La Paz is the capital of Baja California Sur, a city of about 250,000 on the inner, Sea of Cortez side of the peninsula, and it is the least resort-like place of its size in Baja. It is a working state capital with a university, a long palm-lined Malecon and a fishing fleet, and the reason to come is what is in the water off it.
A NOTE ON THE NAME BEFORE ANYTHING ELSE. There are two La Paz entries in this library. This one is the Mexican port in Baja California Sur. The other is the Bolivian city at 3,600 metres, and if you are looking for altitude, cold nights and the Andes, the La Paz, Bolivia packing list is the post you want.
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. If you buy through them, Roman Trail earns a small commission at no extra cost to you.
What Is Here
THE SEA OF CORTEZ IS WHAT YOU CAME FOR AND JACQUES COUSTEAU'S PHRASE FOR IT HAS STUCK. He called it the world's aquarium, and the Gulf of California islands are a UNESCO World Heritage site on the strength of an extraordinary density of marine life in a desert sea. From La Paz that means sea lions, mobula rays in vast schools, dolphins, several whale species in season, and the headline animal below.
WHALE SHARKS COME INTO THE BAY ITSELF, ROUGHLY OCTOBER TO APRIL. Juvenile whale sharks feed in the shallow, plankton-rich water of the Bahia de La Paz, a short boat ride from the Malecon rather than an expedition. THE ACTIVITY IS REGULATED AND THAT REGULATION IS THE REASON IT STILL WORKS: the area is a refuge zone, operators need a permit and a certified guide, numbers of boats and swimmers in the water at a time are controlled, touching the animal is prohibited, and there are rules on how close you may approach. BOOK A PERMITTED OPERATOR. The unlicensed boat on the beachfront is cheaper and it is also the one damaging the thing you are paying to see. Snorkelling only, no scuba.
ESPIRITU SANTO IS THE ISLAND IN THE IMAGE ABOVE AND IT IS A FULL DAY. A protected desert island of pink and ochre rock about an hour by boat, with a string of bays, no permanent inhabitants and a sea lion colony at Los Islotes at its northern tip where you can snorkel with the animals. The colony has its own closed season each year while the pups are born, usually through the summer, so check before booking if swimming with sea lions is the point of your trip. A national park bracelet or fee is payable.
The second image is the working waterfront, which is most of what La Paz actually is. The Malecon runs five kilometres along the bay, with bronze sculptures, a cycle path, ice cream stands and the whole city out walking in the evening. It is one of the better urban waterfronts in Mexico and it costs nothing.
BALANDRA IS THE FAMOUS BEACH AND IT IS NOW ACCESS-CONTROLLED. Its shallow, almost impossibly turquoise lagoon and the balanced mushroom rock, El Hongo, are on every poster of Baja. Because the lagoon is fragile and the crowds grew, VISITOR NUMBERS AND HOURS ARE LIMITED AND THE ARRANGEMENTS HAVE CHANGED SEVERAL TIMES IN RECENT YEARS, including temporary full closures. Check the current rules within a few days of going rather than turning up. The water is shin-deep a long way out, which makes it superb for wading and useless for swimming, and at low tide much of it drains.
Playa El Tecolote is the alternative, further round, deeper, with palapas and simple restaurants and no entry restriction.
GREY WHALES ARE A DIFFERENT TRIP AND A DIFFERENT COAST. The grey whale lagoons are on the Pacific side at Lopez Mateos and Magdalena Bay, two to three hours west by road, between about January and March. Mothers and calves come to the boats. It is commonly sold from La Paz and it is a long day, not a harbour excursion.
The old centre is small and genuinely used. The Catedral de Nuestra Senora de La Paz, the Jardin Velasco square, the Teatro de la Ciudad and the Museo Regional de Antropologia e Historia, which sets out the Baja cave paintings and the peninsula's missions, are all within a few blocks.
The third image is the rocky inner shore, which is the honest texture of this coast: desert scrub running down to stone and shallow water, rather than a continuous white beach.
When to Go
October to April is the season, and it is the season for a reason: it is the whale shark window and the air is pleasant, in the low to mid twenties.
January to March adds the grey whales on the Pacific side and the mobula ray aggregations.
May and June are hot and still, with the water warming and the whale sharks gone.
July to October is desert summer: regularly over 35 degrees, humid, and the Sea of Cortez at bath temperature, which is lovely for swimming and the worst of it for anything on land. THIS IS ALSO HURRICANE SEASON, which on this coast runs roughly June to November with the real risk in late summer, and La Paz has taken direct hits.
THE WATER IS COLD IN THE WHALE SHARK SEASON AND PEOPLE ARE NOT READY FOR IT. Winter sea temperatures in the bay sit in the low twenties or below, you are stationary in it rather than swimming hard, and a shortie wetsuit is standard. Operators supply them; confirm that yours does.
Getting There
By air, Manuel Marquez de Leon airport is 15km from the city with domestic flights from Mexico City, Guadalajara, Tijuana and others.
By air into Los Cabos, which has far more international flights, then two to two and a half hours by road north.
By ferry from Mazatlan or Topolobampo on the mainland, into Pichilingue north of the city, overnight and a genuine option if you are crossing the Gulf with a vehicle.
By road, the Transpeninsular Highway runs the length of Baja, and Loreto is about four hours north and Todos Santos an hour and a quarter south.
The centre and the Malecon are walkable and everything else needs a taxi or a car. Balandra and Tecolote are about half an hour north east, and the boat departures for Espiritu Santo and the whale sharks leave from the Malecon or from Pichilingue depending on the operator, so establish which before the morning.
Is La Paz Safe for Women?
La Paz is a quiet state capital and is among the easier Mexican cities to be in. The FCDO does publish advised-against areas for Mexico, and being precise about them matters more here than almost anywhere, because the country is large and the restrictions are specific rather than general. It advises against all but essential travel to the cities of Tijuana and Tecate in Baja California, to the areas of Guanajuato south-west of road 45D, to most of the state of Michoacan with named exceptions for Morelia and Patzcuaro reached by toll road, to the parts of Jalisco south and south-west of Lake Chapala and eleven northern municipalities, to the state of Colima except Manzanillo reached by air or sea, to the state of Guerrero except Zihuatanejo and Ixtapa reached by air, to a 40km strip of the Guatemalan border in Chiapas, to one stretch of Federal Highway 199, and to the city of Acapulco. That last one appears on the safety and security subpage rather than in the landing page list, which is exactly why you should read both. None of those areas includes this destination. Read the current advice yourself before you travel, because the list is revised regularly.
BAJA CALIFORNIA SUR CARRIES NO ADVISED-AGAINST AREA AT ALL, AND THE DISTINCTION THAT MATTERS HERE IS BETWEEN TWO DIFFERENT STATES WITH SIMILAR NAMES. The FCDO's Baja restrictions, advising against all but essential travel to the cities of Tijuana and Tecate, and its warnings about violent robbery around Mexicali and Ensenada, are all in BAJA CALIFORNIA, the northern state on the United States border. La Paz is in BAJA CALIFORNIA SUR, a separate state, and Tijuana is about 1,100 kilometres up the peninsula from here. A reader who sees "Baja" in an advisory and stops reading will have the geography exactly wrong. What the FCDO does say about this state is a single line, that there is drug-related crime in Baja California Sur including Los Cabos, which is a condition to be aware of rather than a prohibition, and in practice it is not directed at visitors.
THE WATER IS THE REAL RISK ON THIS TRIP, NOT THE STREETS. You will spend hours in open sea on small boats. Wear the life jacket, confirm the boat carries them before you leave the dock, and be honest with the operator about how strong a swimmer you are, because whale shark snorkelling involves repeatedly getting in and out of a moving situation in choppy water.
Heat and sun are the second. This is a desert on the water: glare off the sea is punishing, and a day on a boat burns people who would be fine on a beach.
Stingrays are common in the shallows, including at Balandra and Tecolote. Shuffle your feet rather than stepping down, which moves them off before you stand on one.
Hurricane season needs watching between June and November, and the practical advice is to follow the state civil protection notices and your accommodation rather than making your own judgement from a satellite picture.
The ordinary city precautions are the whole of the rest: a closed bag, registered taxis or an app rather than an unmarked car, and nothing valuable left on a beach towel.
The La Paz Packing List
Desert sun, a lot of time on boats, and cool water in the season you most want to be in it.
Our merino base layers are 100% Australian merino at 17.5 micron, and a long sleeve merino wool base layer for women solves a problem this destination creates specifically: you come out of water in the low twenties into wind on an open boat, and the thing that makes you cold is a wet cotton shirt. Wool over a swimsuit keeps working wet, covers your arms through six hours of glare, and dries on you rather than sitting cold.
A wide brim UPF 50 sun hat, which needs a chin cord on a boat, and a long sun hoodie for the days you are on the water from eight until two.
A waterproof dry bag. THIS IS THE MOST USEFUL SINGLE ITEM FOR LA PAZ. Panga boats are wet, there is no dry locker, spray comes over the bow for an hour each way, and a phone, a passport copy and a camera need to be in something sealed rather than in a daypack.
A quick dry travel towel and a large insulated water bottle, which on a desert boat day matters more than it does anywhere else in this batch.
Walking shoes with grip for the island trails and the rocky shore, which are loose volcanic stone and cactus rather than sand.
Not linked and worth packing: REEF-CONSCIOUS SUNSCREEN, and the honest version of that advice is that the term is not regulated anywhere, so read the ingredients for non-nanoparticle zinc oxide and rely mainly on covering up, which is also what the whale shark protocols prefer; SOMETHING ON YOUR FEET IN THE WATER for the stingrays and the rock, which we would normally link but our only water-shoe register entry is unverified so we are not pointing you at it; A LIGHT WINDPROOF for the boat; SEASICKNESS TABLETS, taken before boarding rather than when you feel it; and CASH IN PESOS for the park fees and the beach palapas.
Recommended Tours and Experiences
Essential Resources for Women in La Paz
Emergency numbers: 911 for police, ambulance and fire, the single national number, free from any phone. English-speaking operators are available in the tourist states but are not guaranteed everywhere.
The most important practical point about La Paz is the advisory geography, because it is easy to get backwards: BAJA CALIFORNIA SUR, where La Paz is, carries no FCDO advised-against area, while the Tijuana, Tecate, Mexicali and Ensenada warnings all belong to BAJA CALIFORNIA, a different state about 1,100 kilometres north up the peninsula. WHALE SHARK SEASON IS ROUGHLY OCTOBER TO APRIL and the activity is regulated inside a refuge zone, so use a permitted operator with a certified guide, expect limits on boats and swimmers, and understand that touching the animal is prohibited. THE WATER IS IN THE LOW TWENTIES OR COOLER IN THAT SEASON and a shortie wetsuit is standard, so confirm your operator supplies one. BALANDRA BEACH IS ACCESS-CONTROLLED with limited numbers and hours that have changed repeatedly, so check within a few days of going. LOS ISLOTES SEA LION COLONY CLOSES TO SWIMMERS during the pupping season, usually in summer. STINGRAYS ARE COMMON IN THE SHALLOWS, so shuffle rather than step. A DRY BAG IS ESSENTIAL because panga boats take spray for the whole crossing. HURRICANE SEASON RUNS JUNE TO NOVEMBER and La Paz has taken direct hits, so follow state civil protection notices.
US State Department travel advisory: the Mexico advisory. Read the current level there directly rather than relying on a figure printed in any guide.
UK FCDO travel advice: gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/mexico, and read the safety and security page rather than only the landing page, because that is where the substance sits.
Main hospital: La Paz is the state capital and has the Hospital General de Especialidades Juan Maria de Salvatierra as well as private hospitals including Fidepaz, which are used to treating foreign visitors and expect payment or a direct insurance guarantee up front. THERE IS A HYPERBARIC CHAMBER IN LA PAZ, which matters if you are diving in the Sea of Cortez, and it is worth confirming its status with your dive operator rather than assuming. Dial 911. Private hospitals in the large Mexican cities are good and expect payment or a direct insurance guarantee up front, so carry your policy number where you can reach it rather than in the bottom of a bag. Public clinics will treat an emergency. Tap water is not drinkable anywhere in the country: drink bottled or purified water, which every hotel and restaurant supplies as a matter of course, and take the same care with ice and raw salad that you would with the water itself.
Official health authority: the Secretaria de Salud, Mexico's federal health ministry. covers the Baja California Sur state health services
US Embassy: the United States Embassy in Mexico City.
Official tourism authority: the Secretaria de Turismo, Mexico's federal tourism ministry. with state information from the Baja California Sur tourism office, which publishes the Balandra access rules, the national park fees and the permitted whale shark operators
Takeaways
Baja California Sur is not the Baja in the advisory. Tijuana is 1,100km away.
Whale sharks are in the bay October to April. Use a permitted operator.
The water is cold in that season. Take the wetsuit the operator offers.
Bring a dry bag. The boats are wet for the whole crossing.
Solo women safety assessment: La Paz is among the most straightforward cities in Mexico for a woman travelling alone, and it is noticeably easier than the resort towns at the southern tip of the peninsula. It is a state capital of 250,000 with a university, a five kilometre waterfront promenade that the entire city uses in the evening, a small walkable old centre, and a tourist economy built around marine day trips rather than around nightlife, which changes the atmosphere completely. Baja California Sur carries no FCDO advised-against designation, and the distinction worth holding onto is that the Tijuana, Tecate, Mexicali and Ensenada warnings belong to the other Baja state 1,100 kilometres north. The FCDO's one line about this state, that there is drug-related crime including in Los Cabos, is a condition rather than a prohibition and is not directed at visitors. The realistic crime risk is opportunistic: a bag on a beach towel, an unmarked taxi, a phone on a restaurant table. 911 IS THE NATIONAL EMERGENCY NUMBER and English-speaking operators are more likely here than in a small town. MEDICAL COVER IS GOOD BY THE STANDARDS OF THIS BATCH, with a state general hospital and private hospitals in the city, and a hyperbaric chamber that matters if you dive. WHAT WILL ACTUALLY PUT YOU IN DIFFICULTY IS THE WATER AND THE SUN, because this trip is spent on small open boats in open sea. Wear the life jacket, confirm the boat carries them before casting off, and tell the operator honestly how strong a swimmer you are, since whale shark snorkelling means getting in and out of choppy water repeatedly and holding position rather than swimming. Sea temperatures in whale shark season sit in the low twenties and you are stationary, so take the wetsuit. Glare off a desert sea burns people who would be fine on a beach, so cover up rather than relying on sunscreen you cannot reapply. Shuffle your feet in the shallows for stingrays. And between June and November watch the hurricane notices through civil protection and your accommodation rather than making your own call.
Reading On
La Paz sits in the middle of the Baja peninsula's southern half. North, the Loreto packing list covers the mission town and the island national park four hours up the Sea of Cortez. South, the Todos Santos packing list covers the Pacific-side arts town an hour and a quarter away and the Cabo San Lucas packing list the resort cape at the end of the road. Across the Gulf, the Mazatlan packing list covers the mainland port the ferry runs to, with the Puerto Vallarta packing list and Sayulita packing list further down that coast. Inland, the Copper Canyon packing list covers the rail route through the Sierra Madre and the Mexico City packing list the capital. And the Andean namesake is at the La Paz, Bolivia packing list, which is a completely different trip. For the country, the Mexico travel guide for women and the Mexico packing list carry the transport and the advisory geography in full. For why wool beats cotton when you are repeatedly wet in wind, read the guide to merino wool base layers for women. Every destination we cover is indexed at the travel packing guide for women, and the base layers are at the Roman Trail collection.
If the outer journey is calling you, the inner one usually is too. Explore SoulMap at romantrail.com/blogs/soulmap.
