1

Might try La Paz.....

2

When you head north from San Jose Del Cabo towards LaPaz there is a quaint little seaside town called Los Barriles on the east side of Baja. It is not like Cabo but still has a couple of nice hotels. We just drove through it and it was quite pretty. Also more towards the West side of Baja driving from Los Cabos to La Paz is Todos Santos. It is kind of an artsy quant town with lots of greenery and some nice hotels but still feels like Old Mexico. Very pretty but inland and not on the water.

3

If you are truly looking for this:

"We're hoping to find small towns with personality and as close to a mexican experience as you can find in Baja."

In my opinion it is not found in Los Barriles. We spent a lot of time around there one year and it was basically very Americanized; but maybe that is what you want. Lots of Americans living there, sport fishing, restaurants, hotels, etc.. Not much for shopping. Small town.

4

If it has to be a ”small” town, then I would say Todos Santos. If it is more about a ”Mexican” experience, I would recommend La Paz all the way. LP is definitely not a small town though.

5

Rent a car and drive the coast up to Todos Santos (1 day) stop anywhere you want on the way (easy).
Cross inland and get to La Paz - wonderful route - go out for a drink in La Paz!! Margaritas (if I remember) is a place to experience ;) (2-3 days)
Drive back down to San Jose del Cabo (next to Cabo san Lucas)

Baja is AMAZING!!!!!! :)

6

Spider if you found Baja to be amazing then you are going to be much more impressed with the mainland. We went as far south as Mulege which was alright but not much going on there. That was the nicest place we found and it's a long way to drive to get to. The northern towns are ugly there is no historical sights to see. Would you call Guerro Negro amazing for example? I'm just curous and I don't mean to pick on you in any way but I just don't get what you found that was amazing?

What about Bahia de Los Angelas did you think that was amazing? I thought the sceanery was pretty but the town itself? It was awful. How about Ensenada what did you think about that place? It was ugly, dirty, dusty.

We parked up on a beach south of Mulege the beach looked beautiful but everybody was in bed by 9:00 pm and the trucks roared through using their jake breaks and kept us awake all night long. The mainland is so much better, there's culture, history, a party atmosphere and many towns that are pretty.

I have not seen a really attractive town in the last 500 miles and I think in all that way we should have come across at least one. We all have our own views on places but I honestly have not seen anything other then the desert which truly is amazing in Baja.

Some of the beaches looked nice but many of them are difficult to get to. The road is far off the ocean and you need to take a chance riding on dirt track in hopes that it will get you to the ocean. I don't get it but maybe we're missing something that you saw and we missed. Easy to do here.