If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (including tax) available in the next 60 days.
Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (USD650.00), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.
El Perdido leaves the drama of Baja California Sur’s wild Pacific bluffs and uncharted mountain peaks outside. Cocooned inside this diminutive resort, days are spent in such energy-sapping diversions as devouring ripe mangoes by the pool or snoozing in the hammock out back of your thatched jacal, beers chilling in the fridge and a classic album spinning on the in-room record player. There’s mezcal, marshmallows and tequila to be had by the fire pit in the evening, while cacti-lined paths lead the ‘way to Mars’. Well, not quite, but that’s what the sign says. Instead, stargazers can get a little closer to the constellations up top of the observatory tower, while those seeking more earthly pursuits will find a huge sunken Jacuzzi concealed underneath, its water glowing an otherworldly red.
Seven private jacales with traditional thatched roofs.
Check–Out
Noon. Check-in is at 3pm. El Perdido is very flexible on these when availability permits, and guests arriving early or departing late are welcome to use the facilities as long as the resort isn’t booked for exclusive use by a private group.
Prices
Double rooms from £603.78 ($754), including tax at 16 per cent. Please note the hotel charges an additional service charge of 15% per room per night on check-in and an additional government tax of 4% per room per night on check-in.
More details
Rates include breakfast in the communal living and dining area. Tuck into Mexican classics like chilaquiles, avocado toast and pancakes laden with locally grown strawberries and mangoes, washed down with fresh juices and sweet Mexican coffee.
Also
Sociable owner Polo Perez is a regular fixture at El Perdido and will gladly challenge you to a round of ping-pong or, if you have two left hands, a cocktail in the bar.
At the hotel
Free WiFi, games area with ping-pong, foosball and board games, sand volleyball court, use of buggies for getting to the village and beach. In rooms: kitchenette and dining area, goblet of mezcal and DIY guacamole kit on arrival, tea and coffee maker with local Café Distrito 23410 coffee, fridge with beer, milk and water (replenished daily), books, board games and vinyl records, Bluetooth Bose sound-system that pairs with the record player and your own devices. Enclosed deck and garden with bath tub, shower, hammock and telescope; bathroom with organic toiletries and mosquito repellent.
Our favourite rooms
All jacales at El Perdido were born equal so it’s impossible to play favourites as they’re identical in almost every detail. We’re talking rustic natural wood interiors with quirky luxury touches that include record players (complete with a collection of retro vinyl classics to spin) and an actual telescope on the deck, though the widescreen starlit skies are equally sublime when viewed from your garden bath tub. The guacamole station (with DIY kit) and welcome jug of mezcal make for excellent amuse-bouches to the Mexican feast you’ll be preparing in your kitchen later, using a basketful of fresh vegetables, fruits, herbs, leaves and other ingredients plucked from the resort’s garden and mini-market.
Poolside
The cactus-lined outdoor pool is open 24 hours. As if by some sort of desert magic, a cart laden with fresh fruit appears here every day around midday, meaning you never have to stray far from those huge day-beds to grab a handful of ripe strawberries or a refreshing wedge of sweet local papaya.
Spa
There’s no spa but therapists can be booked to visit the hotel on request, for in-room massage, facials, manicures and pedicures.
Packing tips
Sure, there’s WiFi here, but El Perdido’s seriously off-grid vibe invites more analogue pursuits. Leave the e-reader at home and pack a couple of beat-up paperbacks instead. This is whale-watching country so there’s never been a better or more appropriate moment to get around to finishing Moby Dick. Pack flip-flops and plenty of pool wear (trust us, you’ll be using these a lot…) and a fleece for those chillier desert evenings. Oh, and don’t forget the Alka-Seltzers in case you find those mezcal and marshmallow evenings by the fire pit are still in full swing at sunrise.
Also
Competitive types can work up a sweat over a round of ping-pong or foosball in the communal living area. There’s also a sand volleyball court in the grounds.
Pet‐friendly
Four-legged pals are welcome at El Perdido. Because even pets deserve a luxury sunshine holiday from time to time. A cleaning fee of $200 covers your whole stay and bowls for food and water are provided in rooms. See more pet-friendly hotels in Baja California.
Children
Kids are welcome (a baby cot is US$30 a night) and babysitting is $40 an hour (book 24 hours in advance). There are games, pool toys and a picnic area; staff have even been known to show little Smiths how to make lemonade using fruit from the garden.
Sustainability efforts
El Perdido’s whole vibe just screams sustainability. The hot Mexican sun is harnessed to provide much of the resort’s energy, and guests sleep beneath thatch in traditional jacales, where bathroom products are organic and biodegradable. This is the kind of place where, when you sit down to dinner beneath the stars in the neon-lit Coyote restaurant, you can be sure the rocket and romaine in your salad was plucked from the garden that morning, and the ceviche is so fresh that the fisherman who delivered it is likely still around somewhere, playing a quick game of ping-pong, perhaps, or sipping mezcal by the pool. The passion for local produce means guacamole, fresh-fish tacos and cocktails made with garden herbs are the order of the day, and you’ll find no single-use plastics anywhere on site.
Sure, the restaurant is intimate, but nothing beats dinner served under starlit skies on your own private deck, with your outdoor tub and a chilled bottle of bubbly for afters.
Dress Code
Keep it casual in light linens and floaty fabrics but feel free to up the ante with bold Mexico-influenced colours: cactus greens, mezcal oranges and sunset purples for the win. A fleece should be considered essential for al fresco desert evenings.
Hotel restaurant
Coyote is about as atmospheric a desert dining experience as you’re likely to find. Immerse yourself in this intimate restaurant’s neon-red glow as the sun sets and the night sky commences its galactic light show. Here, diners huddle over colourful cocktail apéritifs at tables set amid lofty cacti and giant boulders, awaiting great platefuls of chargrilled prawn tacos and wagyu burgers, harissa-spiced lamb wraps and wood-fired pizzas that emerge steaming from the airstream trailer that doubles as a kitchen. Open for lunch and dinner, with live music on Saturdays.
Hotel bar
The alfresco Coyote bar is open until 10pm daily, serving up beers, wines and cocktails beneath atmospheric red neon lighting; go full native with a smoky signature Prickly Pear Mezcalita or citrusy Lime Orange.
It doesn’t get a whole lot more remote than El Perdido, lost down a dirt track in Pescadero on Baja California Sur’s wild Pacific coast, an hour or so north of the peninsula’s southern tip with its cool rock formations and colourful colonial port towns.
Planes
International flights serve airports at La Paz and San José del Cabo, both around a 70-minute drive from the hotel. Transfers can be arranged if requested at least 24 hours in advance, and the typical cost of a round-trip is around $400.
Automobiles
You’ll need your own wheels if you want to fully immerse in the region’s surreal desert landscape, all pristine beaches, soaring mountain ranges, extraterrestrial rock formations and towering saguaro cacti that point their long arms skywards. Cars are available to rent at both major airports and the atmospheric drive to El Perdido is as good a place to start your adventure as any. There’s free secure parking at the hotel.
Other
Kick up some dust by touching down at the resort in a helicopter; the hotel can organise any such decadent desert desires on request.
Worth getting out of bed for
Borrow an off-road buggy at El Perdido if you fancy taking the bumpy ride along dirt tracks to one of the nearby sandy beaches. Being a tad more perilous to access makes Playa San Pedrito the quieter local option, but Playa Los Cerritos is the more popular choice for surfers, swimmers and, well, anyone for whom heaven is sprawling on white sands with a mango in one hand and a margarita in the other. Look out for surf dudes wiping out in the wild Pacific waves. You’re also near-guaranteed a sighting of grey and/or humpback whales migrating during calving season, December to April. A reassuring lifeguard presence also makes Playa Los Cerritos a big hit with families.
You’ll need your own set of wheels for forays to the pristine beaches, whale-spotting hotspots and crazy rock formations on the peninsula’s southern tip, where the restless Pacific meets the Gulf of California. Also known as the Sea of Cortez, the gulf’s warm, sheltered waters are home to such a rich diversity of marine life – pufferfish, giant manta rays, sea turtles, even migrating blue whales – that Jacques Cousteau himself once dubbed it ‘the world’s aquarium’. In other words, if snorkelling and scuba diving are your bag, Baja has you covered. Glass-bottomed boat rides also operate around Cabo San Lucas and its ever-popular Pelican Rock.
Don’t miss some of Baja’s finest selfie opportunities: posing against the backdrop of the golden-hued El Arco sea arch erupting from the waves at Cabo San Lucas; admiring vibrant street art in the hip pueblo mágico (magic town) of Todos Santos, or seeking shade in the veritable jungle of prickly plants that is the epic Cactus Sanctuary botanical gardens, a few miles north of El Perdido towards the regional capital of La Paz.
Local restaurants
The phrase ‘farm to fork’ is no mere marketing slogan here in Baja’s agricultural heartlands. Case in point: Pescadero stalwart Hierbabuena has cooked up a menu that leans heavily on its own organic garden produce. Think dishes rich with aromatic basil and fennel, plump aubergines and homemade chimichurri. Go for the enchiladas served Zihuatanejo-style, with swiss chard or locally farmed chicken and lashings of fiery guajillo sauce and cabbage slaw, or try the flank steak with chimichurri and garden vegetables. Also don’t miss the guacamole with just-baked tortilla chips, the kind of deliciously creamy, crunchy appetiser from which dreams are made. You’ll dine, naturally, in the vegetable garden itself.
French chef Aurelien Legeay brings flamboyant Gallic flair to Dūm in Todos Santos, where the meeting of Mediterranean and modern Mexican cuisine results in an absolute frenzy of flavours. À la carte and tasting menu options includes the likes of tuna with chorizo sorbet, sea bass in red curry and wagyu steak burgers with béarnaise, all served beneath lamplit palms in a lush garden on the edge of town.
Local cafés
Baja Beans can lay some claim to being Pescadero’s premier café, with organic coffee grown, as the name might suggest, on the peninsula. You’ll find it among the mango trees just off the palm-lined main road that runs down to the beach. There’s live music on Sundays when the café hosts a lively farmers’ market with local produce and artisan crafts.
Loaf lovers, cake connoisseurs and partakers of pastries should make a beeline for Petit Leon, where some of the best baked goods in town await. Expect superlative sourdoughs baked on site that very morning, alongside still-warm croissants, gooey chocolate brownies, sweet cinnamon buns and more. There’s fresh juice and kombucha to help you feel good about yourself after you’ve scarfed that third slice of pie.
Local bars
If you’ve just spent an entire day spreadeagled on Playa Los Cerritos, you can probably just about manage the five-minute trudge along the hot sand to Barracuda Cantina, where a tequila-laced frozen margarita will quickly revive you and the sunsets are some of the best in Baja. A bar menu of snacky seafood and fried avocado tacos, quesadillas and ceviche should help you stay upright at this cute thatched shack long after you’ve forgotten how many mezcal negronis you’ve had.
No town is too small to have its own brewery, and Todos Santos is no exception. Hit up the TSB (Todos Santos Brewing) taproom to sample their broad range of small-batch craft brews, including the citrusy and sessionable Dizzee Lizzee summer ale and – for those with a stronger constitution – the Midnight Oil Black IPA. Weighing in at nearly 10 per cent ABV, it’s like liquid dark chocolate in a glass, but with significant added potential for seriously sore heads in the morning. Cocktails offering a comparable kick are also available.
Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from their traditional thatched jacal on the Baja California Sur peninsula and poured themselves a reviving shot of mezcal, a full account of their off-grid break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside El Perdido in Pescadero, Mexico…
You can almost hear the sound of the mariachi band striking up as you step through the gates of El Perdido and gratefully accept the first of many mezcals at this remote oasis on Baja’s Pacific coast. The tiny resort is pure rustic desert chic. Pathways of worn wooden boards weave between skyscraping saguaro cacti, emerging at a sandy volleyball court here and an observatory tower-cum-Jacuzzi there. Hummingbirds flit around cute little feeding boxes and there’s so much vegetation around the pool you might be forgiven for believing the entire place is just a mirage. It’s anything but though: designed by architects in Guadalajara (Mexico’s mariachi capital, no less), El Perdido’s seven thatched jacal bungalows offer plenty to trumpet about, including record players with vintage vinyl, roomy outdoor bath tubs and even a telescope for aspiring astronomers.
