Note: I only recommend products I would use myself and all opinions expressed here are my own. This post might contain affiliate links that at no additional cost to you, I may earn a small commission. I would never recommend a product I have not personally tested and loved. 

The Revillagigedo Archipelago, more commonly known by its largest island, Socorro, is widely considered by divers to be one of the most amazing big animal dive destinations on our planet. And rightfully so! This UNESCO World Heritage Site and Mexican National Park located in the eastern Pacific Ocean is one of the largest Marine Protected Areas in the world. More commonly known by the name of its largest island – Isla Socorro, these islands are packed with jaw dropping encounters. It is a playground for giant oceanic mantas growing upwards of 7 meters wide (23 feet). A location where over 10 species of sharks can be seen, friendly pods of dolphins join divers, and schools of massive tuna can be seen hunting. But it is not just the biodiversity & abundance of pelagic marine life that makes this area so special. The unique interactions with the beautiful creatures of Socorro are what scuba diving dreams are made of. Diving here is emotional. Imagine a massive oceanic manta ray spotting you from afar, and seeking you out. Swimming directly to your face to look you in the eye and then spending the next 20 minutes circling you as if she wants to begin a conversation. Picture pods of dolphins that actively seek out divers beckoning them to play. All the while white tip sharks gather in piles of 10s & 20s, schools of shy hammerheads create choreographed walls out in the blue, and huge tiger sharks patrol the depths. This is the Revillagigedo.

Why Should You Go

There are many reasons the Revillagigedo is considered one of the best big animal destinations on earth. First up, the oceanic manta rays here behave unlike any I have ever seen. They seem to seek out divers for attention. Imagine floating eye to eye with a 6m /20ft wide ocean giant, watching her eyes track yours as if she wants to start a conversation with you. Or looking above you to see one of the massive creatures playing in your bubbles just above your head. It’s surreal. But even better, normally it isn’t just 1 manta. I’ve had dives with upwards of 10 oceanic manta rays around us on one dive. I love watching how they interact with each other and seeing them gliding through the water following or spiraling around each other. 

But then it doesn’t end there, Socorro and the Revillagigedo are home to a lot of shark species. Tiger sharks, schools of scalloped hammerheads, dusky, Galapagos, silky, white tip reef, oceanic black tip, silver tip, and even the world’s largest fish – the whale shark! Oh, and don’t forget the bottlenose dolphins that like to mess with divers for entertainment. They seem to have developed games out of it. But I won’t ruin the surprise, just make sure to listen to your guides briefing. False orcas, humpback whales, and other cetacean species can be spotted around the islands. Beyond the big stuff, there is just a ton of life on the sites from big schools of different species of jacks to the beautiful bright orange Clarion Angel Fish that is endemic to these islands. Seeing the Clarions cleaning a manta is one of my personal favorites and a definitive iconic shot from the Revillagigedo. 

When Should I Go? 

The Socorro Island & Revillagigedo Archipelago season runs from November into June. During this time there is not really any ‘bad time to go’. I’ve been every month from November through May and always had mind blowing encounters out there. There isn’t a massive difference from month to month. The beginning of the season is sometimes touted as the whale shark peak, but ask any of the guides that have been working out there for a few years and they’ll tell you the chances to see whale sharks are the same pretty much all season. 

From my personal experiences, I feel that early and late season tends to be more sharky, and mid season I tend to have seen more mantas. But with that being said I have never had a trip where we didn’t see mantas on at least 75% of the dives. So I wouldn’t stress too much which month to go. The only month I personally tend to stay away from is June. This is due to the eastern tropical pacific hurricane season starting to kick off. As there is quite a long open ocean crossing to get to the islands storms in the summer can create less than ideal conditions or even force operators to cancel trips unexpectedly. 

In terms of water temperatures there is a little bit of difference through the season. The early months (Nov-mid Jan) and late months (May-June) tend to be warmer at roughly 24-27C / 75-80F. The middle of the season (late Jan through April) tends to be cooler with temperatures of 22-25C / 70-76F.

How Do I Get There?

These beautiful islands are located 240 miles due south of Cabo San Lucas, which means there is only one way to dive them and that is via liveaboard. The crossing to the northern most island, Isla San Benedicto, takes roughly 26 hours depending on which ship you are on. There are currently 6 operators running trips to the Revillagigedo Archipelago. My personal favorites are Nautilus Liveaboards and Mexico Liveaboards. Nautilus has 3 ships that operate there (Undersea, Explorer, & Belle Amie), and Mexico Livebaboards has 2 (Rocio del Mar & Quino el Guardian). Dive Ninja Expeditions runs at least 1 or 2 specialized trips every year to Socorro that I personally guest host. During the trip I give talks about the mantas and sharks that call the area home, as well as current research & conservation projects and how to get involved in Manta Photo Identification projects. So far every trip we have discovered new mantas that we were able to name! This past trip we found 3 new ones! 

If you’ve never done a long crossing liveaboard before, don’t stress! While the crossing from Cabo San Lucas to San Benedicto is on the longer side it tends to be quite calm with the wind at your back and the waves moving in the same direction as the ship. So no rocky, crazy seas. If you’re not sure if you get seasick I always recommend taking meds before boarding the ship just to be safe. It’s much easier to prevent seasickness than it is to get rid of it once you feel it. Once you are in the islands you’ll be anchored in protected bays most of the trip and only do short crossings in the evening when you move from one island to the next.

What Dive Gear Should I Pack?

In regards to scuba gear you’ll want to pack all your normal stuff: mask, fins, wetsuit, regulator, booties, and BCD. However one thing I highly recommend is having a tall surface marker buoy (SMB), and a reel so you can send it up from underwater if need be. Most of the dive sites have some current and you are essentially in the middle of nowhere. So if you lose your group or need to surface without them you want to make sure you can get a buoy up quick so the zodiac drivers can easily see and track you. They’re great at spotting divers, but it always helps to be a little extra safe when diving remote areas like this. I’d also highly recommend having a Nautilus Lifeline. If you are onboard a Nautilus ship they’ll actually give you one to use for free during the trip. These awesome little devices are like a personal emergency GPS that when triggered send out an alert to all ships in the area with your exact GPS location.

Outside of that, your wetsuit will depend on when in the season you are going as temperatures range throughout the season. For most of the season the norm is a 5mm, unless you get cold easily. Personally, in the early season I’m using board shorts and a hooded vest, then I switch to a 3mm open cell wetsuit. Very rarely do I break out my 5mm, but I am also accustomed to diving colder waters. I’d recommend checking with the ship to find out the current temps before you fly out so you can be comfortable for your trip. Gloves and reef hooks are not allowed anywhere in the  park so you can leave them at home. 

What Camera Gear Should I Bring?

For camera gear you are going to want to go wide angle. A fisheye or WACP is great for the unclose manta interactions. Then I like to switch some days to my Sony 16-35mm G Master lens for shark shots. While there is a bit of macro around the sites, you won’t need to bring your macro lens. Trust me, you’ll be way too busy with the mantas and sharks to be looking for nudis! If you are shooting photos, I’d recommend strobes, such as the Sea & Sea YS-D3 Mk II Lightning strobes. Most of the dives take place around 25 meters / 80 feet so you’re going to want a bit of light to help out. If you’re shooting video, then you might want video lights depending on the subject or just some good old fashioned custom white balance. If you need an awesome suitcase to carry it all in that’s super sturdy, keeps your gear safe, and doesn’t attract unwanted attention like hard shell cases do; then check out Think Tank! I personally love their roller bags!

For topside, I’d recommend a 100-400mm telephoto to get shots of dolphins, seabirds, and the surrounding landscapes. The islands themselves are incredibly beautiful. I’d also highly recommend bringing your drone if you are comfortable flying from boats. At San Bendicto you can actually see the top of the volcano, Cabo Pearce looks beautiful looking back towards the island and Roca Partida also makes for some great drone shots. Plus, many times I’ve spotted mantas sun tanning at the surface from the drone. There are 2 things to consider when flying a drone here though. First, some sites can have a lot of sea birds cruising around so keep an eye out- especially for frigates. Second, the rock here messes with GPS and RC connection if you get too close to it so you always want to keep direct line of site and do NOT fly behind the rocks or walls. In other words, you want to make sure there is a direct line of site between you and the drone with no part of the islands between you and the drone.

Conservation & Research

With so many jaw dropping pelagic encounters to be found in Socorro and the Revillagigedo Islands there are a lot of brilliant researchers and passionate conservationists working hard to better understand and protect this area. Pacific Manta Research Group has been studying the mantas found in the Revillagigedo Archipelago as well as the eastern pacific and the Gulf of California for over 30 years.  They also created and run one of the largest manta identification programs in the world. The research from this photo identification program has been crucial in gaining further protections for the area as well as pushing forward our understanding of these enigmatic gentle giants. On the Dive Ninja Socorro trips I teach the guests early on how they can get involved and contribute to the project with any camera. Plus we get the name any mantas that are discovered to be new to the database. For me, I love this part as it lets us take all those incredible memories from the trip and let them live on through naming one of the beautiful creatures we seen.

The renown pelagic research center, Pelagios Kakunja based in La Paz, also has a wealth of projects and researchers working in the island on some remarkable projects. I highly recommend giving both research centers a follow on Instagram and checking out their websites for more info on the awesome work they are doing. You might also spot ships flying the Sea Shepherd flag while in the islands. This is because through Operation Treasured Islands, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society helps the Mexican Navy and national park service patrol this gigantic protected area from illegal fishing ships.

Local Insider Tips 

Experience wise I’d suggest being a PADI Advanced Open Water diver or equivalent with around 30 dives under your belt. This is because most of the dives are on the deeper side and there can be some current on some of the dive site. Also, I’d highly recommend having your Nitrox certification. You’ll be doing 3-4 dives per day with most of them being to roughly 25m/80ft. Using Enriched Air Nitrox will help you extend your bottom times on the receptive dives, as well as lower your overall nitrogen load. The course is quick and easy to do so it won’t take up much of your time. You could even book the course with a local dive shop in Cabo, such as the highly rated Dive Ninja, and they will send you the eLearning to do online before you arrive. Then you show up and only have a couple hours of learning & practice and you’re all set! For my readers, Ninja is offering a $50 discount on the PADI Nitrox Course – all you have to do is mention this article and tell them you’re going to Socorro.

Since all the ships to Socorro & the Revillagigedo depart from Los Cabos, Mexico I’d definitely recommend sneaking in some dives in Cabo San Lucas before you head out to the islands! Plus it gives you a chance to dust off the gear and make sure everything is working correctly so you can hit the water ready for action when you get out to the islands. This way you’re not wasting any dives out there trying to get comfortable or sorting gear issues. I wrote an article with a bunch of info about diving in Los Cabos, Mexico here. If you have the extra time, I’d also recommend jumping on a day trip from Cabo to visit the sea lion pups & whale sharks in La Paz, or experiencing the world famous Cabo Pulmo National Park. A couple of the local shops in Cabo, like Dive Ninja offer day trips to visit these beautiful spots with transportation and everything included making it super easy to sneak in!

My last tip for Socorro is to make sure you book in advance! Trips out there sell out fast and sometimes a year or longer in advance depending on the dates you are looking for. February and March tend to be the quickest to sell out. Personally I find that January always has the best action, so I always host trips then.

Note: I only recommend products I would use myself and all opinions expressed here are my own. This post might contain affiliate links that at no additional cost to you, I may earn a small commission. I would never recommend a product I have not personally tested and loved. 

Cabo San Lucas is quickly becoming world renown as a legendary dive destination – even rivaling its brothers on the Caribbean coast. Playing host to everything from big animals and pelagic predators to playful sea lions, turtles, macro, and colorful reef fish it’s very easy to see why.  Los Cabos seems to have something to make every diver happy. As Cabo’s notoriety in the scuba diving and freediving world continues to grow, more and more divers are looking to check it out themselves. Which of course brings a ton of questions about the destination. Whether it’s on social media, forums, or in person, there is one question I get asked almost nonstop. ‘When is the best time to dive in Cabo?’ 

My answer is usually something along the lines of; well, that depends on what you’d like to see.   Unlike many other top diving destinations, Cabo’s marine life and water conditions change quite drastically throughout the year. In other words we have different seasons for seeing different animals, water temps, visibility, and so on. With there being so many different things to experience and marine life to encounter I thought it would be good to have an article written by a local that’s done thousands of dives in the Cabo. No marketing hype. No sales tactics. Just honest info from one diver to another. 

Locations to Dive in Los Cabos

Let’s start off with the geography of Cabo San Lucas and Los Cabos, as it plays a major part in understanding our marine life and water conditions. The Los Cabos Municipality is made up of a few regions that have diving. Cabo San Lucas is located right at the southern most tip of the Baja California peninsula. It is where the mighty Pacific Ocean meets the Gulf of California – also known as the Sea of Cortez. This meeting point of ocean currents combined with the areas steep walls & deep ocean waters being so close to shore creates a very special area packed with life & biodiversity. This uniqueness was recognized in 1973  by the then Mexican President declaring it a Marine Protected Area. Then in 2005 it became a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  

Heading east from Cabo San Lucas along the coast we reach ‘The Corridor’. This area gets it’s name from the numerous hotels and resorts located along this coast (it’s short for ‘the tourist corridor’). The sites here are quite different than the Cabo San Lucas Marine Park. Most are shallower sights that tend to be much quieter. In my personal opinion they have a bit more ambience than the bay, but the bay has a lot more abundance of marine life & biodiversity. Continuing east we reach San Jose del Cabo. San Jose’s dive sites are reminiscent of the Corridor but in my opinion they lack some of the wow factor we see in the Cabo Marine Park or Corridor. The big exception to this is the infamous pelagic hot spot, Gordo Banks, where schools of hammerheads and many other pelagics can be found. Gordo Banks is located 9 miles offshore from San Jose del Cabo. However its location is quite easy to reach from both Cabo San Lucas and San Jose del Cabo. 

If we continue north up the coast from here we’ll reach the famous and remote, Cabo Pulmo National Park. Pulmo is a shining star in the marine park world, and truly shows the great things that can happen when marine areas are well managed. 

Water Conditions 

The diving conditions in Los Cabos change throughout the year. The warmest clearest waters are seen from late August through December. Temperatures in the autumn regularly reach 28C / 82F with clear blue waters hitting upwards of 30 meter / 100 feet visibility. The opposite of this takes place in the late spring with April & May being the coldest waters and lowest visibility. Temperatures during these months can dip down to 19C / 67 F with visibility dropping down to 5-10m / 15-30ft from the nutrient rich waters. But don’t write off this time of year, as you’ll see below the cold nutrient dense waters bring some really special marine life encounters. The rest of the year (summer and later winter) are a transition between the hot and cold seasons – which also bring their own special encounters. 

Topside Cabo remains warm and sunny all year. The unofficial motto of Cabo San Lucas is ‘No bad days’ which comes from the city averaging roughly 350 days of sunshine a year and seeing rain on less than 10 days annually. Los Cabos semi desert climate also means it’s almost always quite warm & sunny during the day. Those 10 days of rain usually fall sometime during August and September, with the majority of storms taking place in September. Air temperatures fluctuate a bit through the year, with February being the coolest month. The coldest temps can drop to 15C / 59F, but this is only in the late evenings and early mornings. During the day it tends to be in the mid to high 20s C / high 70s – low 80s F. August tends to be the hottest month with mid afternoon temperatures sometimes reaching 40c / 120F. 

Marine Life Seasons

Let’s start with residents that you can see all year long. At anytime of year you can find turtles, multiple different ray species (stingrays, eagle rays, cow nose rays, devil rays, etc), white tip reef sharks, turtles, different species of morays & other eels, schools (yes, schools) of different puffer fish, lobsters, nudibranchs, frogfish, sea horses, octopus, and tons of colorful reef fish including: Moorish Idols, angelfish, butterfly fish, barber fish, surgeon fish, and a bunch of others. 

Side Note: Dive Ninja has a really awesome Baja Marine Wildlife Calendar you can view & download for free that covers Los Cabos as well as the rest of the southern Baja California peninsula. It’s a great resource for planning your trip! 

Winter Wildlife

Our winters are marked by the annual arrival of the hundreds of humpback whales that come to Los Cabos to find mates and raise their young. The humpbacks begin to arrive usually in November, but the official whale watching ‘tour season’ runs December 15 – April 15. However starting in November divers can already start to see them on their surface interval and be serenaded by their songs while diving. The water in the beginning of the winter tends to still be warm and clear making it a great time for easy diving. 

In late November / early December we see the shorter (and much smaller) winter aggregation of Munk’s Devil Rays (Mobula munkiana). This aggregation season usually lasts only a couple weeks and while the schools can get up to a few hundred or even a thousand individuals it pales in comparison to the late spring/summer aggregations Baja is famous for. 

In January the beginning of the blue shark and mako shark season kicks off on the offshore pelagic safari type tours. But if chumming for sharks isn’t your thing, there is usually tons of life on all the dive sites from Cabo San Lucas all the way to Cabo Pulmo. 

In February the waters begin to cool off and the ocean currents begin bringing more nutrients into the bay. Dive guides usually mark the changing of the seasons by the spotting of the first banded guitar rays because this species only visits when the water gets cooler. If you’ve never seen one before, they’re super cool creatures that look kind of like a mix between a shark and a ray. Funny enough, the species we have in Cabo is technically known as a Banjo Ray, but is commonly called a Guitar Ray, guitar shark, or guitar fish. 

Spring Wildlife in Los Cabos

February and March are my favorites for whale watching, as well as for getting super lucky and seeing whales on scuba dives at Gordo Banks, Lands End, Whales Head, and some other sites if you’re super lucky! By this time, the young calfs are much more curious and playful and the mothers are starting to let them explore a bit more. So we usually see them breaching a lot! The hammerheads at Gordo Banks also tend to be in full force as the water cools, bringing them closer to the surface. 

April and May are the coldest temperatures underwater, but these cool nutrient rich waters bring in all sorts of amazing creatures. For one they kick off the largest aggregation of rays on our planet – Baja’s annual mobula ray aggregations. These schools can number upwards of 10,000 individuals. The schools won’t arrive in Cabo until a bit later, but I highly recommend checking out a Mobula Ray Expedition to go spend a few days with the rays at a secret spot. I have yet to find another encounter on earth that even rivals being in the water with thousands of mobulas rays peacefully gliding through the waters. It will honestly change your life. Mobula ray season is also a great time to spot Orcas as they come in to hunt the rays. 

The cold nutrient waters kick off all an incredible chain reaction of life from giant schools of jacks and snapper to even some of the largest creatures on earth. In Cabo, during the cold months I’ve had all sorts of rare encounters with weird creatures from massive spider crabs roughly 1 meter (3ft) wide, small tooth sand tiger sharks, oceanic manta rays, horn sharks, sailfish, and even massive whale sharks cruising past Pelican Rock 20m (70ft) underwater.  April is also a good time to spot the elusive smooth hammerheads on open ocean safaris and the bull sharks in Cabo Pulmo National Park. The bull sharks can be seen almost all year long in Cabo Pulmo, except in the autumn when the waters get really warm. During this time the bull sharks will tend to head a bit deeper looking for cooler waters. 

Summer Wildlife in Los Cabos 

Summer kicks off with the mobula ray (Munk’s Devil Rays) aggregations arriving in Cabo and the water beginning to warm up and become clearer. The rays show up in force and can be seen jumping all around the coast lines. If you couldn’t make one of the Dive Ninja Mobula Ray Expeditions earlier in the year this is a good time to check out their sunrise tours to see them. 

The summer time is when most of our salty sea pups (California Sea Lions) head north for mating season. June & July also see the mating aggregations of silky sharks off shore where sometimes you can have 50+ sharks around the boat. Starting mid summer we begin seeing an influx of sea turtles on the dive sites as they come into the area to nest. By late august the waters are back to being in the mid to high 20s C/ high 70s F /. As we enter September we start to see some of the hottest temperatures topside as well as our ‘wet season’. The wet season is when we have the highest chances of seeing a rain storm or hurricane coming through the area – but keep in mind Los Cabos only sees only a few days of rain each year, while averaging only 25cm / 10 inches of total rain the year. So even though it might be technically our ‘rainy season’, most of the month is dry. September is one of my favorite months for diving in Los Cabos because it’s the low season in terms of tourism – meaning all the dive sites and areas are pretty quiet and the water is already warm and quite clear.

Autumn Wildlife in Los Cabos

Fair weather divers love the autumn season in Los Cabos since it’s when the waters are warmest and clearest. Most divers are fine in a rash guard and shorts or leggings in the autumn. The sea lions return from mating season to their colony at Land’s End in Cabo San Lucas. We also usually see massive schools of sardines and other fish arriving with the warm waters. This kicks off some awesome actions as the sea lions, birds, and larger fish all come in to hunt them. Some years the sardines will line the coastline inside the bay in such big schools that it makes the water look black from above. The water isn’t actually black, instead what you are seeing is the massive amount of sardines just below the surface. 

The warm crystal clear waters this time of year really let Cabo shine underwater. All the bright colored reef fish and red fan corals seem to come to life. Out at Gordo Banks it’s a great time to spot hammerhead sharks and other pelagic marine life. The hammerheads are there all year round, but the clear blue waters makes it super easy to spot the big schools as the cruise by out in the blue. Over in Cabo Pulmo it’s an amazing time to see the gigantic schools of jacks. Plus the warm waters all around the peninsula just make it super nice for diving. 

For underwater photographers this is one of the best times to shoot in Los Cabos because the water clarity is near perfect. Once we start seeing the return of the humpbacks and mobula rays in late November we know the winter season is returning. The water will remain pretty warm into January, then begin to cool down.