The Ultimate 7-Day La Paz, Mexico Itinerary: Beaches, Snorkeling & City Exploration - La Paz Purple Travel Guide

In this La Paz Purple Travel Guide, we present an eight-day itinerary for La Paz that introduces you to the best places to see in La Paz. You can use it as is, or you can tailor it to your interests by prioritizing your favorite destinations and by visiting your favorite beach once or many days in a row.

If you don’t have 8 days, you can shorten the itinerary to meet your needs. Here is what we recommend:

• The basic ‘Taste of La Paz’ - 4 Days: This includes 1 day to explore the city, 1 day to enjoy Balandra Beach, and 1 day to visit Espiritu Santo Island or, depending on the season, a whale watching tour, or a swimming with whale sharks tour

• The ‘Deep Dive’ - 5 to 7 Days: This is the sweet spot for most visitors. It includes the ‘Taste of La Paz’ itinerary, and adds a day trip to Aguas Termales Playa Agua Caliente El Sargento, and 1 or 2 more beaches

• The ‘Extended Stay’ - 8+ Days: This tour includes the ‘Deep Dive’ itinerary, and adds more beach relaxation on other beach(es), or additional day(s) on Balandra Beach

If you can spend more time in paradise, please check out the two add-ons below for an even better La Paz experience.

Here at Backpack and Snorkel Travel Guides, we typically promote self-guided walking tours.
But we realize that not everybody likes to walk by themselves in a foreign city. So, just in case that you rather go with ab guide: NO PROBLEM! Please see the Viator tours below.

7-day Itinerary for Your La Paz, Mexico Trip

Here is the itinerary:

There are two add-ons that we recommend:

Day 1: Arriving in La Paz, Mexico

Arriving at La Paz International Airport (LAP)

You can check if you need a visa here.
If you arrive at the La Paz Airport, you can either take an uber, or taxi into town, or rent a car.

There are ATM machines at the airport. My advice is to get money from an ATM machine in the secure area of the airport, as it reduces the chance that someone has tampered with it. We have found that it is usually best to decline the conversion rate and let your bank determine the exchange rate.
If you are sure that you have a data signal, then you can even lock your ATM card before the trip - many cards allow that nowadays – and unlock it via your banking app before you use it at the ATM machine. Once you have your cash, you can lock your card again with your banking app.

Make sure to obey the speed limit. Unfortunately, Mexican traffic police are often not paid well, so some police officers will target supposedly rich gringos on ridiculous charges hoping to extort money out of them.
Also, be aware that local roads, and sometimes even highways in urban areas, have speed bumps (tope). Some of them can damage your car if you don’t slow down enough.

Go Shopping in La Paz, Mexico

If you stay in an Airbnb or hotel with kitchen or kitchenette (like the Las Gaviotas Condo-Hotel that we reviewed), then you will probably want to stock up on groceries. Or maybe you just want to buy drinking water, other drinks, or snacks.
Since you will probably have a rental car, you can go to a big supermarket to buy anything you need.
We typically go either to Chedraui (map), or Walmart (map), or one of the many smaller Aramburo (map).
Chedraui is like a Mexican version of Walmart and Target – I like it a lot, especially since they have a fantastic Mexican pastry section.

Day 2: Your First Day in La Paz

If you can resist going to the beach for one day, then our proposal is to start your La Paz vacation by exploring downtown La Paz and the Malecon to orient yourself and understand what the town has to offer.
Tomorrow you will have a chance to go to two beaches, with one being the most famous beach in La Paz: Balandra Beach. Many people consider Balandra Beach the highlight of their La Paz trip.

Should you visit in December, then you will see a nightly Christmas car parade on Paseo Alvaro Obregon, the street right next to the Malecon every other evening.

Self-guided walking tour of downtown La Paz and the Malecon

Your self-guided walking tour starts at the Malecon where we will see several statues, and the piers from whch your boat tours may depart from in the coming days. After the Malecon, we will explore the highlights of La Paz, Mexico.

Click here to start your self-guided walking tour of downtown La Paz and the Malecon.

Day 3: Hitting the La Paz beaches: Balandra Beach and Tecolote Beach

Today is your first beach day! We will start our day at Balandra Beach, a beach that many people consider to be the highlight of their La Paz trip. Since Balandra beach is so popular, admission is restricted to the first 450 visitors.
We will spend the afternoon on nearby Tecolote Beach.
In case that, when you arrive at Balandra Beach, access is denied as the beach is already packed to capacity, just start with Tecolote Beach, and visit Balandra Beach in the afternoon.

Playa Balandra with El Hongo (Mushroom Rock)

Balandra Beach is often described as the most beautiful beach in the La Paz area, and people frequently describe it as the highlight of their La Paz trip. Its iconic Mushroom Rock, El Hongo, has become a symbol of La Paz, Mexico.
Unfortunately, Balandra Beach has access restrictions.

We tell you what you need to know for your visit of Balandra Beach.

Playa El Tecolote

Tecolote Beach is located about a mile north of Balandra Beach. Since access to Balandra Beach is restricted, and you will likely only spend a half day there, Tecolote Beach is a perfect place to visit beforehand or afterwards.

Playa El Tecolote has a long stretch of white sand, that provides a lot more privacy than Balandra Beach, and it has some nice restaurants directly on the beach.

We tell you what you need to know for your visit of Tecolote Beach.

Day 4: Visiting more La Paz beaches: Playa El Caimancito and a beach of your choice

Today is your second beach day! We will start our day at Playa El Caimancito, one of the closest beaches to La Paz. Unlike the long and rural beaches we visited yesterday, Playa El Caimancito is shorter and directly backed by hotel and other buildings.

The closest beach to town is Playa El Coromuel (map, reviews) – it is about 0.7 miles (1.1 km) closer to Laz Paz than Playa El Caimancito. Both beaches are somewhat similar, but Playa El Coromuel is smaller and snorkeling is a bit worse. Therefore, we are not covering it in this itinerary. But you can check it out in the afternoon.

Otherwise, our suggestion is to spend more time at Playa El Caimancito, Balandra Beach, or Tecolote Beach in the afternoon.

Playa El Caimancito

Playa El Caimancito is popular with local residents, but it also attracts travelers looking forward to a quiet day of relaxing, sunbathing and/or swimming. The beach and its large parking lot are open from 8am until 7pm.

We tell you what you need to know for your visit of Playa El Caimancito.

Day 5: Espiritu Santo Island and Sea Lion Snorkeling tour

Today we will explore Espiritu Santo Island on a guided tour, and snorkel with sea lions.

Espiritu Santo Island is a protected UNESCO World Heritage Site. Besides enjoying beautiful nature, we will relax on a beautiful beach, see a sea lion colony and snorkel with sea lions.

We tell you what you need to know for your visit of Espiritu Santo Island.

Day 6: Aguas Termales Playa Agua Caliente El Sargento; snorkeling

About 32 miles (51 km) east of La Paz lies the laid-back community of El Sargento. Today we are driving to El Sargento to discover Aguas Termales Playa Agua Caliente (Hot Water Beach). A beach where geothermal heat from beneath the earth warms the sand and shallow seawater, creating a series of warm pools right on the edge of the Sea of Cortez.

Besides the hot pools, this are also has some good snorkeling.

We tell you what you need to know for your visit of Aguas Termales Playa Agua Caliente El Sargento.

Where do you want to go now?

Author: Rudy at Backpack and Snorkel

Bio: Owner of Backpack and Snorkel Travel Guides. We create in-depth guides to help you plan unforgettable vacations around the world.

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