🇲🇽 Mexico · Pacific Coast
La Paz, capital of Baja California Sur, is one of the best-kept secrets of the Sea of Cortez. On the shore of the sea that the explorer Jacques Cousteau called 'the aquarium of the world', La Paz offers what many people are after and few places deliver: spectacular marine nature, dream beaches and a quiet, genuine, uncrowded atmosphere, a world away from the bustle of nearby Los Cabos.
Its heart is the malecón, a lovely promenade along the bay, dotted with sculptures, palms and restaurants, perfect for a sunset walk watching the sun drop into the sea and stain the sky with color. The trips that are La Paz's real treasure leave from here: swimming with sea lions at Isla Espíritu Santo (a World Heritage Site), diving or snorkeling, and —in season— swimming alongside whale sharks, the largest fish in the world, right in its own bay.
A few minutes from the center wait some of the most beautiful beaches in Mexico, led by Balandra, with its turquoise water, its famous rock 'Mushroom' and its shallow lagoon, considered one of the loveliest beaches in the country. La Paz brings together marine adventure, paradise beaches and the calm of an unhurried provincial capital. This guide tells you what to see, what to do, how to get there, how to get around and how to discover this Sea of Cortez paradise.
The La Paz region was inhabited by the peninsula's indigenous peoples, the Pericú (and, further north, the Guaycura and Cochimí), hunter-gatherers and fishers who lived off the rich sea and the oases. The Spanish arrived early: in 1535, Hernán Cortés himself landed in the bay looking for pearls and riches, and founded a short-lived settlement he named Santa Cruz; but the hostile conditions, the lack of water and indigenous resistance sank the first attempts at colonization for nearly two centuries. The bay was famous for its pearls, which drew seekers for centuries. Stable colonization only came in the 18th century with the Jesuit missions and, afterward, the definitive founding of the city of La Paz in the early 19th century (around 1811). During the war between Mexico and the United States (1846-1848), La Paz was occupied, and in the mid-19th century it was also the setting for William Walker's failed filibustering expedition. Pearl fishing was its great source of wealth until the pearl oyster collapsed in the early 20th century. In 1974, Baja California Sur became a state and La Paz its capital. Today it lives off government, fishing, the university and a booming nature tourism. The full story is on our history page.
Read the full history ↓The southern end of the peninsula between the desert and the Sea of Cortés —Cousteau's 'aquarium of the world'—: land of rock paintings, Jesuit missions, gray whales and the luxury resorts of Los Cabos.
Read the history of Baja California Sur →No exact prices: a scale from $ (budget) to $$$$$ (luxury), with 2-3 options per category.
Origins, formation and what the sources say.
Long before Hernán Cortés landed looking for pearls, the bay of La Paz was already home to expert divers who went down without equipment to pull from the seabed the oysters that held those same pearls. The Baja California Peninsula, one of the driest and most demanding environments in the Americas, was inhabited by hunter-gatherer and fishing peoples remarkably well adapted to that desert facing the sea. The Pericú lived in the La Paz region and the south of the peninsula; further north, the Guaycura and the Cochimí. They were nomadic or semi-nomadic groups who made use of the resources of the rich Sea of Cortez —fish, shellfish, turtles— and of the desert's fruits, living in small bands.
These peoples left an extraordinary cultural legacy on the peninsula: the rock paintings of the Sierra de San Francisco (further north), enormous prehistoric murals painted in caves and rock shelters, today a UNESCO World Heritage Site, evidence of the art and worldview of the ancient Californios. In the La Paz area, the Pericú were skilled divers and knew the pearls that abounded in the gulf's oysters well, a resource that would shape the region's history.
Tragically, the indigenous peoples of Baja California suffered a devastating demographic collapse after European contact, from disease, conflict and the upheavals of the mission era. The Pericú in particular had all but vanished as a distinct people by the 18th century, leaving their mark on the deep history of the peninsula.
The European history of La Paz began very early and at the hands of one of the great figures of the conquest: Hernán Cortés. In 1535, the conqueror of Mexico himself landed in the bay of La Paz, drawn by legends of the wealth of the 'island of California' and, above all, by its famous pearls. There Cortés founded a settlement he named Santa Cruz, the first European attempt to colonize the peninsula.
But California turned out to be a very hard nut to crack. The extreme aridity, the lack of fresh water, the difficulty of supplying such a remote settlement and the resistance of the indigenous peoples sank Cortés's project in short order. For nearly two centuries, successive Spanish attempts to settle permanently in the La Paz region were frustrated over and over. In practice, the peninsula remained the land of the indigenous peoples, visited only sporadically.
What did draw seekers throughout all that time were the pearls. The bay of La Paz and the Sea of Cortez were famous for their rich beds of pearl oysters, and pearl fishing —often brutal for the indigenous divers— became the great activity linking the region to the rest of the colonial world. La Paz pearls became famous in Europe. It was only in the 18th century, though, that stable colonization would take root, thanks to a new player: the Jesuit missions.
Permanent colonization of Baja California finally came with the Jesuit missions, from the late 17th century on. Missionaries like Father Juan María de Salvatierra founded, from 1697 (with the Loreto mission, the first in the Californias), a chain of missions that worked its way up the peninsula. A mission was established in the La Paz region in the early 18th century (the mission of Nuestra Señora del Pilar de La Paz), though the area remained difficult and the indigenous population fell dramatically.
After the Jesuits were expelled in 1767, the missions passed to Franciscans and Dominicans. The definitive founding of the city of La Paz as a stable settlement is placed in the early 19th century, around 1811, when a permanent town took hold that would no longer disappear. From then on, La Paz grew slowly as a port and a center of pearl fishing.
The 19th century brought turbulent episodes. During the war between Mexico and the United States (1846-1848), La Paz was occupied by American forces, and the fate of Baja California hung in the balance (in the end it stayed with Mexico). In the middle of the century, in 1853-1854, the city was the setting for the failed expedition of the American filibuster William Walker, who went as far as proclaiming a short-lived 'Republic of Baja California' before being driven out. Despite these upheavals, La Paz established itself as the main town in the south of the peninsula.
For centuries, La Paz's great wealth was pearls. The bay and the Sea of Cortez held abundant beds of pearl oysters, and extracting fine pearls was the activity that gave the region fame and prosperity. La Paz pearls were prized on international markets, and the city lived through a boom tied to the industry, above all in the 19th and early 20th centuries, which drew divers, traders and pearling companies.
The exploitation, however, was intensive and unsustainable. Overfishing of the oysters, together with diseases that hit the pearl beds, led to the collapse of the gulf's pearl oyster in the early 20th century. By the 1930s and 1940s, La Paz's pearling industry, which had been its hallmark, crashed and all but vanished, closing an era.
That rise and fall of the pearls left a deep mark on La Paz's identity and memory; it even inspired literary works, like the celebrated novel 'The Pearl' by the American writer John Steinbeck, set in La Paz, which portrays the life of the pearl divers. Today the pearling tradition is reviving on a smaller scale through sustainable pearl farming projects in the region, recovering a trade that was, for centuries, the economic soul of the city.
After the pearl era ended, La Paz reinvented itself. Through the 20th century it consolidated its role as the main urban, political and administrative center of the southern peninsula. A key milestone came in 1974, when the territory of Baja California Sur became a state of the Mexican federation, and La Paz was designated its capital. Since then, the city has combined the functions of a state capital —administration, government, the Universidad Autónoma de Baja California Sur— with fishing and a growing tourism sector.
La Paz's great asset in recent decades has been its natural setting. The Sea of Cortez, which the explorer Jacques Cousteau called 'the aquarium of the world' for its extraordinary biodiversity, turned La Paz into a first-rate nature tourism destination: diving, snorkeling, swimming with sea lions at Isla Espíritu Santo (declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO as part of the Islands and Protected Areas of the Gulf of California in 2005), whale shark swims and whale watching. Protecting areas like Balandra and the Espíritu Santo archipelago reflected a growing environmental awareness.
Today, La Paz has positioned itself as a quieter, more genuine and more sustainable alternative to the mass tourism of nearby Los Cabos. Its beautiful malecón, its paradise beaches, its exceptional marine life and the relaxed mood of an unhurried capital have made it one of the best-loved destinations in northwestern Mexico, true to its name: a haven of peace on the shore of the Sea of Cortez.