(Cabo San Lucas) — There are lots of ways to get out on the water to tour the rocks and beaches along the tip of the Baja Penninsula — party cruises, whale watching boats, tour groups — you’ve seen a million pictures of them, but I highly recommend you splurge a little and just charter your own boat, a sailboat even. For about $300-400 — whether its two people, two couples or six — for just a little bit more you can get your own ride and not have to deal with a bunch of drunken Spring Breakers woo-wooing and pounding beers and bumming your mellow.

We chartered through our hotel through CaboSails, very professional, very attentive crew that left the itinerary up to us. We took off right before sunset, with open bar and endless apps. We saw whales, we saw beaches and we were able to truly enjoy the setting sun. We brought our own iPod music and not the blaring boom-she-boom-boom we heard on the overly packed passing bucks. Ask for the sailboat crewed by Captain Juan and his faithful guide/bartender/chef Pancho. They were overly accommodating and turned us on to stuff the big boats would never have time to show you.  They ask what you want to do and see and adapt the tour to do just that. Doesn’t get any better. We did a sunset cruise, but think it would be equally cool to do first thing in the morning light bouncing perfectly off the arches and beaches.