One Week: Los Cabos, Mexico

Cabo San Lucas and San José del Cabo—together part of the Los Cabos municipality—sit at the southern tip of Baja California, ready to welcome travelers with sunny skies, fresh seafood, and relaxation by the sea. For Thanksgiving 2023 and again in 2025, my family took a much-needed week-long getaway to this vibrant destination.

Thanks to my parents’ timeshare ownership (not for everyone, but they’ve made it work really well for our family!), we stayed at the Hilton Vacation Club Cabo Azul and the Westin Los Cabos—more on those below. From sunny days at the pool, to deep sea fishing, to great Mexican food, Los Cabos was a great place to unwind instead of stressing about the holidays.

Know Before You Go

Los Cabos is made up of two distinct cities at the southern end of the Baja California peninsula connected by a resort corridor. The two cities are both similarly close to the airport and are about a half hour from each other, with several resorts dotted along the tourist corridor running in between them.

• Cabo San Lucas is the city that’s generally better known, and is often considered the party town. It has most of the nightlife (certainly the livelier and/or rowdier parts) as well as many of the piers for snorkeling, whale watching, and fishing trips.
• Be aware that, especially in the most touristy parts of Cabo San Lucas, street vendors can be a little aggressive. Whether they’re selling boat trips, trying to get you into a bar, or hawking drugs, they’re used to taking “no” for an answer, but they work pretty hard to get a “yes” response. Be prepared to ignore them or walk away after a firm “no,” or they’ll keep at it.
• San Jose Del Cabo is the quieter and more artistic of the two cities. The downtown is easy to walk around and explore, and was relatively easy to walk to from our resort. Read more below for some of my favorites.

DO bring cash. While credit cards are accepted in the vast majority of businesses, a few places are cash-only or cash-preferred. As well, tipping is commonplace, and in certain instances cash is needed or preferred for tips. While it’s helpful to have cash, it’s not totally necesssary to exchange dollars for pesos. I don’t recall any instances where U.S. Dollars were any less welcome than Mexican Pesos.

In San Jose del Cabo, at least, most of the lodging is in full-service resorts. That’s not necessarily a bad thing—since swimming at most of the beaches is ill-advised, relaxing by the pool is a pretty great way to enjoy the Mexican sunshine. As I’ve noted a bit more below in lodging, one could spend days, if not weeks, without ever leaving the resort. But that would also be a shame, because the local restaurants, bars, and shops are worth getting out for.

LGBTQ Safety

Los Cabos is considered one of the more LGBTQ-friendly destinations in Mexico, known for its welcoming vibe, luxury resorts, and vibrant beach culture. While not as bustling as Puerto Vallarta’s LGBTQ scene, Cabo San Lucas and San José del Cabo offer a growing number of inclusive spaces, bars, and events that cater to queer travelers. In the last couple decades, Mexico has steadily increased its legal protections for LGBTQ people, with relatively broad protections nationally and in Baja California Sur, the Mexican state where Los Cabos is located.

Major resorts are LGBTQ-welcoming, and I generally felt safe and respected in tourist areas, aggressive street vendors notwithstanding. Of course, as with any destination, it’s wise to stay aware of local customs and be especially mindful if you’re not in well-known, traveler-friendly spots.

Sightseeing Highlights

Under the heading of it being a shame not to venture outside of the resort, there’s a ton of awesome activities and culture to take advantage of in Los Cabos. Enjoy the resort, but be sure to get out and about too!

One of my favorite highlights was the Thursday evening Art Walk in San Jose del Cabo. Not only is it fun to see all of the original art that folks have produced, but there’s live music, street food, and a bunch of people having a good time. Plus, the surrounding neighborhood has more great places to check out, like breweries (details below), restaurants, galleries, and more. Nearby La Playa sounds like another wonderful spot to check out, though we missed it on our trips.

Cabo has amazing beaches. They’re beautiful and the sand is more coarse and less magnetic than Maui, my other go-to beach destination (Seriously. I’m not sure if Maui sand is technically magnetic, but that stuff sticks to everything!). Still, the surf on Cabo’s beaches is pretty rough, so it’s generally not a swimming destination. If you’re into a horseback ride on the beach, this is a great spot, as the vendors on the beach will be happy to tell you. Otherwise, enjoy the beaches for photos and maybe some tanning (if you don’t do that by the resort’s pool).

What Cabo’s waters lack in swimming potential, they probably make up in other ways. Winter months are great whale-watching time, the archway outside of Cabo’s marina is beautiful, and as my nephew will be quick to point out, the potential for deep sea fishing is very good. In eight hours, we caught 3 yellowfin tuna, 2 skipjack tuna, and a wahoo. Local vendors filleted and packaged them (for a fee—see above note about keeping cash for tips) and many of the resorts will be happy to prepare the freshest fish you may have ever had, though they will certainly inspect it first. I hope your experience is as good as ours was with sashimi, grilled, and blackened preparation of our catch of the day. There are a ton of options to get out on the water and cast a reel, but the guys on Blue Tail II from Los Cabos Sportfishing that we went out with were fantastic. I’d absolutely recommend them.

If Ocean to Table isn’t your thing, maybe farm to table is? Cabo’s got you covered there too. While we didn’t check out the nearby farms on this trip, my folks had been to Flora Farms previously and raved. I’d also heard Acre Farms is similarly amazing, but a bit more relaxed and less busy.

And while there are so many other things to do, our beach/resort chillax situation won out. One of the things left unchecked on our Cabo to-do list was Todos Santos. This seaside town about an hour outside of Cabo has been a perennial favorite of my parents and is on the must-do list for another trip to experience the delicious food, incredible views, and relaxing vibes.

Eating and Drinking

I’ve mentioned elsewhere in this post that the resorts in San Jose del Cabo are geared toward keeping guests on property. While there’s nothing wrong with taking advantage of the resort to relax and not worry about where else to go (and the Westin’s buffets were surprisingly good), there’s so much more to discover, taste, and imbibe in and around Los Cabos.

Some great eats might be just across the street. In fact the food at Latino 8, which was on the other side of the street from Cabo Azul, was some of the best food we had in Cabo. I’d definitely recommend the ceviche, tortilla soup, or my mezcalita (or any of the other cocktails our family enjoyed). Mid-day, they also have an all-you-can-eat menu too.

Surprise! I also charted out a couple breweries in San Jose del Cabo as well. I preferred the beer at Baja Brewing (and they have live music many nights, which I’m always a fan of), but Sierra de la Laguna is new and I’m hopeful it’ll sustain long enough to keep Cabo’s beer options robust. Their staff was awesome, even though I was a little underwhelmed with their beer … so far.

Las Guacamayas Sucursal Chamizal, or just Las Guacamayas, is a short drive (or a 45 minute walk) from the resort area in San Jose del Cabo and was the one restaurant we got in the car to go to. We had a great dinner with most of the entrees coming out in huge portions. There was also live music the night we were there (with at least three people who they sang Happy Birthday to). Go early if you don’t want to wait, as it definitely gets busier as the evening goes on.

Nightlife

We didn’t partake in Cabo’s nightlife while we were there. It’s amazing how all that sun and relaxing can wear you out! If nightlife is important for you, I’d suggest mapping it out ahead of time, including considering where you’re staying relative to nightlife you want to enjoy. Driving—and especially parking—can be tricky in many areas, so it might be valuable to find a place to stay that has easier access to the nightlife you’re hoping for. As well, some of the resorts have live music and nightlife on-property but our resorts were decidedly lower key.

If nightlife is your jam, the liveliest areas are in Cabo San Lucas. There are plenty of bars and clubs where partiers can live out spring break vibes any time of the year. It’s also where the one LGBTQ club is, although I’d read the rest of the bars and clubs in area are quite gay friendly.

Lodging

As noted above, our home base in Cabo in 2023 was Hilton’s Cabo Azul. We stayed here since my folks had access to the resort via a time share, but it’s also available to book via Hilton. The same holds true for the Westin Los Cabos, except that it’s part of Marriott’s ecosystem and wasn’t as convenient to get anywhere off property. There are several other resorts nearby, including the also-beautiful Vidanta Los Cabos right next door to Cabo Azul, which my mom noted having seen deals through Costco Travel. While we didn’t stay at the other resorts, I’m assuming most of my comments track there as well.

As for Cabo Azul, it’s beautiful. Well manicured, beautifully landscaped, with friendly staff. The same is true of the Westin. Both properties had swim up bars—and who doesn’t love a swim up bar?! The resorts are focused on keeping you (and your money) on property, with poolside service, great spas, good restaurants, and more. Nearly all of it was top-notch, the one exception being the bar: drinks at both Cabo Azul and the Westin were notoriously inconsistent in our experience—one drink might be great, the next could be seriously subpar.

For future trips, I’d prefer Cabo Azul over the Westin, but your preferences might vary. I found Cabo Azul’s room layouts were generally nicer and a shorter walk to other property amenities. Cabo Azul’s larger rooms also offer a full kitchen, whereas the Westin only has a small cooktop and microwave. On the other hand, from what I could tell, all of the Westin’s rooms have ocean views (the benefit of a layout that creates long walks on-property) and their buffets were remarkably good.