Beaches

Medano Beach is Cabo San Lucas's main stretch of sand—right in town, safe for swimming, and lined with palapas, restaurants, and water-sports stands. Kayaking, parasailing, and jet skis run all day, and the beach clubs stay lively from brunch through sunset. Come here when you want the classic Cabo beach day, not a quiet cove.

Pedregal Beach sits below the cliffs of the exclusive Pedregal community—dramatic rock, Pacific swell, and almost no crowd. The waves are too strong for swimming, so this is a walk and a view, not a swim. Minutes from downtown, it is the private-feeling shoreline guests use when they stay in Pedregal villas.

Santa Maria is a protected cove on the Golden Corridor and one of Cabo's best swimming and snorkeling beaches—calm, clear, and relatively secluded. The bay is a Blue Flag marine area with lifeguards and clean water, and you often share the swim with tropical fish. Come for a quiet morning in the water when you want nature over the Medano scene.

Palmilla Beach is a mile of calm, family-friendly water on the Golden Corridor, between Cabo San Lucas and San Jose del Cabo. Blue Flag certified, it has lifeguards, bathrooms, and some of the corridor's most luxurious hotels as a backdrop. Come for a peaceful swim with kids when you want resort-side sand without the downtown crowd.

Chileno Beach is one of Cabo's most popular swimming and snorkeling coves, a short drive along the Golden Corridor. Blue Flag water, lifeguards, and a reef close to shore make it an easy full-day beach—bring a mask and stay for lunch. Come when you want clear, swimmable sea without giving up the corridor's scenery.

Playa del Amor—Lover's Beach—sits at Land's End beside El Arco, a calm Sea of Cortez cove you reach by water taxi. The swim is generally easy, the rock formations (including Neptune's Finger) are the postcard, and just over the ridge, Divorce Beach faces the Pacific and is not for swimming. Come by boat for the arch, a swim, and the photos everyone wants from Cabo.

Playa Bledito, or Tequila Cove, is a protected swimming beach in front of the Hilton, with a man-made breakwater that keeps the water calm. Stay inside the cove for swimming and water toys; a public path makes it easy to reach even if you are not a hotel guest. Come when you want a safe, convenient swim close to the corridor.

Cerritos is the Pacific-side beach west of Cabo—a crescent of sand with year-round surf and one of the few stretches on this coast that is actually usable. Besides the waves, there is horseback riding, kayaking, and a relaxed beach-town feel beneath Hacienda Cerritos on the point. Come for a surf morning or a family day when you want Baja's Pacific, not the Sea of Cortez scene.