Baja California Peninsula Events

Baja’s calendar is driven by the sea and the vineyard rather than by the religious year.

Grey whale season — mid-January to mid-April

Not a festival but the peninsula’s defining annual event. Grey whales complete one of the longest migrations of any mammal — around 8,000 kilometres from the Bering and Chukchi seas — to calve in three shallow Pacific lagoons on this coast. San Ignacio Lagoon is where the famous friendly whale behaviour happens: mothers approach small boats, sometimes pushing their calves alongside to be touched. It was first recorded in 1972, decades after the same lagoons had been whaling grounds, and nobody fully explains it. Boat numbers and times are strictly limited, camps on the lagoon book out months ahead, and the season is short.

Fiestas de la Vendimia — August

Three weeks of harvest celebration across the Valle de Guadalupe: winery dinners, blessings of the grapes, a paella competition and concerts among the vines. It is the region’s biggest event and accommodation in the valley and Ensenada fills.

Baja 1000 — November

An off-road race the length of the peninsula, running since 1967 and one of the most demanding motorsport events anywhere. It takes over the towns it passes through.

Mobula ray aggregations — May to July

Off the Gulf coast near Cabo Pulmo and the southern capes, mobula rays gather in schools that can run to thousands and leap clear of the water, landing flat with a crack audible some distance away. Nobody is certain why they do it. The aggregations are unpredictable in timing and location but reliably occur somewhere along that coast in early summer, and snorkelling among them is among the more extraordinary things available in Mexican waters.

Carnival — February or March

Ensenada and the southern state capital both hold substantial carnivals before Lent.