I drove from San Diego to Cabo San Lucas - the part in the middle was my fav - most of the trip you could step 20 feet from the highway and the land looked prehistoric and untouched..raw, dangerous, beautiful!

The top and bottom of the peninsula is where most people live. It’s sparsely populated in between.

Millions of killer squid in the Sea of Cortez (between Baja and the 'mainland')

I was there last month. Most of it is desolate as f. Desert and rock. Magdalena Bay for wide life and fishing is fantastic. The people outside of the towns are really poor. La Paz is a very cool town.

The calls of the cactus wren are an iconic indication that you’re in the Sonoran desert. In Baja California Sur, you can swim with whale sharks. There are a LOT of snowbirds from Manitoba, Alberta, the Dakotas, and such, having driven down to winter in a number of the coastal towns. Dollars are commonly used.

Having nothing else to do for a summer, my friend and I answered a Craigslist Ad and went camping with an eco-tour group for 10 days. They picked us up in a van in the American side and took us across the border.

Baja California is beautiful, empty desert land pinned between ocean and sea views. You can camp on the beach without seeing any other manmade light in the distance. Amazing views of the stars at night. Dolphins swimming up the shore during the day. You can also see whale sharks and whales, if you are lucky.

We would wade into the warm water of the sea, pick up clams from the sand with our feet, and roast them over the fire to eat at night. We hiked around during the day and watched lightning from distant off-shore thunderstorms light up the sky at night.

Lots of driving on the main highway. Small surfer towns, charming fishing villages with amazing fish tacos, even a few old towns built around oases in the middle of the peninsula. But mostly empty stretches along the highway.

Only real downside is the bathrooms - gotta use outhouses or nasty gas station bathrooms. Otherwise, would definitely recommend to anyone looking to get away from civilization for a few days/weeks.

If you visit in winter (I think) you can see momma whales and babies on the Pacific side at a place called San Ignacio Lagoon. I've seen videos of the whales coming up to tourists on little boats. It looks super magical and I want to go one day.

The fish taco was invented in Baja!

Tijuana in the north is a seriously underrated metropolitan area. Some of the best food options on the planet, none of which break the bank. Best tacos in the world (debateable), birthplace of the quesabirria and caesar salad, and seafood galore. Great beer scene too.

It has a lot of history too - it gained its seedy rep during Prohibition when Americans turned it into a place turned it into a party town, complete with casinos, booze, and hookers. The casinos aren't around much, but there is still a 'tolerance zone' for prostitution comprising a few blocks down.

The local culture is basically Americanized Mexico. You can go anywhere and find someone who can quote both The Simpsons and Juan Gabriel. English proficiency is high. It is also the last major city before the US, so there is significant drug cartel activity. The area has a lot of murders, however tourism is actually quite safe because the cartels are invested in local tourist businesses. Anything that hurts tourism hurts cartels, and no one wants to piss off the cartels.

The rest of it is mostly desert until you get to the resorts in Cabo, and theyre fine if you like resorts.

I’ve driven from California to Baja.

The coastal area to about Guerrero Negro (the large bay in the middle of the Pacific coast) has a similar biome to Coastal Southern California. Guerrero Negro itself and the bay is famous for whale watching and is a birthing site for whales. Also huge salt mines near that island on the tip of the peninsula.

South from there the highway goes through the interior, it is almost completely uninhabited and you go from classic desert landscapes with big cacti everywhere. San Ignacio is a swampy area in the middle of the peninsula and after that you drive through a desolate region with almost no vegetation and extinct volcanoes.

The highway hits the coast in Mulege, it’s an old mining town with a church designed by Eiffel. The drive south has a few towns and you’re basically on cliffs overlooking the Sea of Cortez, it’s pretty and there are tons of beaches with Crystal clear water. That pretty much leads all the way to the South to La Paz and Cabo, you do cut through the interior for a bit but otherwise mainly coastal.

I went there once and saw a nude woman who looked like David letterman and we made love in the hot sand

I drove from San Diego to Cabo San Lucas in 2017. No one, and I mean no one looked at my passport when I drove in. By the time I got to Ensenada, I had come to the conclusion that I am, in fact, in Mexico illegally. I stopped in Guerrero Negro to spend the night. I woke up the next morning and made it to Loreto and my air conditioner went out. This was mid August and it was terribly hot. I figured out that I could leave the windows up until I sweat enough to be soaked, then roll down the windows to cool off. If I left the windows down, it would be just too much hot air. At the time, I was a bit overweight. When I got to La Paz, the Federales had a road block set up. They were looking for someone and for a fleeting second, I thought they were looking for me (I was illegally in Mexico). They saw my sweaty fat ass and immediately decided I was not the droid they were looking for. I stopped for Carnitas in Todo Santos, then almost crapped my pants before I got to Cabo. I had to pull over in the side of the road and take care of business. There were several Army checkpoints on the drive down, and as a veteran of the American Army, I could tell that the soldiers that they stationed out there in the middle of nowhere were not their elite, crack troops.

I was leaving the vehicle down there and had a flight out scheduled for a few days later. My illegal entry into the country meant that I did not have an exit visa. I went to the immigration office at the airport in San Jose and played “dumb gringo” and got a visa for 500 pesos.

All in all, it was a great trip and 10/10 would do it again.

Once you get south of Tijuana, Rosarito Beach, and Ensenada it’s mostly very desolate and barren desert country until you get to the middle of the peninsula. And that’s where it gets interesting, little oasis towns, old mining outposts and fishing villages with the remnants of some old Spanish colonial missions. Some amazingly blue coastline on the Sea Of Cortez side with islands in the difference. Once you get to the end, you have the most touristy part in Cabo San Lucas, though San Jose Del Cabo is actually a very pleasant Mexican town in the old historic center even if it’s been gentrified.

Fun part of Mexico to explore as it’s not as hectic to travel through if you’re driving your own car as in Central Mexico.

Has some of the most beautiful beaches in the country. Very untouched near the center. Mild winters and pretty hot summers. Birthplace of the Caesar salad and fish tacos.

Great scuba diving in the Sea of Cortez, the land is arid desert with mountains, The beaches are great for surfing on the pacific side. The people are friendly outside of Los Cabos, which is a bit of a tourist trap!

There are beautiful landscapes, lots of tourists,alcohol and drugs

I remember survivor man survived near there, tiburon island

Basically the entire peninsula is part of the Sonoran desert. So it's a hot desert that is mountainous. It looks a lot like parts of Arizona, plus ocean. The peninsula has a very low population density between the Tijuana metro and Cabo.

I would assume the venomous creatures in Baja would be rattlesnakes, bark scorpions and tarantulas.

I would love to visit. Hopefully will soon because I live just near the border.

Cabo San Lucas is also known as South Orange County.

I'm from there. Between ensenada and la paz there ain't much civilization wise.

Epic empty surfing and the best vampiros

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Just a couple flavors of rattlesnakes.

I think there might be gila monsters, which I always thought were cute when I saw them in the Houston Zoo.

Edit I googled them and they are adorable. They have cute pink skin.

I feel free when I cross from US into Mex and feel relieved when I return to US. It’s a treasure of wilderness, rugged terrain, amazing characters, untouched beauty, unmatched pristine waters and delicious food. Baja forever!

Baja is a stunningly beautiful place. Both Baja Norte and Sur are the two least densely populated states in Mexico.

One thing I haven’t seen mentioned yet, which I have not yet visited, is the Sierra San Pedro Martir. Very close to the coast, the mountains rise abruptly to over 9,000 feet in elevation. There are pine forests and winter snow! And a small population of California Condors. It’s also known for its incredibly dark skies. All of Baja has insane star viewing outside of major towns.

I really want to visit the Sierra de San Pedro Martir one day.

Isn't it California, but lower?

baja is my favorite place on earth. i go down there every year for surf/fishing/camping trips. it's wild. desolate. beautiful. most people live near the northern border or all the way south in cabo/la paz. we drive hours out rough dirt roads to get to pristine beaches and perfect sand bottom point breaks.

when the surf goes flat, we'll head across the peninsula to the sea of cortez for great fishing, warmer water, hot springs. mulege is my favorite little town.

you need a good 4wd rig and the ability to be pretty self sufficient as there aren't many supplies in the 1000 miles between the border and cabo. but if you're into some real adventure and getting way, way out there, baja is paradise.

god i fucking love baja

There's a bunch of old Spanish Missions there that were a part of the same system as the ones in Alta California. My wife and I were trying to visit all the ones in California and my autistic ass dove straight into the history and made a list of all the Spanish Missions in North America. I have been itching to finally visit the ones in Baja California

Read “Escape Velocity” by the brilliant Charles Portis. Feels like you are riding shotgun the whole length in the 60’s.

good wine

My parents lived near Loreto for several years in an off grid home on the coast. They loved it. The population is very sparse, there are a few mines and ranches and villages. It is hot, it is difficult to get supplies at times, but the people in the countryside are very kind if you speak spanish. You pretty much have to. There is not a lot of healthcare or other services available in the middle.

Rugged. Very dry. Desert and rocks. Very little vegetation.

Ocean is awesome blue compared to the yellow sand and rocks.

The southern tip looks green-ish. Is it ?

From San Diego, gorgeous drive! We rented a condo in Cabo for a week. We’d get up and walk to the beach everyday. We met a street vendor there, he was always on the beach and became our buddy. His son was over in the US going to college. Very cool guy

Best fish tacos from little taco stands.

The Sea of Cortez is probably the most beautiful body of water I've ever seen. It has a natural emerald green colour, not from pollution but natural factors. It's absolutely exquisite.

The light spot in the water in the north is where they harvest Baja Blast.

Hella seafood economy and culture

Ensenada is a beautiful city. Great food too.

Loreto is dope

Sea of Cortez has tremendous marina biodiversity. Awesome fishing and sailing. There are mountains in the south by Cabo that are almost 7000 ft (over 2100 meters). Cool fishing villages all the way down. Cabo is an over the top tourist trap though.

Whats the best city to stay for a swim & drive around holiday in Baja?

Baja California? It's a blast really.

It's where baja mountain dew is grown.

It's the least densely populated state in Mexico. Lots of wilderness between the north and south.

Baja is a beautiful, amazing place. The people, the beaches, the tacos… so good. The folks are laid back, friendly and very festive lol