Photo Essay: A Tour of Todos Santos, Mexico in Photos

Quick, pick up a pen and paper (or your phone) and write down these two words: Todos Santos. It’s going to be the next place you travel to. Okay, perhaps I’m being a little pushy ambitious in projecting where you’ll travel next. But if you’re looking for a new tropical destination beyond your staple resort town destination, I have one for you. Located 60 miles northeast of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, Todos Santos is a small artsy, surf town that you could really drive by and never know there was anything worth stopping for. But there is.

Just south of Todos Santos, there’s Cerritos Beach, one of the only beaches on this stretch of the Pacific that’s safe to swim in and featuring some of the best surf in Baja, California. It’s also home to the Hacienda Cerritos, where I stayed at for several nights, originally built as a residence atop a craggy cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean, but now a boutique hotel.

Driving north a couple miles toward Todos Santos, there's the town of Pescadero, home to the luxurious (but well-priced) Rancho Pescadero, with some of the best carnitas I’ve ever had at Tacos Michoacan. You can stay at Rancho Pescadero for as little as $200 per night and have two large carnitas tacos and a beer across the street for as little as $3. Say what? Best date ever!

And then there’s there town of Todos Santos itself, an artist colony lined with boutique shops, surf shops, open-air cafes, taquerias, tequila and mezcal bars, and art studios. And that’s without even mentioning the meals, a couple of which are among the best I’ve had in Mexico, the first at Mi Pueblito, a small traditional Mexican restaurant, and the second at La Casita, which had everything from succulent cuts of steak to sushi (yes, good sushi in Mexico) to sea bass topped with two different types of crispy potatoes and a tequila cream sauce. Mouth watering yet?

From here on out, however, I’ll just let these photos do the talking. (Spoiler alert: The sunsets are off the charts.)