Baja California Sur

Los Cabos, at the southern tip of the peninsula, is Baja Sur's resort hub and Mexico's most upmarket beach destination — a 30-kilometre 'corridor' of luxury hotels, golf courses and beaches linking two contrasting towns. Cabo San Lucas, at the very end, is the lively one: a busy marina, beach clubs, sportfishing fleets, nightlife, and boat trips out to the famous El Arco — the dramatic natural rock arch at Land's End where the Sea of Cortez meets the Pacific, near the sea-lion colony and the photogenic Lover's Beach. San José del Cabo, half an hour east, is the calmer, more cultured sibling — a pretty colonial centre with an art district, galleries and a mission church, and a quieter beach scene. Between them, the corridor's beaches range from the swimmable and snorkel-friendly (Chileno, Santa María) to the dramatic but dangerous-for-swimming Pacific surf. Golf, spas, world-class sportfishing and whale-watching in winter round out a destination built for indulgence.

North of the resorts, on the calm gulf coast, the state capital La Paz offers a more authentic and relaxed Baja — a friendly, low-key seaside city with one of Mexico's loveliest malecón promenades, golden sunsets over the bay, good seafood and an easygoing pace. Its real draw, though, is the sea. The Sea of Cortez here is extraordinarily rich, and La Paz is the launchpad for some of the best marine experiences in the country: boat trips to the UNESCO World Heritage island of Espíritu Santo, with its rose-coloured volcanic cliffs, hidden coves and empty white beaches; snorkelling with a playful colony of sea lions at Los Islotes; and, in season (roughly October to April), the chance to swim with gentle whale sharks that gather in the bay. Kayaking, diving and camping on the islands draw nature lovers, and the nearby beaches of Balandra (a famously shallow, turquoise, sheltered bay) and Tecolote are among the most beautiful in Mexico. La Paz is the heart of wild, watery Baja.

Baja California Sur is one of the world's great wildlife destinations, and its signature experience is gray-whale watching. From roughly December to March, gray whales complete an epic migration from the Arctic to the warm, sheltered lagoons of the peninsula's Pacific coast — above all San Ignacio Lagoon and Magdalena Bay — to give birth, and here, uniquely, the curious mothers and calves often approach the small panga boats to be touched, an intimate and moving encounter found almost nowhere else. Beyond the whales, the bohemian town of Todos Santos, a 'pueblo mágico' on the Pacific an hour from Los Cabos, charms with its galleries, restaurants, mission church and nearby surf and turtle beaches. Inland, the colonial mission town of Loreto (the first capital of the Californias) faces a protected marine park of islands; and in the rugged Sierra de San Francisco, ancient, vivid rock paintings — a UNESCO World Heritage Site reached by mule — record a vanished culture. The stark desert-and-sea landscape, with its cardón cacti and empty beaches, ties it all together.