Areas

San José del Cabo Guide: One Name, Four Different Places

By Cabo Wander

When a friend tells me they loved San José del Cabo, the first thing I ask is where they stayed. The name covers four places that you can't walk between. There's the historic center, the hotel zone on the beach, the marina development at Puerto Los Cabos, and the surf end at Costa Azul. Only the first one is the town people come home talking about, and it's about six blocks.

My short answer is that the historic center is the best evening in Los Cabos, and I'd ride over for it from anywhere on this coast, ideally on a Thursday between November and June. As a place to stay, it's my pick for couples who came to eat and for anyone who has already done the Arch. It's the wrong pick if you want to swim in the ocean from your hotel or stay out late. The closest sand is a half-hour walk from the plaza, and the water there isn't safe to get into.

It's also a much better evening than it is a day. From about 5pm to 10pm, the plaza, the gallery streets and the restaurants give you something nothing else in Los Cabos does. Before five there are maybe two hours of sightseeing in it. The people I know who stay here and love it are eating out every night and taking a ride to swim.

If you're still choosing between the two towns, start with Cabo San Lucas vs San José del Cabo.

The Four Places Called San José

A hotel listing uses the same town name for all four of these, so the name on your booking tells you very little. Before you pay for anything, find Plaza Mijares on the map and look at how far your pin is from it. A few resorts out on the highway carry a San José address too, and those are really part of the Corridor, which I cover in my Tourist Corridor guide.

The Historic Center

This is the one in the photos. It's a plaza with a twin-towered church on one side, a couple of blocks of galleries in old houses behind the church, and a tree-lined boulevard of restaurants running south from the square. You can walk from one end of it to the other in a few minutes, and nearly everything I'm going to recommend in this post is inside it or a short ride from it.

The places to stay are small hotels and inns, room only, at about US$150 to $300 a night. Casa Natalia is right on the plaza, and Tropicana is the other one I'd look at. Nobody sells all-inclusive here, because dinner is the reason you came.

It suits couples who plan their trips around restaurants, repeat visitors, and anyone on a short trip, since the airport is only 15 to 30 minutes away. If you need the ocean outside your door, or you want to be out past midnight, this isn't your base.

The Hotel Zone

The hotel zone is a strip of big beach hotels about a mile south of the plaza, most of them all-inclusive, and it's a pool vacation. I mean that kindly. The prices are some of the best in Los Cabos for what you get, roughly US$160 to $600 a night, and the airport run is short.

The beach in front is long, wide and lovely to walk at the waterline early in the morning. You can't swim at it. It drops off steeply close to shore, there's an undertow, and the flag is red most of the time.

The other thing to know is the distance. From the hotels nearest town, the plaza is about half an hour on foot, and from the far end of the strip it's 45 minutes to an hour. The road the hotels sit on is called the Paseo Malecón, which sounds like a seaside promenade. It has a wide sidewalk and a bike path, and it runs along the back of the hotels with no view of the water at all. An Uber into town is about US$5. The week I stayed out here, I went into town twice.

Across the road there's an open-air mall with a few restaurants and shops, which is handy for a night off from the buffet. I don't have a favorite there to send you to.

This one is for families and couples who want a good-value all-inclusive near the airport and are honest with themselves that the pool is the plan. The hotels I'd look at are in where to stay in Cabo.

Puerto Los Cabos and La Playita

Puerto Los Cabos is a marina, golf and resort development on the far side of the estuary, 10 to 15 minutes from the plaza by car over a bridge. It was built around an old fishing village called La Playa, and the village is still there.

I like it for a half day, as long as you don't arrive expecting a town. If you go looking for a marina village with shops, you'll find a packed-dirt path around the harbor, a couple of casual places to eat, some gated resorts and a lot of empty lots. The path is about a mile and a half one way with almost no shade, so go early or late.

Along the waterfront, though, there's a set of bronze sculptures by Leonora Carrington, free to walk past, and they're a real surprise in a place this quiet. La Playita is a tiny buoyed swim area just inside the marina entrance with basically no waves, which makes it great for toddlers. And Hotel El Ganzo, on the marina, is the one hotel in any part of San José where you can get in the ocean.

El Ganzo is adults-only for overnight guests. Its beach club sits across the water from the hotel, and a little hotel boat runs you over in a couple of minutes. The beach club takes day guests, kids included. A day pass has been about US$50, with most of it credited toward what you eat and drink, but check the current terms before you go.

This is also where San José's small fishing boats launch, and it's the closest harbor to the offshore banks the anglers come for. A half day on a panga for two or three people runs roughly US$250 to $420. Book it with the boat's own office and not through a middleman, and read sport fishing in Cabo first.

I'd send quiet couples who want a design hotel and a swim, people who fish, and anyone based in the center who wants a calm dip and a ceviche lunch by the marina.

Costa Azul

Costa Azul is the surf end of town, on the highway at the west end of the hotel strip, 5 to 10 minutes by car from the center. There are two main breaks. Old Man's is the slow, gentle one where people learn, right in front of the Cabo Surf Hotel, and Zippers is the faster one just east of it.

These waves run on south swells, roughly May through October, and in winter the water here is mostly flat. So a surf lesson at Costa Azul is a summer plan. The Cabo Surf Hotel is a small place right on the break with its own surf school, and it's where I'd stay if surfing were the point of the trip.

It isn't a swimming beach. It's rocky, and there are sea urchins in the shallows, so I don't wade here either.

Zipper's is the bar and grill on the sand above the break, with live music most evenings. I've had a really good fish taco there, and I've also sat for a very long time waiting to order one. I'd go for a beer and the view at sunset and eat dinner in town.

It works for beginners and longboarders in summer, and for people who'd rather have a small surf hotel than a resort. Nobody else needs to make the trip. If you're weighing it against the Pacific-side lessons, I compare them in things to do in Cabo.

What the Center Is Like, Morning to Night

When I stay in the center, my days all have the same shape, and I think it's the right way to use this town.

Mornings are quiet and cool enough to enjoy. I have a long breakfast, and then I take a ride to go swimming, because there's no swimming here. I'm back for a late taco lunch.

Then, from about 2:30 until 5, nothing happens. It's hot, the streets are empty and a lot of doors are closed. If you ride over from Cabo San Lucas and arrive at 2pm expecting a lively town, you'll wonder what I was talking about. San José runs a degree or two hotter than San Lucas in every month, and I stay in the shade or the pool for those hours.

The town wakes up at five. The galleries open their doors, people come out to the plaza, and kids ride scooters around the bandstand while their parents sit on the benches. I LOVE the plaza at that hour. On weekend nights there's usually music and dancing on the square, a tamale cart sets up with a line in front of it, and you can get ice cream and churros around the edges. Then you walk a block or two to dinner.

The town also goes to bed early. Most kitchens close somewhere between 9:30 and 10:30pm. The bars wind down by one. There's no club district and no bar strip. For me that's the appeal. If your idea of a night out starts at eleven, you want the town 40 minutes west, and my Cabo San Lucas guide is the place to start.

Getting Around

Inside the center you walk, and you won't need anything else. The gallery streets are cobbled, so wear flat shoes with some grip.

Everything outside those few blocks is a ride. Here are the distances I'd plan with:

• Hotel zone to the plaza: about half an hour on foot from the nearest hotels, 45 minutes to an hour from the far end, or about US$5 by Uber.
• The local taquerias out toward the highway: 15 to 20 minutes on foot from the plaza.
• Palmilla, for a swim: about ten minutes by car.
• La Playita and Puerto Los Cabos: 10 to 15 minutes by car.
• The farm restaurants: 10 to 15 minutes by car, with a dirt road at the end.
• Costa Azul: 5 to 10 minutes by car.

That walk between the hotel zone and the plaza is fine on a cool winter afternoon. I wouldn't do it at midday, or at all from June to October. At night I take a ride. That's just my preference for a road that runs behind hotels, and at US$5 I don't think about it much.

Uber, Taxis and the Bus

Uber works well in town, out to the hotel zone, to Puerto Los Cabos and to the farms. Short hops have cost me somewhere around 60 to 110 pesos. A car can take longer to show up here than it would in a big city, so request it before you ask for the check. If you're at a big hotel, walk out to the road, because the pickup goes more smoothly there.

Taxis have no meters, so agree on the price before you get in. I honestly can't give you a fare inside San José that I trust, which is one more reason I open the app first.

The bus to the Corridor beaches and Cabo San Lucas is the purple and orange Ruta del Desierto coach. It runs along the highway and doesn't come through the old town, so from the plaza it's a walk or a short ride to a stop. It's about 45 to 50 pesos to San Lucas, paid to the driver in cash, and it runs until around 10pm.

To Cabo San Lucas and Back

The other town is 35 to 45 minutes away. An Uber is about 600 pesos and a taxi is US$40 to $70.

If you're coming over for the evening, sort out the ride home before dessert. The bus has stopped by the time dinner is over. I'd open Uber first, and it's worth trying, but I wouldn't leave it to chance at ten at night. Have a sure ride lined up as well, which means a taxi at an agreed price or a driver your hotel arranged.

And if you're staying here, remember that nearly every boat trip leaves from the other town. What you can do without making that ride is in things to do in San José del Cabo. One day over there is easy. Three separate boat mornings is about an hour and a half of driving and around 1,200 pesos in Ubers each time, so I stack everything into one San Lucas day. I've laid that day out in the San José version of my 5-day Cabo itinerary.

The Airport

This is the easy part of staying here. The airport is 15 to 30 minutes from the center, and a private car booked ahead starts around US$70, with the official airport taxi at about US$65 to $85. Don't count on an Uber picking you up at arrivals. Going home, it drops off with no trouble. The whole arrival, door by door, is in my Cabo airport guide.

Fares and options for the whole area are compared in getting around Cabo.

Where to Eat and Drink

The food is why I stay here, and it comes at two price levels about a fifteen-minute walk apart. The gallery streets have the dressed-up dinners. The cheap, local tacos are out toward the highway, in the part of town nobody photographs. If you only eat around the plaza, you'll go home thinking San José is expensive.

Breakfast and Coffee

• Lolita Café. My breakfast pick, in a courtyard under mango trees a block from the church. Get the chilaquiles divorciados. It's closed on Mondays and shuts in the early afternoon.
• Ruba's Bakery. Sourdough, croissants and egg dishes in an old house, every day of the week. It's where I go on a Monday, and I've been back more than once on the other six days too.
• Jazmín's. A cheerful, cheap sit-down Mexican breakfast for about US$8. I like it in the morning. At dinner the mariachi is very loud and the cooking has been up and down for me.
• Coffee Lab. Good coffee on a shaded patio. The service can be slow when they're short on staff, so don't go in a hurry.

Dinner on Foot

• Don Sanchez. The best dinner you can walk to, on the boulevard just south of the plaza. Order the wood-fired brisket or the lobster taco. It's also US$100 to $150 a head, so decide to spend it before you sit down.
• La Lupita Taco & Mezcal. The fun one, in a courtyard in the gallery district with live music and a long mezcal list. The duck with mole is the taco to get. It's a sit-down restaurant at restaurant prices, so think of it as your night out. It's closed on Mondays when I've checked, so confirm before you go.

Two more places in the center, Lumbre and Omakai, are both Michelin-recommended. I don't know either one well enough yet to tell you what to order.

On Art Walk Thursdays the tables in the old town go first, so book about a week ahead. On other nights you can usually get in somewhere if you go early.

The Cheap, Local Stuff

• The tamale cart on the plaza. It sets up most evenings, and a tamale is about 40 pesos, a couple of dollars. Get the chicken in green salsa. It's the cheapest dinner in the old town, and its hours are whatever the cart feels like that night.
• Taquería El Fogón. My favorite tacos in town, about fifteen minutes on foot from the plaza toward the highway. It's beef grilled over charcoal, and you can smell it before you see it. Tacos start around 40 pesos, and it's open late.
• Taquería Rossy. Fish, shrimp, scallop and octopus tacos with a salad bar to dress them, in the same direction and at about the same price. It's a daytime place.
• Tacos El Memo. A good cheap stop for smoked marlin, which is one of the really local things to eat down here. It's about twenty minutes away and awkward on foot, so I take a ride. Lunch only, and not on Sundays.

For a seafood lunch with a table, El Toro Güero is about a ten-minute walk from the church. Order the whole grilled fish and skip the tuna. Two of us ate there with beers for under US$60. Claro Fish Jr is the other one, for a smoked marlin taco at lunch, and I'd look over the check before paying.

To put the two price levels side by side, a taco out by the highway is 35 to 50 pesos, and a taco at La Lupita is 60 to 120. My full list is in the best tacos in Cabo.

The Farms, and One More by Car

The restaurants most people picture when they say San José are Flora Farms, Acre and Los Tamarindos, and none of them is in town. They're out in the hills, 10 to 15 minutes away, down a dirt road. Acre is the one I'd book for dinner, at about US$120 to $165 a head. An Uber gets you out there easily. For the ride back, there's a taxi stand next to Flora Farms, and I'd arrange it before I sit down. I compare the three in Flora Farms vs Acre vs Los Tamarindos.

Carbón Cabrón, the wood-fire grill house near Palmilla, is about ten minutes by car and the dinner I'd pick if you eat meat. Get the short ribs.

Everything here, with what to order and what it costs, is in the best restaurants in Cabo, and there's a longer list just for this town in the best restaurants in San José del Cabo.

A Drink

Baja Brewing is my dependable drink in the gallery district. It's the company's original brewpub, a block off the main gallery street, with a beer garden and live music, and it's open from noon until late. I go for the beer. For mezcal, it's La Lupita.

What to Do

In the center, the list is the plaza, the church, the galleries, a coffee and dinner. That's an afternoon and an evening, and I think it's a great one. Everything else here is a short ride.

See the plaza and the church. Give it twenty minutes. The church is a working parish with two white towers, and it's free to step inside. Look up before you go in. The tile picture over the door shows the priest who founded the mission being killed in a local uprising, which is not what I expected over a church door. The town hall with the clock tower is just down the boulevard, and the plaza between them is where the evening happens.

Walk the gallery streets. There are a dozen or so galleries in the blocks behind and beside the church, and they sell everything from serious work at real gallery prices to souvenir-grade pieces. Two I always look into are the Frank Arnold Gallery, for big abstract paintings and bronzes, and Ivan Guaderrama's, where you're invited to touch the paintings and they make sounds. I go for the walk, and I've never gone expecting to buy. Outside of Thursday evenings the hours are all over the place. Some galleries are closed on Sundays and some are by appointment, so on another day you may find a doorbell where you expected an open door.

Go on a Thursday. From roughly November through June, Thursday is Art Walk night. In the early evening the main gallery street closes to cars, some of the galleries pour you a glass of wine or tequila, local artists set up on the plaza, and the whole thing wraps up around nine. It's free and it's my favorite evening in Los Cabos. Get there by about 5 in winter, take a ride over since parking is very hard, and book your table ahead. It doesn't run in summer, so check your dates. I've planned the night out in my post on the San José Art Walk.

Catch the Saturday organic market. It runs on Saturday mornings in the cooler months, roughly November to April, with produce, bread, cheese, cooked food and craft stalls where the person who made the thing is usually standing behind the table. There's live music and it's a nice local morning. It's held a short way behind the gallery district and not on the plaza, so look up the spot before you set out. Check that it's on the week you're there too, because it's off in summer.

Go for a swim. Palmilla is ten minutes west and has the calmest sandy swim in Los Cabos. La Playita is the tiny no-waves one by the marina, and I'd look at the water when you get there before committing your morning to it. Go midweek to either one, since Sundays belong to local families. Both are in my ranking of the best swimmable beaches in Cabo.

Spend a half day at Puerto Los Cabos. A dip at La Playita, the bronzes, and ceviche by the marina. Or buy the day pass at El Ganzo and stay put.

Walk the hotel beach at sunrise. It's the one thing that beach is perfect for. Stay up on the firm sand and out of the water.

Come for the fiestas in mid-March. Around March 19 the town celebrates its patron saint with free music and dancing on the plaza and a fairground on a separate site. The crowd is mostly local, and it's a fun time to be here.

What I'd Skip

The estuary, as a walk. Some guides still describe trails along a lagoon. What's there now is a neglected wetland. The paths flood, the entrances are hard to find, and I ran into private property signs inside what's supposed to be a reserve. The one time I tried a trail I got about two hundred yards before the water stopped me. The birds are still wonderful, though, with herons, egrets, pelicans and a little yellow warbler that lives only in Baja. So if you're a birder, go with low expectations and binoculars at sunrise, or book a guided birding walk. The dependable spot is the beach at the east end of the hotel zone, where the bike path ends and you can see the lagoon mouth and the birds on the sandbar without taking any trail. Don't swim there.

The covered town market. It's small and there isn't much to see.

Dinner at Costa Azul. Have the beer, watch the surfers, eat in town.

Shopping as a plan. San José is better for looking than for buying, and there's no mall in the center, which is part of why I like it. There's an open-air craft market on the boulevard with the same things you'll see in Cabo San Lucas, where bargaining is expected and it's cash. If you're buying silver, buy from a shop that will write you a receipt and never from a tray. And the same warning applies here as in the other town: I wouldn't buy loose pills from a tourist pharmacy.

If You're Coming in Summer

Summer changes this town more than it changes Cabo San Lucas. The Art Walk and the Saturday market are both off. Many restaurants, bars and galleries cut their hours or close for a stretch between July and September, and it's worth checking the farm restaurants' hours before you go. It's also hot and humid, in the mid 90s by day, so the center only really works after dark.

I'd still come over for a dinner. I'd just check each restaurant's own page that week, and I wouldn't book the center as a base in August for the sake of the town. The month-by-month picture is in the best time to visit Cabo.

The exception is Costa Azul. Summer is when the waves show up.

The Catch

It's a town in a beach destination without a beach you can use. From the center, the sand is a half-hour walk and it's for looking at. Every swim, every boat and every farm dinner is a ride.

The second catch is size. The part you fell for in the photos is SMALL. It's a few blocks, and you can see all of it in an afternoon. I find that restful. If you get restless easily, three nights may be plenty.

It's early, too. A long dinner, a walk around the square, and the town is heading to bed.

And the name will fool you if you let it. Most of the hotel rooms sold as San José del Cabo are in the hotel zone, at Puerto Los Cabos or out on the highway. I made that mistake myself once, with a beachfront all-inclusive that turned out to be a hot half-hour walk from the plaza it was named after... on a beach I couldn't swim at.

The streets I've described feel comfortable to me in the evening. The plaza, the boulevard and the gallery blocks are busy and well lit through dinner, and that's where I walk. The wider picture is in is Cabo safe.

The Verdict

San José's historic center is the one place in Los Cabos that works as a town, and I'd send anyone there for an evening. As a base, I'd send the people who came to eat.

Here's who I'd put where:

• Couples who came for the restaurants: the historic center.
• Repeat visitors who've done the Arch: the historic center.
• Three nights or fewer: the center, or the hotel zone if a pool is the point.
• Families who want a good-value all-inclusive: the hotel zone, knowing it's a pool vacation.
• Quiet couples who want a design hotel and a swim: Hotel El Ganzo at Puerto Los Cabos.
• People who fish from small boats: Puerto Los Cabos.
• Surfers, May to October: Costa Azul.

And who I'd send somewhere else:

• First-timers who want the Arch, the boats and a swim on foot: Cabo San Lucas, on Médano Beach.
• Anyone who needs to swim in the ocean from the hotel: Médano, or a cove hotel on the Corridor.
• Under-thirties, groups and night owls: Cabo San Lucas.
• July to September visitors coming for the town itself: think twice, because it's at its hottest and quietest.
• People who hate arranging rides: only the center works, and only if you're happy staying in it.

I'd stay in the center again. It's where I stay whenever nobody in my group needs a beach, and I just plan on a ride every morning and dinner on foot every night.

For where to sleep and what to book, see the best hotels in San José del Cabo, the best boutique hotels in Cabo and whether Flora Farms is worth it.

So stay in the center, and check the map pin against the plaza. Breakfast at Lolita, not Monday. Uber to Palmilla to swim. Do nothing from 2 to 5. Thursday is Art Walk if it's November to June, book Don Sanchez a week out. Tacos at El Fogón, tamale from the cart. One farm dinner at Acre, line up the taxi home first. All your boats in one San Lucas day.

Quick Answers

Is San José del Cabo worth visiting? Yes, for an afternoon and an evening, from anywhere in Los Cabos, and best on a Thursday between November and June. As a base it suits couples who came for the food and repeat visitors, and it doesn't suit anyone who wants to swim from the hotel or go out late.

Can you walk from the hotel zone to downtown San José? You can in daylight when it's cool. It's about half an hour each way from the nearest hotels and 45 minutes to an hour from the far end. An Uber is about US$5, and that's what I take at night.

Can you swim at the beach in San José del Cabo? Not at the hotel zone beach or at Costa Azul. The places to swim are La Playita and the El Ganzo beach club at Puerto Los Cabos, 10 to 15 minutes away by car, and Palmilla, about ten minutes west.

When is the San José Art Walk? Thursday evenings, roughly November through June, wrapping up around 9pm. It's free, and it doesn't run in summer.

Is everything open in summer? No. The Art Walk and the Saturday market are off, and many restaurants and galleries cut their hours or close for a stretch between July and September. Costa Azul is the exception, because summer is surf season.