How's the nightlife and entertainment in and around Los Cabos - La Paz, Mexico?

Nightlife and entertainment is what we are known for in Cabo! Our nightlife is amazing here. You name it, we have it. If you want to go to a Mexican place and you want to hear Ventura music, you can do that. You could also do Mexican karaoke, which is really a riot to watch. There are also high-end, beautiful events that are put on by the city, by the different organizations, etc. There is lots of live music here, both American and Mexican and they are geared towards the tourists. I...

Nightlife and entertainment is what we are known for in Cabo! Our nightlife is amazing here. You name it, we have it. If you want to go to a Mexican place and you want to hear Ventura music, you can do that. You could also do Mexican karaoke, which is really a riot to watch. There are also high-end, beautiful events that are put on by the city, by the different organizations, etc. There is lots of live music here, both American and Mexican and they are geared towards the tourists. I have friends whose kids have a band that does US rock n’ roll covers. They mimic the original artists, and they sing without an accent so they sound just like the original artists.

 

We also have the street guys who come along; the traveling musicians that walk into the restaurants and play you a song for tips, which are always fun. We also have events. We have beautiful cultural centers here and we have different musical events that are put on by different organizations in the towns at different times. La Paz, for their Mardi Gras, just had the whole malecon filled with music and all kinds of entertainment. 

 

Our nightlife is huge. There are clubs that you can go to that are private. Out on the beach, there is a jazz singer from the US named Daline Jones who performs every Sunday afternoon. So you could hear jazz on the beach. A lot of the resorts that people stay in offer day passes. So if there is a special event going on and you wanted to go, you could just get your day pass and all your drinks and food would be included.

 

New Year’s celebration is huge here. There are fireworks on the beach every Friday and Saturday night at the different resorts and so as a local expat living here, you have access to all those things. As a tourist, a lot of the resorts offer their own programs as well.

 

The very first time I came to Cabo before I moved here, we stayed at a resort in La Paz that was all inclusive and we had live entertainment a couple of times a day. Some places have a locals’ discount. You just have to tell the resort that you are a local and ask if they have a local’s discount. If they have it, you will receive a 10% to 15% discount. Once you stay here for some time, you will get to know the places that have a local’s discount without asking them. But for the most part, even without the discount, there are plenty of places to go to where you don’t have to spend much and you could have your dollar shots of tequila.

 

We have what’s called the Los Cabos Passport Card, which is issued in January and July and it is good for a year from whenever you purchase it. It costs $80 and it gives you 2 for 1 deals. You could use it for restaurants, activities, services, etc. If you want to ride an ATV out on the desert, they will do it 2 for 1. If you want to go out on a deep-sea fishing tour, they’ll do it 2 for 1. They also have prepaid vouchers that are discounts and some of them never expire unless the place goes out of business. 

 

In short, with regard to nightlife and entertainment, you name your poison, and it’s probably available to you.

Back in the day, there was nothing to do and there was no entertainment in Los Cabos and La Paz. When I moved to Cabo San Lucas in 1984, there were five restaurants and bars and they all had the same menu. We would laugh and say, "Why do they still give us a menu?" There was always fresh fish on it and you could get it grilled, fried, or with "al mojo de ajo" (bathed in garlic). Beef was tough as heck because the meat came from skinny cows that didn't have a lot...

Back in the day, there was nothing to do and there was no entertainment in Los Cabos and La Paz. When I moved to Cabo San Lucas in 1984, there were five restaurants and bars and they all had the same menu. We would laugh and say, "Why do they still give us a menu?" There was always fresh fish on it and you could get it grilled, fried, or with "al mojo de ajo" (bathed in garlic). Beef was tough as heck because the meat came from skinny cows that didn't have a lot to eat. The vegetables were always carrots and "chayote", which is like zucchini. When people would say, "What can we bring you, Cathie?" I would say, "Please bring me some broccoli." 

 

Now, there are restaurants everywhere in Los Cabos and La Paz. You can go to a fine dining restaurant and spend US $100 a person easily for dinner in Los Cabos, and this comes with magnificent wine. 

 

 

 

You can also go back into the neighborhood and find little hole-in-the-wall restaurants where they have what they call "comida del dia", which means "this is what we're serving today". These small restaurants would have one dish that they do per day and every day the meal is always something different. The meal comes with a little cup of soup and might be some kind of chicken with various vegetables and some rice. It could be some beef or it might be some special enchiladas. They bring you some dessert, which might be a little cup of pudding or Jello. This entire meal would cost about 50 or 60 pesos ($2.60 to 3.20). 

 

When I am in Cabo San Lucas and I have friends who come and stay with me, I like to take them back to the areas I call "where the real people live" and hit these little restaurants because the food is just delicious. It's always somebody's grandma back in the kitchen cooking. You see some little, old lady in the kitchen and she's been cooking all of her life. The food is just great.

 

You can also go to the big fancy hotels or restaurants. You can run the gamut. It depends on you. At night when the bars are running, you can go to the streets very close to downtown. You don't have to go back into the neighborhood.  You can go a block back and hit some of these taco stands. They're cooking the chicken and beef right there and you can get the tacos and beans. They have all different kinds of soda pops that we don't usually drink up here in the States. That's a fun thing to do.

 

Another thing that they have specialties for is their potatoes. Where in the world do they get these potatoes? I don't know. They are the biggest and fattest potatoes I've ever seen in my life. It's a whole meal when they serve this big potato plate where you could put a whole array of stuff on it. They'll have chopped up beef; the same beef you would get in a taco. You could put melted cheese, mushrooms, onions, and sour cream. It fills the whole plate. It's just a whole gamut of what kind of food you want.

 

You could also find Chinese and Italian food; but of course, Mexican food is great and there are just dozens of different dishes of Mexican food.

 

For activities to do at night, my place is in Cabo San Lucas, which is party central. They've got nightclubs down there like the famous night clubs such as the El Squid Roe, Sammy Hagar, and Cabo Wabo. There are a lot of rock n' roll and nightlife places in Cabo San Lucas. You can find a little jazz bar or two stuck here or there. 

 

There's an English radio station, which had a news program on for a year broadcasting English news for three days a week. The local station is Cabo Mil Radio 96.3 FM. They will be broadcasting in Spanish and English to tell you what's going on. The famous newspaper for Cabo San Lucas and San Jose del Cabo is the Gringo Gazette. People advertise in there. There are also various English-speaking publications that you can read to find out what's going on around town like concerts and other special events.

 

San Jose del Cabo is more traditional and calmer. It's a very fun place, too, but it's geared a little bit more for the older people. There are beautiful dining places and places that have live music. Most of the places I know of in San Jose del Cabo that have live music would be restaurants and bars, as opposed to Cabo San Lucas that has actual nightclubs that people go out to and party.

 

In La Paz, it's more kicked back, too. They have some really nice restaurants with some live music and occasional events that you would see posted. It's still a tradition in Mexico to put posters up on the street poles. In La Paz, they still have wooden street poles and you might see posters with the most interesting stuff by just walking down the street or peeping into store windows. It's like going back in time. You can also find out about the nightlife in La Paz in the newspapers. 

 

A lot of groups have email newsletters that you can subscribe to; like in La Paz, it's the La Paz Gringos. You sign up for it and you get an email every day that tells you everything that's going on that the gringos have posted. That's a really good way to find out what's going on, too.

 

(Blues singer in La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico, pictured.)