The Journal 8 min read
Todos Santos vs La Paz: Which Day Trip From Cabo Is Worth the Drive?
Todos Santos is an hour away and a half-day of galleries and surf beaches; La Paz is two-plus hours and a full day of whale sharks, sea lions and Balandra. Prices, hours, and who should pick which.
By The One Happy Aruba Team · Updated Sep 30, 2026 · How we know
If you have one free day in a Cabo week, take Todos Santos: an hour up Highway 19, a six-hour tour for $99–$130, back at the pool by mid-afternoon. If you have two free days, or you're in Cabo between October and April and the words "whale shark" do something to you, La Paz is the better trip — but it's a 10–12 hour day from the Corridor, and the tours that make it worthwhile cost $180–$300 a head. The one thing not to do is the 12-hour combo that tries to squeeze both towns and Balandra into one bus ride.
The verdict, by traveler
Pick Todos Santos if: you want a low-effort culture day, you're traveling with kids or anyone who hates long van rides, you'd rather be back for sunset at your resort, or you're on a budget. It's the right first day trip for almost everyone.
Pick La Paz if: you'll snorkel, you're in whale shark season, you don't mind leaving before dawn, or you're willing to spend the night up there and come back the next day. The sea lion colony at Espíritu Santo and the water at Balandra are the best things in the water anywhere near Cabo, full stop.
Pick neither if: you're on a cruise (see the cruise port day guide) or you only have three nights; the starter itinerary covers that.
The tours, side by side
Prices are per person as listed on Viator; ratings are the running average with review count. Todos Santos tours are all bus-and-walk days. La Paz tours split into two kinds: the ones that pick you up in Cabo (long day, price includes the drive) and the ones that start at the La Paz marina (short, cheap, but you supply your own way there).
Across everything on file, Todos Santos day trips run a median of $125 and just under five hours; La Paz trips a median of $168 and over seven. Whale shark days sit at a $191 median, sea-lion and Espíritu Santo trips at $150.
What a Todos Santos day actually looks like
You leave Cabo San Lucas around 8 or 9 a.m. and head west on Highway 19, which climbs over the tail of the Sierra de la Laguna through cactus scrub and drops into a green farming valley on the Pacific side. It's about an hour of driving on a good two-lane road. Every tour makes the same stops in some order: the Pueblo Mágico streets with their galleries and boutiques, the mission church on the plaza, the Hotel California (a photo, maybe a drink; whether it inspired the song is a legend the town doesn't discourage), and lunch. The better tours add a beach. The Eco Adventures and Magic Town tours are the ones holding perfect ratings, though the second has only 69 reviews behind it.
The camel-ranch version, the Magical Todos Santos Tour, is the crowd favorite at $119 with 847 reviews and a 4.9. You ride a camel at a working ranch on the Pacific side, taste tequila, then go into town — a bit of a theme-park loop, but families love it and it costs less than the plain town tour. If you want the beach instead of the camel, Playa Los Cerritos, about 15 minutes south of town, is the swimmable surf beach on this coast — a rarity, since most of the Pacific side is no-swim water.
You're back in Cabo by 3 or 4 p.m. That's the whole point: it's a half-day of effort that doesn't cost you the evening.
What a La Paz day actually looks like
The drive is the first thing to understand. La Paz is two to two-and-a-half hours from Cabo San Lucas (longer from San José), so any tour that picks you up in Cabo is spending four to five hours on the road. The Whale Shark Snorkeling Tour and Lunch leaves before dawn and runs ten hours; about six of those are on or near the water, which is a decent ratio. The Balandra snorkel trips at $219–$226 run eight.
The whale sharks feed in the bay off La Paz roughly October through April. You float on the surface while a fish the length of a bus cruises under you; the guides brief you on distance rules and the boats are limited by permit. Outside that window the whale shark tours don't run, so check your month against the month guide before you get excited. The sea lion colony at Los Islotes on Espíritu Santo is year-round, and the pups will swim circles around you. Balandra is the mushroom rock and knee-deep turquoise bay; it's protected and often capacity-limited, so tours go in the morning.
The La Paz malecón is a real waterfront promenade with a real town behind it; most tours give you an hour there, enough for an ice cream and not much else.
Day trip or overnight? If your budget allows it, sleep in La Paz. The short marina-start tours are dramatically better value: the Marine Biologist whale shark tour is $182 for three hours with a 4.9 across 649 reviews, and the Espíritu Santo sea lion tour is $124. Do one in the morning, one the next morning, and drive back rested. Our La Paz whale sharks and sea lions hub lays out the options.
Who each one is wrong for
Todos Santos is wrong for people who want to be in the water. It's a walking-and-shopping town with a good taco, and the beach stops are short; if your idea of a day trip is a snorkel, you'll be bored by noon.
La Paz is wrong for anyone with motion sickness, anyone with young kids who can't handle a 5 a.m. wake-up, and anyone visiting May through September if the whale sharks were the draw. It's also wrong as a "see everything" day — which brings us to the combos.
What to skip
The three-in-one combo. The La Paz City Tour with Balandra and Todos Santos and its sibling at $118 are cheap, and 560 people have rated the first one a respectable 4.7. But twelve hours to spend ninety minutes at Balandra, an hour on the malecón, and an hour in Todos Santos is a day spent mostly looking out a van window. If you can only afford one long day, spend it on the water.
The $110 whale shark swim. The Whale Shark Swim Adventure in La Paz is the cheapest whale shark option and also the lowest-rated at 4.4 across 155 reviews. The gap between it and the 4.9 small-group tours is $72 a person. On a once-in-a-lifetime swim, pay it.
The UTV "toward Todos Santos" tour. The Migrino Beach UTV and Tequila is a great two hours (4.9, 683 reviews), but it never reaches Todos Santos. Book it as a desert ride, not a day trip; see the ATV and camel hub.
Rental car vs. tour
For Todos Santos, a car wins easily for two or more people: two tour seats are $240–$260, the drive is an hour on a straightforward federal highway with no tolls (the toll road in Los Cabos is the Corridor bypass, not Highway 19), and you can linger where you want and hit Cerritos on the way back. Read our getting around notes on whether to rent at all.
For La Paz, it's closer. A car lets you do the overnight and book the cheaper marina-start tours, which saves $80–$130 a person over the Cabo-pickup versions. But you're driving five hours round-trip, and the whale-shark boats leave early. If you're not staying over, let someone else drive.
Two cautions either way. We have no community reports on police stops for Cabo specifically, so this is general Mexico driving practice: keep your license, rental contract and insurance card together, don't hand over originals, and if you're pulled over, ask for a written ticket to pay at the station rather than settling roadside. And fill the tank before Todos Santos; stations are sparse on Highway 19.
When and how to book
Book whale shark tours as soon as your dates are fixed; they're permit-limited and the best small-group ones sell out in high season. Todos Santos tours can be booked a day or two out in most months, and with a car it needs no booking at all — go on a weekday, arrive by 10, eat early.
Not sure which fits your week? Run the trip planner with your dates and it'll tell you whether whale sharks are even in play. And the full list of eight options is in our best day trips from Cabo guide.