Like the commercial says…”Find your beach!”

SPRING BREAK DESTINATIONS

Originally published the week of Mar. 20, 2025 in Western Outdoor Publications

It’s officially on.

Although Easter and Easter Week/ Holy Week are still about a month away at the latter part of April, there’s no question that spring break is well underway in Mexico.

In Cabo San Lucas, almost 60,000 visitors arrived in a single week.  Almost 20,000 showed up during the weekend.  These numbers exceed previous expectations.

When all is said and done, it could break records.

Not surprisingly, Cabo was recently shown to be only behind Cancun as the most popular vacation destination in Mexico.

Bottom line is that if you haven’t already made reservations to travel in the next several weeks, you might be hard-pressed to find your spot on the beach.

What many folks don’t realize is that the traditional spring break/ Easter break time are the busiest travel times in Mexico.  They are busier than Christmas.  They are busier than Thanksgiving.

This is because you not only have foreign visitors from the U.S. and other countries flocking to Mexico.  You also have more Mexican nationals travelling as well.

Locals leave the country to visit friends and family or take vacations.  Likewise, many Mexicans return to Mexico to visit.  Add to that, many Mexicans travel to popular beach destinations for vacation such as Cabo, Cancun, Puerto Vallarta, etc.

It’s much like Americans flock to American beaches…or Disneyland.

Many Mexican locals take long periods off from work.

It makes for some crazy travel times.

Normally tranquil empty beaches become packed with visitors.  Hotels have been booked for months.  Rates are higher.

Airline seats can be equally expensive and hard to find.

The biggest change is that the extent of the spring break period has grown.

Traditionally, it could be expected that the week before Easter (Holy Week) and the week after Easter were the busy times.

That’s no longer the case.

Those periods were generally centered around school vacation times. Folks travel when they can get off work, but also when the kids aren’t in school.

But things have changed.

School districts have quarter systems and tri-mester systems. Vacation for students and families in Texas are different than those in Ohio.   California vacations are different from those in Washington, Indiana or other states.

Vacations often have nothing to do with the dates that Easter traditionally hits the calendar.

So, folks take vacations when they take vacations.  Destinations like Cabo, Cozumel, Acapulco and other popular spots certainly  welcome the business and have to be ready for the heavy influx.

Prospective travelers need to plan well in advance.  People are on the move.

What Mexican businesses are seeing is that increased travel trends really started about mid-March and appear to go through almost mid-May.  That’s a 6-7 week span of heavy travel.

So, if you’re planning to heading to Mexico, jump on it or be ready to be flexible on your travel plans.  Or forget it and start planning for summer!

That’s my story!

Jonathan

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Jonathan Roldan has been writing the Baja Column in Western Outdoor News since 2004.  Along with his wife and fishing buddy, Jilly, they own and run the Tailhunter International Fishing Fleet in La Paz, Baja, Mexico  http://www.tailhunter.com .  They also run their Tailhunter Restaurant Bar on the famous La Paz malecon waterfront.  If you’d like to contact him directly, his e-mail is: jonathan@tailhunter.com

Or drop by the restaurant to say hi.  It’s right on the La Paz waterfront!

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