Cabo San Lucas Fast Facts

Getting There

Cabo San Lucas is located at the southern tip of the Baja Peninsula approximately 1,000 miles south of San Diego. You fly into San Jose del Cabo International Airport which is accessible by air from most major cities in the United States and Mexico. Nonstop flights are available from the West Coast and parts of the Southwest; most flights from the East Coast mean at least one stop in Mexico City or Los Angeles and often involve a connecting flight, but this is ever-changing. Passport required.

Weather

Pretty perfect, the average year-round temperature is 78 degrees with an average water temp of 72 degrees with rarely a rainy day. Its cooler months are December and January, and the hottest months are between August and September.

When to Go

Depends on what you're looking for. If you want to be in town for a festival like Semana Santa, which leads up to Easter and is celebrated with parades and passion plays, you'll need to go in March or April; Cinco de Mayo (May 5) commemorates the defeat of the French in 1862; Mexico's independence is celebrated in mid-September with fireworks and parties.

High season is traditionally mid-October to May. This is also the height of sport-fishing. Spring break is also a "hot" time. Whale watching season is from mid-December to mid-April.

A Brief History

Natural beauty is what brought people to Los Cabos thousands of years ago and what intrigues them today. Once inhabited by the Guaycura and Pericu tribes, it was also popular among pirates who used The Arch (El Arco) as a perch to target passing ships. In the mid-18th century Jesuit priests built San Jose del Cabo as a mission. It was a quiet fishing village for many years until celebrities like John Wayne and Bing Crosby discovered it, making it an elite vacation destination.