Camel Rides in Cabo San Lucas: Best Tours, Prices & Reviews (2026)

Three operators run the camel tours in Cabo San Lucas worth booking: Cabo Adventures (beach rides, the sunset ride, and the full eco-ranch day), Cactus Tours (the quick beach encounter and the UTV and ATV beach combos), and Wild Canyon (the canyon ride with water slides). What you're really choosing between is format and how much the camel is the main event: a short beach ride and photo encounter, a sunset ride with a Mexican buffet and tequila tasting, a half-day combo that adds a UTV or ATV, or a canyon ride paired with water slides. In our view the things to check before booking are the camel saddle time, the group-size cap, whether hotel pickup is included, and the separate park or entrance fee (around $25) charged on arrival.

ℹ️ All tours and information were personally reviewed by our team on April 2026. Prices and availability may change — always confirm with the operator before booking.

Camel rides in Cabo San Lucas are guided desert-and-beach tours where you ride dromedary camels along the Pacific coast, usually combined with an eco-ranch experience, a Mexican buffet, a tequila tasting, or an ATV adventure.

It's one of the more unusual things you can do in Mexico. The tour takes you on dromedary camels through the Baja desert: past cardon cacti that stand taller than most houses, through sandy arroyos, and eventually out to a stretch of Pacific coastline that you won't reach by car. The whole route runs along the desert shelf above the Pacific, so you get the dry, rocky Baja landscape on one side and open ocean on the other.

These Cabo camel tours run year-round and require no riding experience. The camels are dromedaries (one hump), accustomed to tourists, and led by handlers who walk alongside the group. The options range from a 1-hour beach ride and encounter (from $95) to 3 to 5 hour experiences that add a Mexican buffet, tequila tasting, and a UTV or ATV segment (up to $149); a separate Wild Canyon tour pairs the camels with water slides. Most include hotel pickup or round-trip transport. If you're still mapping out your itinerary, see our full guide to the best things to do in Cabo San Lucas for more ideas, or our Cabo San Lucas itinerary guide for day-by-day planning help.

The tour operates year-round, but the experience varies significantly by season:

• November–April: The most comfortable window. Desert temperatures stay in the 70s–80s°F, and the chance of rain is minimal. This overlaps with whale watching season, so it's easy to combine both in a single trip.
• May–October: Hotter. Desert heat can push past 95°F by midday. Sunset tours (departing 3–4 PM) are the better call during summer months. Humidity picks up in August and September during the brief rainy season.

Sunset tours sell faster than morning ones regardless of season. If you have a specific date in mind, we'd book ahead rather than waiting to sort it out in Cabo.

The full-day and sunset tours follow a similar structure:

• Hotel pickup: A van collects you from your hotel in the Cabo San Lucas or San José del Cabo hotel zone. Drive to the desert staging area is 15–20 minutes.
• Orientation: Guides introduce the camels, show you how to mount and dismount, and explain the basic riding position. This takes 10–15 minutes.
• Desert ride: The main ride covers roughly 3–4 miles through desert terrain. It's a walking pace; camels don't trot or canter on these tours. Saddle time varies by tour: shorter packages run about 45–60 minutes in the saddle; longer full-experience tours give you 2+ hours of riding spread across the desert and beach segments.
• Beach or eco-ranch stop: Most tours build in a stop at a secluded Pacific beach or a working ranch. Longer tours include a full Mexican buffet and tequila tasting at the ranch. This is a proper sit-down meal, not just a quick snack.
• Add-ons: Several tours combine the camel ride with a UTV or ATV segment, water slides, or an eco-farm visit. The two Cactus Tours combos give you about an hour of driving plus an hour of beach camel riding, and the Wild Canyon tour adds canyon water slides and hanging bridges.
• Return ride: The ride back follows the same trail. Total saddle time across the full tour is typically 1.5–3 hours depending on which package you book.

The pace is slow and the terrain is mostly flat. It's genuinely accessible for most fitness levels and for children from around age 4 to 5 upward (the canyon ride takes ages 4+, the beach rides ages 5+). Plan your day around the format: the standalone beach ride and encounter runs about 1 hour, while the sunset, eco-ranch, and UTV or ATV combo tours run 3 to 5 hours door-to-door.

Get a feel for what the tour is actually like: the desert terrain, the camels up close, and the Pacific views along the route.

A standard Cabo camel tour starts at $74 USD per person for a beach ride with a Mexican buffet and tequila tasting. UTV and ATV combos that add an hour of driving run $115–$149. On top of that, most operators charge a separate park or entrance fee (around $25) on arrival. What affects price:

• What's included: The $74 sunset beach ride already covers hotel pickup, the camel ride, a Mexican buffet, and a tequila tasting, so the entry price is better value than it looks. We think the jump to the $115–$149 combos is mostly the added UTV or ATV driving time, not a better camel ride.
• Group size: The highest-volume Viator tour ($74 entry) runs large groups of up to ~70 and is the most value-for-money option. Smaller semi-private tours (max ~14 riders) cost a bit more but give you a quieter experience. What matters more than price is the group size cap; the difference between a 70-person convoy and a 14-person ride is significant in terms of how much the guide can engage with each rider.
• Add-on activities: Packages that bundle a UTV or ATV run $115–$149 (Cactus Tours), and the Wild Canyon canyon-and-water-slides combo is $115. These full-activity days cost more because of the driving and park access, not the camel time.
• Don't forget the entrance fee: A roughly $25 per-person park or insurance fee is charged on arrival on most tours and isn't included in the online price. Read the confirmation email for the exact breakdown.

Children's pricing (usually ages 6–12) tends to run 20–30% less than adult rates. Most operators require children under 6 to ride with an adult. Check current prices on Viator to compare what's available on your dates.

Short answer: yes for most visitors, with one caveat. The camel ride itself is short, about 20 minutes along the beach, so the tours that feel worth it are the ones where the desert scenery, the ATV segment, the eco-ranch, and the Mexican buffet and tequila tasting are as much of the draw as the camels. Booked with that expectation, it consistently lands as one of the more memorable half-days in Cabo. Here's how it breaks down by traveler:

• Families: A strong yes. The pace is slow, no riding experience is needed, and tours take children from around age 4 to 5 (younger kids ride with an adult). The variety of camels, ATVs, ranch animals, water slides, and a beach stop holds kids' attention better than a single-activity tour.
• Couples: Worth it for the novelty and the Pacific-beach setting, especially on a sunset departure. If you want something quieter and more romantic, book a smaller-group or semi-private option (capped around 14 riders) rather than the 70-rider convoy.
• Cruise visitors: Stick to the short option. The full eco-ranch and combo days run 3 to 5 hours door-to-door and the sites are 20 to 30+ minutes out, which is tight against an all-aboard time. The 1-hour Beach Camel Ride and Encounter (from $95, round-trip transport included) is the safer cruise-day choice.
• Adventure travelers: Manage expectations. The camels walk single file and the ATVs run convoy-style at a slow, guided pace, so this is scenery and novelty, not adrenaline. If speed and self-driving are the point, an ATV tour on its own is the better fit (see the next section).
• Who should skip it: Anyone whose only interest is a long camel ride. The saddle time on the beach is brief, so if the camel is the sole draw, the ATV and ranch portions can feel like filler. Riders near the 220 to 240 lb weight limit should also confirm the operator's policy before booking.

Camel rides and ATV tours are the two signature Baja desert experiences in Cabo, and a lot of visitors choose between them. The honest answer is that they're different experiences, and in Cabo they often overlap: many camel packages already bundle an ATV segment on the same desert property. Here's how to decide.

Our take: choose the camel tour if you want a relaxed, all-ages half-day with a bit of everything (camels, a short ATV leg, a ranch meal, and a Pacific beach), and choose a dedicated ATV tour if the driving itself is the point and you want more time behind the wheel. If you can't decide, the camel-plus-ATV combo packages on this page give you both in one booking, which is why we'd lean toward those for first-time visitors.

Because the camel tour runs for half a day, it pairs well with other Cabo activities on the same day or trip, and we'd especially lean toward the morning-ride-plus-afternoon-snorkel combination for the best use of a single day:

• Morning camel ride + afternoon snorkeling: Do the camel ride early, then head out to Pelican Rock or Chileno Bay in the afternoon. Both are accessible from the Cabo marina.
• Camel ride + ATV or UTV: You don't have to book these separately. The Cactus Tours combos in the table above bundle an hour of beach camel riding with an hour of UTV or ATV driving in one trip; for a dedicated off-road day instead, see our Cabo ATV tour guide.
• Camel ride + horseback: The same desert and Pacific beaches at Playa Migriño host both animals. Cactus Tours' Beach UTV adventure bundles a camel ride and a horseback ride in one day; if you'd rather actually steer your own animal, see our Cabo horseback riding guide.
• Camel ride + whale watching (December–April): A whale watching departure typically finishes by noon, leaving the afternoon clear for a sunset camel ride.

The three operators behind these Los Cabos camel tours run from different sites around the region, not from the marina itself. Cabo Adventures is closest to Cabo San Lucas, Wild Canyon sits in the Tourist Corridor at El Tule canyon toward San José del Cabo, and Cactus Tours is north of town toward the Pacific at Migriño. Hotel pickup or round-trip transport is included on most tours, so you won't need to drive yourself. The map shows where each one is and how it's rated.

• Budget for the park or entrance fee on arrival. Most tours charge a separate fee of around $25 per person that isn't included online. The UTV and ATV combos add vehicle insurance on top (often $40 to $45 per vehicle), so those days can run $60 or more above the listed price. Read the confirmation email for the exact breakdown.
• Read the confirmation email the day before. Pickup is typically scheduled 1.5 hours before the activity start time, departing from your hotel. Missing the van means missing the tour.
• The camel ride runs about 20 minutes along the beach, tethered in single file. It's scenic and a genuine experience, but it's brief. The ATV portion through desert and beach terrain is the longer activity. If the camel ride is your main draw, set expectations accordingly.
• Claim a solo ATV seat early if you want to drive. ATVs can be ridden solo or tandem, but guides don't always proactively offer the switch. Speak up at the start if you want your own vehicle rather than sharing.
• Leave your phone secured: you won't be able to use it during activities. The operator photographs everything and sells packages from around $200. Budget for this if you want photos, or factor in the no-phone policy when deciding.
• Experienced ATV riders should know the pace is slow and convoy-style. The route is a guided trail designed for all experience levels. The desert and beach terrain make it fun regardless, but it's not open riding; lower your expectations on speed and you'll enjoy it more.
• The facility is 30+ minutes from the marina by van. Plan for a genuine half-day commitment; this isn't a quick loop from town.
• Wear long pants. The saddle has padding but inner-thigh chafing is real on longer rides; leggings or lightweight trousers are better than shorts. Bring a neck gaiter if you're prone to dust.
• Closed-toe shoes are required. Sandals and flip-flops won't be allowed on the ATVs or the camel. Sneakers are fine.
• Sunset tours fill faster. In December–April especially, sunset departures book out days ahead. Morning tours have more availability.