Paradero Todos Santos

Style

Outback Brutalism

Setting

Baja's cactus-studded desert

A cactus and agave-strewn botanical amphitheatre is the focal point at Paradero Todos Santos, a community-minded, eco-centric desert resort offering a distinctly different flavour of escapism to what is typically found in Baja California Sur. Its Brutalist architecture blends into the arid desert, and plays with light and shadow in ever more intriguing ways that enhance the cleverly landscaped setting. Guests are encouraged to connect with nature; there’s no room service and no televisions, but there are plentiful nooks for stargazing, an infinity lap pool, a free roster of daily experiences that show off the region’s assets (including rare butterflies and other wildlife) and a farm-to-table restaurant notable for bringing people together.

Facilities

Rooms

41 suites.

Checkout

Check-in is from 3pm, and check-out is at 12 noon. The hotel will attempt to accommodate requests outside of these times if possible.

More Details

Room rates don't typically include breakfast, but a traditional Mexican spread of burritos, eggs, fruits, juices and coffee can be purchased. The hotel is for guests aged 18-years and over.

Also

The centrepiece of the Botanical Amphitheatre is El Abuelo (the Grandpa), a protected 200-year old cactus. La Abuela (the Grandma) is similarly aged and marks the entrance to the spa, and the Lovers are an intertwined cactus-thorntree couple.

Fitness Center

Free Internet Access

Pet Friendly

Pool

On-Site Restaurant

Spa

At the Hotel

Open-air lounge and performance space, outdoor gym, spa with a temazcal (steam lodge). In rooms: Air-conditioning, free WiFi, USB charging stations.

Our Favourite Rooms

With minimal light pollution in its desert setting and typically clear weather, Paradero has some phenomenal stargazing opportunities, and the Farm Sky Suite takes full advantage. Thick netting is strung across a void between two elements of the rooftop terrace – grab a few cushions and a favourite companion, and spot shooting stars and far-away constellations ‘till the wee hours.

Poolside

Paradero’s pool brings a Slim Aarons photograph to life. The omnipresent sun makes the white foreground of the half-moon sun terrace gleam, as champagne-sipping guests in wide-brimmed hats and sunglasses recline before a broad infinity lap-pool, which spills over to arid desert views through Mojave yucca and lanky cacti. There’s no dive-bombing or inflatable flotsam in sight – this is water as healing. Abscond the midday heat, cool your feet on its river-pebble floor and every once in a while paddle over to the triangular hole-in-the-wall bar for a mezcal martini. Swim, sip, lounge, nap, repeat.

Spa

Using the word ‘oasis’ to describe a spa is a tired crutch of the unimaginative, but no, this spa is a literal oasis in the desert. A dense foliage of palms and succulents surround an ojo de agua (watering hole), and the welcome desk of the namesake spa (Ojo de Agua Spa and Wellness Centre) is marked by little more than a centuries-old cactus named Grandma. Treatments are based around Mexican healing traditions such as the temazcal (a steam lodge for sound-healing ceremonies) and chakra balancing. There’s a menu of facials, skin treatments, and more traditional massages including Swedish, deep tissue, sports and reflexology, that can be delivered to singles or couples in the outdoor treatment spaces or in-suite. Heaven – or, indeed, an oasis – we’ll allow it, just this once…

Packing Tips

Don’t bother bringing your surfboard – Paradero has its own line of custom-shaped boards available.

Also

The hotel has its own cars and drivers to provide transfers (at a cost) to ensure guests are able to experience the local area.

Gallery

Food & Drink

Top Table

Middle of the bar, where you’re best placed to observe and marvel at Chef Eduardo in full flight.

Dress Code

For the gentlemen, a pressed white shirt – unbuttoned to the sternum, naturally. Vivid colours for the ladies. All guests may want a patterned woollen poncho once the sun sets and the Pacific breeze blows fresh.

Hotel Restaurant

Paradero makes a point of not offering room service. They take very seriously the idea that a meal is a chance to come together, meet and laugh and exchange ideas and embrace community, and a meal in solitary can’t compare. There is no traditional kitchen at Paradero, instead, a large communal bar encircles an open-air preparation and cooking space where guests are encouraged to interact and learn about food and culture, or they can choose a bench in the sand and dine under candle and moonlight. Chef Christian Reyes heads Michelin-starred Tenoch and draws on the bounty of the nearby Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Cortez for fresh seafood, the adjacent farms for produce, and the community for local influence, to craft a continuously evolving menu of simple yet sophisticated Mexican coastal cuisine, with Japanese influences. A wood-fired Oaxacan clay oven cooks hand-spun corn or flour tortillas that accompany clams, soft-shell crab tacos, and a secret salsa made from 12 different peppers grown on the property.

Hotel Bar

The same theme of embracing local terroir and building vibrant community that drives Paradero’s restaurant also underpins its bar. Located in the same open-air space (but with a swim-up hole-in-the-wall option for a poolside sip), the drinks list is heavy on margaritas and mezcal-based cocktails made almost exclusively with – you guessed it – more ingredients and garnishes sourced from the on-site farm.

Last Orders

The kitchen opens for breakfast at 7am, and serves continuously until dinner concludes at 9.30pm.

Planes

Baja’s two largest international airports are equidistant, and the hotel offers transfers for US$191 (tax inclusive) each way, which take a little over an hour. San José del Cabo Airport, to the south, is Baja’s busiest and best-connected airport, with routes stretching all over the US and Canada. La Paz International, to the north, is typically a little quieter and more expensive.

Trains

Travellers already in the United States may be tempted to use the Amtrak network to reach San Diego, from where the city’s Tijuana Trolley has a line running to the Mexican border crossing, but there is no rail network in Baja California itself.

Automobiles

Paradero is some 780 miles south of the US border, and connected by the surprisingly smooth Highway 1. It is relatively simple to bring an American-registered vehicle into Baja California and a road trip south is a standout adventure, but allow a few days to make the journey. For those arriving by plane, rental cars are plentiful in Los Cabos and La Paz, and the hotel offers free secure parking. Note that toll roads are required to reach Paradero and they are cash only (Pesos or USD).

Worth Getting Out of Bed For

In an arid desert amid fields of tomatillos and poblanos, with the Sierra La Laguna mountain range as backdrop and the salty winds blowing in from the Pacific nearby, there’s loads to discover here in Baja California Sur. The quintessence of Paradero is to share the region and its people’s culture with guests, and the roster of experiences are so intrinsic to a stay that the majority are included in your room rate. As home to some of the first Spanish missions in Baja California, poetic Todos Santos is a dazzling colour wheel of adobe and colonial buildings, full of murals and galleries, and is best discovered on Paradero’s Art Walk. Gastronomes may prefer the Taco Tour, which samples a laundry list of the region’s best tacos, and guests can meet the local chefs who are reinventing these traditional recipes with energising new flavours. Dusty trails sinuously trace the surrounding farming land, deserts, hidden subtropical oases, coastal regions and mountains, and these are best explored by guided bike rides or hikes, as either a morning kick-start or sunset sundowner. Budding green thumbs can take a two-hour sustainable-farming course from the La Mesa farming community who supply the hotel’s fresh produce, and there are gardening courses too, where guests are taught the basics of ecologically responsible garden care and design. Beachgoers can decamp to nearby Playa Las Palmas for the day and take a surf lesson; more experienced surfers may want to ride the stronger swell at Playa Los Cerritos and sip cerveza in the adjacent laidback town of El Pescadero. Outside of Paradero’s experiences, Todos Santos is reputedly home to the Hotel California, the mysterious subject of the 1977 hit album by the Eagles. Don Henley remains resolute that the Hotel California is nothing more than a non-existent metaphor for the myth of the American Dream, but the building in Todos Santos does bear a striking similarity to the one described in the lyrics – you be the judge. For a hedonistic night out, there’s the infamous bars and clubs of Cabo San Lucas, not that Mrs Smith knows anything about those… Be sure to arrange a pre-booked rendezvous with Paradero’s driver before the first round of tequila is ordered.

Earn or Redeem Points with World of Hyatt

This Mr & Mrs Smith hotel participates in the World of Hyatt loyalty program. As a member, you can earn and redeem points and enjoy exclusive benefits for qualifying nights. .