La Paz is a port city and the hub of the ferry service between Mexico and the Mexican peninsula state Baja California. Accordingly, anyone who wants to go to Baja California will pass through La Paz at some point. Even if it’s just to arrive and then take a bus to Cabo San Lucas, for example.
La Paz itself doesn’t really have that much to see or do itself. It’s more the surrounding area that can be really impressive and which you can of course visit on day trips by bus or car. So, after exploring La Paz itself – the beach and the streets – a little, I did some research and came across Playa Balandra.

Playa Balandra is an absolute gem and a real highlight. Honestly. (My photos don’t even begin to do justice to how beautiful the beach is, and it was cloudy on the day I took the photos. Go when the sun is shining and… it’s a completely different experience). The beach itself is shaped in a very unique way and has a kind of ‘hole’ in the middle of the front part, where it suddenly gets deeper and you can swim and snorkel.
Apart from that, you can walk along the entire beach, which stretches along the mountains, like a kind of very deformed horseshoe, and discover an incredible number of cool things along the way. And on top of that, there are several viewpoints here that are – honestly – really great. I’m still annoyed that I lost the SD card with the pictures from the viewpoint on it. But I’ll submit them later 😉

Go or not? I haven’t seen this kind of beach anywhere else in Mexico. Well, I haven’t been to every beach, but this one is honestly really special and really beautiful. So I would highly recommend that people who come this far – because you have to travel a long way to get to Baja California, unless you fly 😀 – take a whole day to visit the beach and viewpoint when they arrive to La Paz. Both are definitely worth it 😊