Los Cabos

Los Cabos is really two towns, Cabo San Lucas and San José del Cabo, connected by about 20 miles of coastal highway often called the Tourist Corridor. Cabo San Lucas sits at the tip of the Baja California peninsula, where the marina, nightlife, and El Arco rock formation draw most of the region's daytime boat traffic.

El Arco marks the point where the Sea of Cortez meets the open Pacific Ocean, a geographic split that also splits the diving conditions — the Sea of Cortez side tends toward calmer, clearer water good for snorkeling, while Pacific-facing beaches carry stronger surf and currents better suited to watching than swimming.

Jacques Cousteau spent time diving the Sea of Cortez in the 1940s and later described it as the aquarium of the world, a reputation the region has held onto since — the water here supports an unusually dense range of marine life for its size, partly because it's a relatively young, nutrient-rich sea rather than an open ocean environment.

San José del Cabo, the quieter of the two towns, has built its identity around a historic downtown of colonial-style buildings that host a weekly Thursday night art walk, drawing a mix of local and visiting artists. It suits a slower pace than Cabo San Lucas, without the marina's nightlife scene.

The desert landscape surrounding both towns is itself part of the draw — cactus-covered hills meeting the ocean, a contrast that separates Los Cabos visually from the tropical jungle backdrop of Mexico's Caribbean coast.