Cabo San Lucas

Baja travelers tend to love or hate Cabo San Lucas (pop. 56,800) with great passion. Some relish the crowded beach clubs, two-for-one happy hours, all-you-can-drink sunset cruises, and late-night dance clubs.

The scene here is anything but Mexican, but the energy and pure silliness are infectious, and with all this partying going on, it would seem impossible not to have a good time.

For other travelers, the intensity is too much, the timeshare sale pitches too aggressive, and the overall experience far too Americanized to be enjoyable.

Whether you love it or hate it, there’s no denying that Cabo San Lucas is one of a kind. Its natural beauty is hard to beat: The dramatic arch stands at Land’s End [1]; Playa del Amor [2] connects the Pacific Ocean to the Sea of Cortez; and the peaks of the Sierra de la Laguna [3] rise in the distance.

The town attracts a surprising variety of visitors, from partying singles to thirtysomethings with kids, and from cruise-ship passengers to scuba divers [4] and sportfishing [5] enthusiasts. Food [6] and accommodations [7] are correspondingly diverse. Cabo has luxury resorts and vacation rental villas as well as modest condos, budget motels, and trailer parks. You can eat world-class sushi, shrimp by the kilo, or simple Mexican antojitos.

The downtown shopping plazas [8] sell everything from Sergio Bustamante sculptures to hand-embroidered dresses. Venture away from the immediate tourist area and you’ll find a grid of dirt roads lined with ordinary Mexican homes and small businesses.

As the second-largest municipality in Baja California Sur after La Paz [9], Cabo San Lucas has struggled to cope with fast-paced growth over the past two decades. Most of the development has centered around the hillside Pedregal neighborhood, along Playa El Médano, and most recently on the Pacific coast north of Playa Solmar.

In 2010 the town completed a series of infrastructure improvements that resulted in new road surfaces, sidewalks, traffic lights with pedestrian signals, and spiffy new signage. Services related to tourism and the construction business drive the local economy today.