The Beaches Worth Getting Lost For

Because the answer depends on what you mean by best.

Best place to swim?

Best place to snorkel?

Best place to have lunch nearby?

Best place to surf?

Best place to sit under an umbrella and accomplish absolutely nothing?

Best place worth making a day trip for?

Those can all be different beaches.

First: know what kind of beach day you want.

We keep coming back to this idea throughout We Do Cabo Fun because it works.

Don't begin with:

“Which beach is #1?”

Begin with:

“What do we want to do today?”

Médano: when you want to be in the middle of Cabo.

Not every beach day needs to involve disappearing down an empty Baja road.

Sometimes you want the opposite.

You want activity.

Restaurants and beach clubs nearby.

Boats moving through the bay.

Cabo San Lucas right there around you.

Médano is part beach day, part Cabo people-watching, part jumping-off point for whatever happens next.

And that's exactly why it belongs in the conversation.

Chileno: when the water is the plan.

Some days you don't need much more than a towel, something to drink and a reason to get in the water.

Chileno has long been one of the beaches people think of when they want a more traditional beach-and-water day along the Los Cabos corridor.

It's the kind of place that can work when the goal isn't a complicated itinerary.

Get there.

Settle in.

Get wet.

Stay awhile.

Santa María: bring the mask.

There are beach days when sitting on the sand is enough.

And then there are beach days when curiosity follows you straight into the water.

Santa María is one of the familiar names around Cabo for people thinking about snorkeling and spending time in a protected-looking bay setting.

It's another reminder that two beaches only a relatively short distance apart can give you completely different days.

Cerritos: when you want to head north.

This is where the beach day starts becoming part road trip.

Head north along the Pacific side and the scenery begins changing around you.

Cerritos brings a different kind of energy from the protected bays closer to the resort corridor.

It's associated with surfing, waves and the broader Todos Santos-area day trip.

Which means you don't necessarily have to think of it as only a beach stop.

It can become one piece of a larger day.

Beach.

Food.

Road.

Maybe Todos Santos.

Maybe somewhere somebody recommends along the way.

There it is again: take the road a little farther.

Balandra: when the beach becomes the destination.

Sometimes the beach isn't something you squeeze between breakfast and dinner.

Sometimes you build the day around getting there.

Balandra, near La Paz, belongs in that category.

This isn't the beach you casually pop into from your Cabo resort for twenty minutes.

It's farther.

Which is part of the point.

The trip north gives you another look at Baja California Sur, and suddenly your Cabo vacation has expanded into something geographically bigger.

Cabo becomes the base camp.

Don't assume every beautiful beach is a swimming beach.

This one matters.

Baja's coastline can look inviting while the ocean is telling a completely different story.

Conditions vary by beach and by day.

Waves, currents, weather and seasonal conditions can all change the experience.

So before getting into unfamiliar water, pay attention to posted signs and flags, local guidance and current conditions.

There's no prize for arguing with the Pacific Ocean.

Go early once.

Beaches have different personalities at different times of day.

If you've only seen a favorite beach in the middle of the afternoon, try seeing it in the morning.

The light changes.

The temperature changes.

The people change.

Sometimes the whole place feels different.

That's one of the easiest ways to rediscover somewhere you thought you already knew.

Stay longer than the photo.

There's a funny thing that happens in beautiful places.

We arrive.

Take the photo.

Look at the photo.

And start thinking about the next place.

Try not doing that once in a while.

Put the phone away.

Stay another half hour.

Get in the water if conditions allow.

Watch what's happening around you.

Actually be at the beach you worked so hard to find.

Leave it better than you found it.

The farther people explore, the more important this becomes.

Pack out what you bring in.

Respect protected areas and access rules.

Don't treat someone's community like it exists only as your vacation backdrop.

And when a place asks visitors to behave a certain way, listen.

Exploring more of Baja should come with taking care of more of Baja too.

Our beach list will keep changing.

Just like the taco list.

And we like it that way.

Maybe Leo sends us somewhere we haven't been.

Wendy has a beach photo from fifteen years ago that starts a completely different story.

Someone tells us the beach they always visit with their family.

We return somewhere and see it differently.

One of these five might eventually leave the sidebar.

Another might appear.

That's not the list being wrong.

That's us continuing to explore.

The best beach is the one that fits the day.

Maybe today you want music, lunch and everything nearby.

Maybe you want a mask and snorkel.

Maybe you want waves.

Maybe you want to drive north.

Maybe you want a beach worth building an entire Baja day around.

There isn't one right answer.

That's the good news.

It means there's always another beach day.