Los Cabos Attractions Guide: Bus Tours, Beaches, Water Activities, Deap Sea Fishing, Golf, Spas, Galleries

Spotlight

Los Cabos

Attractions

Los Cabos is divided into three distinct main areas, making it a dynamically versatile destination. Colonial San José del Cabo (often referred to simply as San José), founded in 1723, and its tranquil adjacent estuary (a mecca for birdwatchers and kayakers); rowdier Cabo San Lucas (usually shortened to just Cabo) to the west, home to the world-famous Land's End arch, one of planet's most photographed spots; and the 19-mile Tourist Corridor (aka Carretera Transpeninsular highway) linking them, and a slew of upscale beachfront resorts, championship golf courses, and several beaches, in one straight 30-minute shot. Two outlying destinations make great day/overnight trips: the colonial town/eco-friendly bohemian artists' colony of Todos Santos, and the relatively undeveloped fishing/diving/kayaking/windsurfing mecca called East Cape.

If you don't have your own wheels, you can get around on one of the hop on/hop off bus tours offered by Terramar Destinations (9am-9pm; departures every 10–20 mins; www.terramardestinations.com), whose stops include downtown San José, the Estuary, the Glass-Blowing Factory, Puerto Paraiso mega-mall, and the Marina. Gray Line (www.graylineloscabos.com; 624/146-9410) also offers several sightseeing options; the most popular heads directly to Médano Beach and gets you aboard their boat for a tour of El Arco and Lover's Beach complete with snorkeling, sunning, and walking around the rock formations.

The tourist offices are primarily bureaucratic, so you'll have to rely on hotel concierges and a wealth of glossy, mostly free publications and websites for local information. The Los Cabos Tourism Board (www.visitloscabos.org) and related Greater Los Cabos Convention & Visitors Association (www.loscabosguide.com) sites are the best sources; the former publishes the excellent, comprehensive, free Visit Los Cabos magazine; much of its content can be found online at Experience Los Cabos (www.experienceloscabos.com). We also recommend Cabo's Best (www.cabosbest.com) and the free English Gringo Gazette for updated entertainment and event listings.

Main Attractions & Beaches
Since you're really here to indulge yourself, we recommend skipping the area's few museums in favor of walking San José's charming historic downtown, beachcombing (remember that many strands feature fierce swells and powerful undertow), snorkeling, shopping, partying, and taking an adventure tour (or five).

San José del Cabo
San Jose's narrow twisting streets are lined with 18th-century colonial-era buildings that open into broad plazas. Plaza Mijares, overseen by a twin-spire cathedral, is the focal point, with its Jacaranda trees and ornate gazebo that plays host to bands on weekends. The surrounding streets offer upscale galleries, artisan shops, and fine restaurants.

Halfway between downtown and the main beach (see Playa Hotelera, below) along Boulevard Mijares, the open-air Cactimundo Botanical Garden (hours vary; 624/146-9191; $6) offers one of the world's most extensive collections of thorny succulents, 850 species and nearly 12,000 plants spanning several geographic regions from Montana to Patagonia. From here to the beach spreads the tranquil wildlife reserve Estero San José (open dawn to dusk; free), once a pirate ship hideout and today home to 250 species of tropical birds and plants; it's a rich area for kayaking, birdwatching, and wildlife sightings.

San José's main beach, Playa Hotelera, is fine for strolling and sunning but the surf is quite rough. To the east, be on the lookout for Puerto Los Cabos, a master-planned marina complex that's due to be completed in 2008, when it will host restaurants, shops, La Playita sportfishing fleet, complete yacht services, two 18-hole championship golf courses (designed by Greg Norman and Jack Nicklaus), an eco-cultural park with museum, several beach resort hotels, and more.

The next beach traveling west, Costa Azul is renowned for its big swells. Surfer dudes hang ten and hang out at several bars and casual eateries. Neighboring Playa Palmilla is popular with families as it offers calmer water, restaurants and beach bars, and watersports concessions.

From here, the next several miles embrace some of Mexico's toniest resorts; keep an eye out for El Chileno, another long protected strand that offers activities and dining, and the golden crescent of Bahia Santa Maria ($1 to park), which remains relatively untrammeled (save for a few luxury villas) – this is the snorkeling beach but, while you can rent gear (including kayaks), do bring your own snacks and refreshments.

Away from the beach, the San José Art District – roughly two square blocks bordered by Calles Zaragoza, Guerrero, Hidalgo, and Obregón – holds several galleries worth browsing: Ida Victoria (Guerrero 1128; 624/142-5772; www.idavictoriaarts.com); Old Town Gallery (Obregón 20; 624/142-3662; www.oldtowngallery.net); Pez Gordo (Obregón 19; 624/142-5788; www.pezgordogallery.com); Amber Gallery (Obregón 18; 624/105-2332) – a fabulous source for Chiapas textiles and jewelry; Casa Don Pablo (Guerrero between Obregón & Zaragoza; 624/142-2539) for antiques; La Dolce (Plaza Mijares inside La Dolce Restaurant; 624/142-6621); and Arte Julian García (Morelos & Comonfort; 624/142-3566; www.juliangarciaf.com) for the owner's striking metal sculptures. You can also join a Thursday evening Art Walk, in season.

Cabo San Lucas
Cabo has fewer attractions, per se – the town is better known for its nightlife than its culture. But, the main town beach, El Médano hugs Bahia San Lucas for several miles. Always hopping and happening, it buzzes with hotels, thatched eateries shelling out divine seafood, bars from chic to raucous, and watersports concessions providing everything from parasailing to windsurfing. Vendors patrol the sand with sombreros and ceramics, and the anything-goes ambience can lead to some wild specials (e.g., a typical sign advertises Get Hammered While You Get Nailed – for $30, you'll get a pitcher of margaritas or a bucket of beers and a 40-minute reflexology or pedicure).

From Médano, grab a water taxi (usually $15 round trip; haggle if they quote too much) to Lovers Beach in the shadow of the famous El Arco (arched rock) and the other fanciful outcropping of Land's End that mark Baja's southernmost tip, dividing the Pacific from the Sea of Cortés. Bring plenty of water and your own snacks and gear and don't forget the camera – this is one of the Western Hemisphere's ultimate photo ops, with sea lions sunning themselves on the whimsically shaped rocks and pelicans divebombing for lunch. Snorkeling is superb here as well, but stick to the gentler Gulf side, with superior visibility and less surge.

Back on land, the Cabo Dolphin Center (Paseo de la Marina; 624/173-9500; www.cabodolphins.com), combines an educational orientation with a half hour of swimming with frisky bottlenose dolphins (each of which is named for a famous artist, like Frida, Dalí, Monet, etc).

Recreation
Its combination of distinct ecosystems (desert, sea, and mountain) makes Los Cabos an unparalleled destination for sports, extreme and otherwise. You can also content yourself to be a spectator, however, and watch gray or humpback whales, dolphins, and sea lions court and cavort in the Gulf. Whether diving in underwater canyons or scaling cliffs, catching marlin or teeing off, there’s an activity for everyone.

Land Activities
Guides provide fascinating insight into geology, fossils, botany, and traditional culture on the way to mountain ranches and mission towns frozen in time. Many expeditions zoom into the mountains filigreed with dirt roads then down to the East Cape beaches.

Terramar Destinations (624/142-3155; www.terramardestinations.com) offers 4x4 Jeep tours through the dusty, backcountry roads, as well as ATV Outback Hummer tours via their sister company, Baja Outback (624/142-9215; $165–$220; www.bajaoutback.com) with lunch or snacks included. NaturAdventure (624/105-2050; www.naturadventure.com) specializes in all things mountain bike, including top-notch rentals like Gary Fischer and Trek; tours often incorporate hiking through a craggy labyrinth of Henry Moore-like rock formations in the Sierra de la Laguna Biosphere. Wide Open Baja (624/143-4170; $250+; www.wideopenbaja.com), which mounts the grueling Baja 1000 race every November, provides free-wheeling thrills in the same speedy, low-slung Chenowith off-road racecars on its 1500-acre ranch filled with bumps, jumps, and sand washes.

If you don't want to put pedal to the metal (or mettle to the pedal), Francisco Barrena, owner of Cuadra San Francisco (624/144-0160; www.loscaboshorses.com) and equestrian stuntman on Troy, has more than 40 impeccabe horses and offers two-hour beach and mountain rides, but believes that sunsets are even more spectacular when viewed from the lunarscape of off-the-beaten-path arroyos and canyons inaccessible by foot or even ATV. If you'd rather rock out than horse around, Baja Wild (Playa Costa Azul; 624/172-6300; www.bajawild.com) takes you beachfront bouldering and rappelling down sheer granite cliffs, and can also arrange surfing (with board and lessons), kayaking, snorkeling, ATV tours, whale-watching, and fun combinations of all the above.

Golf
Cabo ranks well above par among the world's golf destinations, thanks to such design heavy hitters as Jack Nicklaus, Robert Trent Jones II, Tom Fazio, Greg Norman, and Tom Weiskopf. Courses are brilliantly contoured to the terrain, encompassing arroyos, canyons, crags, sandy washes, landscaping running from cacti to palms, and distracting ocean views that themselves qualify as water hazards. The scenic grandeur is a blend of what you'd expect of fabled Scottsdale desert courses and Monterey's surf-lashed Pebble Beach. No surprise, then, that the area has has hosted many a PGA tourney. Top resorts offer discounted greens fees and/or packages. Otherwise, expect to pay $200-$300 for high-season morning tee times; twilight rates reduce greens fees by 20-40 percent.

Three courses in particular stand out here. Cabo del Sol (KM10.3 Carretera Transpeninsular; 624/145-8200; www.cabodelsol.com) offers the Ocean and Desert courses, both 18-hole par-72s designed by Nicklaus and Weiskopf, respectively; the former has been ranked among the world's top 100 courses for the last decade by Golf Magazine while the latter features scenically rugged desert terrain and azure ocean vistas from every hole. The Nicklaus-designed Palmilla Golf Resort (KM7.5 Carretera Transpeninsular; 624/144-5250 or 800/637-2226; www.oneandonlyresorts.com) put Cabo on the golf map, offering 27 holes divided into Arroyo, Mountain, and Ocean nines that can be combined any way for an endlessly challenging par-72. Cabo Real (KM19.5 Carretera Transpeninsular; 624/144-1200; www.caboreal.com) is a par-72 Robert Trent Jones II classic, with sea views at every twisting turn (though only one oceanfront hole); despite the wide fairways Jones's use of arroyos and ridges as natural bunkers results in perhaps Cabo's toughest front nine.

Water Activities
Many outfitters provide not only snorkeling cruises but unique combinations of aquatic activities, as well as rental equipment and craft. Prices start around $35 for sunset sails, $45 for half-day tours (children often ride free, though the booze cruise atmosphere is fairly raucous). This includes lunch, open bar, snorkeling gear, noodles, and lessons where necessary. Most follow the same three-to-four hour itinerary (two hours for sunset cruises) past El Arco, on to Bahia Santa Maria, arguably Cabo's finest snorkeling spot, then back to El Arco for another splash and walk along Lover's Beach. Divers have their own playgrounds, especially along the East Cape coast or formations of Lands End (described by Jacques Cousteau as the "World's Aquarium"). Whale-watching tours are generally family-friendlier.

There are dozens of operators in Cabo, but you'll do best to book an outing with our top picks. Tio Sports (Médano Beach; 624/143-3399; San Jose Estuary, 624/142-4599; www.tiosports.com), for one, is the premier option for aquatic adventures, including scuba and glass-bottom snorkeling trips; they also rent kayaks and Wave Runners. Baja Xplorer (624/142-4082; www.bajaxplorer.com) likewise offers a wide range of sea activities, from Wave Runner to whale-watching trips ($40 with lunch), scuba, kayaking, and parasailing ($35).

Pez Gato (Blvd. Marina, Dock 4; 624/143-3797; www.pezgatocabo.com) blasts a super sound system on its catamaran that has everyone dancing during unique "Jazz and Wine" sunset tour on its new 65-foot cat, Tropicat. SunRider Tours (624/143-2252; www.sunridertours.com) boasts Cabo's only actual onboard restaurant, for all-you-can-eat-and-drink buffet cruises including snorkeling, whale-watching, and sunset tours that sweep right past Lands End to the wild windswept Pacific side, chasing the fire-balling sun across the horizon. The tri-masted, 96-feet-tall Buccaneer Queen (624/144-4217; www.buccaneerloscabos.com) offers whale watching, snorkeling, moonlight, and sunset tours.

Deep-Sea Fishing
The canyons around CSL's harbor and warmer Sea of Cortés waters have rightfully earned Cabo the soubriquet, Marlin Capital of the World. More of the giant battlers (1000+ pounders common) are caught here than any place on earth. You'll also encounter tuna, wahoo, barracuda – just about any sport fish imaginable. Even on rare days when you don't catch anything, the smashing views of the cape (and often, whales and dolphins) compensate. Figure on spending at least $120 for a half-day on the smallest skiff, $450 and up for a larger day-long charter.

Cabo Magic Sportfishing (624/105-0403 or 888/475-5337; www.cabomagic.com) offers a wide choice of vessels and run inland ATV tours. Picante! Sportfishing (624/143-2474; www.picantesportfishing.com) is a highly regarded yacht broker, offering a fleet from Shamrock 27s to Hatteras Flybridges. Pisces Fleet Sportfishing (624/143-1288; www.piscessportfishing.com) runs the gamut from 26-86 footers; owner Tracy Ehrenberg regularly chats on radio sports shows and is a fishing expert for the L.A. Times. Solmar Sportfishing (624/143-0646 or 800/344-3349; www.solmar.com) may boast Cabo's largest fleet; this ecologically aware company also started the Bill Foundation that promotes catch-and-release and launched the 112-foot Solmar V for scuba trips to the Socorro Islands marine sanctuary 250 miles south of Cabo, where divers hitch rides with giant mantas.

Spas
Prefer getting pummeled on massage tables rather than waves or trails? Spas are a major attraction in their own right in Cabo, with the Corridor's resorts competing to offer the most serene surroundings and unique therapies. Decor lovingly reflects the culture and surroundings, while treatments often utilize indigenous foodstuffs to nourish body and soul – coffee to coconut, sea salt to sesame. Each spa boasts its own specialties, ambiance, and celebrity following.

The Spa at Las Ventanas (624/144-0300; www.lasventanas.com) has treated the likes of Jessica Simpson, Nick Lachey, Halle Berry, Paris Hilton, Courteney Cox, and Giorgio Armani; its product line, Essential Baja Desert Collection, is a restorative botanical blend of such native plants as chaparral, wild yam, tumeric, and desert lavender, often blended with mineral-rich volcanic clay. Esperanza Spa (624/145-6400; www.esperanzaresort.com) similarly draws on the desert's warm hues and traditional textures; follow in the footsteps of Usher, Brooke Shields, Nicky Hilton, and Gwyneth Paltrow and visit the Pasaje de Agua (the water passage) – a grotto with cleansing hot spring pools, cool waterfalls, and steam caves. Another celeb see-and-be-scene, One&Only Palmilla (624/146-7000; www.oneandonlypalmilla.com) offers an enormous spa/fitness center; favorite treatments utilize local ingredients – try the Aztec Aromatic Ritual wrap with clove and ginger in a private suite that opens onto lush flowering gardens. Casa del Mar Beach, Golf & Spa Resort (624/145-7700; www.casadelmarmexico.com) just introduced a Spa Chakra, affiliated with Guerlain, and their signature imperial orchid facial and massage redefines hedonism; you can choose your own music in the palapa treatment hut, but the most soothing sound may be that of the sea itself. Marquis Los Cabos (624/144-2000; www.marquisloscabos.com) boasts the region's only member of Leading Spas of the World; the Asian-influenced, oceanview, full-service, 15,000-square-foot holistic spa/fitness center detoxes with indigenous ingredients such as agave, cactus oils, sea salt, and seaweed from the Sea of Cortés.

Day Trips
Most day/overnight jaunts access the so-called East Cape (running north up the Sea of Cortés, noted for its diving and marine preserves) and up the west coast to the artists' commune and colonial town of Todos Santos. You can hop a public bus, take an organized tour, or rent a car (preferably a four-wheeler to avoid getting stuck in sand or ruts on flooded side roads).

East Cape
The unspoiled East Cape, an unofficial term that applies to series of sensational sportfishing spots along the unspoiled coast just 50 minutes' drive northeast from the airport, encompasses the stretch from Boca del Alamo in the north to La Playita just east of San José. The towns of Los Barriles, Buenavista, and the aptly named Las Ventanas are Cabo's windsurfing center in winter, while exquisite Cabo Pulmo Marine Park lures divers to the only living coral reefs in the Sea of Cortés. There are also underwater caves and shipwrecks like El Vencedor to explore, often accompanied by a colony of sea lions and frisky dolphin pods. Some of the best sites are further north, around the islands off the coast by La Paz, Baja Sur's capital; if you have time contact Baja Adventure Company (La Paz; 612/124-6629 or 877/560-2252; www.bajaecotours.com), which also offers wonderful whale-watching and kayaking. Surfers will find swell waves at Shipwrecks and Los Frailes beaches. And while East Cape bills itself as the "World's Greatest Fishtrap," trekking inland via ATV, mountain bike, or horse is increasingly popular, with hidden arroyos and canyons stippled with cacti. Despite the wealth of new asphalt being laid from Los Cabos, the area still possesses a frontier feel (no golf, litlle nightlife, often no phones in rooms). If you have time to stay overnight, book yourself into the Hotel Buena Vista Beach Resort (624/141-0033 or 800/752-3555; www.hotelbuenavista.com); formerly a general's 1950s hacienda, the estate now boasts 60 Mediterranean-style bungalows terraced on a tropically landscaped embankment with a pool, palapa swim-up bar, and its own stretch of beach. Hotel activities include naturalist-guided ATV tours, deep-sea and fly fishing, horseback riding, kayaking and diving, hiking to thermal mountain springs, tennis, and spa treatments.

Todos Santos
An hour's drive (47 miles) north of Cabo on Highway 19 lies sleepy Todos Santos, founded in 1723. Still very colonial, it's a great place getting a feel for the "real" Mexico. TS (as it's commonly referred to in shorthand) has become an artists' commune, where creative expats exult about the quality of light, much as they do in Taos and Carmel. It's the kind of place where you can join Tai Chi classes, find a meditation group, take a ceramics or creative writing workshop, or sip a chai latte in a setting that's neither too precious nor pretentious. Glorious adobe-and-brick thatched structures in traditional colors hold boutique shops and galleries galore, mixed with remnants of chimneys and machinery from the old sugar mills. You can visit yourself, or book outings with Todos Santos Eco Adventures (612/145-0780; www.tosea.net).

In town, stop by the ocher-colored Iglesia de Nuestra Senora de La Paz, built in 1747, and also don't miss the Cultural Center (Juárez & Obregón; 612/142-0044), the passion, almost obsession of town historian Professor Néstor Agúndez Martinez. Its treasures include three murals celebrating the leftist power of the people, painted in August 1933, with modern figures interacting with Columbus and missionaries, a photo exhibit that traces local history (cattle ranches, old family portraits, old sugar mill chimneys), and a replica of a typical adobe Baja ranch (kitchen with fireplace, grinding stone, old huaraches as examples of hand-made leatherwork, santos, handmade crib) in the courtyard.

Otherwise, peek into the galleries. Charles Stewart Gallery & Studio (Centenario & Obregón; 612/145-0265; www.charlescstewart.com) jumpstarted the movement two decades ago with Taos refugee Stewart, a noted American abstract artist whose multimedia works are infused with spirituality from Mayan to Judeo-Christian images. Gabriel Rodriguez, or Gabo (Centenario & Topete; 612/145-0505), is another multi-talented/faceted artist who's exhibited around the globe; if you can't afford his whimsical, witty paintings, his prints, silkscreen T-shirts, and tapestries come very close to duplicating his almost-hallucinogenic colors. Galeria Jill Logan (612/145-0151; wwww.jilllogan.com) features the American expat's multimedia works, many of them incandescent lambent landscapes with heightened color for naturalistic settings. Todos Santos Inn & Galeria (Legaspi 33; 612/145-0040 or 612/145-0500 gallery; www.todossantosinn.com) is a lovingly renovated 1870s brick edifice built by a sugar baron; rooms in the original building and courtyard annex are an amalgam of classic hacienda and vineyard, for a look that's almost New England. Other musts include Galería N. E. Hayles (Cuauhtémoc Final; 612/145-0183; www.nehayles.com); Eli Alexander Fine Arts/Ezra Katz Gallery (Juárez & Topete; 612/145-0084); and the splendid craft boutiques of Fénix (Juárez between Hildalgo & Topete; 145-0808) and Manos Mexicanas (Topete & Centenario; 612/145-0538), gorgeous handpainted ceramics, quirky elegant jewelry by Rubén Gutiérrez.

The town isn't without its beaches – head to the stretch of Highway 19 that skirts the coast to find four sandy outposts. San Pedro, also known as Playa Las Palmas (Palm Beach), off KM57, offers powdery sand and a freshwater lagoon teeming with a variety of plants, birds, and wildlife. Local fishermen launch their pangas at Punta Lobos (Point of the Wolves – a nickname for sea lions, which have a colony here) at KM59, and sometimes sell fish fresh off the boat (fending off dive-bombing pelicans). Ecru sands stretch several kilometers, blowholes erupt as if answering the spouting whales, and you can rent kayaks and dune buggies, visit a fisherman's chapel, or hike to ruins of an old fort on the other side of the cliff. Playa San Pedrito is a super surfing beach around KM60, with an RV Park for camping at a coconut palm-fringed freshwater lagoon, as is long, glistening Playa Los Cerritos at KM64.

For lunch, make a pilgrimage to Hotel California (Juárez between Morelos & Marques de Léon; 612/125-0525; www.hotelcaliforniabaja.com), known for its fun funky art-full sensibility and style and cool courtyard; you can also sample their branded tequila in the wildly decorated, urban-hip lounge. For dinner and a secluded, stylish overnight, head for magical mystical Posada La Poza (Las Playitas; 612/145-0400; www.lapoza.com), the only inn on the ocean; congenial owners Juerg and Libusche Wiesendanger are consummate hosts; Libusch's paintings and murals animate every nook and cranny, and she designed the lavish gardens as well. Other dining and drinking options include Santa Fe (Centenario & Márquez de León; 612/145-0304), just catty corner on the main plaza, a dinner essential that arguably serves the finest Italian food in Baja Sur, and La Copa Wine Bar (Topeti & Legaspi; 612/145-0040; www.todossantosinn.com), in the Todos Santos Inn, is a lovely place for a glass in arty surroundings: Michael and Pat Cope exhibit 20 regional artists in the adjacent gallery (and a second building a block away).