Cruise destination
Compare Mexican Riviera sailings by cruise line, ship, departure date, port, and price.
541 sailing listings in the recorded comparison · recorded Nov 7, 2026 at 23:41 UTCPhoto by Mario Mendez on Unsplash
Cabo San Lucas, Puerto Vallarta and Mazatlán are useful starting points for comparing Mexican Pacific itineraries. Check which of them a sailing actually visits and how the route uses the intervening days. This comparison also covers verified Mexican calls on the Gulf of California. A Pacific itinerary and a Gulf-focused trip can offer different experiences even when they start from the same departure area.
Look at the time in port before choosing between sailings of equal length. A short call and a longer stay are not interchangeable if you have a particular place in mind. Also check whether the cruise returns to its embarkation port, and decide how much time you want aboard between visits. Those details help you compare the trip itself before choosing a cabin or a fare.
The dry-season and hurricane-season calendars are separate considerations when choosing a departure. These calendars are not a prediction for your departure, and a monthly price difference does not prove what caused that difference. If wildlife is a priority, check the location and date of the itinerary rather than assuming a seasonal reference guarantees a sighting. Keep the weather decision separate from the listed cabin comparison.
Known for: Cabo San Lucas · Puerto Vallarta · Pacific Beaches · Fishing & Watersports · Colonial Towns
Mexican Riviera · comparison coverage
Data recorded ; calculated Nov 7, 2026 at 23:42 UTC.
Our Mexican Riviera comparison covers verified Mexican calls on the Pacific, including the Gulf of California.
Departures from through . Months combine all matching years in this window.
493 of 541
listings with a comparable USD fare
48
listings without a comparable USD fare
Fares are USD per person per night. These starting-fare comparisons mix cabin types, ships and trip lengths. Compare actual cabins and conditions on the individual sailing pages.
Itinerary geography was checked across 44,992 market candidates: 39,824 unresolved and 4,627 conflicting. Those candidates are not included in this destination’s figures and are not a count of missing Mexican Riviera sailings.
Recorded listings · monthly comparison
Compare recorded monthly fares and seasonal conditions.
Among well-served months in this comparison, February has the lowest median listed fare at $87 per person per night and December the highest at $156. Adjacent months with limited choice are shown separately and may have lower fares. These are different future departures, not a price history for the same cruise. The answer is the dry season. Roughly November through May, days run in the low-to-mid 80s with near-zero rain, and the December–April whale season layers on top.
CruiseCaptain — corroborated USD listed fares, per person per night; recorded Nov 7, 2026
Each dot represents a sampled listed fare for one sailing and cabin category. The table’s monthly medians use the full eligible snapshot, not only the dots shown. These are different future departures, not repeated prices for an identical cruise.
541 sailing listings in the comparison window · dots show 493 priced listings after sampling and validation · calculated Nov 7, 2026
Departure window: 2026-11-07 to before 2028-05-07.
The 18-month comparison contains 541 active sailing listings with a positive trip length; 493 have a listed cabin fare and 48 have none. The seasonal comparison uses 525 sailing listings in well-served months and their adjacent shoulder months; 16 sailing listings fall outside that seasonal selection. Counts represent supplier sailing listings, not necessarily distinct voyages. Current verified itinerary links are checked separately.
Lowest and highest labels compare well-served (core) months only. Adjacent months with limited choice can have lower medians. The score weights listed price 35%, reference weather 30%, editorial seasonal experience 25% and fewer sailing listings 10%. Listing counts do not measure passenger occupancy or crowds; this score is a comparison aid, not a forecast. Equal inputs receive equal scores.
For each sailing listing, we divide its lowest usable corroborated USD cabin fare by trip length, then take the median within each calendar month across departure years. Cabin medians use only listings priced in that category: inside, oceanview, balcony or suite. Missing fares are excluded from medians, never treated as free cruises. The dots are a bounded sample; chart lines smooth that sample by cabin over nearby departure dates, with monthly medians as a fallback.
Prices are displayed in US dollars per person. Occupancy, taxes, fees and inclusions follow the source listing and are not independently standardized in this comparison. Check the sailing and supplier before booking. The calculation date is not the time every supplier last refreshed its fare; this aggregate does not include individual quote timestamps.
Raw fares come from third-party feeds. CruiseCaptain’s contribution is tracking, normalization and analysis. These recorded-fare comparisons are descriptive: differences in lines, ships, cabins and routes can explain monthly gaps. They do not establish when to book or predict a future price.
Select a month to pin its column — the spotlight below follows.
Higher score, deeper bar — a better all-round month on price, weather & listing volume. – means too few priced listings to score; greyed months are outside the seasonal comparison.
Climate reference: Servicio Meteorológico Nacional (Conagua) 1991–2020 normals, Cabo San Lucas station 03005. These representative conditions are separate from the recorded fare comparison and are not a sailing forecast.
Daylight reference: Computed for Cabo San Lucas (22.9°N), sea level. Daylight changes with the itinerary’s latitude; these figures describe the reference location.
well-served month
gray whales fill the lagoons
January has 95 sailing listings in the comparison window, including 82 with a listed cabin fare. The median listed fare is $103 per person per night. Cabo San Lucas climate reference: average daytime high 80°F, 0.2 inches of monthly rain and 10.8 hours of daylight. High season opens the year.
$103/night median
95 sailing listings
lowest core median
grays calving, humpbacks off Cabo
February has 48 sailing listings in the comparison window, including 46 with a listed cabin fare. The median listed fare is $87 per person per night. This is the lowest median among well-served months. Cabo San Lucas climate reference: average daytime high 81°F, 0.2 inches of monthly rain and 11.2 hours of daylight. The whale-season peak.
$87/night median
48 sailing listings
well-served month
whales linger, spring-break buzz
March has 65 sailing listings in the comparison window, including 60 with a listed cabin fare. The median listed fare is $101 per person per night. Cabo San Lucas climate reference: average daytime high 83°F, 0.1 inches of monthly rain and 11.9 hours of daylight. Among Cabo’s driest, brightest weeks. Effectively no rain, 10 hours of bright sun, whales still working the coast.
$101/night median
65 sailing listings
most core listings
last whales head north
April has 96 sailing listings in the comparison window, including 90 with a listed cabin fare. The median listed fare is $113 per person per night. This month has the most sailing listings among well-served months; listing counts do not measure passenger crowds. Cabo San Lucas climate reference: average daytime high 86°F, 0.0 inches of monthly rain and 12.5 hours of daylight. The dry season’s driest month: 86°F, rain-free in the normals, the last whales heading north.
$113/night median
96 sailing listings
limited choice
90°F, glassy mornings
May has 10 sailing listings in the comparison window, including 9 with a listed cabin fare. The median listed fare is $87 per person per night. Cabo San Lucas climate reference: average daytime high 90°F, 0.0 inches of monthly rain and 13.1 hours of daylight. 90°F and glassy.
Limited choice; excluded from the verdict.
$87/night median
10 sailing listings
limited choice
hurricane season’s heart
September has 12 sailing listings in the comparison window, including 12 with a listed cabin fare. The median listed fare is $98 per person per night. Cabo San Lucas climate reference: average daytime high 93°F, 4.3 inches of monthly rain and 12.1 hours of daylight. The heart of Eastern Pacific hurricane season, just past the basin’s late-August statistical peak. It’s also Cabo’s wettest month (4.3").
Limited choice; excluded from the verdict.
$98/night median
12 sailing listings
well-served month
peak turtle arribadas; late-season storms
October has 47 sailing listings in the comparison window, including 45 with a listed cabin fare. The median listed fare is $125 per person per night. Cabo San Lucas climate reference: average daytime high 92°F, 1.0 inches of monthly rain and 11.4 hours of daylight. Storm risk fades through October but isn't gone.
$125/night median
47 sailing listings
well-served month
humidity breaks, seas settle
November has 69 sailing listings in the comparison window, including 57 with a listed cabin fare. The median listed fare is $149 per person per night. Cabo San Lucas climate reference: average daytime high 87°F, 0.7 inches of monthly rain and 10.9 hours of daylight.
$149/night median
69 sailing listings
highest core median
whales return
December has 83 sailing listings in the comparison window, including 76 with a listed cabin fare. The median listed fare is $156 per person per night. This is the highest median among well-served months. Cabo San Lucas climate reference: average daytime high 81°F, 0.3 inches of monthly rain and 10.6 hours of daylight. The shortest days of the year, and the softest light: eight hours of bright sun.
$156/night median
83 sailing listings
At Cabo’s latitude the day never swings far. Figure about 10 and a half hours in December, 13 and a half at the June solstice. Light isn’t the seasonal signal here; rain and the hurricane calendar are, so watch those instead.
≈10.6 h · December to ≈13.5 h · late June
12 hours a day in May
NASA POWER climatology (all-sky vs clear-sky shortwave; bright-sun via Angstrom-Prescott)
September, if you need a plan you can count on. It’s Cabo’s wettest month (4.3 inches), the heart of the Eastern Pacific hurricane season, and the year’s stickiest heat. The basin’s statistical peak lands in late August, and September stays close behind. October is the storm season’s tail.
Gray whale calves nose right up to small boats in Baja. That happens in the Pacific-side nursery lagoons like San Ignacio, which no cruise ship enters. If touching a whale is the mission, that’s a dedicated land trip to the lagoons in February or March. The cruise puts you in the right region, not the right lagoon.
If whales matter, February and March sit at the heart of the December–April season. Use the monthly table for recorded listed fares and departure choice, then compare the actual ships, routes, cabin quotes and travel dates. Weather guidance uses regional reference conditions and does not explain why a fare changes.
November through May. That’s the dry season: days run in the low-to-mid 80s (into the 90s by May), rain effectively disappears (Cabo’s April and May normals read essentially zero), the Pacific settles, and from December to April the whales are in. Summer is hotter and more humid, and September–October is the hurricane peak.
One of the best months on the calendar. It ranks among Cabo’s driest and brightest in the 1991–2020 normals, effectively rainless, with 83°F days, 10 hours of bright sun, and whale season still at full strength. Expect spring-break crowds on the family ships.
September and October. They sit in the heart of the Eastern Pacific hurricane season, and September is Cabo’s wettest month (4.3 inches). NOAA puts the basin’s statistical peak in late August. Use the monthly table for recorded listed fares and departure choice, then compare the actual ships, routes, cabin quotes and travel dates. Weather guidance uses regional reference conditions and does not explain why a fare changes.
The Eastern Pacific season runs May 15 to November 30, peaking August through October off the Mexican coast. That’s a longer season than the Atlantic’s, though most storms track harmlessly west. The practical risk window for a Mexican Riviera itinerary is late August through October.
Yes. The Eastern Pacific spins up more named storms than the Atlantic in a typical year; most head out to sea, but Baja takes an occasional direct hit. Hurricane Odile struck Cabo in September 2014. Ships route around storms, so the realistic risk is a changed itinerary, not a dangerous one.
This comparison cannot establish an ideal booking lead time or weekday for price drops: it compares recorded fares for different future departures. Check the history of the specific sailing and cabin, cancellation terms and availability. A fare alert can help you follow changes without assuming that waiting will produce a lower price.
September. It’s the wettest month on the Pacific coast (4.3 inches at Cabo), the peak of hurricane season, and the stickiest heat of the year. Use the monthly table for recorded listed fares and departure choice, then compare the actual ships, routes, cabin quotes and travel dates. Weather guidance uses regional reference conditions and does not explain why a fare changes.
20 itineraries verified in this checked batch. Checked Nov 8, 2026 against the comparison recorded Nov 7, 2026. New listings enter after the next comparison refresh.
Further checks may not find more sailings.
For more options, explore Mexican Riviera cruises.
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