The flag system
Beaches in Los Cabos post a coloured flag daily based on measured conditions. Green means safe, yellow means caution, red means the water is closed, and black means closed and dangerous.
The flags change day to day with the swell, not with the weather. A cloudless 85°F day can carry a red flag, and it means what it says.
The beaches that are actually swimmable
Chileno Bay is the best all-round swimming beach in the region: protected, gentle entry, bathrooms, a free car park, and good snorkelling on the rock at either end. Santa María Cove, two minutes east, is better for snorkelling and worse for parking.
Palmilla is larger and calmer with a boat launch. Medano Beach in Cabo San Lucas is the town's swimming beach — protected water, very busy, and the only one where you will be approached by vendors continuously.
If you are caught in a rip current
A rip current pulls you out, not under. The instinct to swim straight back to the beach is what exhausts people.
- Do not fight it. Swimming directly against a rip is how strong swimmers drown.
- Swim parallel to the shore until you are out of the pull, then angle in.
- If you cannot swim out of it, float, keep your head up, and raise an arm.
Sun and heat
The other water-adjacent risk is the sun. Los Cabos sits at 23° north in a desert climate and the UV index regularly exceeds 11 between April and September. Reef-safe sunscreen is required at Cabo Pulmo and in the protected coves, and is the right choice everywhere.
On a boat, the reflected UV roughly doubles the exposure. Long sleeves beat reapplication.