Jul 23

Written by: chris
7/23/2013 

Where The World Ends…

Follow the California coast south to the Mexico border where Baja California starts… then keep on driving for 28 hours and 1,650 kms, south through the coastal desert and mountains until – with a final spasm of rugger grandeur – the land at last gives way to the ocean. Here, where the world ends, is the one-of-a-kind destination that is Los Cabos.

Los Cabos, or ‘Cabo’ to its aficionados, is two destinations in one, together known as Los Cabos, which means The Capes. Cabo San Lucas is the livelier youngster of the two and is situated at the extreme southwest of the Baja peninsula. Just over 30kms east and linked by the resort-studded ‘Corridor’, San Jose del Cabo is quieter, older. I recently spent some fascinating time exploring these destinations whilst broadcasting the Travel Shows on location…from where the world ends.

Cabo San Lucas

Brash, bright and breezy, Cabo San Lucas has grown from a sleepy fishing village to international jet-set destination remarkably quickly. Its setting is its major attraction. For here, just across from the sheltered harbour, the last rocks and precipices of the Baja mountains stutter to a grand finale in the icon of Los Cabos: El Arco at Lands End. This great sea arch and its accompanying sea stacks are best appreciated from one of the small boat tours that leave the harbour frequently. Lovers Beach lies here and there is a lively seal colony on the rocks. The main beach is excellent for families and kids and adults can swim with the dolphins here. For the more active there’s every kind of watersport imaginable on offer. The town itself has great nightlife, entertainment and dining, but if you want peace and quiet, you need to choose your resort location wisely.

San Jose Del Cabo

Half an hour along an impressive four-lane highway from its sister resort, San Jose Del Cabo was the start of it all. It was here that the first Mission Church was built by the Spanish Jesuits in 1730, the first of many as the missionaries moved up the Baja Peninsula and into California. You can follow the Mission Trail through the centuries and I visited the current church here in San Jose – it was full of a cool, quiet simplicity. Today, San Jose balances an attractive historic centre full of cobbled streets and colourful craft shops with a brand new Marina development that blends old and new seamlessly together. As well as a gorgeous stretch of beach in which to leave your wandering footprints.

Resort Recommendations

I toured some of the best resorts in Los Cabos with Taylor Cole of Hotels.com who knows a thing or two about what makes for a great resort, as Hotels.com features 205,000 resorts around the world, complete with millions of traveller reviews.

We stayed and broadcast the Travel Shows from the Barcelo Los Cabos Palace Deluxe. This all-suite hotel is beach-front close to the heart of San Jose Del Cabo and features no less than eight restaurants, plus spa, vast pools and so many bars that I never even found all of them (and believe me, I tried!). I particularly liked the layout that provides for a very separate adults-only pool area and an equally separate kids club and pool. There are also swim-up suites where the pool is almost part of your room! The staff, too, were helpful and friendly without fail. You can walk for kilometers along the adjacent beach – it’s particularly beautiful at sunrise.


Cabo Azul Resort is close by the Barcelo and features luxurious, villa-style accommodation that is both spacious and beautifully decorated - plus each room is complete with a kitchen. Large patios look out over pools and a beach pounded by the Pacific Ocean rollers in an awesome display of Nature’s power. There is a one-of-a-kind wedding area here that overlooks it all. I had a tasty Mexican lunch here with Taylor beneath a huge thatched palapa surrounded by an azure pool, while a cooling breeze swept in from the ocean. The spa is all-embracing and here’s another lovely touch: you can ask for a chef to come to your rooms to prepare dinner for you…


The Pueblo Bonito Sunset Beach Resort and Spa is a vast destination in itself, stunningly situated over a hillside that sweeps down to the Pacific Ocean a few kilometers outside of Cabo San Lucas. In fact the resort is so big that they use a fleet of golf carts to ferry vacationers up and around the hillside lanes. The lobby is darkly ornate in a Catholicism meets Hacienda style fusion that has its ultimate expression in an idyllic courtyard that leads to a quiet chapel – a perfect setting for a destination wedding. There is an impressive spa area, sports galore and tiers of pools ascending the hill to the most spectacular one of all: the Sky Pool, 400 feet above the Pacific Ocean.


Also in Cabo San Lucas, the Sandos Finisterra Los Cabos All Inclusive Resort is one of the original hotels here, starting life in the 1960’s. It was under a thatched palapa here that Rolling Stone Keith Richards was married 30 years ago. The resort is carved into the mountainside very close to El Arco and within walking distance of the town itself. The new owners are lavishing attention and money on the resort – the new spa is especially gorgeous – and I really applaud the eco-awareness here, right down to their protection of a misguided mother turtle who wandered on their beach and laid her eggs there.


Back in San Jose Del Cabo, the newest hotel in town is also the funkiest: Hotel El Ganzo opened in December 2012 in the new Marina. It’s a boutique hotel with only 72 rooms but each is individually decorated by live-in artists and the whole place bubbles over with artistic touches from the rooftop infinity pool and Jacuzzi tank to the basement recording studio. With its own ferry across the marina to a chic beach club, this is a jazzy alternative to the large all inclusive resorts nearby.

Desert Exploration

Los Cabos is wonderful in itself, but perhaps its biggest attraction is the landscape of the Baja that lies immediately to its north. The best guides to this desert and mountain wilderness – and to much more besides - are Baja Outback, part of Terramar (www.bajaoutback.com). I was met by Mauro Butron and whisked off in a four wheel drive Sport Wrangler away from the glamour of Los Cabos and out onto the dirt roads of the desert and mountains. Mauro’s boyish enthusiasm was totally infectious. It was allied to an encyclopedic knowledge of desert life. He was the perfect guide – he even let me drive over the challenging terrain as he spotted turkey vultures, road runners, ground squirrels and all kinds of desert flora.


We stopped at the isolated oasis village of La Candalaria, miles of dirt road from anywhere, but still with its little church and school. We marveled at an ancient fig tree beside a dry desert river that was breaking up the granite bedrock with its roots. And reveled in the silence of the desert under a cloudless, windless desert sky. I would strongly recommend Baja Outback as part of any Los Cabos trip – they also run whale watching and multi-day explorations of Baja.

Todos Los Santos and Hotel California

Friend and expert, Rodrigo Esponda, who heads up the Mexico Tourism Board in Canada, recommended a visit to the small artistic and farming community of Todos Los Santos, about an hour north of Las Cabos on the Pacific coast.. It is one of Mexico’s 54 ‘Magical Towns’ – and deservedly so. I visited with my friend Mauro of Baja Outback and was rewarded with perhaps the highlight of my trip. Explosions of colour line several streets where arts and crafts in bright primary colours create mirages in the shimmering afternoon heat. The pretty church of Santa Rosa is part of the Mission Trail and was founded in 1733; it completes a pretty plaza.


But it was the long and loquacious lunch at the iconic local hotel that provided my quintessential Baja experience. For this is the location of the Hotel California. It may – or may not – be the inspiration of the Eagle’s song, but it has been here since only dirt roads linked the town to the outside world. It has a gorgeous, shaded courtyard and pool, filled with sounds of fountains songbirds and a guitar. And they serve some of the best and most authentic Mexican cuisine I’ve enjoyed. As the song says: “You can check-out any time you like, But you can never leave!” And I sure as hell didn’t want to…

Gracias

My thanks first and foremost to Taylor Cole, Director of PR and Social Media for Hotels.com who was my charming, elegant and professional guide to Cab’s resorts, as well as my sparkling guest on the Travel Shows. The team at the Barcelo Los Cabos Palace Deluxe Resort – Matias, Nashelly and Luis – were my hospitable hosts. The managers of the other resorts noted in this blog kindly gave of their time freely. And lastly, but most certainly not leastly, the Baja Outback team – Brisa, Julia & Mauro – for showing me the beauty of the desert and mountains of their magnificent Baja.