Beguiled by Baja

Not just for beachcombers anymore, in Los Cabos, PAUL GALLANT discovers there are as many adventures on the plate as there are on the water and in the desert

The vegetation in and around acre is so lush and green, visitors can easily forget for a moment the surrounding desert climate that makes Baja California Sur so famous. At this “treehouse resort,” in a fertile valley on the edge of San José del Cabo, palm trees form the borders of outdoor rooms, punctuated by 13 luxe treehouses built of sustainable materials. On a recent night, the well-dressed crowd at Acre’s farm-to-table restaurant seems giddy about the food—or perhaps it’s just the mezcal. Chef Kevin Luzande’s cuisine blends Mexican and European influences (cashews in a black bean tamal—whoa!) while never straying too far from locally available ingredients.

Though the resorts of Los Cabos have never been posher or more comprehensive in their strategies to please and pamper guests, the range of options to lure visitors offproperty has never been more tempting. The chic Acre, along with Flora Farms, the more established agri-restocomplex right next door, make getting up close and personal with the food production process an enjoyable part of the pleasure of eating. They also provide an excuse to explore the southern end of Mexico’s 1,200-kilometrelong Baja California peninsula. Passing through the gorgeous yellows and browns of the hilly desert landscape, punctuated by cacti nourished by 350 days of sunshine each year, can be a real dream.

“We’re seeing more and more people come, as what’s on offer has become more sophisticated,” says Cameron Watt, co-owner of Acre, originally from Vancouver. He launched the business with a friend, also from Vancouver, seven years ago. “It’s been exciting to see Los Cabos attract people who may not have considered coming here before.”

While Californians have long headed to Los Cabos for party weekends, the destination has more recently attracted global attention for the increasing number of high-end resorts dedicated to design, pampering and pleasing. The building boom that’s followed the 2014 hurricane has brought a wider variety of accommodation and dining options. Certainly, the 30-kilometre coastal corridor between the region’s two anchor towns—Cabo San Lucas and San José del Cabo—has become a showcase for some of the most stylish resorts on the planet.

Montage Los Cabos, which opened on Santa Maria Bay last spring, is part of the 1,400-acre master-planned Twin Dolphin community on the corridor. The luxury resort has 122 guest rooms and suites, three private casas and 52 private residences on a beautiful property sitting on a sheltered beach known for its snorkelling. The architecture and interiors, created by Robert Glazier and design studio Bernardi + Peschard, use bold shapes and colours to create an homage to modern Mexican design.

Also newly opened, and extremely design-focused, is the eye-catching Viceroy Los Cabos. A reimagining of Mexico-based architect Miguel Angel Aragonés’s design for Mar Adentro, in San José del Cabo’s Zona Hotelera, the 194-room resort uses super-modern white structures and white, minimal interiors to showcase the natural beauty of its surroundings. The allure of Los Cabos has become so great that even Caesars Palace is claiming a spot, announcing last spring that Dallas-based Nunzio Marc DeSantis Architects (NMDA) will design its new US$200-million beachfront resort, with 500 guest rooms. The project is scheduled to start in the first half of 2019. Meanwhile, Paradisus by Meliá, which opened in December 2016 following a multi-million-dollar renovation, has just been welcomed into The Leading Hotels of the World, a curated collection of independent and distinct luxury hotels.

But the impressive architecture and design in this latest wave of Los Cabos resorts and hotels is not the sole reason for the destination’s renaissance. There’s romance, yes, with some of the best wedding planning services in the world. But there are other adventures lurking everywhere.

That includes culinary adventures. On the more traditional side of things, Cabo San Lucas’s Edith’s, where, for two decades, cuisine from Baja Californian and from the state of Guerrero have been served with a stellar view of Medano Beach and Cabo San Lucas’s famed arch rock formation. At Cocina de Autor in the Grand Velas resort, Dutch chef Sidney Schutte experiments with Mexican and European ingredients, while Los Tamarindos, whose owner and executive chef Enrique Silva has been a local food pioneer for two decades, has been cooking up many of the products produced on Silva’s large property. For a more casual experience, visitors can enjoy cocktails and fish tacos shoulder-to-shoulder with locals at the funky El Marinero Borracho (The Drunken Sailor), near the artsy Hotel El Gonzo in La Playita outside San José del Cabo. Needless to say, seafood is the star attraction coming out of all these kitchens.

Exploring the many local beaches can be a full-time job itself. Los Zacatitos, on the east cape of Baja California Sur, is under-the-radar enough that you may find you have it all to yourself. Solmar Beach, next to the aptly named Divorce Beach and Lover’s Beach, is easy to get to and provides calm just steps beyond the busy Cabo San Lucas beach scene. For those with solid sea legs, there are an extraordinary number of boating excursions available, many of them originating from the large marina in the heart of Cabo San Lucas.

Road trips also abound. In La Paz, a small quirky city about twohours’ drive north, visitors can hire a boat to Espíritu Santo Island in the Gulf of California/Sea of Cortes. This UNESCO-protected biosphere reserve has some of Mexico’s most beautiful beaches where visitors can kayak, run with wild goats and swim with sea lions. About an hour’s drive from Cabo San Lucas, the town of Todos Santos has an artsy and hippie vibe, where surfers abound.

Art lovers needn’t venture that far though. San José hosts a weekly evening arts walk every Thursday from November to the end of June, with local shops staying open late for a refined street-party atmosphere.

“A lot of what’s new has been stylish and—I’m kinda tired of the term—chic,” says Watt.

But really, who tires of chic, especially beachside chic with food and scenery this good?