P
Patrick
Guest
We spent last week in a place at the tip of the Baja California Peninsula (the westerly sliver of Mexico) known as Los Cabos, more specifically Cabo San Lucas. It is a fairly popular vacation destination known for the scenic Lands End Arch on the Sea of Cortes. The city seems to have taken a "tourism-oriented development" approach to urban planning. All of the hotels are focused around a central marina with a wrap around boardwalk fronted by bars, restaurants, clubs, shops and a huge luxury mall. You can't walk a step without being asked to purchase something from a local walking with a portable fold up shop, and everything there requires a tip. The beaches have to have a chain to segregate paying resort-goers from the foot merchants selling things. Everything is for sale it seems. Although the police are armed with highly visible machine guns and we were approached to purchase drugs no fewer than three times on the streets, the place is all in all lovely, with lots to do and see. Here are some pictures, starting with our departure from Portland, Maine.
Taken from the lobby at La Guardia in NYC
Here is the street side of our hotel, with views of the hills. I think those structures are condos for ex-pats and rich american/euro tourists, but I don't know. For some reason, although retail goods cost about the same in Mexico as they do here, including food and beer, despite the exchange rate of 1:12, a $1 million house in the U.S. would sell for approximate 1/3 of that in Mexico we were told.
I am not familiar with zoning laws or height restrictions in other places, but these structures were the tallest around. Nothing like Miami or Daytona. Maybe they aren't steel framed? I don't know. There was a lot of construction going on.
The boardwalk outside the hotel. It was never quiet.
More boardwalk, in a section that was mostly retail and closed down at night
A pretty cool waterside bar, which was never really too full. The boardwalk was really expensive. This place sounded like a dance club but functioned like a lounge.
This was the view from our room. Whereas there were lots of more expensive hotels with nicer interiors located away from the center of things, we chose this hotel, the Tesoro (recently bought by Wyndham) because of its location. The rooftop restaurant next door was known as La Vista, for obvious reasons. I would recommend a centrally located hotel if anyone travels here.
More boardwalk here. This place has really capitalized on its location in the cove.
We strayed off from the tourist areas into the more local sections of town (still kind of touristy, but with a totally different vibe).
The public bus:
Look closely at the guns the police carried.
Walking toward the beach
Our hotel in the distance
Everything was walkable. The beaches were tremendous. The city also never sleeps. Huge dance clubs, which I would post if we weren't in every picture, and lots of bars.
Taken from the lobby at La Guardia in NYC
Here is the street side of our hotel, with views of the hills. I think those structures are condos for ex-pats and rich american/euro tourists, but I don't know. For some reason, although retail goods cost about the same in Mexico as they do here, including food and beer, despite the exchange rate of 1:12, a $1 million house in the U.S. would sell for approximate 1/3 of that in Mexico we were told.
I am not familiar with zoning laws or height restrictions in other places, but these structures were the tallest around. Nothing like Miami or Daytona. Maybe they aren't steel framed? I don't know. There was a lot of construction going on.
The boardwalk outside the hotel. It was never quiet.
More boardwalk, in a section that was mostly retail and closed down at night
A pretty cool waterside bar, which was never really too full. The boardwalk was really expensive. This place sounded like a dance club but functioned like a lounge.
This was the view from our room. Whereas there were lots of more expensive hotels with nicer interiors located away from the center of things, we chose this hotel, the Tesoro (recently bought by Wyndham) because of its location. The rooftop restaurant next door was known as La Vista, for obvious reasons. I would recommend a centrally located hotel if anyone travels here.
More boardwalk here. This place has really capitalized on its location in the cove.
We strayed off from the tourist areas into the more local sections of town (still kind of touristy, but with a totally different vibe).
The public bus:
Look closely at the guns the police carried.
Walking toward the beach
Our hotel in the distance
Everything was walkable. The beaches were tremendous. The city also never sleeps. Huge dance clubs, which I would post if we weren't in every picture, and lots of bars.
