BAHIA DE LOS ANGELES, MX
Bahia de Los Angeles, or the Bay of Angels, is truly one of the most special places I encountered in Mexico. It's unbelievably unique and beautiful. It is a large bay on the Eastern Coast of the Baja peninsula. The bay is surrounded by large mountains and desert and eventually lets out into the Sea of Cortez, which is the sea that divides mainland Mexico and Baja California. Bahia de LA is home to an otherworldly amount of marine wildlife. Most every type of whale at some point during the year will pass through this area to feed, or to breed, and it is considered some of the best whale-watching anywhere around. I know of whale photographers who spend most of their year down here in the small town of Bahia photographing the amazing whale migration patterns that can be seen here. The place is also a hotspot location to come and see whale sharks which are frequently seen here in the bay. Unlike other places in the world that I have seen whale sharks, it is actually done sustainably here, which was an absolute delight. You can go on tours of the bay where they will take you to see different types of beautiful beaches, marine life, etc. There are no waves on this side of the peninsula, but the Bay of LA is one of the most spectacular places in Baja to visit, and if you ask me, any trip to Baja without the Bay of LA, is a trip done wrong. The photos are not my own. My camera broke, with nowhere to fix it in Baja — the memories are just that. And that is okay.
LOCATION
Bahia de Los Angeles is located on the east coast of the Northern State of the Baja Peninsula at the end of Highway 12. To get there you just need to get off at highway 12 when you are heading south down the one, and take the highway until it runs into the ocean. Or in this case, the bay.
The actual town of Bahia is small. With maybe 1000 local residents. All of which are extremely friendly. There is no sort of developed tourism industry so the town is still in that sweet spot where the locals and the tourists are cohabitating and like each other. To the north and south of town there are dirt roads that lead out to other spots. More deserted beaches, camp sites, etc. The Bay is extremely calm, and is honestly more resemblant of a lake than it is of an ocean bay.
Once you are here, you are here. There are the remote areas surrounding the town, but not much else. From a food perspective, most will be in town. There will also be absolutely no cell-phone service. So be prepared for that. There will be wifi at some of the restaurants or bars, so you will be able to connect if you need to. I recommend that you just disconnect though.
HOSTELS, CAMPING, AND HOTELS (IF ANY)
I would say this is the most common or popular place to camp. — Certainly will be the busiest. But it's not busy in a bad way. It's just north of town and easy to find. You turn down a dirt driveway and you come to the camp, which is a bunch of parking spots right along the waterfront. The spots are limited and can fill up, so if you go there right when you pull into town, especially if you are there on a weekend, I would recommend going to reserve your spot right away. They have a restaurant here too.
They also have rooms if you are looking to rent a room. It's not super cheap though.
There's a good amount of options for accommodation here in Bahia. A lot of it is in the camping world with lots of waterfront spots, both at established places with facilities — and wild. You can explore here and camp pretty much anywhere you want, but there are cool campsites with facilities and other people if you want to meet some people. This depends on your route, but it may have been a while since you've been around other people. Socializing could be nice.
There's some hotel options as well I saw driving around. Some general accommodation options are outlined below.
This is a hotel just outside of town near Campo Archelon. It's probably one of the better places to stay if you are looking for a hotel. It's a beautiful little spot, thoughtfully designed right on the water. They don't have any camping, and the hotel is not super-cheap. It's at least $100 per night for a room.
If it's in your budget, and you don't want to camp, this is probably where you will want to go.
This is a really special spot. Was one of my favorite spots in all of Baja. It is a bit of a drive north out of town, and you head out towards Punta La Gringa, which is a stunning little wrap-around bay within a bay. There is a small strip of land near the end of the point that wraps around, and campers line up here to camp for the night.
Just an amazing spot to rest your head for the night, or a few. The water is so calm, and you can fish right from the shore for dinner.
EATS
You don't necessarily come to Bahia de LA for the food. But there are a few places where you can find some pretty good seafood tacos. A few options are below. There will also be restaurants inside of a lot of the campsites, but the food will be pricey.
Restaurants
Tiny little taco stand in a cinderblock building. A wooden sign out front leads you to it. Delicious shrimp tacos. The Google location says 'Dona Guille', but it's the right place.
Delicious and cheap taco stand, on the main street in town. Conveniently located next to some tiendas if you want to shop while you wait for your tacos.
Sit-down restaurant with good local plates of food. It's a little bit pricier, but still not expensive. Good food. They have wifi, which is a plus.
NIGHTLIFE
Nightlife here doesn't really exist outside of getting drunk with your new camping neighbors. Which is something that certainly does happen. There's also a cantina in town that serves drinks. — Never went at night, but maybe it's a thing.
SIGHTS
Punta gringa has been mentioned before as a place to sleep, but this is also a place to see. The area to the north of the bay is stunning. It's pretty much where the dirt road ends. So just get out there as far as you can, and you'll come to a beautiful part of the bay, where at points — if you're lucky, you can be practically alone in nature.
The sights and the things to see are the reason that you come to Bahia de Los Angeles. It is just beautiful, and the activities that you can do here are hard to find anywhere else in the world. The interactions with marine life, the whale watching, tours around the various islands that are scattered throughout the bay — it's really special. Some of the best things that I saw while I was in the area are outlined below.
An amazing experience, and probably the top thing to do in Bahia de LA. The whale sharks are here a lot of the year, and it's pretty easy to see them. Just hire a boat, I went with Ricardo's Diving Tours. It wasn't too expensive, and we got on a whale shark in only about 2-3 meters of water which was an incredible site. We were also the only boat out on the water with the whale sharks, which compared to the rest of the places in the world where whale shark diving has been extremely commercialized, is a real blessing.
If you have had enough of the beautiful bay and ocean, then you can take a trip to the Jesuit Mission located here. It's a big church, and if that's your thing, you can take a look around here.
WILDLIFE AND BAY TOUR
When I was there, I went on a tour throughout the entire bay. It's a full day-trip, and you get taken around the bay to a few of the Archipelago Islands in the bay. You get a chance to get in the water with sea lions, and snorkel around a few different crystal clear, blue-water spots. We also were lucky enough to drive with a pod of dolphins and see some amazing marine birds flying above. It was a super-nice activity.
SURFING
Flat as can be. Not a wave in sight as far as the eye can see.