Eat and Drink

Cabo Nightlife: The Bars I Love and the Clubs I'd Do Once

By Cabo Wander

When friends ask me about Cabo nightlife, it's almost never the spring break version of the question. It's more like "we're in our forties, is there anywhere to go after dinner that isn't a foam party?" Yes, there is, and I think it's better than the famous part.

My best nights out here have all been small and cheap. If you want my list of the best bars in Cabo, number one is a flight of beers on the Baja Brewing rooftop at sunset. Right behind it are a margarita squeezed in front of you for about US$5 at a tiki counter called Uno Mas?, and the house band at Cabo Wabo, which starts around 8:30. And the best clubs in Cabo? There's really one I'd send you to, El Squid Roe, and I'd send you once, after midnight, paying cash by the round.

Cabo San Lucas nightlife is a lot smaller than its reputation. It's three or four loud rooms on two streets, with a ring of little bars around the marina, and you can walk across the whole thing in about five minutes. Two things took me a few trips to work out. The price of a drink drops by about two thirds when you walk a couple of blocks, and the smaller the room, the less I worry about the check. A margarita that's US$5 at a counter by the marina is US$15 to $20 at a club you can see from there.

So I've sorted this by the kind of night you want, with my favorite in each group first. After that comes the practical part, which is what it costs, how to keep your tab honest and how to get home.

When Things Actually Start

Most people I see having a flat night out in Cabo are on the wrong schedule. They walk into a club at 9:30, find it half empty, and decide the town is dead. Or they ride over to San José at 9:30 and find the kitchens closing. It's the same mistake at opposite ends of the evening.

Here's the timetable I plan around:

• 5:30 to 7pm: sunset drinks on a rooftop.
• 7pm: dinner. The bar strip is quiet.
• 8:30pm: the band starts at Cabo Wabo.
• 10pm: the late set at the rock bars. El Squid Roe goes adults only.
• 11pm: the clubs start to fill.
• Midnight to 1:30am: the peak at the clubs, Friday and Saturday especially.
• 2 to 3am: the famous rooms close. A few smaller clubs go to four.

On weeknights everything runs a little earlier and a little emptier, and the clubs are at their busiest around 10:30 or 11.

All of it happens in a triangle between the marina boardwalk, the main street along the top of the harbor (Boulevard Lázaro Cárdenas, where the clubs are) and Vicente Guerrero, where Cabo Wabo is. If you can see a lot of people and a lot of neon, you're in the right place. How that triangle connects to the beach and the rest of town is in my Cabo San Lucas guide.

A warning about every list of Cabo bars, including the one you read before this. They go stale fast, and some of the names that get copied from one to the next haven't poured a drink in years. Everything I name here I'd still look up the week you go, especially in September and early October, when a lot of places take their yearly break.

A Few Good Drinks, Home by Eleven

This is the night I'd pick for most people reading this, and it's the one I have most often myself.

The Baja Brewing Rooftop

This is my number one, because it's the easy, affordable sunset drink over the bay and nobody is running a contest on a microphone. You're looking across Médano to Land's End while the sunset boats head out, and there's a band several nights a week, most reliably toward the weekend.

Order the flight. The Mexican lager and the IPA are the two I'd go back to. Happy hour has run from 4 to 6 when I've been, which lines up nicely with the light.

The tip nobody gives you is how to find it. It's on the seventh floor of the Corazón hotel at the marina end of Médano, and you get there by walking into the hotel lobby and taking the elevator. There's nothing useful at street level, and the map pin sent me in a circle the first time. Just ask at the front desk.

What I'd want to be different is the food. I've had greasy chicken fingers and an order that came out missing things, so I drink here and eat somewhere else. Service can be slow, and I check the tab, because I've had a happy hour price not show up on it. It closes at eleven or midnight, and in January and February you'll want a layer once the sun's gone.

If you want it later and louder, the same hotel has a second bar two floors higher called Rooftop 360, with cocktails and DJs, open until midnight early in the week and 2am Thursday to Saturday. They prefer a reservation. I can't tell you what the drinks cost up there, so ask before you settle in.

Uno Mas?

This is the best-value drink in town. It's a tiki counter with a handful of stools in Plaza del Sol, on Boulevard Marina, and the margarita is made with limes squeezed right in front of you for about US$5. It tastes like it, too. I'd take it over any US$18 hotel version. The pineapple margarita and the strawberry daiquiri are the other two to try.

It's an early stop. It closes at midnight, it's shut all day Sunday, and you may be standing. Bring cash to be safe.

Bar Esquina

Bar Esquina is the grown-up hotel bar, at the Bahia Hotel a block behind Médano. You get proper cocktails, craft beer and one musician, and you can hold a conversation most nights, though I've had an evening when the music was louder than I wanted. Cocktails are about US$16 to $19, which is hotel money. I think it's fair for a well-made drink in a nice room, and I'd have two here and not five.

Vas Que Vuelas

If you like mezcal, this is the one to look up. It's a mezcal bar with more than fifty bottles and an Oaxacan kitchen, four or five blocks inland at Niños Héroes and Zaragoza, well away from the strip and its prices. A flight is the way to start, and the tlayuda is the thing to eat with it.

I don't have prices I trust, and I'd check it's open the night you want to go. It's closed on Sundays, it closes at midnight early in the week and runs later from Thursday to Saturday. Walk there in the early evening and take a ride back, because those blocks are ordinary and quiet after dark.

The Rooftop at The Cape

This is the best-looking bar in Los Cabos, and it's the place for one dressed-up drink at sunset, with fire pits, sunken sofas and the Arch straight across the water. They bring blankets when it cools down.

It's priced like it looks. Cocktails are about US$15 to $19 before the hotel's service lands on top, and four of us once spent about US$400 on drinks and appetizers without trying very hard. I've also had a cocktail there that was weak for the money.

It's about ten minutes east of town on the Corridor, so add a ride each way, roughly US$20 to $40 by taxi and about half that by Uber. I can't tell you whether they hold people who aren't hotel guests to a reservation or a minimum, so call a day or two ahead and ask. That call will also tell you it's open that night.

The other famous Arch view on that stretch of highway is a restaurant, and I'd have the drink there and skip dinner, for the reasons in whether Sunset Monalisa is worth it. And if what you really want from the evening is the sunset more than the bar, a boat does that better than any rooftop. I compare them in my Cabo sunset cruise post.

Bottom line: for two people who want a nice evening and their own bed by eleven, it's the Baja Brewing rooftop, then dinner, then one more at Uno Mas? or Bar Esquina.

Live Music

Live music is the thing Cabo does best for grown-ups, and it's where I'd spend my one late night.

Cabo Wabo Cantina

Cabo Wabo is my pick, and it's where I'd start any night out. It's Sammy Hagar's place, on Vicente Guerrero a couple of minutes inland from the club strip, with a real stage and a tight house band playing 80s and classic rock covers every night from about 8:30. The band is really good. It's also the oldest crowd of the big rooms, and I've never felt like the chaperone in there.

I haven't been charged a cover on an ordinary night. Drinks are priced like a big American city. The house margarita is called the Waborita and it's blue. There's a two-for-one happy hour, but it ends at 5pm, about three and a half hours before the band plays a note.

Eat before you come. A burger, two small margaritas and two bottles of water cost me US$105 with the tip, and the food isn't why anyone is here. The service can be brusque too. So have dinner at one of my picks for where to eat in Cabo San Lucas, most of which are a short walk away, and get here a little before the band for a table.

One date to know. Every October, around the 13th, Sammy Hagar plays his own birthday shows here, and those nights are ticket only, by a lottery held months ahead. You can't walk in.

Jungle Bar

Jungle Bar is the locals' rock bar, open to the air and not polished at all, in a little square called Plaza de los Mariachis on the marina side. People come back to Cabo for its house band, Los Leones, a family act who play rock covers better than they have any right to. The late set starts around ten, and the crowd is mostly fifty and up.

The schedule belongs to the band, and they take a night off midweek, so look at their Facebook page and check the bar is open that night before you plan around it. And ask the price of each round. I've been charged 400 pesos for a drink that had always been 200.

Cheap and Silly

These two are where I'd take a group first. You can't spend much money in either one.

Happy Ending Cantina

Happy Ending is the cheapest honest drink on the marina side. Beers are about US$2, and the house deal is two beers and two tequila shots for around US$5. That's a number I had to read twice. The food is a few dollars a plate.

It's a dive and it's proud of it. There's beer pong, there are bras and banknotes stapled to the ceiling, and the name is what it is. In the afternoon I've seen families in there, and by nine it's a friendly, noisy first stop. It stays open until about three. Don't come looking for a craft cocktail.

Slim's Elbow Room

Slim's calls itself the world's smallest bar, and I believe it. It's about eight feet by ten, with five or six stools and dollar bills covering every surface. It sells beer, tequila and seltzers, and that's the whole menu. Cash only. A T-shirt is about US$20 and comes with shots.

It's in the same little plaza as Jungle Bar, so do them together. You probably won't get a stool. Have one cold beer, stick a dollar on the wall, take the photo, and you've done it in ten minutes.

Dancing Late

If you want to dance until the lights come on, El Squid Roe is the one. It's three floors around an open atrium on Lázaro Cárdenas, with people dancing on the tables, confetti, waiters carrying tequila in holsters and drinks sold by the liter. The music is Top 40, hip-hop and reggaeton. It is exactly what it looks like in the videos, and people have the night they came for.

It's a restaurant by day. At 10pm it becomes 18 and over, and it fills after 10:30, peaks from about 11 to 1:30 and closes around three. The crowd is mostly twenties and thirties and a lot of bachelorette parties, plus a few of the rest of us who came to look. The dress code is a shirt and shoes. Shorts and sneakers are fine.

There's usually no cover. Some nights it's about US$20, sometimes with a drink included, and I've had it go both ways, so ask at the door. Bring a physical ID.

The big nightclub next door is Mandala, with the lights, the guest DJs and the tables. It enforces a dress code, so no hats, flip-flops or tank tops. For a reader in their forties I think it has the least to offer of anything in this post. On slow nights the door pushes you toward buying a table, so ask if you can just go to the bar. Once, I paid before the drink was made and was handed a cup of ice and a mixer. Check it's open before you walk over.

A few other things worth knowing:

• Rooftop 360, back on top of the Corazón hotel, has DJs and dancing until 2am from Thursday to Saturday, if a three-story club isn't you.
• A handful of smaller clubs keep going until four.
• Chandelier's, a block from Cabo Wabo, is the gay club, with drag shows and a very late close. I'd check it's open the night you want to go.
• Tacos Guss, on Lázaro Cárdenas, serves al pastor until nearly sunrise, and it's the right way to end a late one. It's on my list of the best tacos in Cabo.

Once, for the Story

You can be 55 and have zero interest in dancing on furniture and still want to see El Squid Roe one time. I think you should. Here's how I'd do it.

Go on a Friday or Saturday, and don't walk in before 11:30. Somebody at the door will offer you a table. Say you'll stand. Inside, a waiter with a tray of shots will turn up at your elbow, and each one is a sale, so ask "¿cuánto?" before you take anything. The same goes for the roses, the balloons, the photos and the "free" shot from the guy on the microphone. I've paid about US$20 for a single shot in there.

Buy a round at a time and pay for it when it arrives, in cash if you can. I've had a second round I never ordered show up on a card. The pours are weak, so a beer is the better buy. And stand back from the upstairs rail, because drinks do go over it.

An hour is plenty. You'll have seen it, and your ears will be ringing.

If you're a group, there are two ways to buy the night up front. I'd only use one of them.

• A booth. El Squid Roe is the only club in town that writes its prices down. It publishes bottle packages on its own site, starting at several hundred dollars for a booth for up to eight, with tax and tip stated as included. Split eight ways, that can come out cheaper than six drinks each at the bar. Book it there, in writing, and read the menu prices for water and mixers before you order a bottle of anything extra. I would not buy a table on a price somebody says out loud at a door.
• An open bar pass. These are sold for two or three hours at somewhere around US$100. It covers basic spirits and beer, tips are extra, and with pours like these I'd pass.

A Celebration Dinner

There's a newer kind of night out here, which is dinner with sparklers, drums, a DJ and a short fire show. Rosa Negra, out on the Corridor, is the big one, and Taboo at the ME Cabo hotel on Médano is its sister. Both are open until about 1am, and both want you dressed up a little.

For a birthday, with a group that wants a show and doesn't want a club, it works. I've watched a table dance all night at Taboo with a saxophonist walking between the chairs, and I've had a really fun celebration at Rosa Negra.

As dinner, I think it's poor value. It is LOUD, the tables are close together, and I've waited a very long time for guacamole. The fire show is about five minutes. Plan on US$200 a head and up once the drinks start.

Here's my tip. When the waiter asks what kind of water you'd like, ask what it costs. The same goes for anything that isn't on a menu in front of you. If you're a group, settle how you're splitting the check before you order, because it's too loud to sort out afterward.

Rosa Negra also has a small agave bar inside it, called Amante, open late from Thursday to Sunday with more than a hundred tequilas and mezcals. I don't know its prices. Bagatelle, at the marina corner of Médano, does the same dinner-into-party thing in French.

Bottom line: book it for an occasion, knowing the number. If a surprise on the check would spoil your night, have the celebration somewhere quieter.

The Party That Happens in the Daytime

For a lot of visitors, the party in Cabo is over by sunset. Mango Deck on Médano runs its contests from about noon, peaks from one to five, and is done by ten or so. That's a big part of why downtown can be quieter than you'd expect on a weeknight.

If that's the party you want, I rank the options and what they really charge in the best beach clubs in Cabo, and which end of the sand is the loud one is in my Médano Beach guide. Some of the big all-inclusives run their own parties in-house as well, which I can't speak to.

San José del Cabo in the Evening

San José is the nicest evening on this whole list, and it's mostly quiet by eleven. Go knowing both of those things and you'll love it.

I start at Baja Brewing's San José pub, on Morelos in the gallery district. It's a beer garden with wood-fired pizza and a different band most nights, with salsa on Saturdays. It's the busiest patio in town after the galleries close, and the local band I caught there was fantastic. There's also a hidden room that opens when you press a button on a statue. I can't promise it's open to anyone who finds the button, but go look. Read your check here too, since I've had an item on one twice.

La Lupita, next door, has tacos, mezcal and a band on an outdoor stage. Its kitchen closes around 9:30 and it's shut on Mondays. Don Sanchez, down the main boulevard, has live music in its bar most of the year. Then walk to Plaza Mijares, where there's music and dancing on weekend nights and a tamale cart that stays until about 11:30.

The catch is the clock. The kitchens close between 9:30 and 10:30, and the brewpub around ten. I've never found a place in the old town that I'd send you to after about eleven. If you want to dance, you want the other town, and how the two compare on everything else is in Cabo San Lucas vs San José del Cabo.

Thursday is the best night, from November through June, when the San José Art Walk closes the gallery street to cars from five to nine. Even then, the latest I've stretched it is about 11:30.

So get there by six and book dinner for 7:30. My picks for that table are in the best restaurants in San José del Cabo. If you're coming over from Cabo San Lucas, it's 35 to 45 minutes and about 600 pesos each way by Uber, and I'd settle the ride home before dessert.

The Ones I Left Out

Bottle service bought at the door. A price a host says out loud is how the horror stories start. If you want a table, buy a published package.

Bar crawls. For about US$60 or $70 a guide walks you through five bars with a shot at each. If you're a group that wants someone else to decide, it's fine. You don't need one, because everything here is five minutes apart.

Dinner at Cabo Wabo. Go for the band.

The dance bar on the boardwalk. Nowhere Bar is on a lot of lists as the warm-up before the clubs. I've run into a spending minimum there and prices I didn't love, so if you go, ask what things cost first, and check it's open.

What a Night Costs

This is my own rough math, per person, with a tip.

• A small-bar evening, four drinks at Happy Ending, Uno Mas? or Slim's: US$15 to $45
• A rooftop or cocktail-bar evening, three cocktails and a shared plate: US$65 to $95
• The strip, by the drink, four to six drinks: US$60 to $120
• A dinner-show restaurant: US$200 and up

On the strip, beers run US$5 to $8 and cocktails US$10 to $20. Two blocks toward the marina, a beer is US$2. I love that about this town. The cheapest night on that list is also the one I'd pick first.

Carry small peso bills. The best little bars are cash only, and nobody ever has change for a big one. Where a night out fits in the whole trip's budget is in how much Cabo costs.

Keeping Your Tab Honest, and Staying Out of Trouble

I've walked these blocks late at night plenty of times and felt fine. They're busy and bright until the bars close. The things that actually go wrong on a night out here are ordinary resort-town things, and nearly all of them are about the check.

Surprise checks are a real pattern at the big venues, the ones with a dance floor, a DJ or a fire show. Rounds nobody ordered, a price that changes between ordering and paying, a tip added and then asked for again. At the small bars I've almost never had a problem. So at the big ones:

• Pay by the round, in cash if you can. Don't open a tab, and don't hand over a card "to hold".
• Ask for a menu with prices before you order.
• If you do run a tab, read every line, by phone light if you have to, and count the rounds.
• Look for "servicio" or "propina" before you add a tip.
• Keep your card in your hand. The terminal comes to you. Choose pesos when it offers dollars.
• Bring one card with a low limit, and look at your banking app before you leave the building.

Then there's the drinking itself. Liter cups, the heat and an open bar pass are a combination that ends more nights badly than anything else in this town. Watch your drink being poured, don't leave it on a table, and don't drink one you didn't see made. If you're unsure, order a sealed beer. And if someone in your group goes downhill very fast, treat it as a medical problem and get help right away.

On the walk between bars, a few people will want to talk to you. The man offering free tequila or a free table is selling something. In the daytime it's usually a timeshare, and that trade is laid out in my post on the Cabo timeshare presentation. "No, gracias" works, and it works on anyone offering you something stronger, too. Don't buy pills from the pharmacies with the signs out front or from anybody on the street, however normal it looks.

You also can't carry a drink down the street, along the marina or onto the beach. The police do stop people for it, so finish it inside.

The bigger picture, including the ocean, which worries me a lot more than the bars do, is in is Cabo safe.

Getting Home

Take a ride. Inside the lit triangle and along the boardwalk I walk until closing time. I don't walk the dark sand toward the east end of Médano, the dark blocks back to the Médano hotels, the roads up into Pedregal or the road out to the Land's End hotels.

I can't give you a real 2am fare, because nothing here is metered or posted. So take these daytime numbers as rough and expect to be quoted more late at night.

• Uber in town: it works late. Short hops have run me around 100 pesos. Walk a block away from the taxi line before you request it, and match the plate.
• Taxi in town: about US$10 to $30, depending on how far and who's quoting. They wait outside the clubs.
• To a Corridor resort: about US$25 to $50 by taxi and roughly half by Uber. I can't promise an Uber at 2am out there, so have a backup.
• To San José: US$40 to $70 by taxi, about 600 pesos by Uber. The last bus is around 10pm, and late at night I wouldn't count on the app.

Whichever one you take, agree on the fare for the whole car, through the window, before you get in. The rest is in getting around Cabo.

If you're staying on the Corridor, plan one night in town with the ride sorted out ahead of time. Each night out adds US$40 to $100 in fares. For six people, a driver who waits can be the better deal. A Suburban for four hours is close to US$300 plus tip, sometimes with a late surcharge.

Don't drive. Breathalyzer checkpoints come back every high season.

And think about where you sleep. A room in the middle of Médano puts you a cheap ride from all of this without the bass coming through the wall. Which hotels sit where is in the best hotels on Médano Beach. If you sleep lightly, stay away from the marina, the strip and the marina end of the beach.

When the Same Bars Are Different

Friday and Saturday are the nights. Sunday and Monday are the quietest, and both Uno Mas? and Vas Que Vuelas are closed on Sundays. Thursday belongs to San José, in season.

• December to February is the busy stretch. New Year's Eve is the biggest night of the year everywhere, with special tickets, and El Squid Roe goes formal for that one night.
• March into early April is spring break. The strip and the marina end of Médano are packed and at their youngest, and covers are at their highest. The small bars and San José barely notice.
• July and August are hot. The clubs are thin midweek and busy on weekends, and the rooftops are a sweat until the sun goes down.
• September is the quietest month, with shorter hours, yearly closures and the odd storm night when everything shuts.
• Late October fills the marina bars with the fishing tournament crowd, and Halloween and Day of the Dead are big event nights at El Squid Roe.

Cruise ships make no difference after dark. The month-by-month version is in the best time to visit Cabo.

The Verdict

Cabo's nightlife is worth an evening or two of your trip, and the best of it is early, cheap and small. If you only have one night, do the Baja Brewing rooftop at sunset, eat dinner somewhere good, and be at Cabo Wabo by 8:30 for the band.

Here's what I'd pick for you:

• A couple who wants a few good drinks: the Baja Brewing rooftop, then Uno Mas? or Bar Esquina. The Rooftop at The Cape if you'll take the ride.
• You love live music: Cabo Wabo at 8:30, then Jungle Bar for the ten o'clock set.
• A group that wants to dance: start at Happy Ending, Cabo Wabo at nine, El Squid Roe from 11:30.
• You just want to see it once: El Squid Roe after midnight on a Friday, cash, by the round. Or a beer at Slim's, at any hour.
• A birthday: Rosa Negra or Taboo, with your eyes open.
• You have teenagers: the Baja Brewing rooftop, or an early dinner at El Squid Roe while it's still a restaurant.
• You're staying in San José: dinner, the brewpub and the plaza, and Thursday if it's in season.

And who should skip it? If you're on the Corridor and none of this sounds like fun, you're not missing a thing by staying in. I'd also skip the clubs before 11, the bottle offered at the door, and any dinner with a fire show if you're the one who reads the check.

I'd go back to that rooftop every trip, and I do. The clubs I've done... and I'm glad I did, once.

Here's how I'd text it to a friend: Baja Brewing rooftop at sunset, it's on the 7th floor of the Corazón hotel, go through the lobby. Margaritas at Uno Mas?, bring cash. Eat before Cabo Wabo, band's at 8:30. Squid Roe only after midnight, pay by the round, no tab, ask the price of every shot. San José is over by eleven. Uber home, agree on the taxi fare first.

Quick Answers

Is Cabo nightlife any good if you're not 22? Yes, if you pick the bar and the hour. The live-band bars, the rooftops and the small marina bars draw a mixed and often older crowd. The dance clubs skew twenties and bachelorette parties.

What time does Cabo nightlife start? Later than you'd think. Bands start between 8:30 and 10pm, and the clubs fill after 10:30 on weeknights and after midnight on weekends. The famous rooms close at two or three, and a few smaller clubs go to four.

Is there a cover charge at El Squid Roe? Usually not. Some nights it's about US$20, sometimes with a drink included, so ask at the door. The real cost is what you spend inside.

Is there nightlife in San José del Cabo? There's dinner, live bands in restaurant courtyards, a brewpub and a plaza with music on weekends. San José's old town is mostly quiet by eleven, so for dancing you want Cabo San Lucas.

Can I get an Uber home at 2am? In Cabo San Lucas, yes. Walk a block from the taxi line before you request it. Between the two towns late at night I wouldn't count on it, so line up a sure ride.