Baja California
Escape now to the beautiful desert and coastal landscapes, riding under sunny skies on tranquil roads less traveled. Come ride one of the best new cycling destinations in the world, Baja California. All of our Baja cycling tours have filled, don’t miss out!
BAJA TRIP DATES
October 15-23, 2024 (* full)
Custom Private Tour
Discover one of the world’s best new cycling and ultimate social-distancing destinations, all close to home. Baja has quietly transformed over the last few years, offering hundreds of miles of newly-paved roads, upscale hotels, sublime landscapes, with little traffic, offering tranquility on the road less traveled. Our Baja cycling tours travel through expansive, picturesque landscapes that Joshua Tree, Moab, and the fire-red mesas of Idaho. Small, quiet untouristed towns feature old-world plazas with rustic colonial-era churches. Ride past towering cactus spread across valleys as far as the eye can see, meandering along azure coastlines under warm, bright blue skies.
Baja Cycling Itinerary*
Day 1 — Across the border
Arrival
Welcome! We rendezvous in San Diego at the efficient airport and drive into Tijuana for bike building and orientation with drinks before dinner at one of Baja’s finest restaurants (Mision19). Tijuana is experiencing a culinary revolution with craft breweries, chic cafes, and fine dining, drawing crowds across the border.
Day 2 — Guadalupe Wine Country
Tijuana to Guadalupe
After a delicious breakfast of fresh flour tortillas, huevos, queso, chilis, frijoles and fruit, our Baja bicycle tour begins, spending today cycling through the rolling rock canyons and valley of palms under expansive skies on the Ruta del Vino into the Valle de Guadalupe, where 90% of Mexico’s wines are produced. After arrival, we’ll visit a vino cave for tasting followed by an open-air dinner featuring grilled seafood and other specialties at the valle’s finest restaurant. Overnight in nearby Ensenada.
24-68 miles +3,227 feet (ride as much or as little as you’d like)
La Ruta del Vino
Our first day’s ride is along the Wine Route comprising five grape-growing valleys, with Valle de Guadalupe being the most famous and developed. Here more than 150 wineries produce nearly 90% of Mexican wine (around 2 million cases annually). Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay and Tempranillo are the most planted wine grapes in the region, covering nearly 8,000 acres.
Day 3 — Valle Santo Tomás
Guadalupe to El Rosario
Today, riding a meandering route through countryside of green fields, mountains and valleys, passing vineyards, including idylic Santo Tomás Valle, ranchos, small towns, and scrub arroyos. After heading back to the coast, we’ll finish our ride with enough time to dip our feet in the ocean before dinner on the site of a former mission located on an empty crescent-shaped beach, sampling more delicious vino from the Guadalupe and Santo Tomás Valleys.
18-49 miles +3,114 feet
Day 4 — Valle of Candles
The Pacific Coast & Valle de los Cirios
Baja cycling at it’s best! As the sun rises over the waves, we’ll ride along the coast before climbing into the magnificent Valle de los Cirios nature preserve, a massive protected region with stunning landscapes with towering sienna-colored mesas. Today’s ride will be one of the most memorable rides of your life, cycling along a tranquil road winding through panoramic vistas of towering Cardón (Elephant Cactus), the world’s largest, which can reach up to 65 feet high, as well as boojum trees (which only grows here), yucca, elephant trees, and wild ocotillos as far as the eye can see. Later in the day, we arrive onto “Baja’s Rock Garden,” a striking plain of massive boulders surrounding the remote oasis town of Cataviña. Antonio, our host, will prepare his legendary double Don Julio Margaritas while we soak our tired legs in the pool.
24-109 miles +4,234-8,900 feet
Day 5 — Oasis in the Desert
Valle de los Cirios & Oasis
If you’re awake early, enjoy a short hike before breakfast, watching the sunrise over the boulder plain as the colors change on the massive sienna-colored rocks in the morning light. All around our cycling route today is the bed of a massive ancient ocean, steep ravines and boulders, but now also dotted with cactus and other Sonoran desert plants as far as you can see. Another day that captures the tranquil solitude of Baja, with only a single town along the flattest ride of our trip. We end at a cantina, no more than a shack, but past riders on this cycling trip will tell you the cook, Melany, makes the best Mexican food they’ve ever eaten.
After reaching the coast, we cross over into Baja Sur (south) and on to San Ignacio, a lush oasis that was location of an early mission with a pleasant plaza and impressive, well-preserved colonial-era church. We’ve a surprise for our stay tonight, let’s just say it will be unforgettable.
27-68 miles | +1,397 feet
Day 6 — Along the Sea of Cortez
Valley of Cactus & The Sea Of Cortez
Sprawling canyons spread over the landscape, with wide valleys of ancient volcanic flows, rewarded after pedaling to the top one summit with incredible views of a massive valley of organ pipe and golden barrel cactus reaching all the way to the Tres Virgenes, three massive dormant volcanic peaks. As we descend, we’ll feel the cool breeze from waters of the Sea of Cortez until, all of sudden, the bright blue waters appear.
After reaching the coast, we ‘ll cycle after lunch to the small oasis town of Mulegé, at the mouth of Río de Santa Rosalía. Settled by Jesuits in the mid-1700s it was location of the first mission in Baja which we’ll stop to explore. Recently, it’s become a bohemian enclave of artists.
22-46 miles | +2,159 feet
* For private trips, optional rest day for whale watching during the season
Historic Missions
In 1697, Padre Juan María Salvatierra sailed to Loreto and founded Baja’s first permanent settlement and mission on the shore of the Sea of Cortez. For the next 137 years, the Jesuits, the Franciscans and the Dominicans established and maintained 17 missions in Baja to spread Christian doctrine among natives, later establishing missions all the way to Sonoma, north of San Francisco. During our trip, we’ll stop to visit several of these missions. After Mexican independence in 1821, the governor of Baja formally ended the mission system and converted the missions into parish churches.
Day 7 — The Azure Coast
Bahía Concepción
Today’s ride out of Mulegé, rolling along the coast, is the most spectacular ride of our Baja cycling trip, riding along through stunning vistas of rugged mountains fronting postcard-perfect beach coves and lagoons with bright red cliffs and views of Sierra de la Giganta mountain range rising dramatically on the inland side. We’ll pass at an aged 50 year-old beach cantina, where the host has caught us some fresh yellowtail he prepares with tumeric and butter while we soak in the ocean. Midway through our ride, we pass through rolling desert plains passing arroyos and pequeño pueblos. At ride’s end, we roll into Loreto, which has retained a distinct local flavor with a pleasant, historic pedestrian plaza.
26-84 miles +2,687 fee
Day 8 — Parque Nacional Bahia de Loreto
The Magnificent Loreto Bay
After another fabulous Mexican-style breakfast, we’ll ride continue cycling along the coast with sublime views of the Loreto Bay National Marine Park that is dotted with islands, stunning cliffs, wide sandy beaches, and rock formations. We end our trip with a bang conquering one of the longest climbs of our cycling tour, which appears as we turn inland, but the views of massive red mesas and remote canyon landscapes of red and green make it worth it.
In the afternoon, we reach one of the most pleasant towns in Mexico through a Mexico bicycle tour, La Paz, the capital Baja Sur. After arrival, a quick Covid antigen test has been arranged at our hotel for everyone. Tonight we’ll dine seaside overlooking the vibrant malecón watching bikers and skateboarders breeze by.
18-48 miles +2,205 feet
Day 9 — Hasta Luego!
Departure
This morning, we’ll box up your bike and transfer you to the airport for your flight home, or stay on longer for well-deserved R&R in San Jose del Cabo, or the arty enclave, Todos Santos (below), with options for whale watching, sport fishing, sailing, cooking classes, yoga, wind surfing, snorkeling (Jacques Cousteau famously called the Sea of Cortez, home to some 800 varieties of fish, “the world’s aquarium”), mountain biking, or visiting nearby towns, such as Todos Santos. Want to ride more? Guide Christiam Valenzuela is based in la Paz and will take you on an two-hour ride further down the coast. Adios, and thank you for cycling Baja with us!
*No two trips are the same, we constantly update our itinerary with the goal of making it better each trip. Please inquire about our latest itinerary. If you’re interested in a private cycling tour of Baja, we can arrange shorter trips, even originating in the southern Cabo area which capture a wonderful 4-5 days cycling just north along the Sea of Cortez. Ask us about a private trip.
Contact us for more info: [email protected] or (415) 680-3788
Private & Custom Trips
Many of our cycling trips are private custom ones. Travel with your club, friends, or family and customize this Baja cycling tour to your specific preferences and style of travel—we’ll work with you to make it the trip of a lifetime.