rip tides and large waves.

Next we saw Neptune’s Finger.

Then we came to El Arco (The Arch).  The Arch is an incredible rock formation which opens up to the Pacific Ocean. We spent a good amount of time boating around here slowly checking out the arch and sea lions.

Just a little east of The Arch was a dry rock with about a dozen sea lions on it.

And looking towards the Pacific Ocean side we saw a rock which looked somewhat like Scooby-Doo.

Our guide then went around the peninsula for a little ways then came back to the port.