Loreto sits between the Sierra de la Giganta and the Bay of Loreto National Park — five islands and the water around them, protected since 1996 and listed by UNESCO.
Coronado has a white sand spit and a sea lion colony; Danzante and Carmen have cliffs dropping into clear water. Boats, kayaks and paddleboards all go out from the town waterfront, and the bay is calm enough that a novice paddler is not taking a risk. Diving is uncrowded and the fish are large.
In winter, Loreto is the usual base for the drive across the peninsula to Magdalena Bay, where grey whales calve between January and March after swimming down from the Arctic. The mothers there regularly bring their calves alongside the boats to be touched — behaviour recorded nowhere else at this scale, and the reason that trip is worth the three hours in a van.
Inland, the Misión San Javier, an hour up a mountain road, is the best-preserved of the Baja missions, and rock art sites in the sierra can be visited with a registered guide.