RVing in La Paz, BCS
La Paz is the capital city of Baja California Sur, and is my personal favorite city in all of Baja!
About La Paz
It is the largest city in BCS, with a population of around 250,000. It is a beautiful, lively city with a gorgeous waterfront Malecón area, and a lot of restaurants and shops to enjoy. Prices for food and lodging are very reasonable and downright cheap compared to most US cities. It isn’t as touristy or commercialized as Cabo, but you have more stores and conveniences compared to the smaller cities such as Loreto, Mulege or Los Barriles.
In my opinion, it didn’t feel like a big city at all, but like a charming, authentic Mexican town where we could also enjoy some familiar chains such as Walmart and Dominos (which were still different than in the U.S. but an still an exciting sight after we’d been in Mexico for awhile).
There’s a city center with the beautiful Mission of Our Lady of the Pillar of La Paz Airapí Cathedral and lots of cute shops and restaurants around. We found a ton of great restaurants in La Paz, ranging from fine dining options to tiny street carts. There’s a Saturday market right off the Malecón where you can find fresh produce, art and locally made jewelry and crafts.
One of the most incredible things about this great city is the low cost of… everything! You can get a haircut for less than $5 USD per person, (which we did) and stay in a beautiful oceanfront hotel right on the Malecón for less than $100 USD a night!
Amenities
Life in La Paz is easier than in the other Baja towns we visited because it was the first city in Baja we came across that literally has everything you need. It is full of familiar American businesses like Wal Mart, Home Depot, Auto Zone, Sam’s Club, and various American fast food chains. The grocery stores were huge and top notch (check out Soriana Híper and Chedraui for a bigger and better version of Wal Mart). Finding diesel and propane is easy, even if you have a large Motorhome (checkout Baja Gas & Oil or SERSI GAS LP).
Where We Stayed
We loved our RV park, Campestre Maranatha. Great staff, very well taken care of, and reasonably priced! You can read more details about our stay HERE.
Where We Ate
We enjoyed quite a few restaurants while in La Paz, which we will summarize for you here:
Los Percherones- This cool was in town, not on the malecón, but the staff speaks perfect English and the food was delicious and served in LARGE portions! Aaron’s favorite was the bacon wrapped al pastór burrito. I ordered 2 different tacos, which were about $3 each, thinking they would be small, but I could only eat one because it was so massive! We ended up coming here a second time because we wanted our friends to enjoy it too!
Harker Board Co.- Right on the malecón, serving good beer (even IPAs which are hard to find in Baja) and tasty tacos and pizzas, with rooftop views to die for! We went at sunset and it was perfect. It did get chilly on the rooftop after sunset, but the staff brought out blankets upon request! Downstairs they have a shop where they rent paddle boards and kayaks, and they even have a hostel as well as private rooms for rent.
Tribu - Another waterfront spot with incredible views and really good food. Fun decor and beach vibe, we went on a double date night with friends and witnessed another stunning sunset from our second story open air balcony table.
Claros Fish Jr. - Super cool restaurant under a massive palapa. It is walking distance from the Saturday Farmer’s Market on the Malecón so we came here for lunch and it was great! The prices were great too. Due to the location, food quality, and prices, we all thought this could be our go-to restaurant if we lived in La Paz.
Mariscos Puerto Estero - A great example of a hole in the wall in the middle of town that had great food and extremely cheap prices. We simply stumbled across this place after striking out on many places we found on Google Maps, which is unreliable in Mexico due to outdated information.
Fast Food - We did visit the local McDonalds, Subway, and Dominos, and while we could taste a small difference from what we are used to, it is basically what you would expect.
What We Did
Swimming with whale sharks
One of the coolest excursions we did in Baja was swimming with whale sharks in La Paz. Many companies offer tours and I chose Mexplore, based on their good reviews and the fact that they include GoPro photos and video footage of the underwater swim. We paid around $100 USD per person, before taxes and fees and it lasted several hours. The footage wasn’t the best, but I was able to focus on swimming and taking in the experience rather than having to document it myself which was really nice. They offer many different types of tours!
Beaches
The beaches right by the malecón in La Paz are beautiful but small, so we ventured south multiple times, checking out the many beaches in the La Paz area.
Balandra - Our favorite beach was Balandra (check out our short Instagram Reel). It is very popular, and they only let 180 people in at a time. There are two sessions per day to choose from. The first one is from 8am-11am and the second is from 12pm-3pm. They do make you leave once your session is over. At times they charge for admission, but most days they don’t.
As we’ve learned in Mexico, things change minute by minute and there are rarely set prices or rules for places. All I can do is report that when WE went, in February 2022, we weren’t charged and we were able to drive right in shortly after noon with no waiting. We’ve heard that many people line up for the first session, and start lining up hours in advance to ensure they get in. There are trails you can hike around Balandra, and so much shoreline and water to explore. 3 hours just isn’t enough time, so if you can go multiple days, plan to do that!
**TIP** Check the tide charts and go on a day when you can be there during high tide. The water is shallow even at high tide, and at low tide, there is even less beautiful water to enjoy, and more sandy patches. We loved paddle boarding there, so high tide was perfect for us.
Tecolote - Another beach south of La Paz and right next to Balandra in Tecolote ((check out our short Instagram Reel). We LOVED Tecolote so much that we decided to park our RV there with friends and boondock for several nights! The waters there are super vibrant and there are mountains surrounding the beach on almost all angles, with the majestic Isla Espíritu Santo directly across from the beach, which is an island inhabited by sea lions! (We didn’t take a boat tour there this time, but that would be a great excursion and place to visit.)
While staying at Tecolote, we hiked around some of the mountains there and ended up at Balandra! It was after “visiting hours” so we felt pretty special to have such an exclusive beach area to ourselves. It can get very busy here, especially on weekends, but with the restaurants on the beach and boondocking spots available, Tecolote is hard to beat.
Two other beaches just south of La Paz that are worth checking out are Playa El Tesoro (which has a restaurant on site and is great for paddle boarding, but only go during high tide) and Playa Pichilingue (restaurants and boondocking available, also great for paddle boarding). While these two beaches aren’t as big or beautiful, they are closer to La Paz and have cell signal.
The Malecon
La Paz has arguably the best malecon in all of Baja. It stretches for miles! Restaurants, hotels, shopping, farmers markets, bike lanes, skate parks, artwork and statues (Our personal favorite is the statue The Old Man and the Sea), it has it all. One thing we kept meaning to do but never got around to is riding our Pedego e-bikes on the Malecón bike path (You don’t need en e-bike for this ride, we just think it’s way more fun :) If you enjoy biking, it’s a must!
Sandboarding the dunes
We rented boards and spent a day sandboarding with friends, which was a blast! The dunes aren’t very big, but it was a fun activity for us to do with friends. We stayed out all afternoon and got to enjoy a beautiful sunset. It is easy to get your vehicle stuck out there, so if you go, be sure to stay on the main dirt road or have a 4x4 and air down your tires.
Hikes
We didn’t do much hiking in La Paz, but if you are in the Balandra / Tecolote area, the Balandra Beach circuit is beautiful and well worth a few hours of your time.
The Negative
One issue we and others we know had in La Paz were the police. They target foreigners, often pulling them over for bogus reasons. We were pulled over multiple times in La Paz. Only once did they actually take our license and send it to the police station. If you are pulled over and know you did nothing wrong, stand your ground and don’t bribe them. It’s illegal. They want you to pay them to let you go and many do. Dash cams are recommended. You will see locals blow through stop signs constantly. Don’t assume just because they did that you can too! If you know you didn’t do anything wrong, in most cases if you stand your ground and wait out the uncomfortable silence, staring and language barrier, they will let you go. The correct policy if you get pulled over is for them to take your license and you get it back at the police station. If it is closed (it closes very early) you go the next day.
We found out the hard way that it IS illegal to touch your phone for any reason while in the driver’s seat, even if it’s just to check the map. Aaron was charged with endangerment and had to pay $90 USD to get his license back. He was also pulled over once for driving under a yellow light, which the cop said was illegal, but we still don’t know if that is true. He ended up letting him go. We had friends pulled over in their Class A, towing a Jeep because the cop said the tow bar was illegal ( it wasn’t) and many get pulled over for not coming to a complete stop at stop signs (which a dash cam could dispel). Just be extra careful when driving in La Paz and stand your ground if you know you didn’t do anything wrong! Once they see you’re not going to pay them, if they have nothing on you, they will let you go. All encounters with the police were cordial. They were all friendly. They don’t get paid much, and are trying to make side money however they can. This doesn’t make extortion right, but as long as tourists continue to give in and pay them, it will continue to happen.
Summary
La Paz is just such an underrated gem, and we loved it so much we even looked at real estate there! Some people we talked to didn’t enjoy La Paz due to the size, but for us, we enjoyed the energy and amenities that it offered. Seeing familiar sites like Home Depot, Wal Mart, Subway, Dominos, etc was a welcome site after 2+ months in Mexico. Who knows if one day we will own property there, but we truly fell in love and will definitely be back to visit!