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Mexico2 dive sites
Liveaboards run from November to June. From late January to early April, the humpback whales sing, but the water drops to 21 to 23 °C and calls for a 5 to 7 mm wetsuit with a hood. Mantas and sharks are at their best from November to January and from April to May.
A liveaboard costs US$4,980 to US$6,680, for eight nights or nine days, park fee and transfers included. The cheapest boats start at US$323 a day. Budget for tips too, US$500 on the Nautilus Explorer.
Liveaboards board in Cabo San Lucas, which you reach through Los Cabos airport, and the crossing takes 24 to 36 hours. The park requires Advanced, and the nearest hyperbaric chamber is more than a day away by sea. French citizens enter without a visa, but a US transit requires an ESTA.
MexicoPelagicEl Boiler is a pinnacle off San Benedicto, in the Revillagigedo Islands, rising from 45 meters to a few meters below the surface.
MexicoPelagicRoca Partida is a rock split into two peaks, alone in the Pacific about a hundred kilometers from Socorro, with walls that drop below 40 meters.
San Benedicto, Socorro, Roca Partida and Clarión are the summits of underwater volcanoes, 400 to 480 kilometers southwest of Cabo San Lucas. The California Current meets the equatorial current here, and these lone pieces of land in a rich sea draw a resident population of oceanic mantas, sharks and dolphins, then the humpback whales that spend the winter. A biosphere reserve since 1994 and a World Heritage Site since July 2016, the archipelago became the largest marine national park in North America in November 2017, with 150,000 square kilometers closed to fishing.
El Boiler, at San Benedicto, is a pinnacle that rises from 45 meters to a few meters below the surface: a cleaning station where mantas with a wingspan of six to seven meters come right up to divers. The Canyon, on the same island, is the site for hammerheads, silky sharks and Galapagos sharks. On Socorro Island, Cabo Pearce mixes mantas, dolphins and hammerheads in the current, Roca O'Neal is nicknamed Hammerhead Central, and Punta Tosca is the best spot for tiger sharks. Roca Partida, isolated about a hundred kilometers to the west, is a 100 meter long rock rising from a seamount, swept by the current, where sharks are a constant presence.
Yes. No hotels, no stopovers: everything runs from liveaboards that leave Cabo San Lucas for a 24 to 36 hour crossing, on trips of eight to ten nights. Solmar V, Nautilus Explorer, Nautilus Belle Amie, Rocio del Mar, Quino del Mar and Valentina go there from November to June. Budget US$5,250 to US$5,750 on the Solmar V in January 2026, US$4,980 to US$6,680 on the Nautilus Explorer in late May 2026, and from US$323 a day on the cheapest boats, plus the park fee: MXN 3,622 per dive day since January 1, 2025, and MXN 3,760 for the 2026 season.
The official season runs from November to June. From late January to early April, the humpback whales sing underwater and the water is at its coldest, 21 to 23 °C. From November to January and from April to May, it climbs to 23 to 26 °C and the mantas and sharks are at their best. Visibility is 25 to 40 meters, sometimes 15 to 20 in November and December. The park bans night diving, limits groups to eight divers per guide and four dives a day, requires Advanced and allows only one group per site at a time.
Hotels, apartments and rooms around San José del Cabo, the starting point for dives at Roca Partida, with current prices.