How to Go Whale Watching in Cabo San Lucas for Only $1!
Yes you read that correctly – I really did pay just $1 for a Cabo whale watching tour! (*see below for what I really spent) How? With Viator – one of my favorite ways to make my money work harder for me and allows me to travel for cheaper!
WHAT IS VIATOR?
Viator is a platform that allows you to book tours, excursions, museum passes and much more around the world – they are similar to Etsy in which they host the tour companies that provide these services or goods (but they do not directly provide the tours as Etsy does not directly sell the handcrafted items on its site). I love that I can see reviews to help me choose the right company and love that there are double/triple travel hacking stacking opportunities (more on that of this post). For more info on Viator, check out this post.
WHAT I REALLY SPENT
- Activities $1 The tour was $87.99 for one adult but I was able to use $86.99 in Viator Rewards
- Tips $10.08 The marine biologist (Mariana) and captain were wonderful!
- TOTAL SPENT: $11.08
HOW DID I SAVE SO MUCH?
Viator has their own loyalty program called Viator Rewards that allows you to earn 5% and becomes available ~24 hours after your activity/experience. At that time, you are able to redeem the rewards towards a future booking. How it works in real life: I earned money on the excursions that we had done for our family cruise and now I am able to use that for my travels now! Note: Viator specifies that “the minimum payable amount after applying your Viator Rewards is one unit of the local currency. For example, if your rewards are issued in US$ then the minimum to book will be $1 if the rewards value is greater than, or equal to, 100% of the order value.” hence why I had to pay $1 even with having more than $87.99 in Viator Rewards available.
BEAUTIFUL TIP: Reminder that you cannot earn rewards in multiple currencies – you can only additional rewards in the first currency booked (ie if you booked in USD, all future booking would have to be in USD to earn Viator Rewards so if you book an activity in euros, you would not earn Viator Rewards on those bookings). In the same vein, you cannot redeem rewards in multiple currencies. As importantly, Viator Rewards have a 6 month expiry so don’t let any expire like I did =(
WHALE WATCHING TOUR
Tour Details
- Tour Overview: Small, intimate tour with max capacity of 10 people (taking the tour) that will sail either the Sea of Cortez or Pacific Ocean to search for humpback whales.
- Tour Inclusions:
- Guided by a marine biologist.
- Use of hydrophone to hear whales singing
- Photos are included (and shared very quickly)
- Whale warranty: get a second free tour available if you do not see whales during the first tour!
- Tour exclusions: Tips/gratuities + dock fee of $2 USD per person (note that the dock fee was not in effect when I did this activity)
Meeting and Pickup
- Meet up location: Located at Dock Zero in front of Breathless Hotel
- Meet up experience: Mariana was waiting at the meetup location 20 minutes before the start of the tour to check people in (requested to be there 15 minutes prior to start of tour)
- Very organized and efficient check-in and boarding. Even though there were multiple boats/groups, the staff was coordinated and easily got us all on the correct boat quickly so the tour started on time. Why this is important is that most companies will have multiple sailings in a day ie you have to come back by a certain time and you don’t want your tour time to be shorter because boarding is chaotic or takes a long time!
Experience on the boat
On the way out to find humpbacks, there is a stop and photo op in front of the arch that Cabo is famous for! Note that there was a covered portion of the boat in the rear if you do not want to be under the sun but I will always choose the sunniest spot!
I have been very fortunate in my life and have been on a number of whale watching tours before but I was blown away by how active the humpback juveniles were! Not only did we see complete breaches (when a whale propels their bodies completely out of the water), we witnessed this on multiple occasions by multiple individuals!
Educational and fun (and respectful of the whales)
The other four people taking the tour had never been whale watching and it was really nice to have a small group – to be able to hear Mariana, our amazing marine biologist guide but also afforded opportunities for the tour to be more tailored with being able to ask her lots of questions.
One fun fact about whales: researchers use their flukes (tails) to identify them as their are characteristics that are unique to species and individuals! Since whales often raise their flukes, this allows for photographic evidence to identify and monitor individuals and populations – and allows for studies over time. Most importantly, this can be done without the need to interact or make contact with the animals.
I love that Mariana was so passionate about the whales and her love and enthusiasm was infectious! She had told us that we were nearing the end of the season and it had not been too active up to this point to help temper expectations…but that ended up being unnecessary. She was ooohing and aahing along with the tour group are the incredible displays of agility, grace and beauty of this magnificent creatures.
Photos are included
Mariana was also an incredible photographer – as someone who travels solo and shoots videos and photos, having someone like her capture these images was such an asset!
She was able to capture perfectly what it felt like to see these whales out in the wild – and even better that she and the Captain were adamant about giving them their space. She used a bigger lens to shoot so it seems like we were closer than we were – annoyingly there was a private charter and one tour boat that did not adhere to the rules and got up really close =(
MORE OF A VISUAL LEARNER? HERE’S MY YOUTUBE SHORT ON THIS
OVERALL RATING
I loved Cabo Nature and highly recommend this whale watching tour! One reason why I use Viator is that I am can look at the different offerings from multiple tour companies in one space and also use the ratings to help me narrow down which company to choose (or avoid). It was such an incredible experience.
AND MORE TRAVEL HACKING ADVICE…
Use a shopping portal to double/triple stack
It’s a double stack because you are getting Viator rewards and earning miles/points or cashback! I will typically use the American Airline eshopping portal – read my explanation for why here but for many, their choice is to earn cashback or Amex MR points via Rakuten – here’s all you need to know about Rakuten here. Even better is that if you have never used Rakuten before, you can sign up via my referral link and earn $30 once you have spent $30!
It’s a triple stack when you use a credit card that earns points/miles/cashback since you would be getting Viator Rewards plus cashback/points/miles from the shopping portal and your credit card! See how easy it is to make your money work harder for you?
Do you use Viator?
