Wanderlines
Aerial view of the rock formations at Land's End, Los Cabos, at sunrise
Mexico · Baja California Sur

Los Cabos

The tip of a thousand-kilometre peninsula, where the Pacific meets the Sea of Cortez under a granite arch. Desert to the water's edge, whales in the bay for a third of the year, and a reef that came back from the dead.

Jump to divingWhales
Photo: Vladimir Miranda via Pexels
Overview

Two towns and a corridor

Los Cabos is two places joined by 30 kilometres of coast road. Cabo San Lucas, at the very tip, is the marina, the party, the arch and the beaches that face the Sea of Cortez. San José del Cabo, to the east, is the old mission town with a plaza, a gallery district and the better restaurants. Between them runs the Corridor, a string of resorts and golf courses above coves of surprising emptiness, and behind everything rises the Sierra de la Laguna, a desert range with oak forest and waterfalls at the top.

The sea is the reason to come. Humpbacks arrive in December and stay until April; whale sharks gather off La Paz through the winter; sea lions hold the rocks at Land's End; and two hours north, Cabo Pulmo is the only hard-coral reef in the Sea of Cortez and the most successful marine reserve in the Americas.

Four days covers the arch, a dive, a whale trip and a dinner in San José. A week adds Todos Santos, Cabo Pulmo and the canyons.

The famous arch of Cabo San Lucas from the water
Cabo San LucasThe marina, El Arco, Médano beach, the dive boats and the late nights.
San José del CaboThe mission plaza, the art district, the estuary, the farm restaurants and the Thursday art walk.
The Corridor & East CapeChileno and Santa María bays, the resorts, then the dirt road to Cabo Pulmo.
Pacific sideTodos Santos, El Pescadero, the surf beaches and the road north to La Paz.
Highlights

What to see first

Nine places from the arch to the reef. Hire a car for the ones beyond the Corridor; the roads are good and the distances are honest.

The rock formations of the arch at sunrise
The icon

El Arco & Land's End

The granite arch at the end of the peninsula, where the two seas meet. Water taxis from the marina or Médano beach circle it in 20 minutes and drop you at Playa del Amor, the sand between the rocks with the Sea of Cortez on one side and the unswimmable Pacific (Playa del Divorcio) on the other. Sea lions on the rocks, pelicans overhead.

El Arco in detail →
A rock formation beside the sea
Beaches

Chileno, Santa María and Médano

Most of the coast is too rough to swim. The exceptions are the Corridor's coves: Chileno Bay, with a reef for snorkelling and shade palapas, and the horseshoe of Santa María, both with lifeguards and flags. Médano, in town, is the long swimmable beach of bars, jet skis and boats to the arch.

The beaches in detail →
A school of fish over a coral reef
Marine park

Cabo Pulmo

Two hours north on the East Cape, a village of a hundred people beside a 20,000-year-old coral reef. The community banned fishing in 1995 and the fish biomass rose more than four hundred per cent: bull sharks, bait balls, giant groupers, turtles and mobulas in a protected bay. Dive, snorkel, or sleep in a beach cabaña. No ATM, no fuel.

Cabo Pulmo in detail →
Aerial view of the Cabo San Lucas coastline
Old town

San José del Cabo

A 1730 mission, a shaded plaza, and the gallery district of Obregón street, which opens its doors with wine and music for the Thursday Art Walk from November to June. The estuary at the end of town has birds; the farm restaurants on its edge have the best tables in Los Cabos.

San José del Cabo in detail →
A humpback whale breaching, in black and white
December to April

The whales

Humpbacks breach within sight of the marina for four months of the year, with grey whales further north and the occasional blue. Boats leave from both towns every morning in season; the zodiacs get closest. More in the wildlife section.

The whales in detail →
A cactus on a hill above the Mexican coast
Pacific side

Todos Santos & El Pescadero

An hour north-west, an oasis town of 1880s brick houses, galleries, the Hotel California and a farm-to-table scene that outgrew the town. Cerritos beach below it is the swimmable, surfable Pacific beach. El Pescadero, between them, is farms, surf camps and the best Bib Gourmand lunch in Baja.

Todos Santos in detail →
Aerial view of an island in turquoise water
Day trip · Overnight

La Paz, Balandra and Espíritu Santo

Two hours north, the state capital on its bay: a malecón for sunset, Balandra beach, the shallow turquoise horseshoe that is Mexico's prettiest, and boats to Isla Espíritu Santo, a UNESCO island of sea-lion colonies and empty coves. Whale sharks feed in the bay from October to April.

La Paz in detail →
A cactus standing in the desert
Mountains

Sierra de la Laguna

The granite spine behind the coast, a biosphere reserve rising to 2,000 metres with oak and pine on top and waterfalls in its canyons. Fox Canyon's pool and the Sol de Mayo falls near Santiago are the easy way in; the Picacho summit is a two-day trek. Hot springs at Santiago and Agua Caliente on the way.

Sierra de la Laguna in detail →
The deck of a yacht with the ocean beyond
On the water

The marina and the sunset sail

Cabo's marina is the hub: dive boats, sport-fishing charters (the town calls itself the marlin capital), glass-bottom taxis and the evening catamarans that sail round the arch with the sun going into the Pacific. Pick a boat with fewer than 20 people and a real bar.

The sunset sail in detail →
Hikes & nature

Canyons, pools and the mountain behind the coast

Baja's desert is a walking desert from November to April: cool mornings, cardón forests, and canyons with water at the bottom. In summer start at dawn and finish by ten.

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Walking season: teal = cool and clear, green = warm shoulder, grey = hot (dawn starts only; September has hurricane risk).

A tall cactus in the desert
Moderate

Fox Canyon (Cañón de la Zorra) and the Sol de Mayo falls

Ninety minutes north near Santiago, a short, steep trail drops into a granite canyon in the Sierra de la Laguna to a freshwater pool under a 12-metre waterfall, with a second, bigger pool and the Sol de Mayo cascade further up. Swim, climb the boulders, dry off on the warm rock. The trailhead crosses private ranch land with a small fee.

Full trail guide →Full route guide →
3 kmreturn
1.5–2 hwalking
Steep stepseffort

Guided day tours from Cabo run about seven hours; with a car you can add the Santiago hot springs and the Tropic of Cancer marker on the way back.

A cactus on a hill above the coast
Moderate

Mount Solmar and the Pacific cliffs

The rocky hill above the marina, climbed from behind the Solmar hotel by a scrambly trail that gains 120 metres in under a kilometre. The top looks down on the arch, the harbour and the Pacific breakers on the other side, with frigatebirds at eye level. The locals' sunrise walk.

Full trail guide →Full route guide →
2 kmreturn
1 hwalking
120 mascent

Go early; the rock is hot and shadeless by nine. The trail is informal and occasionally closed, so ask at the hotel gate.

A green valley below mountains
Demanding

Sierra de la Laguna: the Picacho trek

The range's summit plateau, 2,000 metres above the desert, is a lost world of oak, pine and meadow with its own species and a view of both seas. The classic route climbs from the ranchos above Santiago or from Todos Santos on the Pacific side with mules and a local guide, camping a night in the pines. Cool nights, hot days, no water on the ascent.

Full trail guide →Full route guide →
2–3 dayswith camp
1,600 mascent
2,090 mPicacho

Arrange through a Santiago or Todos Santos guide; the trails are unmarked. November to March only.

Easy · 1 h

San José estuary

End of Paseo Malecón, San José

A freshwater lagoon behind the beach with herons, egrets, kingfishers and the occasional crocodile sign. Boardwalk and birding path; best early.

Full route guide →
Easy · 2 h

Cerritos to Todos Santos beaches

Pacific side

Long walks on the empty Pacific sand between Cerritos and Punta Lobos, where the fishermen launch pangas through the surf each afternoon. Do not swim beyond Cerritos.

Full route guide →
Half day

Hot springs at Santiago and Agua Caliente

Near Fox Canyon

Natural pools in the riverbeds of the sierra's foothills, free or near enough, hot enough to matter in January.

Full route guide →
Scuba & snorkel

The reef that came back, and the rocks at the end of the world

Jacques Cousteau called the Sea of Cortez the world's aquarium. Los Cabos has three kinds of diving: the sea-lion rocks and sand falls at Land's End, the hammerhead seamount offshore, and, two hours north, the coral reef of Cabo Pulmo.

Water is warmest and clearest from August to November, 26–29°C with 20 metres and more; December to March drops to 20°C with plankton, which is what brings the whales and the mobulas. Boats from the Cabo marina reach the local sites in 15 minutes; Cabo Pulmo is a day trip or, better, two nights in the village.
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Dive season: teal = warmest water and best visibility, green = cooler with big animals, grey = none; it dives all year.

A scuba diver swimming with fish
The reason to comeOpen Water to Advanced

Cabo Pulmo National Park

Eight fingers of hard coral running out from the beach, the oldest reef on the Pacific coast of the Americas and, since the village stopped fishing in 1995, the fullest. El Vencedor is a wreck wrapped in a bait ball of jacks with bull sharks cruising through it; El Bajo and Los Morros hold the giant groupers and turtles; Los Frailes, the sea-lion colony at the south end, is the snorkel. Visibility runs 10 to 30 metres depending on the month.

5–25 mdepth
OW / Advancedlevel
10–30 mvisibility
Aug–Novbest

Three village dive shops run two-tank mornings from pangas on the beach; the park caps numbers, so book. The last 10 kilometres of road are dirt.

Cabo Pulmo in detail →
A California sea lion in the water
Open Water

Land's End, Pelican Rock and the Sand Falls

The dives beneath the arch, a 15-minute boat ride from the marina. Pelican Rock is the easy one, a boulder reef at 6 to 20 metres with schooling grunts, rays and the sea-lion colony playing in the shallows. The Sand Falls, found by Cousteau, is a submarine canyon where sand pours over a ledge at 30 metres into the dark. Neptune's Finger and the Point of Land's End add swim-throughs and, in season, a chance of a humpback singing through the water.

6–30 mdepth
Open Waterlevel
8–20 mvisibility
Sep–Decbest

A two-tank morning gets you back for lunch. Snorkellers go to Pelican Rock and Chileno Bay.

Land's End in detail →
Divers in blue water with sharks
Advanced · deep

Gordo Banks

A seamount 13 kilometres off San José del Cabo whose top sits at 40 metres, so the dive is a blue-water descent down a line into current, with schooling hammerheads some days, nothing on others. Big tuna, mobulas and the occasional whale shark pass through. Advanced certification, nitrox and a tolerance for uncertainty.

35–45 mdepth
Advancedlevel
10–25 mvisibility
Sep–Novbest

Boats leave from the San José marina at Puerto Los Cabos. Go on the calmest forecast you can find.

Day trip

Los Islotes, La Paz

Espíritu Santo · all year, closed June–Aug for pupping

The friendliest sea-lion colony in Mexico: pups that nibble fins and spin around you in 5 to 15 metres of water. Snorkel or dive from La Paz.

Snorkel

Chileno and Santa María bays

The Corridor · mornings

Rock reef from the beach with angelfish, puffers and the occasional turtle. Calm before the afternoon wind.

Liveaboard

Socorro and the Revillagigedos

24 hours by boat from Cabo · Nov–May

Giant mantas, dolphins and schooling hammerheads at the volcanic islands 400 kilometres south. The week-long liveaboards leave from the Cabo marina.

Wildlife

The biggest animals in the sea, on schedule

The Sea of Cortez is where the Pacific's giants come to breed and feed. Los Cabos has a calendar: humpbacks in winter, whale sharks and mobulas in the shoulder months, turtles hatching in autumn.

Humpback whales

Off both towns · 15 December to 15 April, peak January–March

Several thousand humpbacks migrate from Alaska to calve and court in the warm water around the cape. Breaches, tail slaps and mothers with calves within a kilometre of the marina; the males sing, and the dive boats cut their engines to listen. Licensed boats only, with the season fixed by law. Greys are occasional here and the certainty 500 kilometres north in Magdalena Bay.

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Whale sharks

Bay of La Paz · October to April

Juvenile whale sharks feed on plankton in the shallow bay off La Paz, two hours north, and the swim-with programme is tightly regulated: small boats, a few snorkellers at a time, no touching. The most reliable whale-shark encounter in Mexico outside the summer Caribbean season.

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Mobula rays and sea lions

Cabo, La Paz and Cabo Pulmo

Mobulas gather in schools of thousands in late spring and again in autumn, leaping out of the water in the evenings off the Pacific beaches and the East Cape. California sea lions hold Land's End all year and Los Islotes most of it. Dolphins ride the bows of every boat.

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Sea turtles

Beaches of both coasts · nesting Aug–Nov, hatchlings Sep–Dec

Olive ridleys and leatherbacks nest on the Pacific beaches; conservation groups in Todos Santos and San José run evening hatchling releases from September, where you carry a cup of newborns to the tideline at sunset. Green turtles graze the reef at Cabo Pulmo all year.

JFMAMJJASOND
A whale surfacing, in black and white
Winter

Humpbacks

Zodiacs get closest and bounce most; catamarans are gentler.

Whale watching in detail →
A whale shark swimming underwater
La Paz

Whale sharks

Ten metres of fish moving at walking pace. Fins only; no touching, no flash.

La Paz in detail →
A sea turtle swimming over a reef
Cabo Pulmo

Green turtles

Grazing the reef fingers in the afternoon light.

Cabo Pulmo in detail →
Choose operators with the park permits and the small-group limits, and skip anything that promises swimming with whales or dolphins; it is illegal here and the boats that offer it are the ones to avoid.
Good food

Fish tacos, farm tables and the desert's own kitchen

Baja Med is the peninsula's cooking: Pacific seafood, Sea of Cortez fish, ranch beef, Mediterranean technique and the farms of the sierra's foothills. Los Cabos does it at every price from a taco cart to a tasting menu in a resort.

A crispy fish taco with salsa on a dark plate
Eat this

Fish tacos

Baja invented them: beer-battered fish in a warm corn tortilla with cabbage, crema and a line of salsas. Shrimp, marlin and the smoked-marlin version come next. Tacos Gardenias in Cabo has made them for 30 years; Tacos Rossy in San José is where the town eats them.

Tacos with pickled onion and lime
Eat this

Aguachile, ceviche and the chocolate clam

Raw shrimp cured in lime and chilli water is the Sinaloan dish that Baja adopted; ceviche tostadas come with everything from the morning boats. The chocolate clam, the Sea of Cortez's own, is eaten raw with lime or grilled with butter on the East Cape beaches.

A platter of Mexican tacos
Eat this

Ranch and farm

Arrachera from the sierra ranches over mesquite, machaca at breakfast, damiana liqueur after dinner. The farm restaurants of San José and El Pescadero grow their own vegetables in the desert and build the menu around what came out that morning.

Fine dining

The top table

Cocina de Autor

Grand Velas, the Corridor · dinner, booking essential

Sidney Schutte's long tasting menu in the Corridor's quietest dining room, with Baja produce under Dutch and Michelin-trained discipline. The most serious cooking on the peninsula and priced like it.

MX$4,500–6,500 · $$$$
On the beach

Manta

The Cape, Cabo San Lucas · dinner

Enrique Olvera's Baja restaurant on a terrace above the surf, with the arch in view: raw bar, wood-fired fish, Japanese and Peruvian accents on Mexican ingredients. Book the sunset sitting.

MX$2,000–3,500 · $$$$
Farm

Acre

Above San José del Cabo · dinner

A restaurant in a palm grove on a working farm, with treehouses, a mezcal bar and a menu grown on the property. The kitchen carries a Michelin Green Star for the way it farms; the room is the best in San José for an evening.

MX$1,500–2,800 · $$$
Sushi institution

Nicksan

Cabo San Lucas and Palmilla · dinner

Japanese-Mexican fusion from a Cabo family that has done it since 1994: tuna tostadas, lobster rolls, the serrano-and-cilantro sashimi that half the town copied. Counter seats are the way.

MX$1,200–2,500 · $$$
Cliffside

El Farallón

Waldorf Astoria Pedregal · dinner

A market-style fish restaurant cut into the Pacific cliffs, with the catch displayed on ice and the waves breaking below. Order by the kilo, grilled, with the champagne terrace first.

MX$2,000–4,000 · $$$$

Bib Gourmand

Bib Gourmand

Metate

Cabo San Lucas · lunch and dinner

Regional Mexican cooking in town at honest prices: moles, cochinita, hand-pressed tortillas, a short mezcal list. The Bib in Cabo proper.

MX$400–700 · $$
Bib Gourmand

Flora's Field Kitchen

Flora Farms, above San José · lunch and dinner

The original farm restaurant, on ten acres of vegetables with its own bakery, charcuterie and bar. Wood-fired pizzas, farm salads, pork from the ranch, Sunday brunch under the trees.

MX$600–1,100 · $$
Bib Gourmand

Cocina de Campo by Agricole

El Pescadero, Pacific side · breakfast and lunch

An open kitchen on an organic farm between Todos Santos and Cerritos: eggs and vegetables from the fields, fish from the pangas at Punta Lobos, bread from the oven. The best lunch on the Pacific side.

MX$350–650 · $$

Taquerías and the locals' places

Institution

Tacos Gardenias

Cabo San Lucas, Paseo de la Marina · breakfast and lunch

Thirty years of beer-battered fish and shrimp tacos, ceviche and shrimp cocktails. The benchmark.

MX$60–180 · $
Locals' pick

Tacos Rossy & Tacos Guss

San José del Cabo; Cabo San Lucas · lunch

The two taquerías every local names first: Rossy for fish and marlin in San José, Guss for carne asada and al pastor in Cabo.

MX$40–150 · $
Seafood

Los Claros

Cabo San Lucas · lunch

Scallop, smoked-marlin and shrimp tacos at a counter that fishermen eat at. Cheap, fast, excellent.

MX$50–160 · $
Mezcal and tacos

La Lupita

San José del Cabo and Cabo · dinner

Modern tacos, a long mezcal list and live music in a courtyard. Where San José goes after the Art Walk.

MX$300–600 · $$
Breakfast

Lolita Café

Cabo San Lucas, Niños Héroes · mornings

Chilaquiles, machaca with eggs, fresh juices and proper coffee in a courtyard off the main drag. The morning after the marina.

MX$150–300 · $
Todos Santos

Jazamango & Oystera

Todos Santos · lunch and dinner

Jazamango for wood-fire cooking in a garden; Oystera for Pacific oysters and chocolate clams with a Baja wine list, out by the beach.

MX$600–1,200 · $$$
Nightlife

Two towns, two speeds

Cabo San Lucas goes until five in the morning around the marina; San José del Cabo has gallery openings, rooftop bars and a bed by midnight. Choose your town by your evening.

The strip

Marina Boulevard and Lázaro Cárdenas

Cabo San Lucas · 10pm to 5am

The block where Cabo's reputation was made: El Squid Roe's three floors of dancing on tables, Cabo Wabo with its house band and tequila, Mandala and Pink Kitty for the club crowd with bottle service. Loud, young, and exactly what it says.

Rooftops and mezcal

La Biblioteca, The Rooftop at The Cape & Médano sunset bars

Corridor hotels and Médano beach · sunset onward

La Biblioteca at the Hilton is a library of tequila and mezcal with a sommelier; The Cape's rooftop has the arch in the frame; the Médano beach bars (The Office, Mango Deck) do the sand-between-the-toes sundowner before the strip.

San José

The Art Walk and the gallery bars

Obregón street, Thursdays 5–9pm, November to June

Galleries open with wine and music, the plaza fills, and the evening moves to La Lupita's courtyard, the mezcalerías on Obregón and the rooftop at Tropicana. The civilised night out.

Todos Santos

Hotel California bar and the surf bars

Todos Santos and Cerritos · evenings

The hotel bar that borrowed its name from the song, live music on weekends, then the open-air surf bars at Cerritos beach for a beer with the sunset.

Wine

Baja's own bottles, a long way from the vines

Mexico's wine country, the Valle de Guadalupe, is at the other end of the peninsula near Ensenada, but its wines are on every good list in Los Cabos and the better restaurants pour them by the glass.

A glass filled with red wine

What to ask for

The Valle de Guadalupe makes Mediterranean-style wines in a hot, dry climate: Nebbiolo, Tempranillo and Cabernet blends with real grip, Chenin Blanc and Sauvignon Blanc for the seafood, and a growing number of natural and small-producer labels. Names to look for are Monte Xanic, Casa de Piedra, Vena Cava, Bruma, Lechuza and Adobe Guadalupe; Hugo d'Acosta's wines from Paralelo and Casa de Piedra are the benchmark.

In Los Cabos the deepest lists are at the Corridor's fine-dining rooms, which carry both the Valle and the rest of the world; Oystera in Todos Santos and the wine bars of San José's art district are the places to drink Baja by the glass without a tasting menu attached. Mezcal and tequila remain the local religion, and damiana, the herbal liqueur of the sierra, is the digestif.

Wine bar

La Osteria and the Obregón wine bars

San José del Cabo art district · evenings

Italian plates, live music and a Valle de Guadalupe list by the glass in a garden off the gallery street; two or three smaller wine bars on the same block for a second glass.

Deepest list

The Corridor cellars

Cocina de Autor, Manta, El Farallón

Sommeliers, Baja verticals and the big international names. Ask for the Mexican pairing; it is usually the better one.

Pacific side

Oystera, Todos Santos

Near Punta Lobos · lunch and dinner

Oysters and chocolate clams with Baja whites and sparkling, which is how the valley's wines were meant to be drunk.

Practical notes

Before you go

Getting there

Los Cabos International Airport (SJD) is 15 minutes from San José and 45 from Cabo San Lucas, with direct flights from most of North America and from Mexico City. Shared shuttles and pre-booked transfers are cheaper than the airport taxi rank; the resort-sales desks in arrivals are best walked past.

Getting around

A hire car makes the East Cape, Todos Santos, La Paz and the canyons easy; the highway is good and the dirt roads are fine for a standard car except the last stretch to Cabo Pulmo in rain. Taxis are expensive; the local bus runs the Corridor every 20 minutes for a few pesos.

Seasons

  • Dec–Apr: dry, warm, whales; the busiest and priciest months, especially Christmas and spring break.
  • May–Jun: hot, quiet, mobulas, good value.
  • Jul–Sep: very hot and humid, best diving, hurricane risk in September.
  • Oct–Nov: warm water, clear, whale sharks returning; the sweet spot.

The sea

Most beaches have rip currents and no lifeguards; swim only where there are flags: Médano, Chileno, Santa María, Palmilla, Balandra and Cerritos. The Pacific side is for walking and surfing. Whale season and whale-shark trips are licensed and dated by law.

Money

Pesos, with dollars accepted and usually rounded against you. Cards everywhere in the resorts and restaurants, cash for taquerías, Cabo Pulmo, the canyons and tips. The 16 per cent tax and 10 to 15 per cent service are standard.

Where to stay

Cabo San Lucas for the marina, dive boats and nightlife; San José del Cabo for the plaza, galleries and restaurants; the Corridor for the resort coves; Todos Santos or Cabo Pulmo for two slower nights at either end.

Photography

Photo credits

Photographs on this page are by independent photographers published on Pexels under the free Pexels licence. Click a title to open the original.

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