One of our {many} 2021 resolutions was to keep exploring different areas of Baja Sur in our downtime. We love little day-trips but sometimes it’s more fun to take a long weekend and really dig in to everything the city has to offer. This past Memorial Day we took the opportunity to road trip up the Pacific side of our state to the city of Todos Santos.
Todos Santos (or ‘All Saints’ in English) is a 1 hour drive north of Cabo San Lucas or about a 1 hour hour, 15 minute drive from San Jose if you take the toll road across. Since moving here, we have visited Cerritos Beach and the border town of Pescadero, but never ventured into the city of Todos Santos itself. On the drive up, you’ll pass beautiful cacti and lush green farmland on one side of the road and giant, natural palm groves on the right side, all with the ocean glistening alongside. It makes the drive time fly by when you have so much beauty to take in along the way.
Staycation Mode Activated
Upon our arrival, we checked in to our home for the weekend, the Guaycura Hotel, a pet friendly, boutique hotel right in the heart of town. Todos Santos has an old, historic charm to it with cobblestone streets and beautiful, brick buildings with tons of character. The hotel has a rooftop bar called Sky Lounge, wonderful for sunset cocktails, and also provides access to a beach club, El Faro, just a short 10 minute drive away.
Around the corner there were shops, restaurants and art galleries to explore, all within walking distance — another great pro of staying at this location! We unpacked and made ourselves at home. The bed was quickly Kennedy approved.
TODOS Tortas
Our first mission was a short walk down the street in search of lunch. The hotel receptionist recommended to try Caffe Todos Santos, a quaint, yet famous little eatery tucked inside an old, historic building.
Kennedy came along and tucked herself under the table for some shade (and to catch scraps). Two margaritas ordered and we were happy campers. After we ate, a walk around town to burn off our GIANT tortas (Spanish for ‘sandwiches’) was much needed. Future reminder: remember to share.
There are city dogs everywhere in Todos, which Kennedy was skeptical about at first, but then came around to making friends. The locals and shops leave food and water out for the friendly pups and they adventure across the town in tiny packs to say greet all of the tourists. Several morning walks around the city led to us with a squad of 3+ dogs trailing us through the streets (wish we snapped a pic of this — it was quite comical!). Peep the perrita in the photo below who stuck her head out to say hi on our way down the sidewalk.
Let’s Paint The Town
The city is vibrant with so many colors to take in — from street art murals, to bright pink and purple bougainvillea flowers, to outdoor shopping markets selling colorful rugs, blankets and décor. The market in the center of town was a great spot to wander through and explore. We had fun looking at all of the many beautiful items for sale, even buying a few souvenirs to take back to our home (how much macramé décor is too much macramé décor?!).
Living It Up At The Hotel California
Look what we stumbled upon! The Hotel California — but apparently not THE Hotel California, yet still a much visited landmark in town. After watching tourists take countless photos out front, a quick Google search taught us that the famous song, written by The Eagles, actually has nothing to do with this hotel. Apparently the Hotel California tied to the song and album artwork is in relation to the Beverly Hills Hilton Hotel in LA, but ya know, we’ll just pretend this is the real one because that makes it more fun. Inside, they have a bar and restaurant and a beautiful courtyard to relax and enjoy some live music.
Uno Mas Mezacalita, Por Favor
You must know by now that one of our favorite things to do is eat good food and try new craft cocktails. There was no shortage of that here. While we’re planners and like to look up all the great spots on Yelp in advance, we trusted our instincts and stumbled into a few places to beat the heat and cool down for a bit.
Since moving here, we’ve become a big fan of mezcal, tequila’s smokier sibling. We tried quite a few mezcalitas around town, one being at La Morena, where we enjoyed live music and a great patio scene. Another was at a cute rooftop bar with almost a 360 view over the town, plus some cool desert decor.
Pura Vida at Pura Playa
One of our nights out was spent with our San Lucas neighbor friends, Jamie and Charlie, at a beach bar outside Pescadero called Pura Playa. We have been wanting to stay the night in the area so we could get the full Pura Playa experience, so this was the perfect opportunity. How do you find Pura Playa? Turn down the dirt road and follow it until the palm grove hits the beach. Perfect directions.
A great spot was scored by a firepit (it was chilly by the ocean!), ordered a few drinks and an order of Philly cheesesteak empanadas. If you’re wondering, yes they were just as delicious as they sound. The colors of sunset over the ocean were gorgeous and quickly met with twinkling stars and bright lights from the DJ booth. There was a DJ flown in from France who had the young locals dancing the night away. Who would have thought you’d find this party under the stars in the middle of nowhere? Not us, but we’re sure glad we did. It was a night to remember.
IS IT EVEN A weekend WITHOUT BRUNCH?
Jazamango and Hierbabuena are two restaurants that have been on our list to try since we moved here. Jazamango is on the entrance into Todos Santos and Hierbabuena is just down the street in Pescadero. Unfortunately our car had other plans and the battery decided to die while parked downtown, so we stuck to places close by we could walk to.
Our friends told us Jazamango had opened a new, little cafe, great for breakfast and lunch so we ventured over one morning to try it out. The elote (corn) hotcakes with honey butter were amazing, paired nicely with a mimosa to start our day off strong.
Dinner & A View
Our hotel recommended us to visit their off-site restaurant for dinner, El Mirador, which sits at the top of a hill overlooking the Pacific Ocean. It is one of two restaurants in Los Cabos, just recently voted 2021’s “Most Instagrammable Restaurants In The World”. Luckily we took some photos to document — it’s easy to take a good photo when the views are so scenic.
We had a taxi take us there, up a long and winding dirt road out of town until you reached the ocean overlook. The views are so beautiful, hard to capture the wonder in photos.
The best part? All dishes were delicious and priced incredibly well, especially for this restaurant to be recently included on such a prestigious list!
magic at sANTA TERRA
One of the last stops of our trip was to Santa Terra, a new place in Todos that is becoming a quick, hot spot in town. Santa Terra is a beautiful, giant market hall filled with an oyster bar, small boutiques and pop-up art galleries. The entrance in is stunning, with high ceilings, green palms and eye-catching tiled floors. We could set up our bed and live in this hallway — it’s our vibe.
Once inside you can see the floor to ceiling windows, an electric pink sign to guide you to Oystera and a bustling, lively atmosphere.
A cold glass of rose was ordered and we took a seat in the courtyard patio outside. We snacked on a fresh pescado tostadas and a shrimp cocktail, while soaking in the pretty views. Rumor has it that this amazing place will be expanding, with events, another restaurant, on-site classes, more real estate, and more so we can’t wait to come back and see what has been added next time.
reunited & it feels so good
The long weekend was closed out with a trip out to Guaycura’s beach club, El Faro. A short taxi ride down the street led us to this amazing place with beach palapas and swinging daybeds, a pool, restaurant, spa and shaded sun beds in the grass. What more could you ask for?
While the pool area was tempting, we chose the grassy area to relax so Kennedy could reunite with the foreign green stuff she doesn’t get to see so often out here in the Baja Sur desert. You can say we spoil her a little bit. It was an immediate reconnection, like no time had passed.
It was a beautiful day by the water — the greens were bright, mountains were in view, sky was blue and the food was magical. We dined on a delicious burger and fresh fruit and quinoa salad.
PINK FLOWER PHOTO SHOOT - YEAR 7
Around every time this year, we make sure to document Kennedy in front of some sort of pink flower, a tradition started when Leigh first moved to Denver in 2015. There certainly isn’t a shortage of tropical pink flowers down here, so the tradition lives on, brought to you by many treats.
We hope to venture back up to the Todos Santos area again very soon, to explore more places and check more fun spots off our bucket list. Muchas gracias for following along! Hasta luego!
— Kyle, Leigh & Kennedy 🐾
