TAKE A camper van road TRIP IN BAJA CALIFORNIA
Take a baja road trip
In 2022, we had the crazy idea of taking our VW camper vans to our dream destination, Baja, Mexico. We’ve been traveling to Baja since the early 90s, and there is truly nowhere else in the world like it.
Join us this winter and make lifetime memories yourself on a Baja road trip! Follow our self-guided 6-night itinerary with pre-booked camping, connections to great activities, and recommendations for the best taco shops, grocery stores, and farm-to-table dining.
Interested in something a little more curated? Hop on a guided trip to either whale watch or experience farm-to-table cuisine. Whichever route you choose, you’ll surely experience the best Baja offers. These are two night trips meant to combine with a longer trip you arrange in Baja for yourself - say, 4 nights in Todos Santos and 2 nights in a van on a guided trip? Sounds dreamy? It is.
Ready to adventure? Fill out our interest form below, and our team will get back to you with booking information—We can’t wait to see you in the sun!
Why a Baja road trip?
Baja showcases a mesmerizing blend of natural beauty, vibrant culture, and incredible opportunities for exploration, making it an ideal destination for traveling via a camper van. Our vans allow travelers to immerse themselves in unspoiled beauty, waking up to the sound of crashing waves and falling asleep beneath star-studded skies.
The peninsula is a playground for adventure seekers, offering endless thrilling activities. Nature lovers can explore the Sea of Cortez, renowned for its abundant marine life, by snorkeling, kayaking, or even swimming with whale sharks.
The area is renowned for its delicious cuisine. The peninsula's culinary scene brilliantly combines traditional Mexican flavors with a unique Baja twist. Baja's gastronomic offerings are a treat for the senses, from fish tacos bursting with fresh ingredients and vibrant flavors to rich, spicy salsas that create an irresistible symphony of taste.
“We loved our multi-family Baja experience with Peace Vans! It was amazing to have everything planned for us and we literally just showed up. It was an adventure we’ll never forget and we’re so grateful to the Peace Vans team for making it easy.”
What’s Included in my Baja camper van trip?
By booking a self-guided Baja road trip package for $2995, you’ll receive six nights in a Vanagon camper van along a curated route with pre-booked campsites and everything included in our PNW trip packages (+ on-the-ground 24/7 support from your friends at Peace Vans.)
By booking a guided Baja road trip package for $1095 (+$215/additional passenger), you’ll receive two nights in a Vanagon camper van and access to either our Whale Watching or Farm-to-Table experience. This comes complete with guides, pre-booked campsites, meals, featured excursions, and everything included in our PNW trip packages. You’ll travel in a caravan of 4-6 vehicles to the destination with support along the way and a unique and special set of activities, experiences and dining on the trip. You can read more about our guided trips here
The Self-guided Routes: Experience the Best of Baja
We understand that every traveler has different preferences. That's why we offer you the choice of two incredible self-guided road trip route options: an Adventure/Mountain or Beach Getaway experience. Whichever route you choose, rest assured each is well thought out and will offer you the best of Baja.
Adventure/Mountain
Our adventure option is perfect for those seeking an adrenaline rush and breathtaking views. This route will take you through rugged terrains, majestic mountains, and charming villages that capture the essence of Baja's wild side. Get ready to ignite your sense of adventure as you explore hidden trails, encounter unique wildlife, and marvel at breathtaking sunsets from mountain peaks. And, of course, as it’s Baja - you’ll still get some great beach time. (Locations include: La Paz, El Triunfo, San Dionisio, Cabo Pulmo, Cerritos, Todos Santos)
Beach Getaway
If a laid-back and sun-kissed experience is more your style, our Beach Getaway promises to deliver. Picture yourself cruising along the Pacific coastline, with white sandy beaches stretching as far as the eye can see. As you bask in the sun's warm glow, the soothing sound of the waves will transport you to a state of pure relaxation. Immerse yourself in the local beach culture, try surfing or snorkeling with colorful marine life in the crystal-clear waters of the Sea of Cortez. (Locations include: La Paz, El Triunfo, Cabo Pulmo, Cerritos, Todos Santos)
Towns You’ll Road Trip Through
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Renters on both routes will pick up their van from 9 am-12 pm at Peace Center in La Paz. We recommend staying in La Paz the night before your pick-up date to avoid a long travel day. You can stay at Peace Center, an urban campground, or in a local hotel. Suppose you have a full day in La Paz before starting your road trip. In that case, we recommend the following activities: whale shark and sailboard tours, visiting world-renowned beaches, walking the Malecon, and dining at local restaurants.
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El Triunfo is a small town inland filled with museums and history. Explore this old mountain mining town in your van and check out sites like Museo Ruta de Playa, Cafe El Triunfo (for the best almond croissants you’ll ever have), and Cactus Sanctuary. Enjoy access to nearby hiking and biking trails and local restaurants and breweries. You’ll spend the night camping under the stars with views of the Sierra de la Laguna Mountain Range.
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In San Dionisio, you’ll stay on a gorgeous mountain ranch. Relax at the vast campground and enjoy an outdoor cooking area, toilets and showers, a plunge pool, and more. Spend the day exploring the area's natural beauty by hiking one of our favorite trails, swimming in waterfalls, and relaxing by the river (all within hiking/driving distance).
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Check out Cabo Pulmo National Marine Park, where you’ll snorkel or scuba dive in one of the world's most beautiful, crystal-clear spots. After a long day in the water, head into town for tacos at one of our favorite local restaurants. Then, drive up East Cape Road to your campsite, just a 5-minute walk to the beach, where you can enjoy the sunset.
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Cerritos is one of our favorite spots in Baja due to the endless activity options. Take a surf lesson from a friend of Peace Vans and relax on Cerritos Beach. Enjoy a unique stay at an ecotourism hostel with an ocean view from the terrace and nearby farm-to-table restaurants. In the morning, go on one of our favorite hikes and play with puppies at a non-profit café and dog rescue.
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Spend the night in this thriving artistic town on the Baja Peninsula. Meander through the cobblestone streets and visit the town’s stunning art galleries. Your campsite will be near a freshwater river swimming hole and gorgeous sandy beaches. This spot is also known for having sea turtle hatchling releases that visitors can watch from a safe distance. Grab a delicious meal at one of our favorite restaurants or breweries!
The Guided Routes: An Epic Adventure
Our Guided Trips are designed to either be an add-on to a 6-night self-guided trip or a stand-alone 2-night trip you combine with another Baja adventure (think four nights in Todos Santos, Cabo or La Paz combined with one of these two-night trips). On these trips, you’ll drive in a caravan of 4-6 other vehicles, supported the whole way. You’ll be at your destination for two nights with days of activities, experiences, and some of the most fantastic food cooked just for your group. You’ll be cared for by the Peace Vans team and our partners, Jordan and Carmen, from The Bougie Dirtbag. We have traveled with Jordan and Carmen many times, and it is no exaggeration that these two women will create an unforgettable experience in Baja for you.
Whale Watching
Our guided whale-watching camper van trip offers the perfect opportunity to witness the awe-inspiring sight of these magnificent creatures in their natural habitat. Picture yourself driving along scenic coastal roads in the comfort of our meticulously maintained vans, taking you to the prime spots for whale sightings. Our experienced guides will share their knowledge of the local marine life, ensuring an educational and unforgettable experience. This journey promises an unparalleled encounter with nature's wonders. Relax, let Peace Vans take care of the logistics, and let your curiosity be fulfilled as you witness these gentle giants in their captivating habitat.
In addition to whale watching and other marine life activities, you’ll be treated to meals of a genuinely exquisite nature. Jordan and Carmen have deep knowledge of the local seafood scene, and you’ll be treated to a vast selection of Baja treasures—from hand-smoked marlin to grilled oysters with miso butter. You’ll explore all the supreme yumminess Baja offers. You’ll also be treated to fresh, local produce—organic and picked within days. Local wines, artisanal cocktails, and craft beers will be served each afternoon for a group happy hour at sunset.
Farm-to-table
Experience the ultimate farm-to-table adventure with Peace Vans. Enjoy vibrant local culture and savor the journey as you dine on a picturesque Baja farm. Discover the region's rich agricultural heritage, where organic produce is sourced and transformed into culinary masterpieces. Indulge in delectable meals crafted from the freshest ingredients harvested just moments before they grace your plate. Let the flavors of Baja tantalize your taste buds as you create memories that will linger long after you return home.
This trip will head to our unique and special mountain campsite at Rancho San Dionisio. It is a historic ranchero at the end of a 30km dirt road up the Sol Fox Canyon in southern Baja, about 2.5 hours from La Paz. You’ll travel in a caravan of 4-6 vehicles, stopping to view historic sites, panoramic vistas, hot springs, and unique food spots. Upon arriving at San Dionisio, our partners Jordan and Carmen will prepare all your meals from 100% locally sourced ingredients—many from within 5 miles of the Ranchero. Sample meals might be grilled Tomahawk steaks with chimichurri, savory French toast with mushroom duxelles, grilled shrimp, local tortillas, salsas, and avocadoes from the onsite farms. Each night, you’ll be treated to a happy hour with local wines, artisanal cocktails, local tequilas, mezcals, and more. After dinner, you’ll get to know other guests and your hosts around a traditional Mexican campfire before bed under the bright Milky Way.
Your days will involve hikes up the canyon to deep (secret!) swimming holes and waterfalls in one of Baja’s most pristine and refreshing watersheds. Hike anywhere from 1 to 10 miles, packing a prepared lunch if you take a longer hike. While relaxing on the property, you can tour the gardens and orchards, watch the hundreds of hummingbirds, or spend your day with a good book in the incredible mountains.
Baja Trips pricing
Self-Guided Routes
6 Night Mountain/Adventure: $2995
6 Night Beach Getaway: $2995
Guided Trips
Whale-Watching: $1095 for van and driver + $215/each additional passenger
Farm-to-Table: $1095 for van and driver + $215/each additional passenger
Combo Guided & Self-guided
2 Night Guided Farm-to-Table + 4 night self-guided Beach Route: $3095 + $215 each additional passenger (Available Jan 27th-Feb 2nd & April 5th-11th)
2 Night Guided Whale Watching + 6 night self-guided Beach Route: $4085 + $215 each additional passenger (Available Feb 22nd-Mar 1st & March 7th-15th)
Schedule & departure dates
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March 18th (Mon) - 24th (Sun)
April 11th (Thur) - 17th (Wed)
April 18th (Thur) - 24th (Wed)
April 25th (Thur) - May 1st (Wed)
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March 11th (Mon) - 17th (Sun)
March 28th (Thur) - April 3rd (Wed)
April 9th (Tues) - 15th (Mon)
April 13th (Sat) - 19th (Fri)
April 16th (Tue) - 22nd (Mon)
April 20th (Sat) - 26th (Fri)
April 23rd (Tue) - 29th (Mon)
April 27th (Sat) - May 3rd (Fri)
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Feb 22nd (Thur) - Feb 24th (Sat)
March 7th (Thur) - 9th (Sat)
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Feb 22nd (Thur) - Mar 1st (Fri) - Guided Whale Watching + 6 night self-guided Beach Route
March 7th (Thur) - 15th (Fri) - Guided Whale-Watching + 6 night self-guided Beach Route
Frequently Asked Questions
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Self-Guided: $2,995 (taxes and fees included) for six nights in a Vanagon, a complete gear package, linens for sleeping, campsites for each night, and booking assistance for all excursions or extra nights in the van.
Each additional night rental is $375/night.
A $1000 deposit is required to reserve your dates. The remainder is due 60 days before travel.
Guided: $1095 for van and driver + $215 for each additional passenger. This includes 2 nights in a Vanagon camper, a complete gear package, linens for sleeping, campsites for each night, guided excursions, and meals.
A $1000 deposit is required to reserve your dates. The remainder is due 60 days before travel.
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You’ll spend your nights in one of Peace Vans restored VW Camper vans. These vans have two fantastic full-size beds. As far as camping each night, we’ve spent considerable time on this as we developed our Baja program. We felt it was vital that you have a dedicated, available and vetted camping spot every night with people we know and trust. We partnered with five different campgrounds, each with unique characteristics, so that you can have a dedicated campsite each night of your trip. Each site meets our Peace Vans Camps standards for adequate amenities, location, and overall experience.
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The trip package does not include flights.
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The vans come equipped with our standard Peace Vans Rentals equipment kits. We added more for Baja to make your experience top-notch: snorkeling gear, beach umbrellas, fresh drinking water dispensers, solar panels, and other special touches.
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Self-guided: You must follow our well-thought-out itinerary, staying at vetted campsites each night. The itinerary is not a minute-by-minute route and allows you to choose from countless suggested activities each day—surf lessons, snorkeling, beach time, food, food, and more food.
Guided: We’ve got that covered! You’ll follow us :)
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Nope. While traveling some dusty roads on your route, you must stay on the path we recommend.
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Purchasing a trip comes with access to our 24/7 helpline. If you have a mechanical issue, we’ll swap vans within one-day maximum. Each van is restored meticulously by our VW shop in Seattle, WA, and our local partner in La Paz is one of the best Vanagon mechanics on the planet. You’re in good hands!
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Nope, but you’ll have plenty of time to get to the beach while en route. In fact, many of our recommended activities involve getting in the water!
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We recommend traveling with one to four people for maximum comfort.
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Each van has a thorough mechanical inspection by our dedicated VW mechanic in Baja before every trip. This includes checking all fluids for leaks, tire pressure, camping systems, and other essential safety and comfort measures.
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Loudly! It is a road trip, after all. All vans have upgraded stereos with Bluetooth connectivity.
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Yes. Your van will be full of gas upon pick up, and we request the same when you drop it off. There are plenty of locations to fill up along the route.
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We require renters to stay on our designated route and campsites in Baja, as we've vetted each site and have beautiful partnerships. You'll love the grounds and the people you meet!
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Our vans do not have household-style 110 power. If you need to charge a laptop or similar, we can supply a supplemental battery pack—you must let us know before you depart on your flight.
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The second battery (which charges your camping systems) will last at least 48 hours without charging. All vans have solar charging, and the battery charges while you drive, so you won’t lose charge your whole trip.
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Yes. Much of our route has excellent cell phone coverage, and most campsites have wifi access. Check with your cell phone carrier about charges and data plans.
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Check those out here!
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Peace Vans Baja HQ is in La Paz. La Paz is an utterly fantastic place to start and end a trip. There’s amazing stuff to do, great food, and it’s effortless to get around. We highly recommend spending a couple of nights in La Paz before or after your Peace Vans trip.
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Cancellations must be made via written request and received within 45 days of pick-up for a refund of your trip reservation cost less $500.
If you must cancel a reservation within 45 days of travel, we will offer you a credit valid for one year (Baja spots are limited and not guaranteed).
We require a $1000 security deposit against damage, unreasonable use, or excessive cleaning requirements. This charge automatically applies to your credit card for reservations three days before pick up. Any damages to your van or Peace Vans property deduct from your security deposit. We release the security deposit within three days of returning the vehicle.
Peace Vans reserves the right to cancel a reservation at any time (including at pick-up) based on natural disasters, changes in business conditions, unforeseen natural occurrences, or other situations that would make renting a van unsafe. This includes but is not limited to a renter showing up intoxicated or unable to operate the vehicle safely. If Peace Vans initiates the cancellation, we will issue a full refund.
While we will do our best to place you in the van you have reserved, the nature of renting vintage vehicles is such that we have to make a last-minute substitution from time to time. All of our vans are "equal" in quality, and if we cannot provide you with the van of your choice, we cannot offer any discount or refund.
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We provide you with drinking water to start your trip. You can refill a limited amount of fresh drinking water at each of our campsites. We also provide a set of location recommendations that can fill our drinking water tanks.
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The vans do not have AC. Having driven the route multiple times, we prefer having the windows down and the music loud. We will provide a small USB fan to use at night if you sleep warm.
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Even with some great side trips, the trip is under 400 miles of total driving. We didn’t want you in the car all day, every day—there’s a lot of exploring to be done at each spot.
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Peace Vans will provide you with a list of provisioning locations along the route. For a small additional cost, we can have your van stocked when you pick up with enough food to get you going for the first day or two.
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Depending on what you’d like your trip to look like, you can fly into La Paz or Los Cabos airport. Both have their perks! La Paz: easy start/end to the trip from our HQ. Los Cabos: you could spend a night exploring the city of Cabo.
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Heck yea! While we have an excellent local partner, key Peace Vans team members staff the office all winter.
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We partner with some top Baja folks to give you access to excellent options. A lot will ultimately be up to you—active vs. chill.
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We do not recommend driving at night. We recommend being at your campsite by 5 pm. This is not because of security concerns but rather because of the lack of lighting on the highways and the fact that cattle and other animals tend to feed next to the dark highways at night to stay warm.
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We bring four Volkswagen Vanagons from our rental fleet to Baja: Duckabush,
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Unfortunately, bringing your van is not an option this year. We hope to do this in the future!
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While we love dogs, some sites have a no-pet policy, so please leave your pups at home.
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These are self-guided, like our PNW trips, but follow our detailed itinerary. We are also offering a few guided group trips that will be announced soon!
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If you’re interested in mountain biking or kiteboarding, reach out, and we’ll work with you to send you our top recommendations.
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Each campsite has a bathroom, drinking water, picnic table, and shade. Some along the route will have showers and additional amenities. During your driving days, you’ll have plenty of options to stop for food and use a bathroom.
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Flying into La Paz instead of Cabo San Lucas is a much-preferred option for Peace Vans customers. Peace Vans HQ is in La Paz, and all trips begin there. It is a beautiful, laid-back city, and the airport is extremely easy to navigate. However, flights into and out of La Paz from the US are minimal, with only a few connections through Phoenix, LA, and Houston.
We recently explored a new option. The Tijuana airport (TJI) is on the US/Mexico border crossing known as "CBX." You’ll cross a pedestrian bridge, enter the customs/immigration building, and then will be in the TJI airport. Then, just a few minutes walk to your gate for a flight to La Paz. Volaris has two flights a day from Tijuana to La Paz, which are affordable.
The CBX border crossing and Tijuana airport is a 25-minute cab ride from the San Diego airport. This option might make great sense depending on plans and the costs of direct flights into Cabo.
It was a straightforward and enjoyable process when we did it recently. The flight from Seattle to Cabo was expensive ($750 one way), but the combined flight from Seattle to San Diego and the Volaris flight from Tijuana to La Paz was about $350. We also saved $180 on the taxi from Cabo to La Paz (+ 2.5 hours travel time). While we saved a lot of money, the overall travel time was a bit longer, and the two airplane flights definitely added to the complexity. If you have to stop to get to Cabo anyway, consider the option of San Diego -> cab to CBX -> flight from Tijuana to La Paz.
Questions?
Ready to book?
Scroll to the top of this page and hit the “I’m Interested” button! Need Assistance? If you have any questions or need assistance, our dedicated team is here to help. Please don't hesitate to reach out to us at baja@peacevans.com.