The Living Guide·Todos Santos, B.C.S.·— homes for sale
How to live
in Todos Santos.
One magazine, everything at once: a day here, the six neighbourhoods, where to eat, where to sleep, when to come, what to ask — and the real homes for sale in each corner of the coast.
A day here
Seven stops from coffee to stars. Drag sideways — each one tells you which neighbourhood you are standing in.
Coffee under the palms
DoceCuarenta opens the day: specialty coffee, pastries, laptops and the people who will become your neighbours.
Historic centre— homes
A wave at Cerritos
The one beach where swimming is easy and the waves forgive beginners. Schools on the sand; mornings are calmer.
Los Cerritos— homes
Galleries on Juárez and Topete
Sugar-cane houses turned into galleries; Santa Terra's workshops; the plaza and the church. Eight blocks is enough.
Historic centre— homes
Pangas at Punta Lobos
The cooperative's boats come in through the surf with the day's catch. Then a fish taco at Barracuda for a few dollars.
Punta Lobos · Las Playitas— homes
Walk the rows at Jazamango
The fields between town and El Pescadero: farm restaurants, the Sunday market at Baja Beans, the light everyone paints.
El Pescadero— homes
Dinner on the sand
The Green Room, at the end of a dirt road on the La Pastora coast: ceviche, a margarita and the Pacific doing the rest.
La Pastora · North Pacific— homes
Stars over the fields
Paradero, Villa Santa Cruz or a casita in town: sleep in the neighbourhood you are curious about before you buy in it.
El Pescadero— homesWhere would you live?
Six corners of the coast. Pick one: what you eat, where you sleep, what you do there — and what is for sale right now.
Historic centre
Brick façades, galleries, the plaza, coffee on foot. Walk everywhere; the beach is a short drive.
- Eat
- Oystera · Santa Terra · Siempre Viva · Ristorante Tre Galline · Los Adobes de Todos Santos
- Stay
- Todos Santos Boutique Hotel · Guaycura Boutique Hotel · La Bohemia Baja
- Do
- A walk through the centre · Galleries · Festivals
Las Tunas · La Cachora
The farmland and dunes between town and the ocean. Big lots, gardens, the sound of the Pacific.
- Eat
- Jazamango · Desierto Azul
- Stay
- Desierto Azul · Casa Blanco Madera · Nereidas
- Do
- Playa La Cachora · Turtle releases · Whales from the sand
La Pastora · North Pacific
Wild coast north of town: surf, dirt roads, sunsets on the beach. Off-grid feeling, minutes from the centre.
- Eat
- The Green Room
- Stay
- Villa Santa Cruz · Pachamama Mexico
- Do
- Sunset on the beach · Whales Dec–Mar
Punta Lobos · Las Playitas
The fishermen's beach and the coast south of town. Oceanfront hotels, pangas at noon, whales in winter.
- Eat
- Benno · Hotel San Cristóbal
- Stay
- Hotel San Cristóbal
- Do
- Punta Lobos walk · Whale watching
El Pescadero
A farming village turning into a food destination: organic fields, chefs, wellness hotels. Quieter than town.
- Eat
- Paradero · Hierbabuena · Baja Beans
- Stay
- Paradero Todos Santos
- Do
- Playa San Pedrito · Sierra de la Laguna
Los Cerritos
The surf beach. Condos, beach houses and the one place where swimming is easy. The most international corner of the coast.
- Eat
- Cerritos Beach Dogs
- Stay
- Kimpton Mas Olas
- Do
- Playa Los Cerritos · Surf lessons
Where residents eat
Farm tables, three-dollar fish tacos, coffee under the palms, dinner on the sand. Six to start; the whole index below.
Chef tables · $$$$ · Las Tunas
Jazamango
Chef Javier Plascencia's working farm and restaurant. You walk the rows of vegetables before you sit down; the kitchen cooks over wood. Passion-fruit aguachile and suckling pig are the dishes people come back for. Reserve in high season.
If you live here, this is the Sunday-lunch place: kids run in the garden, the table lasts three hours.
Chef tables · $$$$ · El Pescadero
Paradero
The restaurant of the landscape hotel in the fields of El Pescadero: concrete, desert plants and a menu that mixes Mexican, Japanese and French ideas. The soft-shell crab taco is the signature. Non-guests are welcome; dinner is the moment.
The place to take visiting family when you want to show them the "new" Pescadero.
Chef tables · $$$$ · Centro
Oystera · Santa Terra
Oysters and seafood inside Santa Terra, the creative compound built around the old sugar mill, where local artists tend to gather. Striking architecture, regional ingredients, a good glass of wine.
Walkable from anywhere in the centre. The evening spot after a gallery opening.
On the beach · $$$$ · Punta Lobos
Benno · Hotel San Cristóbal
The restaurant of Hotel San Cristóbal, right on the sand at Punta Lobos. Mexican and Mediterranean cooking from breakfast to dinner, with the pool and the Pacific in front of you and the fishermen's pangas next door.
Breakfast here is how many residents start a day off.
On the beach · $$$$ · La Pastora
The Green Room
Next to Villa Santa Cruz on the La Pastora coast, at the end of a dirt road: tables literally on the beach, ceviche, cold beer, margaritas and a sunset that does the rest. In winter you may see whales from your chair.
This is what living north of town looks like: sand, no signal, sunsets.
Coffee & bakery · $$$$ · Centro
DoceCuarenta
Specialty coffee and pastries in a garden of palms and fruit trees, wine in the evening. Spacious, in a residential street, and the de-facto office for the remote workers of the town.
If you work remotely, this is where you will meet the other people who do.
The full index 19 places
Chef tables
Jazamango
Chef Javier Plascencia's working farm and restaurant. You walk the rows of vegetables before you sit down; the kitchen cooks over wood. Passion-fruit aguachile and suckling pig are the dishes people come back for. Reserve in high season.
$$$$Las TunasParadero
The restaurant of the landscape hotel in the fields of El Pescadero: concrete, desert plants and a menu that mixes Mexican, Japanese and French ideas. The soft-shell crab taco is the signature. Non-guests are welcome; dinner is the moment.
$$$$El PescaderoOystera · Santa Terra
Oysters and seafood inside Santa Terra, the creative compound built around the old sugar mill, where local artists tend to gather. Striking architecture, regional ingredients, a good glass of wine.
$$$$CentroHierbabuena
A garden restaurant in El Pescadero where most of what you eat was picked a few metres away. Wood-fired pizzas and vegetables at the centre of the plate; lunch under the trees is the classic.
$$$$El PescaderoSiempre Viva
Argentine cooking around a wood-fired hearth in the centre: meats, empanadas and the slow rhythm of an asado done properly.
$$$$CentroRistorante Tre Galline
The town's Italian: fresh salads, wood-fired pizza and homemade pasta. The kind of place a family goes to on a Tuesday.
$$$$CentroLos Adobes de Todos Santos
Traditional Mexican cooking on a central patio with a serious cactus garden. A long-standing address for a proper comida in the historic centre.
$$$$CentroTacos & casual
Santos Pecados
A block from Hotel California, a neighbourhood favourite for uncomplicated Mexican food and a table where you will run into people you know.
$$$$CentroBarracuda
Featured on Netflix's Taco Chronicles: beer-battered fish tacos, tuna tostadas and a raw-seafood bar. Cheap, fast and very good; most dishes are a few dollars.
$$$$CentroFish Taco Santo Chilote
A Baja fish-taco specialist: fish, shrimp and octopus tacos, a coconut-battered shrimp taco worth the detour, and house salsas (mango, pineapple-habanero). Around three dollars a taco.
$$$$CentroEl Burguer Shack
Smash burgers that visitors keep calling among the best they have had anywhere, with vegetarian options. Not fancy, exactly right.
$$$$CentroHotel California
The town's best-known building, on Calle Juárez, runs today as a restaurant, bar and boutique. A courtyard lunch, a mezcal at the bar and the shop of Mexican design and folk art.
$$$$CentroOn the beach
Benno · Hotel San Cristóbal
The restaurant of Hotel San Cristóbal, right on the sand at Punta Lobos. Mexican and Mediterranean cooking from breakfast to dinner, with the pool and the Pacific in front of you and the fishermen's pangas next door.
$$$$Punta LobosThe Green Room
Next to Villa Santa Cruz on the La Pastora coast, at the end of a dirt road: tables literally on the beach, ceviche, cold beer, margaritas and a sunset that does the rest. In winter you may see whales from your chair.
$$$$La PastoraCoffee & bakery
DoceCuarenta
Specialty coffee and pastries in a garden of palms and fruit trees, wine in the evening. Spacious, in a residential street, and the de-facto office for the remote workers of the town.
$$$$CentroBaja Beans
A Mexican coffee roaster with a big garden in El Pescadero. In high season it hosts the Sunday farmers market (roughly 8 am to 1 pm): produce, bread, crafts and half the valley catching up.
$$$$El PescaderoCerritos Beach Dogs
A community-built coffee shop whose profits fund a local dog rescue. Volunteer, walk a dog, adopt one: many residents' dogs started here.
$$$$Los CerritosDesierto Azul
Eco-minded, minimalist and plant-based: a bakery and cooking studio on the outskirts of town that doubles as a four-room guesthouse around a saltwater pool.
$$$$Todos SantosMarket & classes
El Refugio · cooking class
A three-hour Mexican cooking class in the heart of town with chef Noel, on Wednesdays from 11 am to 2 pm. About 55 USD per person, reservation required. The fastest way to learn the market and the pantry of this coast.
$$$$CentroSleep here, then buy here
Our one piece of advice to buyers: spend a week in the neighbourhood first. Each hotel below is paired with a real home for sale a few minutes away.
Design & wellness · 35 suites · El Pescadero
Paradero Todos Santos
An all-suite landscape hotel in the farmland between the Sierra and the sea, in a disciplined Brutalist style: raw concrete outside, soft luxury inside, desert gardens everywhere. Wellness programme, guided outings, a restaurant worth the trip on its own.
Sleep here to understand the "new Pescadero": fields, silence, design. Then look at land and homes around Rancho Nuevo and Pescadero.
On the Pacific · 32 rooms · Punta Lobos
Hotel San Cristóbal
Bunkhouse's beachfront hotel at Punta Lobos, open since 2017: a low building on the sand with a turquoise pool facing the Pacific, furniture by regional makers and mattresses handmade with coconut, cactus and seaweed fibre. Surf, yoga and traditional-medicine classes taught by locals.
Wake up to the pangas coming in. If oceanfront is what you want, this coast south of town is where to look.
On the Pacific · Villas & rooms · La Pastora
Villa Santa Cruz
A hand-built compound about five miles north of town that grew from a single beachfront villa into twenty-odd very different rooms and houses. Secluded beach, saltwater pool and jacuzzi under the stars, and The Green Room next door for dinner on the sand.
The North Pacific life: dirt road, no neighbours, the ocean. Few homes come up here; when they do, they go fast.
Historic centre · 10 rooms · Centro
Todos Santos Boutique Hotel
Ten rooms in a colonial house of the historic district: ivy on the brick, dark wood, gilt mirrors and a different mural in every room, with a nod to the town's Jesuit-mission origins. Thick walls, quiet, two blocks from the plaza.
The centre on foot: coffee, galleries, dinner, home. Historic houses and lots in the centre are rare and worth watching.
All the hotels 13
Design & wellness
Paradero Todos Santos
An all-suite landscape hotel in the farmland between the Sierra and the sea, in a disciplined Brutalist style: raw concrete outside, soft luxury inside, desert gardens everywhere. Wellness programme, guided outings, a restaurant worth the trip on its own.
35 suitesEl PescaderoDesierto Azul
Eco-friendly and minimalist: four ground-level cottages around a saltwater infinity pool on the outskirts, with a plant-based bakery and cooking studio on site.
4 cottagesTodos SantosCasa Blanco Madera
A three-room whitewashed house with desert gardens, run by a Mexican couple. Small, personal, the scale most people end up wanting for their own home here.
3 roomsTodos SantosNereidas
A villa of raw, pink-tinged concrete and wooden fixtures a short walk from the beach. A good look at how contemporary houses are being built on this coast.
VillaTodos SantosOn the Pacific
Hotel San Cristóbal
Bunkhouse's beachfront hotel at Punta Lobos, open since 2017: a low building on the sand with a turquoise pool facing the Pacific, furniture by regional makers and mattresses handmade with coconut, cactus and seaweed fibre. Surf, yoga and traditional-medicine classes taught by locals.
32 roomsPunta LobosVilla Santa Cruz
A hand-built compound about five miles north of town that grew from a single beachfront villa into twenty-odd very different rooms and houses. Secluded beach, saltwater pool and jacuzzi under the stars, and The Green Room next door for dinner on the sand.
Villas & roomsLa PastoraKimpton Mas Olas
A resort between the desert and the sea on the Pescadero coast, with oceanfront gardens and the scale of a full hotel: the option when you want pools, service and the surf beach a few minutes away.
ResortEl PescaderoHistoric centre
Todos Santos Boutique Hotel
Ten rooms in a colonial house of the historic district: ivy on the brick, dark wood, gilt mirrors and a different mural in every room, with a nod to the town's Jesuit-mission origins. Thick walls, quiet, two blocks from the plaza.
10 roomsCentroGuaycura Boutique Hotel
A restored building in the centre with a rooftop bar, plus its own beach club and spa on the coast reached by shuttle. The best of both: the plaza at your door, the Pacific when you want it.
BoutiqueCentroLa Bohemia Baja
A hundred-year-old whitewashed adobe in the heart of town turned into a small, easy-going hotel. Bicycles, a garden, and everything within walking distance.
Small hotelCentroCasitas & surf
Cien Palmas
Three unique casitas with kitchenettes and self check-in, in town. The closest thing to living here for a week: buy at the market, cook, walk to dinner.
3 casitasCentroPerro Surfero
Affordable and bohemian, walking distance from downtown: private rooms or apartments, a shared kitchen and a pool. Where a lot of long stays begin.
Rooms & apartmentsTodos SantosPachamama Mexico
Peaceful cabins in a natural Baja setting on the outskirts of town. For the version of Todos Santos with more desert than street.
CabinsTodos SantosThe year here
Come twice before you decide: once in winter, when the town is full and the whales are here; once in summer, when it is hot and quiet.
Dates shift each year — festivals, turtle nests and whale sightings depend on the season. Confirm locally before planning around one.
Before you move
The six questions every new resident asks, answered short. The long versions live in the Journal.
01Can a foreigner own a home here?
Yes. Coastal property is held through a bank trust called a fideicomiso: the bank holds title, you hold every right of ownership (use, rent, sell, inherit). It is routine and renewable. Read our Journal article.
Sí. La propiedad costera se tiene a través de un fideicomiso bancario: el banco tiene el título, tú todos los derechos (usar, rentar, vender, heredar). Es rutina y renovable. Lee el artículo del Diario.
02What should I ask before price?
Water. Well, municipal connection, cistern, delivery: every lot and house has a different answer and it changes what you can build. We wrote about water in Todos Santos and about building by the Pacific.
El agua. Pozo, toma municipal, cisterna, pipa: cada lote y casa tiene una respuesta distinta y cambia lo que puedes construir. Escribimos sobre el agua en Todos Santos y sobre construir junto al Pacífico.
03How do I get here?
Los Cabos airport (SJD) is about an hour and a half by road; La Paz airport about an hour the other way. Highway 19 links both. Most residents keep a car; the town itself is walkable.
El aeropuerto de Los Cabos (SJD) está a hora y media por carretera; el de La Paz a una hora en la dirección contraria. La carretera 19 une ambos. Casi todos los residentes tienen coche; el pueblo se camina.
04Can I swim?
At Cerritos, yes. The other beaches are for walking, surfing with experience and watching whales: rip currents are real. Respect the ocean and you will love it.
En Cerritos, sí. Las demás playas son para caminar, surfear con experiencia y ver ballenas: las corrientes de retorno son reales. Respeta el mar y lo vas a querer.
05When should I visit to decide?
Twice. Once in winter, when the town is full and the whales are here; once in summer, when it is hot, humid and quiet. If you like both, you will like living here.
Dos veces. Una en invierno, cuando el pueblo está lleno y las ballenas están aquí; otra en verano, cuando hace calor, humedad y silencio. Si te gustan las dos, te va a gustar vivir aquí.
06Do I need Spanish?
You can manage without it; you will live better with a little. Pesos are the currency; most places take cards, the market and the taco stands prefer cash.
Se puede sin él; se vive mejor con un poco. La moneda es el peso; casi todo acepta tarjeta, el mercado y los puestos de tacos prefieren efectivo.
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