Baja’s Todos Santos, the vibrant and charming antidote to the party-centric Cabo, is entering a new era: one as a vacation destination, not just a stopover.
A handful of stunning, boutique hotels are luring tourists to this town an hour north of Cabo, and Villa Santa Cruz is leading the renaissance with the debut of luxe rooftop villas and an avant-garde fine dining restaurant with shockingly good pizza.
For decades, Todos Santos was one of Baja’s best-kept secrets. But in recent years, day-trippers have started flocking to the town's colorful streets to peruse chic boutiques and art galleries, admire historic buildings, and slurp oysters at the buzzy bar Oystera, housed inside a revitalized sugar mill. It's even recently become a popular retreat for California tech founders, travel-savvy Canadians, and celebrities. (I saw actor and comedian Nick Kroll on my first visit.)
The destination has only one drawback: the beaches aren’t typically good for swimming. At Villa Santa Cruz, though, you’re unlikely to care. Located a few miles outside of Todos Santos’ downtown and off a dirt road, the resort sits on a massive stretch of empty, pristine beach, providing a front-row seat for whale watching during the annual migration.
(Courtesy of Villa Santa Cruz)
In 2001, when Todos Santos was barely a blip on the travel radar, Villa Santa Cruz co-founder Matt Canepa purchased the empty beach lot and lived off the grid in a trailer while he built the original hacienda-style villa. He later met his wife, Jessica, who was visiting Todos Santos, and together they opened a humble bed-and-breakfast in 2011, cooking for visitors themselves. In 2020, some of their longtime guests, Guillermo and Joyce Marrero, joined them as partners.
Since the pandemic, Villa Santa Cruz has grown rapidly to 23 rooms. The owners have added more villas for groups, cozy bungalows, chic oceanfront glamping tents and, most recently, eight rooftop villas, which form a dramatic circle around an elegant lap pool. Each villa has a staircase leading to a private, ocean-view patio complete with lounge seating, a hot tub, and a fire pit. (Yes, if you’re traveling with kids, the monitor reaches.) The architecture is dramatic, a nod to classical style—think tall columns, straight pediments, and wide arches—blended with a bright orange stucco exterior and intricate tiling. Sleek, modern interiors are decorated with vibrant Mexican art pieces and feature large, luxurious bathrooms.
A guest room at Villa Santa Cruz (Courtesy of Villa Santa Cruz)
Yet even with this expansion, Villa Santa Cruz has a surprisingly intimate vibe, thanks to its secluded location and sprawling grounds. Beach access is a short stroll from the rooftop villas: from the beach, you can’t see anything but sand and ocean that seems to stretch for miles. The resort also has a second pool with a swim-up bar, horse stables where guests can book rides (including sunset and full-moon excursions), bocce and pickleball courts, and an outdoor massage retreat.
Todos Santos’ culinary scene is ramping up and it’s worth venturing out for. But Villa Santa Cruz offers two compelling reasons to stay in and avoid a bumpy ride down the dirt road after dark. The Green Room is a casual beachfront bar and sunset hot spot where one can spend hours counting whale spouts, tails, fins, and breaches. It serves fancy cocktails—like the Sex Wax made with mezcal, roasted pineapple, lime, and chili syrup—alongside gourmet seafood tacos and tostadas. Bikinis are welcome, shoes are optional, and reservations are recommended. Pro tip: go early to snag the best seats—a row of Adirondack chairs facing the ocean.
Caracara, the newest restaurants at Villa Santa Cruz. (Courtesy of Villa Santa Cruz)
Caracara, Villa Santa Cruz’s newest restaurant, oozes romance from its position in the middle of an agave field. A handful of tables are set beneath a domed, nest-like structure where stunning pink, purple, and yellow sunset hues—and later, stars—peek through the web of sticks. Caracara utilizes the surrounding farm and a wood-fired pizza oven for plates like a life-changing, smoky Caesar salad and some of the best pizza in Baja. The Blanca, a béchamel-sauce pie topped with prosciutto, mushrooms, blue cheese, and spinach, is the menu’s ultimate sleeper, but the chicken mole is the one dish you cannot skip. Just outside is an elegant cocktail lounge with fire pits.
Caracara might look familiar. The structure is reminiscent of Nido, the trendy Japanese restaurant at the Viceroy in San José del Cabo. But beyond that, Villa Santa Cruz feels nothing like Cabo—and that’s the point.
// Villa Santa Cruz, Camino a las Playitas, Sin Numero (Todos Santos), villasantacruzbaja.com
(Courtesy of Villa Santa Cruz)
