Ahhh Baja California travel…
We harboured dreams of wasting days carelessly cruising down the highway with the wind in our hair, taking in the craggy moonscapes to a road trip soundtrack of Bruce Springsteen.
Of nights spent alone on wilderness beaches, perched around campfires, sipping rum under skies filled with millions of gently flickering pin pricks. In reality this couldn’t have been further from the truth.
After hearing incredible things about Baja California, we were anticipating it being one of the most exciting legs of our epic journey around Mexico.
We had some lofty idea of renting a car, or maybe even a camper van, and driving the entire length of the peninsula from north to south.
Baja California The Reality
A quick check of the “widespreadness” of WiFi completely scuppered that plan, as we soon learned that outside of the larger towns, it’s virtually non existent.
That’s one of the drawbacks of being in our line of work – our itineraries are completely reliant on a strong connection, and if a place hasn’t got WiFi, then it just ain’t viable for us to visit it.
But we revised our expectations and settled for heading straight to one of the more popular cities, one we knew could cater to our 21st century requirements.
After grudgingly leaving behind the enticing bright lights of Guadalajara, we boarded the short flight to La Paz.
The Thing About La Paz
La Paz is a small seaside city towards the south of the peninsula and is actually the capital of the state of Baja California Sur. We’d recently spent a wonderful week in the cool little beachtown of Mazunte in Oaxaca, and not knowing much about La Paz, mistakenly thought it might be similar. How wrong we were.
In this part of the world, “only” being inhabited by around quarter of a million people qualifies La Paz as a small city. That’s just under a quarter of a million more people than the 702 residents who call Mazunte their home, so you can probably imagine how far our expectations were from the reality.
We have absolutely nothing against big cities, and in fact absolutely fell in love with two of Mexico’s biggest metropolises, Guadalajara and Mexico City. But that’s because they’re full of character, culture, history, and incredible food.
Unfortunately we found La Paz lacking on virtually all of these fronts. Added to that, it’s pretty expensive in comparison to much of the rest of the country.
The crown jewel of La Paz is its malecon or boardwalk. This long, wide stretch of walkway is extremely pretty and looks out over a virtually enclosed bay whose aquamarine waters are calm and flat, more like a lake than the ocean.
It has statues made by both local and international artists stationed at frequent intervals, each depicting fishermen or the local sea life.
There are busy restaurants and bars lining the roadside of the malecon which all have impressive views of the harbour and are a great place to grab a sunset beer. There are marinas filled with gigantic, shiny yachts, the kind that are only owned by the mega rich.
The weather in La Paz is sunny and warm virtually all the time. It only has about 10 days of rain, and well over 300 days of sunshine per year, which for us as sun lovers is a pretty ideal climate.
You’re probably thinking that none of this sounds too bad, and you’d be right. On the surface La Paz is a perfectly serviceable city. But it lacks spirit. Or character. Or complexity. Or depth, whatever you want to call it.
What We Didn’t Know About the Baja Peninsula
This long, thin stretch of land occupies the most north easterly corner of Mexico. It borders the U.S. and lies directly below some of the more well known parts of its south west coastline like San Diego and Los Angeles.
It’s particularly popular amongst so called “snowbirds”, retirees from cold locations in the U.S. and Canada who head south for a few months to escape the harsh winters.
It’s also a favourite getaway for families over the Thanksgiving and Christmas period looking to catch some rays rather than dig their cars out of multiple feet of snow.
Together they head down in their droves, many making the journey in RVs or camper vans, filling up the usually desolate beaches with huge vehicles and booking up the masses of flashy international hotel resorts that line the beachfronts of the most touristed towns.
Because of its proximity to Uncle Sam, it probably shouldn’t have come as a surprise that it’s one of the most popular Mexican holiday destinations for U.S. citizens. But what we really didn’t understand is just how much the Baja is set up entirely to cater to this crowd.
The Rest of Baja California Sur
Not being able to complete our length-of-Baja camper van odyssey, we decided to take a shorter road trip to celebrate Sarah’s birthday.
From La Paz there are a number of other nearby towns and cities which we’d heard were cool, so we hired a car and set off to explore for a few days. Though we made the most of the time, unfortunately the places we visited were a bit of an anticlimax.
Cabo San Lucas has a reputation as being the Baja’s equivalent of Cancun. A spring break destination packed with clubs, resorts, and U.S. style restaurants. Following our experience in Cancun we decided to steer well clear of that.
Instead we stayed in its sister town San Jose del Cabo which is billed as a smaller, more laid back equivalent. In reality it’s a brash, sparkly, personalityless mass of (you guessed it) resorts, shopping malls, international restaurants, and bars, which made us glad we hadn’t plumped for Cabo San Lucas.
We passed through Los Barriles, and though we didn’t stay long, it was long enough to see that despite being smaller than the other towns we visited, it’s still heavily populated by expats and holidaymakers.
Even during our time in Todos Santos, a place we were assured was a quaint, picturesque, typically Mexican town, we felt completely disorientated at just how “American” it was.
Restaurants had menu prices in American Dollars rather than Mexican Pesos, people welcomed us into their shops in perfect American English, and the general population seemed to consist overwhelmingly of non-Mexicans.
All of this is probably best summed up by the fact that there’s a widely circulated free newspaper with a tagline of “No bad news”, imaginatively called the Gringo Gazette. Written in English for a U.S. market, there’s even an option to get it mailed to the States.
Disclaimer: We have nothing against the U.S., and it’s somewhere we would love to explore sometime in the future. But we visited Mexico to explore Mexico, and on that front we felt somewhat shortchanged by the Baja.
Would We Come Back?
Strangely enough, we probably would. But it would have to be under completely different circumstances.
We’d choose to avoid the winter which is peak vacation time, and instead come in the summer when fewer people brave the high temperatures and levels of humidity.
We’d plan much further ahead to allow us to complete the road trip we’d originally planned as we’re certain that the remote beaches would be deserted at this time of year.
And we’d stay well away from the resort heavy towns of Baja Sur.
Our lacklustre stay on the Baja California did however set us up for one of our best experiences in Mexico. Which was taking the Copper Canyon Train through the insanely beautiful Sierra Nevada mountain range. And then zip lining over said Copper Canyon.
If you’re looking for your next destination in Mexico after La Paz, we highly recommend exploring the Copper Canyon. It’s an easy journey to take a ferry from La Paz to Topolobampo and then onto onto Los Mochis, where the Copper Canyon Railway starts.
Don’t Forget Travel Insurance
We never go anywhere without travel insurance – and neither should you. This particularly goes if you’re planning to do any of the more adventurous activities above. World Nomads is our preferred choice for great cover and a no bullshit approach, grab yourself a quick quote below:
Where have you been that just didn’t live up to expectations? Have you visited Baja California? Did you love it or hate it? Let us know in a comment down below.
Pin Me For Later…
Travel lover, professional writer and football (soccer) obsessive, James loves nothing more than getting outside and exploring little known corners of the globe. He’s also very partial to a drop of Guinness.
Ah, what a shame! But good on you for writing this post and being so open about how you felt. Hope you do get back one day and have a better experience!
Thanks Rebecca, yeah these things happen, you can’t love everywhere you visit. We’d definitely be open to heading back to take the original road trip we had planned as well 🙂
Please come back and visit. La Paz has 70% less tourist than Cabo. This is a real Mexican City. I live in a new gated home in the heart of La Paz. I never comment on blogs; however, you have the wrong impression of La Paz. I’m from the east coast of the USA, yet, I moved here from Henderson, NV.
I specialize in homicides etc so I run my business global. Which has put me in over 102 countries for rapes and murders. When I state I travel… I travel. Private Jets, boats, all the above.
I only stated that to state this!!! La Paz is really different from a touristy City. One will only know if they actually leave pass the 5 streets that surround the Malecon!
This place is lit on every level!
Wait… You were right about a couple of things. Less crime due to police step up after previous murders a few yrs back. Which don’t Phase me!
I think my family put the cartel to shame… (Totally got away from them fools) Also, the rules are more relax vs main land.
There are not too many blacks here like myself I seen maybe 3…not that I care I have mix irish and italian kids!
It’s plenty of Asians, Europeans, Canadians and less Americans! Most Americans hit up Cabo!!!
Please come back and hit me up when you do!!! I will show you the true La Paz! The Cortez sea is fun on yachts, boats, Jet skis, and just to chill!
It’s really only expensive on the malecon and to be honest that’s cheap! Everything in Mexico is cheap…even my wigs!
I know poverty. I come from the bottom and fought to obtain this wealth …so I don’t splurge just to splurge. I’m still humble and help the orphans etc… So when I state that it’s cheap it’s cheap! Like cheap….
I promise you once you get away from that malecon you’ll meet the local locals and you’ll never want to leave!!!!
Also a lot of my Columbian, Italian, and German Associates visit. I will tell you why. It’s money out here! Bill Gates come out often. (I have never met him) yet, there is a secret amongst us investors in La Paz! It’s peace here!!! In the midst of opportunities, you’ll find some good food and peace.
La Paz is not big on resorts like Cabo. Nothing is wrong with that. We go to Cabo often! Yet, this is truly a Mexican City!
After reading your blogs etc it seems as if you’re excited and pursuing life and wealth too! Come back and see what La Paz can do for you!
Also… Loretta is a small town 4 hrs North…. Pretty quiet and warm ocean water to swim!
wwww.tracyparente.com
Hope to see you if you slide back through La Paz!
Thanks for allotting me this space!
Hi Tracy, thanks for taking the time to write such a detailed comment. You certainly seem to be living a great life in La Paz. As we said in the article we’d love to come back to Baja with more forward planning and more time. Hopefully catch you out that way soon.
Hey Tracy
I recently visit Cabo , i felt in love with Baja, planning to move there for good, any advise ?
You missed Valle de Guadalupe.
Baja caters mostly California residents, which consists of latino groups, where Mexicans happen to represent 78% of.
Baja caters Mexicans and the rest of the 🌎. And represents the norther border mexican culture, which is different than Oaxacan, and Tapatio cultures but still beautiful!
P.S: Best 🦞 in Puerto Nuevo.
Well, you went at the wrong time of year and definitely visited the wrong places in Baja Sur that are well known to be destinations for Canadian and American crowds. I won’t tell you and your readers where you should have gone. That requires you accept sparse or nonexistent cell phone coverage in some of the most beautiful spots on earth.
Pretty sure that’s exactly what we say in the article…
Hi James and Sarah.
How good it was to meet you both in La Paz, where we all seemed to come up with the same conclusion regarding the Baja Peninsula; aim that arrow too high and it tends to sail over the target. Fiona and I envisioned that same idyl experience, but were sadly let down by the reality of the situation in the winter.
Baja supporters are legion, and Baja holds it’s own special mystique within her ranks. We talked with many snowbirders, and even some contemporaries who expressed concerns of safety with mainland Mexico and of course the vehicle restrictions are totally relaxed in the Baja. Sadly, this creates a scene that is saturated beyond recognition, as you know.
James, you have done a good job stating your case in a way that is fair and honest. It takes a good deal of confidence to post about the disappointments we come across in our travels, though; life still demands we see the world through real eyes…even here in paradise.
We both hope you and your friends are having a blast on the mainland!
Jerry and Fiona.
Hi guys, it was so great meeting you both we had such a fun time and it was a real shame we couldn’t have joined for some kayaking action! We’re certain that the Baja has got great possibilities at the right time of year, so who knows maybe we’ll head back in the future to emulate your road trip 🙂
We look forward to meeting up again somewhere in the world in the future and continuing to follow your journey as well.
Take care!
James & Sarah x
I’m so sorry to hear you didn’t enjoy Baja California 🙁 I’ve also heard that Baja California is a wonderful place to enjoy, and that diving is amazing in the area. I guess that, at the end of the day, it all depends on our expectations of the destinations that we are visiting.
Hi Kate! Thanks for commenting. Yeah we heard it’s awesome for diving too, but unfortunately we don’t dive. I think you would have a completely different experience too if you were in a vehicle that was quite literally capable of getting off the beaten path. The places we went just weren’t for us. But it would probably be impossible to love everywhere we go so that’s okay.
everybody is looking for the same thing. it don’t exist anymore!! its called over poulation
I guess I have a different view of Baja because as a resident of Mexico living on the mainland I enjoy the smaller villages I travel to on the Baja. You only saw the southernmost tip. You didn’t head north to Loreto or Mulege, or Rosario or even the wine country up north. My wife and I thoroughly enjoy Baja and strangely enough we have never been to San Jose del Cabo….go figure
Hey Russ, you’re absolutely right, the Baja is pretty huge and we only explored a small portion of it.
We’ve heard lots of great things about parts that we didn’t get to visit and have friends who really love Baja, this is just our personal opinion on what we experienced. If we ever head back we’ll be sure to try and see more of the peninsula and keep the places you’ve mentioned in mind.
Hi James and Sarah – The other commenters let you off far too easily.
I’m delighted to see “The Worst of Mexico” in your tagline. I regularly spend nearly half a year in Baja and mainland Mexico, and want to see more discouraging articles like this. Hoping you’ll never get to Loreto, Lopez Mateos, San Ignacio, San Quintin, Valle de Guadelupe, Bahia de los Angeles, Catavina, Punta Chivatos, or any similar places in Baja. But then again, you spent (some) time in Todos Santos and La Paz and dismissed both of them. No fear then.
The real problem with your trip, in my opinion, was, first, not doing the research (i.e., thinking Mazunte would be like La Paz lol, the outrage!) and second, rushing though the trip – you didn’t say how long you took, but I can make a guess, and sadly, you got what you deserved. Baja is a big place, and it’s a peninsula. That’s free research for your next trip.
Hi Tom, you appear to have taken real offence to our opinion of Baja California, sorry to have put your nose out of joint. But it’s just that, an opinion. You clearly think it’s great and we respect that.
We also made it clear in the post that we didn’t get the opportunity to do the kind of trip we originally had planned, so we’re certain that this had a bearing on our experience.
We spent almost a year travelling around Mexico and around 5-6 weeks exploring Baja California and decided it would be best to concentrate that time on a few places rather than attempt to see the whole peninsula. I’m not sure whether you’d class that as rushing through the trip or not but we felt we got a reasonable idea of the places we did visit.
One of the joys of travelling, for us, is to discover places for ourselves, which sometimes means we don’t research too extensively. But we had heard a lot about Baja from both friends and acquaintances, many of whom love it. Regardless, we didn’t particularly enjoy it in comparison to man of the other incredible places we visited in Mexico. It’s horses for courses Tom, and as I said earlier, just an opinion.
Anyway, we hope you continue to enjoy your annual trips to Baja and thanks for reading. You did mention that you also spend time on the mainland, but if you would like some tips on amazing places to go other than Baja we have a pretty extensive Mexico section full of destinations we’d readily recommend instead.
Cheers.
Thanks for sharing your not so happy experience in Baja. I’ve been going down for almost 25 years, usually on my own and have been treated as a welcome guest. I stay in small town or fishing villages and try to camp most of the time, using bigger cities as an excuse for a cheap hotel room with bed and shower. And toilet! Some baños in Baja are just a hole in the ground. I’ve met so many warm and friendly people who tolerated my mutilation of their language, though sometimes Spanglish solves the problem of communication. I’ve camped and hiked and swam and basically just hung out and taken it all in. Planning my spring trip down there is what gets me thru the depressing winters in Seattle. I hope you get the chance to go back to Baja and visit some of the smaller non-touristic places. So much of it is empty, but not empty of life and nature. Anyways, happy trails! The world is full of wonderful people and places waiting to be visited!
What was the wifi like? Where did you stay? Did you have a strong connection? Do they have public wifi like some other places in Mexico?
We’ve only been to Mérida (For 6weeks) and are planning a trip to La Paz this fall, for about the same amount of time.
Looking for places to be able to work remotely. Open to any comments you have on my questions above.
Thanks in advance!
The wifi was fine both in the airbnb we stayed in and cafes that we worked from so you won’t have any problems there.
Honestly, I struggled reading this entire blog. Baja is a magical place if you have any sense in appreciating the little and big things it has to offer. It has a ton of culture and amazing sights. Plenty of remote beaches and beauty. No one goes to Baja to expect 21st Century amenities. We go to appreciate the beauty that’s all around, and the people. And, yeah, Baja speaks English and caters to tourism so they can feed their families. What’s so wrong with that? Not hipster enough? I don’t understand your gripes one single bit.
Hey Coelette, I think you kinda missed the point of this post.
To spell it out, what we were saying is that we resented the fact that we had to stick to the parts that had good wifi and felt that, largely as a result of this, we were unable to discover any of the culture and sights and beauty that we’d anticipated and heard about. The gripe wasn’t that there wasn’t wifi in the more remote parts of Baja, far from it. We just hadn’t thought through the fact that because we needed to work, this would mean not being able to do the trip we wanted to.
The point about the English speaking was that in the parts we visited, it felt like an extension of the U.S. rather than Mexico. I’m not sure what’s hipster about that. Love that you think we’re hipsters though, that really made me chuckle. Check out some of our other posts and hopefully you’ll get a better sense for who we are and what we’re about. Happy travels.
My sister and her husband honeymooned in Cabo San Lucas in 1988. I didn’t know anything about the place and didn’t give it much thought. A few year later, I was chatting with a fellow surfer in Malibu, and he said there was this place reachable by a 2-hour flight where the ocean water hits 88 degrees. To a warm-ocean-water-starved California surfer, that sounded too good to be true. The magical place? Baja California Sur.
So I went on a surf trip in the mid-’90s, stayed in a locally operated (not corporate chain) hotel with clean rooms called Mar de Cortez, walking distance from all central Cabo has to offer, for $35/night (I stayed a night there in Jan. 2020 – it’s updated, the rooms are perfectly nice, the margaritas strong, but the room rate still was only $50/night). It was winter, so we surfed near Todos Santos, where strong swells generated at the latitude of the Pacific Northwest produce fantastic, ridable waves on BCS’s always-sunny shores.
The climate, the color of the water, the quality of the light, the sea breeze, the clean air, the multiplicity of outdoor activities possible all year … for someone who grew up and always has lived in the indoor-outdoor climates of California and Arizona, heading to BCS to have fun is just natural.
I will grant you, La Paz is a little tough to “get” at first. It is a large, workaday city, but it is locally viewed as a “Mexican” city (think: friendly and not flashy), in contrast from more ex-pat-heavy Los Cabos and Todos Santos. But it is friendly and convenient, and you would not believe how rapidly it is modernizing.
Cabo San Lucas has all the thumping, all-night strip clubs, the soused-expat bars and 24/7/365 spring break aura you’d imagine. On my first visit, I dubbed it “Tijuana meets Las Vegas.” But in the quarter century since I made that proclamation, Cabo has modernized, and newer buildings are built to first-world standards, often with more style than newer buildings in the actual first world. And, again, if you step away from the glitz, you’re still in Mexico and can interact with the friendly locals.
My fluency in Spanish has allowed me to speak with lots of locals in Cabo. Many of them are Mexicans from poorer states on the mainland who come for the high wages, lower crime rate and the ability simply to live a decent life without interruption by the cartels. I would imagine that for those competing for those jobs, English skills are a plus; thus, your experience with English-skilled service workers. However, if you speak Spanish to them, most locals will kindly respond in that language.
I now own a home in Todos Santos. Economically I consider the region to be analogous to the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S.: it offers much higher wages but also (in a relative sense) high living costs. Did you know that the poverty rate in Baja California Sur is the lowest in Mexico and almost as low as in the United States?
Todos Santos also offers a most idyllic climate: Imagine a place sitting right atop the Tropic of Cancer, where the Pacific sea breeze makes it so you do *not* need air conditioning 9-10 months out of the year, the sun shines constantly and rainfall is rare. For us western outdoor enthusiasts it is a little piece of paradise. But it certainly is not for everyone.
Hi, we’re definitely aware that many people love this part of Mexico as well as the fact that we didn’t see as much of it as we’d have liked. We just weren’t enamoured with the bits we did visit, but as I’ve said in many of the other comments, it’s just our experience and opinion. Thanks for reading.
Oh, sorry, forgot to mention: What’s this about being limited by wifi access? All I know is if you have a U.S. cell phone, your service will transfer seamlessly in Mexico, including Baja, with data speeds in many cases similar to those in the U.S., at least in populated areas. In the unpopulated areas… what do you expect?
We’re from the UK not the U.S. so didn’t have that option unfortunately. But as mentioned in other replies, it wasn’t a complaint that these places didn’t have WIFI, it was more a criticism of our own lack of forward thinking and planning that we didn’t even consider they wouldn’t. Silly, I know.
STAY OUT OF MEXICO. YOURE THE REASON YOU HAD A BAD TIME. GO BACK TO THE MALL.
What an odd comment. We never actually said that we had a bad time, just that it didn’t live up to our expectations. One of the reasons being that there were so many malls, so a mall is definitely not somewhere we’ll be heading back too!
This article is funny. After all, Baja California, Mexico is connected to California, USA. “Baja California” basically means “under California” in English. The same for Sonora (connected to AZ) and Chihuahua & Coahuila & Nueva Leon (connected to TX), there are many Americans living in those states also. You complain about seeing too many Americans in Baja California. That’s the same as complaining about seeing too many Mexicans in Sand Diego & Los Angeles. When you travel to the southwestern states of USA, including California, Texas, Arizona and New Mexico, you will see a big population of Mexicans. That’s the way it is; its called the border area or “La Frontesa” in Spanish.
Baja California Sur, up until 50 years ago, had a total population of under 150,000 people. For most Mexicans, it was considered a barren and uninviting wasteland, devoid of anything other than cactus and unbearable heat. Hernan Cortez (the same guy that defeated the Aztec and ‘conquered’ Mexico), ‘discovered it’ in the 16th century. And even though the Spanish did their ‘duty’ by massacring and practically extinguishing the native population that once lived there, they found it boring and too barren to make anything of it. Since there weren’t any more indigenous people to exterminate, and there were absolutely no riches or the potential to produce them, they lost interest and basically ignored the place for the next 300 years. Even the Americans weren’t keen on annexing the territory like they did with ‘upper’ California after Mexico’s humiliating defeat in the Mexican-American war. They generously let Mexico keep it.
This seemingly pointless history lecture, is actually an explanation to why Baja is not ‘in-sync’, culturally, with the rest of the country. There were no cities, no architecture, no commerce, no crops, no mines, schools, development or anything other than fishermen and a few Franciscan Monks running around in loin cloths and sandals for hundreds of years. The only thing Baja ever got from Mexico was abandonment. As a Mexican it shames me to say this, but most of us have a hard time recognizing the beauty of our country, until someone from a foreign land points it out to us.
And that is exactly what happened around the 1960’s and 70’s, when a famous french diver came to our country to film one of his documentaries. It is mostly thanks to Jacques Cousteau, who called the Gulf of California (or Sea of Cortez): “The World’s Aquarium”, and raved about its extraordinary marine bio-diversity, that another people that weren’t Mexicans, started taking notice. I can honestly say that if it wasn’t for him, and Americans equalling ‘extraordinary marine bio-diversity’ with ‘good spot for Sport Fishing’, Mexicans would probably have ignored the place for another century or two.
Its relative proximity to California, great fishing, excellent waves for surfing, nice beaches, and like most other places in Mexico, cheap and lax on rules, made the popularity of the perennially ignored lower bottom of the peninsula grow to a point where Mexicans -finally- recognized the potential to exploit the place and make a dollar or two.
The lucky few who had the chance to visit the area of Cancun, before the tumultuous spring break pool parties, and the endless row of all inclusive resorts, describe it as a place of unparalleled natural beauty. Today, much can be said of Cancun, but the words ‘unparalleled natural beauty’ won’t likely be included. Like Cancun, Cabo was ‘created’ by the Mexican government as a resort destination, specifically, with the American tourist in mind. But unlike Cancun, San Jose del Cabo, was not considered a place with any kind of potential. Therefore, a completely new city was devised and planned to create a more suitable environment for the American tourist’s enjoyment: Cabo San Lucas. It is a manufactured and completely artificial product, that actually brought human activity to a once forgotten and abandoned land. Some people may or may not like the American tourist’s type of taste or preferences in travel amenities, but it’s 100% thanks to their appreciation and love of the place, that Baja is on the map today.
Mexico has a lot to offer to our visitors, and can be an enjoyable destination to people with very different tastes and budgets. Most of the territory has deep roots and a rich blend of history and diversity that have created a solid identity, and despite the many problems we face as developing country, our culture is quite unique and well established. Baja is a little different. Its identity is still being shaped and finding its place in the world. It has a strong influence from our neighbors up north. But that is exactly what Mexico is: a place where different cultures have come together to create something new and unique. I’m pretty sure something cool will come of it. This is just the new beginning of a very under appreciated and formerly forgotten place.
Thanks for taking the time to write this, really fascinating.
Yes, Iker, great post. because it was abandoned, it is not polluted or overpopulated .
I totally agree with this article. I grew up in Mexico City, lived 6 years in Puebla and my family comes from Veracruz, although I am part Canadian and lived in Toronto and Montreal. I currently live in Todos Santos.
My partner and I moved here looking for work once the pandemic hit and we had to close our hostel in Nayarit.
We heard so many good things about baja, read tens of articles on the place and were ready to discover the remote land everyone was talking about online.
When we said we were leaving, all my mexican friends asked with a very estranged face “why? That place doesn’t have a soul” we didnt understand at first but heck, we were desperate and needed work.
When we got off of the ferry we loved the sight of the blue ocean and red rocks with crazy tall cactus, we were pumped.
Then we reached La Paz and took the malecon for a bit. It was ok, that was it. Then we turned into town and after 2-3 blocks inland the place turns into an abandoned ghost town from the 1970s. I fekt I was in an old terminator mpvie set in LA back when the city was a shithole.
We visited apme friends and family and bounced to Todos Santos.
The drive was nice and smooth, we had our expectations high on Todos Santos after living in Sayulita and living the real beach bum life. Once we got to TS we were shocked at how ugly and souless the place is.
We hated it since the bigging. As this place is so far removed from what Mexico is about.
My gf began working giving massages and has done amazing here, as it is full of old retirees that are bored out of their mind. She charges then 4-5times what she could charge in Nayarit and is booked everyday, that is why we are still here.
I on the other hand just can’t take it here. I try to leave as often aa possible just to get my cultural fix before heading back.
The locals arent as nice as mainlanders, I have had ao maby problems with them as they see me as a gringo and try to rip me off all of the time, Ive never experienced this in other parts of the country.
Baja ia basically an american colony, it hardly has any mexicans here and it has absolutly no culture.
I consider Baja as the vanilla Mexico. The only thing i have found good here are the crazy amount of dollars that are circulating. Other than that my heart wheeps every day to go back.
We are even thinking about getting a divorce as she wants to stay to make more money and I am losing my mind.
What an absurd title and review to give an 800+ mile long peninsula here you didn’t bother to even invest the time or effort to visit much outside of the communities around the very southern tip!
I think you need to find another line of work as you’re a failure at travel blogging amigo.
We point out in the article that we are specifically referring the the southern tip. It’s still Baja & we still didn’t like it. Just our opinion. But as we also say in the article, hopefully we’ll be back to explore more of the rest of the peninsula and that changes our mind 🙂
Yep, La Paz is nothing special, but from there you can visit locations for whale watching (mid jan-mid april) and swimming with whale shark (all winter). ALso you can visit amazing Espirito Santo island and swim with sea lions.
I live in La Paz. I am from Puerto Rico. Compared to my poor bashed country, this is paradise. I don’t live by the Malecón, see it maybe once a month on the way to somewhere else. People work hard, are kind, and understand neighborlyness. I am a professional artist, made my little mark in the US, and had a solo show in the Museum of Contemporary art, we have a lot of art here. Special Ed is a big deal here. I saw that you didn’t mention that on the Malecón is one of the biggest playgrounds for disabled kids anywhere. Maybe that doesn’t matter to you. Kids are involved in everything. I personally am starting a chalk art team comprised totally of people with autism, and another painting team made up of people with Downs Syndrome. There is a huge pet adoption program here, and toy drives and adopt a family drives at Christmas. Collections are taken regularly for the poor all year. During the worst part of Covid, we had the most advanced program in Baja, maybe in Mexico. I nearly died, I was one of the first to get it. It was unknown still, and many people risked their lives bringing me food, and checking on me.
Maybe you should look “into” La Paz, not “at” it. You missed so much. I am sad for you.
Hi Juliana, that sounds like a really rewarding job and role that you have in the La Paz community. Of course this post from written from a tourist perspective (a few years ago now) so I’m sure that living there is a very different experience. All the best.
I’m retired from the U.S. National Park Service, met my Thai wife in Bangkok (she’s an RN), and we traveled for 8 years in Central & South America and Asia, from northwestern China to Indonesia, and Vietnam to Nepal and India. I’ve driven down the entire Baja peninsula 3 times.
In my opinion, you expected an entirely different experience in Baja than it actually offers. Not that you were wrong in expectations, but Baja is mostly not a city party place, however providing some of the most interesting desert experiences that are available anywhere. It is comparable to nothing I’ve seen, and I’ve spent time in deserts in northern Nepal, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, and all over western U.S. and parts of northern mainland Mexico.
It has mountains with forests, vast flat plains, secluded water areas that are the calving grounds for Gray Whales (and places with other whales) that you can get within a few feet of (please don’t touch), desert mountains having Peninsular Desert Bighorn Sheep, endangered 5 foot porpoises (Vaquitas), sea turtles, Whale Sharks, Sea Lions, Pronghorn Antelope, and several unique endemic cactus’s/plants.
I suggest that anyone going there get a high clearance vehicle and take back roads to see this unique place.
Again, don’t expect great city experiences, and it is n to necessary to spend lots of money to enjoy this place.
Just my thoughts. I do appreciate your article.
Thanks for your insight Mark – we actually own a campervan now and would love to head back there with that.