Read more about where to stay and what to do in Los Cabos: Insider Advice.
The first time I flew to the southern tip of Baja California, nearly thirty years ago, it was in a prop plane; this hot, arid and sparsely populated region of Mexico lacked the tourist traffic to warrant a commercial airport. I was captivated by the stark desert landscape, the rugged coastline and El Arco, the arched rock at land's end, where the Pacific Ocean collides with the Gulf of California. I doubted that the quiet fishing village of Cabo San Lucas would ever become another Acapulco, however. The few hotels that existed had to fly in nearly every morsel of food and catered to hard-core sports fishermen. On top of that, pounding surf made most of the beaches too dangerous for swimming.
Cut to the summer of 2006, when I arrived in Baja on a jet. Since Los Cabos International Airport was built, in 1984, and restrictions on property ownership by foreigners were eased, a decade later, Los Cabos — which is composed of the cape's two towns, Cabo San Lucas and San José del Cabo, and the twenty miles of coastline that separates them — has been transformed into a patchwork of hotels, condos and golf courses. Local farmers now grow organic produce and French chefs bake pastries.
Despite the increase in travelers, though, on my recent visit the juxtaposition of austere desert and impossibly blue sea still enchanted me. It was hard to believe that from L.A. I could reach this dramatic setting in under three hours. But what impressed me most was its three extraordinary resorts: Las Ventanas al Paraíso, the One & Only Palmilla and Esperanza.
