SKA Blog

Baja kayakers are fortunate to have direct flights to the town of Loreto, the gem off of Baja’s East coast on the Sea of Cortez. The Islands of Loreto Bay are protected as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and National Marine Park, and offer endless picturesque coastline for kayaking, camping, hiking and snorkeling. In past years, flights were limited to a single carrier just 4 days a week, but as the beauty of Loreto entices greater numbers of travelers, a new airline is expanding coverage to this sunny destination. Cal Jet Air will fly from LAX to Loreto each Saturday. With set and seemingly reasonable prices for this flight, Cal Jet Air has opened up many possibilities for would-be kayakers who may have been put-off by high prices on peak dates.

Alaska Air has also increased their service to offer Saturday flights to Loreto as well, making this seaside kayak paradise even more accessible.

Sea Kayak Adventures now offers new dates for our Holiday Kayak Tours to coincide with the Saturday flights:

• December 22-29, 2012 - 8-day Motorboat Supported Tour $1345/person
  
• December 29-Jan 5, 2013 - 8-day Motorboat Supported Tour $1345/person

BOOK NOW to reserve these low rates on airfare and to secure your Early Bird Special on our Baja kayak tours!

Call us with any travel questions and to check availability prior to booking flights: 1-800-616-1943 or 1-208-765-3116

Our Baja kayak tours operate out of Loreto, Baja. Travel to this supreme paddling and whale watching destination is surprisingly easy for a world class wilderness adventure. Like many national parks, the Loreto Bay National Marine Park and the islands in the Sea of Cortez UNESCO World Heritage Site remain pristine in part due to their geographic remoteness - and they are just as worthwhile to visit!  Fortunately for travelers, Loreto hosts its own small airport with several flights per week on a US carrier. Additionally, the international hubs of La Paz and Los Cabos ("Cabo") are just a short distance south down the Baja peninsula and offer easy transit to Loreto. The following travel options are well-tested and utilized by Sea Kayak Adventures guests every year.

Sea Kayak Adventures visits many world-class locations on our kayak and whale watching tours.  Each year, as excited guests arrange the details of their trips, we receive the same question over and over: "How do I get there?" We do our best to provide up to date information about flights, buses, and other methods of transport.  While we are so fortunate that Loreto, where we kayak on our Baja tours, is easily-accessible by regular transit (no need to travel for 2-3 days to get there!), flights sell out quickly in advance of our tours.

We stumbled upon this link with some helpful tips for savvy travelers who seek ways to find inexpensive airfare: Top 10 Tips for Finding Low Airfare

Sea Kayak Adventures office staff member and first time kayaker Amber Crane recently returned from a tour in Baja (Oct 30-Nov 4, 2011).  She will chronicle her adventures in a new blog series:

Voyage of a Novice Kayaker

Part 3: Isn't it time you talked about the actual trip?

My Baja kayak trip began with a 2:00am alarm to catch a 5:00am flight that would deposit me at LAX in time for the only flight to Loreto on Sunday, October 30, 2011.  Upon Sea Kayak Adventures’ recommendation, I took only a carry-on bag with my clothing and thus whisked through my connections without the concern of relinquishing my carefully-packed duffel to the vortex of lost airport luggage.

Red-eyed but energized, I plopped into my window seat for the LAX to LTO flight and watched, awestruck, as the scenery below blurred from chaotic Los Angeles to vivacious Tijuana to coarse desert.  Scrub and brush melted into flowing sand from which mountain peaks crawled to the sky, hues of red and tan bursting against the azure sea.  The deep turquoise of the ocean was interrupted where cream-colored sand flowed down from the mountain peaks to form a beach. In these picturesque places, the ocean appeared as a bright, shocking aqua, as if someone had poured a pool of blue highlighter fluid over the water. I could only marvel over nature’s surreal palette.

Travel to Loreto's world class paddling/whale watching destinations, on par with the Galapagos and Patagonia, is surprisingly easy compared to other Latin American or South American destinations.  The latest information is provided below.

A simple direct 2 hour flight from Los Angeles LAX to Loreto LTO OR 60-minute flight from the Cabo area to Loreto will set you down in the sunny palm-tree studded relaxed seaside village of Loreto.  You will be met by our representative at the airport holding up a sign and whisked away to our tour hotel a 5 minute drive away in downtown Loreto, a short walk from all the restaurants, shops and lovely waterfront walkway. You can also fly into Los Cabos "Cabo" (on the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula, where the movie stars go for resort action) and fly Aereo Calafia to Loreto OR fly into the capital city of La Paz and travel by express bus or rent a car and drive 4-5 hours north on the main highway to Loreto (the tiny Loreto bus station is right across the street from our tour hotel).

For more information on flight schedules, click "Read More." (Or scroll down).

In view of headlines about violence along the U.S. border, many people are wondering about the safety of visiting Mexico. Keep in mind that Mexico is a big and diverse country, so violence along the U.S. border towns won't have any effect on your vacation in Loreto any more than violence in Miami would affect people in Chicago. Most of the violence that has taken place recently is due to conflicts between drug cartels and the Mexican authorities in just four cities and there's no reason to condemn the rest of the country, especially Loreto and the surrounding state of Baja California Sur.