🇲🇽 Mexico · Pacific Coast
Loreto is one of those destinations where history and nature go hand in hand. This Pueblo Mágico of Baja California Sur, on the shore of the Sea of Cortez and at the foot of the imposing Sierra de la Giganta, was the cradle of the Californias: here, in 1697, the first mission on the whole peninsula and the first capital of the Californias were founded (the Californias then also took in what is today the US state of California). Walking through its historic center means walking the place where the colonization of that whole vast region began.
But Loreto is, above all, a marine paradise. Off its coast lies Bahía de Loreto National Park, a protected area that shelters a handful of spectacular islands —Coronado, Del Carmen, Danzante and others— and the waters of the Sea of Cortez, which Jacques Cousteau christened 'the aquarium of the world' for their extraordinary biodiversity. Here you can snorkel and dive among multicolored fish, sail to islands with turquoise water, fish (this is a legendary sport-fishing destination) and, in season, spot blue whales, the largest creatures that have ever existed.
The town of Loreto keeps a quiet, genuine charm, with its historic mission, its malecón, its downtown streets and a relaxed mood far from the crowds. On the outskirts, deep in the sierra, another jewel waits: the mission of San Javier, one of the most beautiful in Mexico. This guide tells you what to see, how to get around and how to discover this historic, natural corner of the Sea of Cortez.
The Loreto region was inhabited by the Cochimí, an Indigenous people of the Baja California peninsula, hunter-gatherers and fishers. The name of the area, in their language, was 'Conchó'. Loreto holds a founding place in the history of Mexico and of all North America: on 25 October 1697, the Jesuit missionary Juan María de Salvatierra founded here the Mission of Nuestra Señora de Loreto Conchó, the first permanent mission of the Californias and the starting point of the whole mission chain that, over the following century, would colonize the peninsula and reach as far as Alta California (today's California, USA). For that reason Loreto is considered the 'Head and Mother of the missions of Baja and Alta California' and was the first capital of the Californias. After the Jesuits were expelled in 1767, the mission administration passed to the Franciscans and Dominicans; it was from Loreto that Fray Junípero Serra set out north to found the missions of Alta California (San Diego and the rest). Loreto was the capital until the early nineteenth century, when a hurricane and the damage it caused led to the capital being moved to La Paz. For a long time it was a quiet fishing town. In the second half of the twentieth century it was reborn as a sport-fishing destination and, later, as a nature-tourism one; in 1996 Bahía de Loreto National Park was created, and in 2012 the town was named a Pueblo Mágico. 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.
Every mission in California —those of Baja and also the famous ones of Alta California, as far as San Francisco— has a single starting point, and that point is this small town on the shore of the Sea of Cortez. But long before the first missionary arrived, the region where Loreto stands today already had owners: the Cochimí, one of the Indigenous peoples of the Baja California peninsula. Like their neighbors to the south (the Pericú and the Guaycura), the Cochimí were hunter-gatherers and fishers, superbly adapted to an arid and demanding setting, between the desert of the Sierra de la Giganta and the rich waters of the Sea of Cortez. They lived in small bands, drawing on the resources of the sea, the fruits of the desert and the oases of the sierra.
The place where Loreto would be founded was known to the Indigenous people by the name 'Conchó', a place name that survived even in the official name of the mission (Nuestra Señora de Loreto Conchó). The presence of fresh water in the area —a critical factor on the arid peninsula— was decisive in the missionaries choosing this point for their first permanent settlement.
The Cochimí, like the other Californio peoples, left a remarkable cultural legacy, especially the rock art of the sierras of Baja California: paintings and petroglyphs in caves and rock shelters, among which the monumental murals of the Sierra de San Francisco, a UNESCO World Heritage site, stand out. After contact with Europeans, however, these peoples suffered a devastating demographic collapse from disease and from the upheavals of the mission era, until they had all but disappeared as distinct cultures.
On 25 October 1697, the Jesuit missionary Juan María de Salvatierra founded at Conchó the Mission of Nuestra Señora de Loreto, the first permanent mission on the whole Baja California peninsula and the real starting point of the European colonization of the Californias. After almost two centuries of failed attempts to settle on the peninsula (since Hernán Cortés landed in 1535), it was this Jesuit mission that finally took firm root and lasted.
Loreto thus became the 'Head and Mother of the missions of Baja and Alta California', as the inscription on its church reads. From this point, over the following decades, the Jesuits organized and directed the founding of a chain of missions that spread across the whole peninsula, evangelizing (and at the same time dramatically transforming) the Indigenous peoples, and introducing cattle raising, farming and new ways of life. Loreto was, moreover, the first capital of the Californias, the seat of civil and religious power for that whole vast region.
The Jesuit mission enterprise in Baja California, financed in good part by the so-called 'Pious Fund of the Californias', was one of the most singular in colonial America: a territory governed, in practice, by the missionaries. For 70 years, until 1767, Loreto was the nerve center from which the European presence in the Californias was built, mission by mission.
In 1767, an order from King Carlos III of Spain expelled the Jesuits from all Spanish dominions, Baja California included. It was an enormous blow to the mission system, which the Jesuits had built and run for 70 years from Loreto. The administration of the peninsula's missions then passed to the Franciscans and, shortly after, to the Dominicans.
It was precisely from Loreto that one of the most consequential chapters in the history of North America began. In 1768-1769, the Franciscan Fray Junípero Serra, who had taken over the direction of the Baja California missions from Loreto, set out north as part of the so-called Sacred Expedition to colonize and evangelize Alta California (today's US state of California). From that expedition came, starting in 1769, the missions of San Diego, Monterrey and, in time, the whole chain of 21 Californian missions that would give rise to cities such as San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco and others.
So Loreto was not only the cradle of Baja California but also the starting point of the colonization of Alta California: the thread connecting this quiet Baja California Sur town with the origin of the present-day state of California in the United States. The figure of Junípero Serra, canonized as a saint in 2015, remains tied —in ways both celebrated and debated, because of his impact on Indigenous peoples— to this feat that set out from Loreto.
Loreto remained the capital of the Californias for more than a century, but its preeminence ended in the early nineteenth century. The peninsula was a territory exposed to natural disasters, and Loreto suffered the blows of earthquakes and, above all, of a strong hurricane that, around 1829, caused serious damage to the town and its buildings. As a result of these disasters and of the decline of missionary activity, the capital of Baja California was moved to La Paz, which became the main center of the south of the peninsula.
Stripped of its rank as capital, Loreto entered a long period of decline and quiet. Through the rest of the nineteenth century and much of the twentieth, it was a small, remote fishing town on the shore of the Sea of Cortez, far from the main routes and the great events, living off fishing and a simple life. Its glorious founding history remained as a memory kept in its old restored mission.
That condition of a remote, quiet town, paradoxically, helped preserve Loreto's charm and authenticity, far from development and mass tourism. The mission, the symbol of its past, was restored after the damage of the centuries, and the town kept its genuine character until, in the second half of the twentieth century, a new calling —tourism— began to transform it again.
Modern Loreto was reborn thanks to its two great treasures: its history and its nature. In the second half of the twentieth century, Loreto began to attract sport fishermen from the United States and Canada, drawn by the richness of the Sea of Cortez, one of the best fishing grounds in the world. Sport fishing put Loreto back on the map, and from the 1970s and 1980s on its tourist development was pushed forward, including the building of the international airport and of resorts in the nearby Nopoló area, as part of the coastal development projects.
A decisive step for the region's future was the creation, in 1996, of Bahía de Loreto National Park, which protects the bay, the islands (Coronado, Del Carmen, Danzante, Montserrat, Santa Catalina) and the extraordinary waters of the Gulf of California. This group forms part of the property 'Islands and Protected Areas of the Gulf of California', inscribed by UNESCO as World Heritage in 2005. The protection consolidated Loreto as a first-rank nature-tourism destination —snorkeling, diving, kayaking, whale watching— with an environmental conscience.
Recognition of its historical value and its charm came in 2012, when Loreto was named a Pueblo Mágico by Mexico's Ministry of Tourism. Today Loreto combines, as few destinations do, its exceptional historical heritage —the cradle of the Californias, with its mission of 1697 and nearby San Javier— with the natural wealth of the Sea of Cortez, all in a quiet, authentic setting that sets it apart from mass destinations. From first capital of the Californias to remote fishing town and, finally, to a Pueblo Mágico of nature and history, Loreto has known how to reinvent itself while keeping its soul alive.