Baja California Travel & Dining Guide
Baja California Sur is a quick escape that feels like it’s worlds away. Just down the coast of California and only a two-hour flight from Los Angeles, you will find yourself at the tip of the peninsula in the Señor Frog’s capital of the world, Cabo. Rent a car and get out of there – you’ll soon be enshrouded in sunshine, surrounded by oversized cacti in a desert landscape flanked by white sand beaches and the distant Sierra de la Laguna mountain range which runs north to south. The 19 Highway snakes down the middle and is peppered with taquerias and dirt road turnoffs that lead to sleepy towns and high-end developments. In either scene, you’re bound to run into plenty of Americans, whether retirees, digital nomads, or straight-up tourists. The expat community has imbued a certain Joshua Tree witchiness and you’re never far from a yoga studio, energy healer, tarot card reader, or otherwise woo woo business.
Whoever you interact with though, you can be certain that they will be equally cheerful and chill. Is it something in the water? Perhaps, or maybe it’s that the Baja crowd is extremely well-rested. You’ll hear the phrase ‘Baja Midnight’ thrown around a bunch, which translates to 9 PM when most businesses close. Beauty sleep is important here because there’s lots of adventuring to be done by daylight.
Surf is spectacular on the west side, with Cerritos Beach as a popular destination for kooks and shredders alike. On the other side, you’ll find some Grade A screen saver material in the gentle, shallow, turquoise waters that lap onto the eastern shores, especially at Playa Balandra. East or west, you’re stopping at an OXXO en route to the beach and grabbing Takis, tamarind candy, and Modelos for seaside snacking.
Seafood is, of course, the specialty here, so you’ll want to try each of the region’s preparations of fish and shrimp tacos. Plancha is for the purist and is a simple seasoned and grilled fillet. Battered is a light, fluffy, fish n’ chips rendition. And ‘crunch’ is coated in crispy bits before heading to the fryer. Roadside straw-roofed restaurants are abundant, each hawking renditions on the theme alongside self-serve salsa bars brimming with bright purees, chopped picos, and earthy salsa machas. Spots without salsa bars often serve up a preamble to taco time in the way of a clay plate brimming with fresh cucumber slices, tiny juicy limes, and the house special salsas.
Beyond seafood, there’s also plenty of meat served up in similarly sparse locales – we had some of the greatest carnitas and al pastor ever while in Baja! Masa tortillas are ubiquitous, often pressed and cooked to order before your eyes. Margaritas are always a good idea as is artisan mezcal that challenges the smoke bombs we’ve come to expect stateside. But a Victoria or Pacifico with lime remains a reliable choice and should be enjoyed with every taco that graces your presence.
Long story short, Baja is a place for channeling positivity and relaxation without pretense. From the simple and fresh seafood to the warm waves, between cactus gazing and sunset chasing, here is a place to lean into exploration without expectation, and find something truly magical around every corner. There’s plenty to discover and I haven’t even scratched the surface, but for now, here are three destination-worthy towns and plenty of places to eat while you’re there!
El Pescadero
El Pescadero is a small beach town off the 19 highway, halfway between La Paz in the north and Cabo in the south. It’s flanked by the Sierra de la Laguna mountain range and the Pacific Ocean, and can best be described as rustic, developing, and charming. It’s quieter here than around nearby Todos Santos which is just ahead of Pescadero on the tourism curve. Expats and retirees flock here for the cheap real estate, so you can expect to see lots of construction projects underway out in the open desert landscape where there are more massive cacti than there are homes. Cerritos Beach is the other major draw - a destination for warm-water surfing. The west side of Baja has strong rip tides and aggressive shore breaks, making swimming a no-go at most beaches, but Cerritos is a hamlet for playing in the water with or without boards. Should you want to surf, there are a few rental options on site. We went with CRT Surf School which had all kinds of boards and friendly surf coaches who personalized lessons for each of our levels of experience. On the sand, you can purchase fresh coconuts and cocktails from a variety of vendors, and even sneak a massage under a tent if you’d like! I’d recommend El Pescadero for anyone looking for some combination of surfing, affordable accommodations, and expat flare.
Los Claros
One of the many casual restaurants along the 19 Highway in Pescadero. Los Claros specializes in seafood of many shapes and forms. Tacos promise generous portions of fish or shrimp and can be ordered grilled, battered, or crunchy. Ceviche is served by the liter on heaping plates accompanied by crunchy tostadas. The self-serve salsa bar has a robust selection, but the rustic salsa macha stands out for its inclusion of pepitas and other large seeds condensed beneath glistening chile oil.
Carnitas Machin
Baja is known for its fish tacos, but carnitas are always a good idea. This spot sits in the cluster of restaurants along the 19 Highway and has a very short menu - all variations on the theme of fried pork and corn tortillas. The pork is front and center when you walk in and if you catch the butcher at the right moment, he’ll lure you in with a sample of the unctuous salty meat. Tortillas are pressed on a neighboring station and lobbed over to the butcher for taco assembly. My favorite was the gordita, a slightly thicker masa tortilla that’s split open and stuffed with carnitas, almost like an arepa. The area’s typical self-serve salsa bar is no-frills - walk over to a table featuring plastic buckets of various salsas and dress your tacos and gorditas up!
Coyote
Down a long dirt road and hallmarked by a sign that reads “You’re Lost,” Coyote is a dreamy oasis in the desert. It’s an outdoor restaurant situated in a secret garden serving elevated food prepared in an airstream trailer-turned-kitchen. Sip Mexican wines, mezcal, or cocktails while being serenaded with live music and basking in the red glow of the COYOTE sign above. The food is distinctly not Mexican (gyros, pork chops, bulgar salad, and burrata are all on the menu) so this is a good option for those looking for either a taste of home, seeking a highly Instagrammable moment, or needing a break from roadside tacos.
Baja Beans
Just off the highway and heavily advertised with signs leading you there, Baja Beans is a cute cafe serving cold brew, lattes, et al plus exceptional baked goods and their eponymous coffee beans. The cafe is quite small but there’s plenty of seating in the courtyard, which abuts a weekend craft market. Nextdoor you’ll also find an almost too on-point boutique called Zocalo selling brightly colored caftans and baja-inspired jewelry and apparel, plus a surf shop and a bar. What more could you need?!
Todos Santos
Only an hour and a half north of Cabo is a vacation town for someone who’s done their time in Cabo but is not quite ready to head to the sticks. We only spent one evening in Todos Santos, so I can’t claim to have a perfect pulse on the vibe. What we did see of the town was a charming balance of local life and tourism. There’s a harmonious blend of roadside no-frills eateries, high-end high-concept restaurants, and expat surfer hangouts. This is the place for you if you’ve got no interest in Cabo Wabo but prefer a bit more infrastructure for your vacation.
Miguel’s
There are a gazillion (yes, that’s an exact calculation) fish taco spots around Baja. One day I’d love to try them all and proffer a proper stack rank. In the meantime, I can tell you that Miguel’s is one of the solid ones! A thin, flaky fillet of plancha-grilled whitefish strewn over a warm, supple corn tortilla is a delicate thing of humble beauty. Warm, glistening chips are served alongside guacamole, which is presented in a large molcajete. There are margaritas and live music and charmingly dated decor, all netting out to a totally solid hang.
Oystera
An oasis in an otherwise homogeneous atmosphere, Oystera stands tall as a cavernous atrium turned gallery and restaurant. Inside the jungalow inspired building is a tiki-looking bar that glows beneath the pink light of the neon Oystera sign above it. As the name suggests, raw shellfish is the play. All the oysters are harvested locally in Mexico - I’d recommend ordering some with names you’re familiar with to compare with the Mexican version and some which are unique to the area. Chocolate clams are also served on the half shell in all their briny, chewy, and bright orange glory. The menu is mostly rotating, with overtones of expertly imagined and assembled small plates leveraging local ingredients with an emphasis on seafood. Wash it all down with a bottle of wine - they’ve got everything from an affordable house sparkling rose to Moët & Chandon. Out in the back is a stunning view of the valley and more picnic-style seating, plus a satellite bar. This place is the definition of chic and the singular diversion from roadside tacos I’d recommend in the area.
Tacos El Poblano
If it weren’t for the steady rotation of locals picking up to-go orders here, you might miss this no-frills but remarkably outstanding al pastor palace. Popular in Mexico City (check out my guide!), al pastor is bright red marinated pork that’s roasted on a rotating vertical spit known as a trompo. There’s an open kitchen along one side of the restaurant, where the trompo turns, the plancha is stacked with carne asada and a woman pumps out one tortilla after another on an endless cycle. The order is an al pastor super burrito. ‘Super’ means cheese, crema, and avocado are inside along with charred and juicy al pastor shavings, wrapped inside a warm flour tortilla and sliced in half for a pretty epic cross-section view.
La Paz
La Paz is located on the Sea of Cortés side of Baja where the waters are calm, a dazzling gradient of opaque turquoise, and filled with such a diversity of life that it’s called the Aquarium of the Sea. The town itself is quite orderly and developed, with large sculptures dotting the Malecón boardwalk and yachts anchored in the harbor. There are plenty of nearby beaches, but the one worth exploring is Playa de Balandra which is a thirty-minute drive from town. It’s a protected area shrouded from the highway by rolling hills. The sparkling water is so shallow you could walk towards the horizon for many minutes before you need to swim. At low tide, the entire cove is an expanse of ripply sand - it’s a dreamy destination to watch the sunset! A major draw for visitors of La Paz are the whale sharks, which are gentle creatures that you can snorkel with after a short boat ride!
Sweet Potato Cart
If, while wandering around La Paz, you hear the distinctive shrill cry of steam escaping pressure, you stop what you’re doing and head toward the sound. At your destination is a tin box containing an inferno on wheels. Inside are drawers of sweet potatoes, cooked to fluffy tenderness by the fire beneath. The vendor will slice up a sweet potato and drizzle it with condensed milk and honey. You’ll eat it standing on the corner next to him, basking in satisfaction. It’s a dessert, it’s a snack, it’s an appetizer, it’s a bonus round, but most importantly it’s a local delicacy worth tracking down.
Las Chascas de Maria Eloteria
We were on our way to dinner when I saw the hand-painted Eloteria sign, and we had already begun to ruin our appetite with sidewalk sweet potatoes. But the concept of an entire establishment dedicated to elote was something I had to double click on. Indeed, this was a build-your-own-esquines restaurant. Esquines are another Mexican delicacy of shaved corn, crema, and other fixins served in a cup and eaten with a spoon. Here, you choose your corn grilled or boiled (or half and half), which gets layered with mayonnaise and cotija, and then dressed up with toppings like bone marrow and chapulines (smokey fried crickets). The final product is among the richest snacks I’ve tasted, but the pop pop pop of the freshly cooked corn laced with creamy textures is worth it even if just for a taste.
Bismarkcito
Most restaurants along the Malecon boardwalk in La Paz are pricey, clubby, touristy, or likely all three. The exception, while still being a proper sitdown spot, is Bismarkcito. While it identifies as “a lobster house,” there’s a lot more going on. With an expansive menu of fresh seafood, it’s hard to prioritize, but the shrimp aguachile, garlic roasted pulpo, and whole fried snapper were standouts. Servers are suited up and charmingly formal, always rushing around the terrace with platters of tostadas, ceviches, et al. The seafood is among some of the freshest I’ve tasted and stands front and center with simple but quality preparation. Don’t miss the ostentatious desserts, even if you’re already stuffed!
