3-Nights Zadun, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve from $993

As part of Los Cabos—a name bestowed by Mexican tourism officials upon the once-remote Baja California communities—San Jose del Cabo and Cabo San Lucas frequently are considered to be the same type of place. However, party-hearty Cabo San Lucas is strictly a resort, while 200-year-old San Jose del Cabo is a bona fide—although small—Mexican town with a shady plaza and pastel pink and blue houses.

Visitors from abroad often find San Jose del Cabo one of the most Americanized resorts in Mexico with English as common as Spanish on signs, many expatriates running businesses, and prices on restaurant menus, in shops and bars, and on tours given in U.S. dollars instead of Mexican pesos. You can get a sense of the natural beauty surrounding Los Cabos, though, from the lookout point above Costa Azul, a popular surfing beach just south of San Jose.

San Jose del Cabo stands apart from other resort destinations in Mexico such as Cancun or Puerto Vallarta because of its climate, geography, terrain and its former life as the last frontier on the Baja Peninsula. Visitors to San Jose del Cabo are lured by its deep-blue sea, coves and beaches, dramatic rock formations and desert landscapes; however, in addition to basking in the temperate climate, they also play golf, go deep-sea fishing, scuba diving and snorkeling, whale-watch and explore Baja off-road.