To be honest, I’ve never really wanted to visit Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Built primarily for tourism over the past few decades, Cabo San Lucas just doesn’t feel like an authentic Mexican experience. San José del Cabo, on the other hand, has roots going back to the 1700s and is an authentic colonial town that has developed naturally over the years. When we planned our trip to swim with whale sharks in La Paz, Mexico with kids, we made sure to include room in our itinerary for 3 days in San José del Cabo with kids.
Our family trip to San José del Cabo was at the tail end of our Christmas family trip to Mexico. Despite having amazing weather for the first 10 days of our trip, unfortunately the weather for our San José del Cabo visit wasn’t the best. It was mostly cloudy and windy for the duration of our 3 day itinerary, but we managed to find fun things to do in San José del Cabo, no matter the weather.
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Day 1 in San José del Cabo with Kids
On our first morning in San José del Cabo with kids we awoke to a cloudy sky and very strong winds. It was definitely not beach weather, so we looked for a fun inland activity.
Earlier in our family trip to Los Cabos, we had already spent 4 days at the Riu Palace Cabo San Lucas and 5 days in La Paz with kids, but we hadn’t yet done any souvenir shopping. So, we spent the majority of our day exploring the fun & colorful streets of the Gallery District in Centro.
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The Riu Palace Cabo San Lucas is our family’s favorite all-inclusive of all time. In fact, it’s the only family-friendly all-inclusive resort that we’ve visited twice. To find our why, check out our review of the Riu Palace Cabo San Lucas.
Plaza Artesanos
Our San José del Cabo hotel was in the Hotel District, so we enjoyed a long family walk to get to Centro. Along the way we stopped to do some shopping in Plaza Artesanos, a collection of fun souvenir shops and restaurants just south of the gallery district.
Plaza Mijares
If you are ever looking for the heart of any Mexican town, look for its main town plaza. Typically, you’ll find a vibrant meeting place surrounded by historic buildings, and plenty of tourist-friendly restaurants and shops.
In San José del Cabo, the heart of town is Plaza Mijares. We visited San José del Cabo just after Christmas, so the plaza was still beautifully decorated for the season. There was a massive decorated Christmas tree, a Feliz Navidad light display and many giant, colorful Christmas decorations throughout. I loved the massive Mexican flag proudly blowing in the strong wind overhead.
Misión San José del Cabo
On the west end of Plaza Mijares is the Misión San José del Cabo Catholic church. There is a colorful San José del Cabo sign in front, which is a very popular spot to get a family photo taken.
We wanted to go inside the church, but we noticed that mass was in session. Out of respect for the worshipers, we stayed outside enjoying the sounds of their singing.
Gallery District – Centro
When visiting Mexican cities, I always enjoy exploring streets like the Gallery District in San José del Cabo. The Gallery District is a colorful street, with traditional flags blowing the breeze overhead.
Both sides of the street are filled with fun shops and restaurants for your enjoyment. We enjoyed a long meander through the Gallery District, ending with an amazing lunch at Alma de Mexico.
Municipal Market Alberto A. Aramburo
In San José del Cabo, the most famous market is the Organic Market San José del Cabo, but it is only open on Saturdays. Our family trip to San José del Cabo was from Monday to Wednesday, so we sadly missed out.
We always enjoy a walk through a Mexican market, so we left the Gallery District and walked a few minutes to the Municipal Market Alberto A. Aramburo.
It’s a small market with several fruit & vegetable stands, some butcher and fish shops, with a bunch of souvenir stands filling in the rest. Given we had just spent the past several hours souvenir shopping in the Gallery District, there wasn’t much new to see here.
We didn’t stay at the Municipal Market Alberto A. Aramburo very long. To be honest, it was small and not that interesting. I’d say you can skip it on your family trip to San José del Cabo.
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Mexico is our family’s happy place and we return here time and again for its beautiful scenery, friendly people and delicious food. If you’d like some help planning your family vacation, we share all our best tips for planning a family trip to Mexico.
Day 2 in San José del Cabo with Kids
Playa Hotelera
Sadly, it was still cloudy and windy on our second day in San José del Cabo with kids, but we didn’t let that get in our way. After breakfast, we made the short walk from our hotel to Playa Hotelera, the main tourist beach in San José del Cabo.
Most of the beaches along the Los Cabos coast are not safe to swim in due to dangerous riptide conditions, and Playa Hotelera is no exception. There were red flags flying all up and down the beach, signaling it was not safe to go in the water.
Since the kids couldn’t go in the water anyway, our time on Playa Hotelera would have looked pretty similar even on a sunny day
Going on long family walks on a beach is one of our favorite things to do on a family beach holiday. Playa Hotelera is a wonderful beach for walking as it goes on forever in both directions. The sand is white and soft and is very easy on the feet.
We began our family walk on Playa Hotelera from the public access walkway near the Hyatt Ziva Los Cabos All-Inclusive Resort. From here we walked north-east along the shoreline until we hit the estuary wildlife reserve. It was a great walk, with lots of chances to people watch, look for humpback whales and watch pelicans feeding just offshore.
Scanning the water for humpback whales paid off, just in a slightly different way. As we were walking near the shore, a disturbance in the water caught our attention. Amazingly enough, a solitary dolphin was chasing a fish just 10 feet offshore!
The action was fast and furious, with the dolphin jumping a few times. It was over quickly, so we were glad we already had our eyes on the ocean, allowing us to see this amazing natural sight!
Reserva Ecológica Municipal Esteró de San José del Cabo
At the end of our family walk on Playa Hotelera, we ventured inland to explore the nature reserve at the estuary, called the Reserva Ecológica Municipal Esteró de San José del Cabo.
This nature reserve is known for its excellent bird watching opportunities, and we could see why. As we looked into the inland lagoon, we could spot a wide variety of birdlife in the water, including a beautiful white egret, some cormorants, and large flocks of tiny little piper birds.
The nature reserve has many walking trails to enjoy, but we were not able to venture far into the park before the trails were flooded. Not to be defeated, we retreated, and tried a different entrance to the park just off Paseo Malecon San Jose. Sadly, the trails here were also flooded, making it impossible to continue.
For what it’s worth, the Reserva Ecológica Municipal Esteró de San José del Cabo looked beautiful and we were disappointed not to get to visit. Enjoying the beauty of nature is an important part of our family travels, so I hope you have a different outcome on your family trip.
Day 3 in San José del Cabo with Kids
Costa Azul Beach
We just weren’t destined to have any sun on our 3-day beach holiday to San José del Cabo. We considered taking our kids on one of the many kid-friendly tours in the area (including ziplines, UTV rides, etc.), but given it was the final day of our 2-week family trip to Mexico, we decided to keep it chill and enjoy our beautiful surroundings.
As mentioned above, the beautiful sandy beach in the Hotel Zone goes on forever in both directions. On day 2, we walked from our beach access point near the Hyatt Ziva Los Cabos resort all the way to the estuary and back, so today we enjoyed a fun family walk in the other direction to the Costa Azul Beach.
As we walked southeast along the beach away from the mega-resorts like the Hyatt Ziva, the beach started to feel quieter. Costa Azul is known as one of the best surfing spots in the San José del Cabo area, so given the strong wind we had hoped to see some awesome surfing action. Oddly enough, the waves were small and there weren’t many surfers in the water.
The beach becomes much more natural as you reach the rocky area near the end of the walk. There must be a lot of fish offshore, as there was significant pelican activity in the water. I could watch pelicans flying and feeding all day!
Where We Stayed In San José del Cabo with Kids
Our big splurge for our family trip to Mexico was a 4-night stay at the Riu Palace near Cabo San Lucas. We didn’t have the budget for another all-inclusive resort stay in San José del Cabo, so we found a reasonably priced family-friendly hotel as close to Playa Hotelera as possible without staying on the beach.
We really enjoyed our 4-night stay at the SM Apartments (which are 1 or 2-bedroom apartments for rent within the Santa Maria del Cabo Hotel). It has many features which make it a great choice for families seeking affordable accommodations near the beach in San José del Cabo.
First of all, the hotel has family-friendly room configurations. We rented a 2-bedroom suite which helped everyone get a good night’s sleep. Plus we liked the ability to have breakfast in our room, which was super easy with the massive grocery store right next door.
It has a nice swimming pool, which is almost essential when visiting San José del Cabo with kids. As you can’t usually safely swim in the ocean, kids will have a huge desire to get wet, so a swimming pool will scratch that itch.
We also loved that it was a quick 10-minute walk to the Playa Hotelera, and the walk passes a huge playground, so your kids can burn off some energy there too. Also nearby is an amazing taco restaurant, which we ate at every day. If you want to explore the Gallery District, you can enjoy a fun 40-minute walk, or an inexpensive cheap 5-minute Uber ride.
Final Thoughts – San José del Cabo with Kids
In the end, our 3 days in San José del Cabo didn’t work out as we had hoped it would. But that’s the reality of family travel… sometimes things aren’t perfect, but it’s a great opportunity to teach kids how to be flexible and creative.
In all fairness, the weather didn’t impact our activities in San José del Cabo very much. As you can’t usually safely swim in the ocean at Playa Hotelera, even if the weather was beautiful, we wouldn’t have spent all day sitting on the sand.
If your kids love playing in the ocean, the Los Cabos region isn’t the best choice in Mexico. For some inspiration, you can check out our favorite family-friendly destinations in Mexico.
If playing in the ocean isn’t super important, San José del Cabo offers an authentic Mexican town with a beautiful long sandy beach. There’s plenty of fun tours and activities you can join, or you can choose to take it easy and relax as we did.
Our Travel Journal for Kids
Based on our family travels, our kids helped us design this Travel Journal for Active Kids! This engaging travel journal encourages kids to document their adventures, spark creativity, and stay entertained on the go – grab yours now on Amazon!
Dan Brewer is an intrepid family travel blogger with a passion for exploring the world's most captivating destinations. With 62 countries under his belt and a sense of wanderlust that knows no bounds, he has made it his life's mission to share his travel experiences and insights with fellow families who love to travel.
When Dan isn't traveling with his wife and kids, he's either out enjoying the Canadian Rockies he calls home or working on one of his three travel sites (Family Can Travel, Travel Banff Canada and Ultimate Sports Road Trip).