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We've compiled the best of the best in Mexico - browse our top choices for the top things to see or do during your stay.
La Playa is one of the nicest places to have fresh seafood or beverage in Los Barriles. It’s a little pricey, but everything tastes incredibly fresh, and you can’t beat the location or beach access. It’s a fun spot to watch the kiteboarders on a windy day.
Chef and owner Brian Solomon runs one of the most popular restaurants on the Cabo San Lucas Marina, supplementing waterfront views with first-class service and an enormous range of quality food and beverages. Fresh local seafood is the specialty of the house, but pastas, steaks, and traditional Mexican favorites are also staples of the lunch and dinner menus. The palapa-style architecture is fun yet classy, and the space is pet-friendly, too.
A favorite spot among the dwindling community of local Mexican residents, Tiki Santos can be a little difficult to find (the location shown on Google Maps is not correct), but if you persevere, you'll be rewarded with generous portions of classic Mexican seafood dishes at moderate prices. The decor is as basic as they come—plastic chairs on a dirt sand floor—but that's part of the charm. The food is just as good (if not better than) other restaurants in town charging double.
This funky café, where expats and locals congregate, serves up smoothies, baked goods, tacos, homemade ice cream, and everything in between. The breakfast menu spans acai bowls, eggs Benedict, pancakes, and fruit plates, and for lunch and dinner you'll find blackened fish tacos, coconut shrimp, burgers, and vegetable wraps. Set back from the little plaza, the colorful garden is a pleasant place to have a coffee, and its location by the ecological center makes it the closest thing Akumal has to a downtown. If you fall in love with a local stray, the owner will help you get the paperwork to take your new pet home. The restaurant is open until 10 pm and has free Wi-Fi. This is the only place in town where happy-hour specials include food. Stop by between 4 and 6 pm any day of the week for pizza, taco, and drink specials.
Refuel with a coffee and pizza of Neapolitan roots at the Koral Center food hall. Order a takeaway tiramisu and choose your coffee beans for a premium espresso. If you need something more substantial, head next door to Pan di Bacco for a proper Italian dinner.
Open for more than 30 years in the Villa Serena neighborhood along the main highway, this quiet, open-air, palapa-covered restaurant offers standard fare, from beef and shrimp kebab to baby back BBQ ribs and lobster tail, with some Mexican specialties thrown in. If you grab an ocean-facing table, you can watch the cruise ships glide past. This restaurant has what most don't: a pool—perfect for dipping your feet while sipping a fruity concoction.
Popular with the surfing crowd, this palapa-covered joint is right on Costa Azul beach, just south of San José del Cabo. Though their burger is the reason to come, the aroma of grilling lobster and tacos, and a soundtrack of surf tunes are why many return. The crowd can get downright rowdy. There's no question that owner "Big Tony" feeds you well for your pesos. With half-pound burgers, slabs of prime rib, or steak and lobster for two at under $30, you'll leave the beach a glutton, albeit a jolly one. Bring the kids in the daytime; they'll enjoy running from the dining table to the sand between every couple of bites. Sporting events sometimes blare on the TV, and live music is offered nightly.
