La Paz, Balandra and Todos Santos in One Day: the Wristband Decides It
Updated September 26, 2026 · 8 min read
The best beach in Baja California Sur is not in Los Cabos. Playa Balandra is a shallow turquoise bay outside La Paz, on the other side of the peninsula, and getting there and back in a day is the single longest excursion most visitors here take.
It is also the one trip where the decision is not really about comfort or price. It is about a wristband.
The rule that shapes the whole day
Balandra is a protected natural area – 2,512.50 hectares, declared in 2012 – and access is rationed. The scheme is run under CONANP, Mexico’s national protected areas commission, and it works like this:
- two shifts a day: 8am to noon, and 1pm to 5pm
- a maximum of 450 people per shift
- entry by wristband for a chosen time slot, with a QR code – but only the afternoon shift can be bought online. For the morning shift you collect a physical wristband in person at the protected area’s office, at the same price and under the same quota
- free for local residents, children under 12, people with disabilities and INAPAM card holders
That is not a queue you can join on the day. Nine hundred people get in, the slots are chosen ahead of time, and if the shift you want is full when you look, it is full.
On the fee: what reads like conflicting reports is two tariffs. Mexican visitors are quoted around 60 to 65 pesos per person per day, foreign visitors around 120 to 125 pesos. It is a small amount either way – but check the figure on the CONANP booking page rather than trusting any travel article, including this one, and buy it there rather than from a reseller, several of which charge multiples of the official rate.
There are house rules on the sand too, and they are enforced: do not climb on the mushroom rock – el hongo, the formation in every photograph – no disturbing the ecosystem, eco-toilets only, dogs on a lead, and take your rubbish out. And as at Chileno, shuffle your feet as you wade: rays rest in the shallow sand here.
Why that makes the guided tour better than it looks
The full-day excursion to La Paz, Balandra and Todos Santos includes the Balandra wristbands. That is stated in its inclusions, and it is the most valuable thing on the list – not the lunch, not the van.
Somebody else has dealt with the capacity, the slot and the QR code. For a trip where the headline destination can simply be sold out, that is worth more than it sounds.
Twelve hours, €89.31, 4.2 stars from 92 reviews. Also included: return transport in an air-conditioned van for 11 to 14 passengers, a light breakfast box – sandwich, juice and fruit – lunch at a restaurant on the Malecón in La Paz, bottled water, and hotel pickup in San José del Cabo or Cabo San Lucas.
Not included: tips, personal spending, any food or drink beyond what is listed, optional kayaking or snorkelling, and photographs.
What twelve hours actually buys you
This is where people get a shock, so here it is in full, from the operator’s own itinerary:
| pickup, 3am to 5am depending on where you stay | |
| drive to La Paz | 2 hours |
| Balandra | 2 hours |
| Playa Coromuel | 1 to 1.5 hours |
| lunch | 30 minutes |
| Malecón de La Paz | 1 hour |
| Todos Santos | 1 hour |
| drive back | 1 to 2 hours |
Two hours at the beach you came for. One hour in Todos Santos. And an alarm clock that goes off in the middle of the night.
If that reads badly, read it again with the geography in mind: Cabo San Lucas to La Paz is 159 km, about two hours on Highway 19 via Todos Santos and El Pescadero. There is no version of this day that is short. The tour is not padding the schedule – it is a long way.
Who this trip is not suitable for
The operator lists its own exclusions, and they are unusually specific: people with back problems, wheelchair users, visually impaired people, people who have had recent surgery, babies under one year, cruise ship guests, and people over 95. If you are arriving on a ship, that first-to-last line is the one that decides it for you.
Take that seriously and then confirm it yourself. If accessibility matters to your group, ring or message the operator before booking and get the answer for your own situation – a listing is a summary written to sell, not an assessment of you. We are not going to tell you what any particular vehicle or path can accommodate, because we have not stood in it, and being wrong about that leaves somebody at a kerb at four in the morning.
With small children the answer is simpler. A 3am pickup and twelve hours in a van is not a day out, whatever the beach looks like. That reasoning is set out in Los Cabos with kids.
Doing it yourself, and the honest arithmetic
If you have a car, the shape of the day changes completely – and mostly for the better.
Book the afternoon shift at Balandra, 1pm to 5pm – it is also the only one you can buy online. Leave Cabo San Lucas mid-morning, stop in Todos Santos on the way – it is 77 km, about an hour from Cabo San Lucas on Highway 19, so you can give it two hours instead of one – then carry on the remaining 82 km, about another hour to La Paz and Balandra. Four hours at the bay instead of two. Drive back in the evening.
That version gets you more of everything except sleep, and it costs one car hire day plus fuel instead of €89.31 per person. For two people it is roughly a wash; for four it is clearly cheaper. If it fits your trip, it is worth comparing car hire for Los Cabos – and read the excess and the deposit terms before comparing the headline prices, because that is where two quotes actually differ.
Two warnings about the self-drive version. You still need the wristband, and you still need it in advance – the capacity rule does not care how you arrived. And Highway 19 is a two-lane road with slow traffic; that hour is an hour in good conditions.
The one situation where the guided trip clearly wins, beyond the wristband: lunch involves a drink, or nobody in the group wants to drive four hours on holiday. Those are both perfectly good reasons.
What you are actually going to see
Balandra is the point. A wide, shallow, almost enclosed bay – you can walk a long way out in warm water that barely reaches your waist – with desert hills around it and the mushroom rock standing offshore. There is nothing else quite like it on this coast, which is why it is rationed.
La Paz is a working state capital rather than a resort, and its Malecón is the seafront promenade where the city actually goes in the evening. An hour is enough for a walk and an ice cream, not for the city.
Todos Santos is a small town inland of the Pacific with an art-and-galleries reputation and a historic centre you can cross on foot. An hour is thin. It is the stop that most rewards the self-drive version.
So which is it?
Book the tour if you do not want a car, if you would rather not organise the wristband, or if you want lunch with a drink in it. Twelve hours and a 3am start are the price, and the 4.2-star rating across 92 reviews is a fair reflection of a day that delivers something real and is genuinely hard work.
Drive it if there are three or four of you, if you can get the afternoon slot, and if Todos Santos interests you as much as the beach.
Either way, buy the wristband first. Everything else on the day is negotiable.
All twenty-four day trips out of Los Cabos, from €76.95, are on the day trips from Los Cabos page. If a swim closer to base is what you actually want, the two bays in the Corredor are in snorkelling Santa María and Chileno.
