Been there. Done that. How long are you staying? Do you have a car or truck? 4X4?

Playa Chilleno and Playa Santa Maria IMHO are 2 of the nicest beaches in the Los Cabos region. Both have good snorkeling, especially Santa Maria.

If you want to get away from it all and just chill, the Los Barriles region is great. I’ve stayed at Rancho Leonero and another place I can’t currently recall (next to Rancho Buena Vista). Most of the places there are expensive to stay at, but include your meals. Bring a cooler and buy your own cases of beer along the way at the local "subagencia". Rancho Leonero has an awesome reef right offshore (maybe 30 yards) that is usually teeming with fish. There is a cheaper place to stay in the East Cape, but I can’t currently recall it. Do a search for "east cape baja" or "los barriles" and you should find something.

Try to find the book "The Magnificent Penninsula" if it is still for sale. It is a very detailed travel guide for all of baja. It may be out of print, as my version is probably 12 years old…

I spent a day in Todos Santos. Cold and rainy in July. Go figure. I’ve heard great things about it, though.

For a bargain and delicious meal, make sure to eat at a "Super Pollo". It is a small chain of roasted chicken restaurants. There is one in between San Jose and Cabo, Todos Santos, and La Paz.

If you have a chance while in San Jose, rent a panga and go fishing. I can recommend a captain.

Thanks for the tips, d’meister. We’ll be there 8 days. Reserved a compact to get around in. Los Barriles sounds pretty interesting to me for at least a couple of days. How’s the road between Los Barriles and the reef at Rancho Leonero? Any other good beaches or snorkeling near LB proper? Probably won’t fish. There are a few listings there that won’t adversely affect my retirement fund. The Hotel Los Barriles in town looks do-able, also some rentals a couple of miles from town (Quinta Maria Bungalows) that I’ve seen. Any idea about those?

Thanks again.

The road from the highway to Rancho Leonero is short. Don’t worry about it. The reef is right offshore from the hotel. A can’t miss. I’ll post more when I have more time, especially the low budget place…

If you want to get away and chill, TodosSantos is the perfect town for that. I go there to visit family, and always feel very relaxed. Very small town, but everything you need to feel immersed in the culture. always makes me smile.. Some great beaches around there too, my fvorite one was called Cerritos,(i was more into surfing than snorkeling) it was like a 5-10minute drive south.
I did a month road trip through baja and La Paz was my least favorite place. Hot (well..)noisy and smelly. Cabo was WAY better in terms of fun and cool surroundings. Probably better for snorkeling.

No problemo Russ. I’m not familiar with those hotels you wrote about. If you wanted to save some money by not staying at the fancier resorts on the water, I’m sure that they will be fine.

The other place I stayed at is the Palmas de Cortez resort. Very nice.

Martin Verdugo’s beach resort is the less expensive place I referred to earlier. It is very popular with fisherman. This site might be useful: http://bajaquest.com…

This site should be helpful as well: http://www.eastcape….

Bear in mind that I think that it gets pretty windy in the winter. The East Cape is very popular with windsurfers.

I wouldn’t spend too much time in La Paz.

If you aren’t a strong swimmer, you’ve got to be careful swimming in the Pacific North of Cabo. The currents can be very tricky. Rogue waves have been known to wash people out to sea.

Man, I wish I was going!

Thanks, D-man.

Oh yeah-

I know you have a car, but buses are very comfy and cheap to catch between Cabo and San Jose Del Cabo.

In Cabo, the Giggling Marlin rages, as does the Cabo Wabo. There is a bar/nightclub (called Mermaids, or something like that) next to the Cabo Wabo that you might find interesting. Go there after the other places.

Had a great trip – thanks for the tips, d-man.

Los Barriles was really a nice place. I could see us living there if my wife and I decide we need a change sometime (or myself there in my own little trailer if she ever decides she’s had enough of me.) We stayed at the Los Barriles Hotel – really a nice place, just across the street from Martin Verdugos, where we had breakfast one morning. Had a nice meal north of town on the way to Punta Pescadero at Buzzards, too. The snorkeling at Rancho Leonero was quite good – not as warm as down along the corridor, but do-able and with a nice variety of fish. The road about rattled the doors off my tin-can rental, but the wheels stayed on. But there’s a really comfortable, playful, respectful, unpretentious air about Los Barriles, a good mix of locals and tourists. I hope when I get back that it hasn’t gone development-nuts; the real estate vampires have sure set up shop there.

La Paz was really quite nice as well. We stayed out at Pichilingue at a quiet place with its own beach, a short drive from Playas Tecolote and Balandra (gorgeous). But the malecon area in La Paz proper was really enjoyable too. Not too tacky, few tourists, weather was super, and the sunset from the Hotel La Perla cafe is tops.

Todos Santos was a let-down. Maybe you have to live there to appreciate the town, but it seemed an odd mix of elements to me. It’s filled with overpriced restaurants and shops, all next to hovels and the dog-shit-sidewalk ambiance of real rural Mexico. Roads to the beaches proved formidable. The Santa Rosa Hotel was dumpy-dump. Had a great plate of mole enchiladas at Las Fuentes there, however.

San Jose was a good spot to stay, really glad we were there instead of CSL. Stayed at the Tropicana in town – really nice. You can walk down to the beach in about 20 minutes from there, and getting out to the swimming/snorkeling beaches by car or bus is pretty much a snap. Tacky tourist stuff is omnipresent. Too bad the town hasn’t shut down the central zone to autos – those 3-4 blocks would make for really nice, Pemex-free wandering around.

It’s cold here and raining like a SOB and I want to be in BAJA

That’s cool that you had a good time, and that Los Barriles is still a "Chill" place.

Did you get ripped off by the Pemex attendants?

Pemex fraud? WHOA! How did you know? And how dare you send me without warning me! Actually, I didn’t, but almost. This was at the Pemex prior to the airport in SJD. I handed him 350 pesos for my fill up of 340, including a 200; he said it wasn’t right, I asked him if he had no change, or what the problem was, in Spanish. He said nothing, pointing to his calculator that said 340, and handed me my cash back – only the 200 wasn’t there! So I asked him what happened to the 200, did he have it?? He nodded his head, I gave him exactly 140 more, and we drove off. But if I hadn’t been paying attention, and maybe if I hadn’t addressed him in Spanish, he’d have pocketed 200 more.

That was the only instance of funny business though. All else was cool.

Dude, I completely forgot about those rascals. If there are attendants pumping gas for you, there is a very good chance that they will try to rip you off. Usually they distract you so that you will fail to notice that they didn’t reset the pump when they start to fill up your tank. They then charge you for the prior customer’s gas as well as your own. When the work as a team, one guy will be talking to you while the other one works the gas pump.

I’ve had a couple of interesting "Mexican Standoffs." We didn’t catch them in the act, but they tried to charge us for more gas than the tank held. After a little game of "We will call the cops if you don’t pay vs. F- you, here’s the owner’s manual that shows that it is impossible to hold that much fuel" they send us on our merry way. There were plenty of other suckers coming along Catavina, as it was the only gas for 100 miles in either direction.

Now, everytime we get gas at a station like that (old school attendants) one person watches the pump like a hawk while the other deals with the transaction.

Good times.

When i drove down baja, i would just find a trail that lead from the main highway to the beach and just sleep on the beach every night. I know it sounds sketchy, but it was a lot of fun, and the price for a night’s sleep can’t be beat.

One of my fav places in baja is an ecological preserve around guerrero negro… very beautiful scenery and the people are nice for the most part.

"One of my fav places in baja is an ecological preserve around guerrero negro… very beautiful scenery and the people are nice for the most part."

Been there, and there much there when the whales aren’t around. The weather is usually crappy as well.