Local Tours

While the beauty and allure of the La Ventana area are very powerful and offer many activities to keep you busy during your stay at Palapas Ventana, you may also want to venture out to tour other towns. We offer the following local tours for you to choose from:

La Paz (1 day)
La Paz has a magnificent harbor and is a beautiful traditional Mexican city, it offers many specialty shops with unique local artisan goods including a blanket weaving factory, and art galleries. You’ll find anything from natural herbs/teas to quality folk arts and crafts from the mainland. La Paz has several museums (Museum of Anthropology, etc.), a mission, a new aquarium, some fantastic restaurants, coffee shops and much more. La Paz is the state capital. The population is approximately 200,000, making it the state’s largest city.

You will spend the entire day exploring in this wonderful city and wish you had more than one day’s time. We’ll find time for lunch together at one of the many wonderful lunch stands. At the end of the day, after one last stop along the Malecon for refreshments, you’ll come back to your casita excited and happy with the treasures and memories you have gained. Note: Leaves Palapas Ventana at 9:00 a.m. and returns at approximately at 6:00 p.m.

Price for La Paz Tour: $40 (US) per person (minimum of 4 people). Includes lunch.

Todos Santos (1 Day)
Noted for its artisans and art galleries (featuring local artists), Todos Santos offers intriguing shopping for Mexican blankets and sinks, bright-colored table linens, jewelry, leather goods, hand-made furniture, and much more. This town also has several fantastic restaurants, a mission, a great panaderia (bakery), and a lovely book store. The area is laden with avocado, mango, guava, papaya, citrus, and coconut trees. Just north of the town along the highway, we’ll visit stands selling local sweets and Damiana (a liqueur made from the local Damiana plant). Population is about 4,000.

This is a lovely place to spend the day. We’ll start off with a great cup of coffee at a super cafe in Todos Santos. After some exploring and when hunger sets in, we’ll have a delicious lunch together. Then we will continue exploring and stop for refreshments at the Palapa Bar. Just before returning to Palapas Ventana, we’ll make the last stop for purchasing sweets and/or Damiana if anyone wishes. Sit back and relax on the drive back to La Ventana! Note: Leaves Palapas Ventana at 8:30 a.m. and returns at approximately 6:00 p.m.

Price for Todos Santos Tour: $50 (US) per person (minimum of 4 people). Includes lunch.

San Antonio/El Triunfo (1 Day)
San Antonio and El Triunfo are lovely, quaint old towns. This is an opportunity to visit some “off the beaten track” locations that are truly interesting and unique. We’ll take a short jaunt to a local ranch where our Mexican friends will share a typical ranchero breakfast with us before we begin our trip. You’ll have an opportunity to purchase locally-made baskets in El Triunfo and to photograph some real Baja history today! Come prepared to learn and enjoy!

San Antonio
This town was once inhabited by over 10,000 residents, dating back to 1748 when a rich silver vein was discovered. We’ll see the remains of the old mines. It was the first non-mission town established in Baja and is now a farming community with about 800 residents. The highlight of our visit will be checking out an unusual 1825 restored adobe church which exhibits train and paddlewheel motifs. Bring your camera!

El Triunfo
El Triunfo is also a former mining town just 1-1/2 miles north of the Tropic of Cancer. It has a beautiful Victorian-style church, some colonial-style buildings, and the crumbling ruins of an old silver mine foundry. The towering brick smoke stack from the silver mine was designed by Gustave Eiffel (The Eiffel Tower). We’ll be sure to explore these sites and the Casa Municipal, which is a restored historic adobe building. Today, El Triunfo has some very small scale mining activity, basically extracting ore from leftover tailings. About 400 people live here. You’ll be excited to see the local artisans and their beautifully woven palm baskets. Surprisingly, the town also has an international piano museum featuring old Baldwin and Steinway pianos as well as old clavichords. These instruments were brought here from around the world. Who woulda’ thought! This is a very special day! Note: Leaves Palapas Ventana at 8:30 a.m. and returns at approximately 6:00 p.m.

Price for San Antonio and El Triunfo Tour: $50 (US) per person (minimum of 4 people). Includes breakfast and lunch.