Los Cabos Boat Excursions Can Be Interrupted If Passengers Don’t Have This Important Bracelet

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Last Updated 1 year ago

Tuesday morning, local boat tour providers held a protest at the Cabo San Lucas Marina, voicing their concerns against a tax that they have to charge to passengers that get on their boats. These service providers claim that tourists are being harassed by marina authorities to ensure that they make these payments. Ultimately this negative experience that tourists have led to smaller tips for boat tour captains and crew at the end of the trip, hence the protests.

Travelers Need A Yellow Bracelet To Get On A Boat In Cabo

The National Commission of Natural Protected Areas, or Conanp, has been legally awarded the right to charge a 3-dollar fee for every passenger on boat tours sailing out from the Cabo San Lucas Marina. Since the commission isn’t necessarily one of the most well-funded organizations within the Mexican government, charging this three-dollar fee per passenger is very important to them. Once tourists have paid the fee, they are granted a yellow bracelet that they would do well to keep on for the duration of their boating tour. 

Captains and crew of boats that offer tours to foreign and domestic travelers claim that people from the commission have come up to them even in open waters to check if the tourists on the boat are wearing the yellow bracelets. When they find that there are boats with people that are not wearing the bracelets, they have been known to force these tours back to the marina until the fee is paid. Naturally, tourists are not happy when they are forced to pause their trip and return to the marina over a few dollars.

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Ways To Avoid Being Stopped By Other Boats On A Cabo Boating Experience

For tourists, the best way to ensure that they are not forced to cut their trip short and return to the marina is to pay for these bracelets in advance. Before the boat sets sail, make sure that all of the passengers on the vessel are wearing their bracelets. One of the challenges to getting this seemingly straightforward procedure over with is that some boating tours don’t include this charge in their final price for the experience. 

When these tours don’t include that fee in their final price, either the boat sets sail with the passengers not wearing the bracelets, or the tour provider wants to charge the extra 3 dollars per person after the trip has already been paid for. Naturally, when travelers are forced to pay an extra fee that wasn’t originally agreed upon, that affects the tips they leave behind at the end of the tour. It may be better to ensure that this tax is paid for and the bracelets get handed out accordingly instead of risking being harassed at sea because people in the boat are not wearing their bracelets.

Other Hidden Fees That Tourists Should Be Aware of In Los Cabos

This 3-dollar per person fee that has to be paid in Los Cabos boating tours is by no means the only “hidden fee” that travelers are going to have to pay while in the region. Luckily, it seems to be the only fee that tourists are being tracked down for if they don’t pay it. All of the other “tourist taxes” that are paid in Los Cabos are typically charged within the total price for hotel rooms or vacation home rentals. 

These fees are going to be included in the price that you pay online or at the resort. You can always ask for a detailed price report at resorts to see how much of the cost per night is going towards the local government. There had been an issue primarily with Airbnb properties that were not paying this particular tax back to the local government.

Some local hotels were also involved in the scandal. At this point, though, no travelers have reportedly been detained for not paying these taxes. On the contrary, it’s been the resorts and vacation home rental companies that have been at odds with local authorities over this issue.