Cabo San Lucas: Balandra Beach, La Paz & Todos Santos Day Trip

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Instant confirmationTravelers' pick

1/9

Duration11h–12h

GroupUp to 40

LanguagesEN · ES

PickupAt your hotel

Three Baja Towns in One Day: Balandra's Turquoise Waters, La Paz's Waterfront, and Todos Santos' Desert Edge

You're picked up from your hotel and driven to Balandra Beach, where you swim in turquoise, protected waters and climb to a viewpoint overlooking the bay. After Coromuel Beach, you lunch in La Paz with a choice of regional dishes and free time to explore the waterfront and murals. The tour ends in Todos Santos, where you visit the Hotel California and walk the town before returning to your accommodation. The whole day — drive, three beaches, lunch, two towns — is handled; you just show up at pickup.

11h–12h

Step-by-step itinerary

Explore beaches and towns of Baja California

Hotel pickup in Los Cabos
Drive to Playa Balandra (2-3 hours)
Visit Playa Balandra and viewpoint
Relax and swim at Playa El Coromuel
Lunch and free time in La Paz
Visit Todos Santos and Hotel California
Return to San José del Cabo and Cabo San Lucas

The Experience

You want to see more than the resort zone, but you're not sure how to string together La Paz, Balandra Beach and Todos Santos without spending the whole day driving. That's the pull of this tour — it answers the question before you have to ask it. The van picks you up from your hotel in Cabo San Lucas or San José del Cabo and heads north toward Balandra, a two- to three-hour drive that already feels like you're leaving something behind. The landscape shifts as you go: the coast opens up, the air changes, and by the time you arrive at Playa Balandra, you're in a different Baja than the one you left.

Balandra itself is the kind of place that justifies the drive. The water is so clear and shallow that you can see the sand ripples from the viewpoint, and the beach sits inside a protected bay that keeps it calm even when the Pacific side is rough. There's no restaurant here, no vendors, which is why the tour includes bottled water and why you bring snacks — it's a trade that keeps the place from turning into a parking lot. You can climb to the overlook for photos or wade in and float, and either way you're looking at water that doesn't look real. After an hour or so, the van moves on to Playa El Coromuel, a smaller, quieter stretch where you can swim again or just sit and let the morning settle.

Lunch happens in La Paz, the capital of Baja California Sur, at a restaurant where you choose between regional plates — breaded steak, chicken fajitas, vegetarian options — all served with rice, salad and a cold drink. After you eat, you have free time to walk the seawall, which is where La Paz shows itself: the waterfront is lined with murals, the light hits the water at an angle that makes it glow, and the pace is slow enough that you notice things. The town has a rhythm that Cabo doesn't, and an hour there is enough to feel it.

The last stop is Todos Santos, a small colonial town about 45 minutes south, famous for the Hotel California — the one from the Eagles song, or so the story goes. You can walk into the lobby, browse the gift shops along the main street, and move through the kind of place that tourists have discovered but locals still live in. The drive back to Cabo and San José takes another hour or two, and by then you've crossed four different landscapes and three towns without once having to navigate, negotiate a price or figure out where to eat. That's what the van and the schedule handle.

What’s included

Your day includes hotel pickup and drop-off in Cabo San Lucas or San José del Cabo, entrance to Balandra Beach, bottled water throughout the tour, lunch at a restaurant in La Paz with your choice of regional dishes (breaded steak, chicken fajitas, or vegetarian options) plus a drink, and visits to Playa El Coromuel, the La Paz waterfront, and Todos Santos with time to explore the Hotel California and local shops. Transport is by air-conditioned van for the full 8 to 9 hours.

Good to know

Easy physical levelInfants must sit on laps

Operated by One Way Mexico

Is this one for you?Choose this tour if you want to see multiple towns and beaches in one day without arranging separate transport, entry fees or restaurant reservations — the van, the timing and the lunch are all decided, which is what makes it possible to move between three places and still have breathing room at each one.