Flying With Stops To La Paz Vs. Taking Ground Transport From Cabo, What Travelers Should Know

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Last Updated 2 years ago

Currently, the La Paz airport does not receive any international flights.

In fact, there are actually very few routes, even from other airports within Mexico, that make it to Baja California Sur’s second most popular tourist destination.

This lack of connectivity is arguably the biggest reason why La Paz is a bit underappreciated as a travel destination.    

If you are keen to explore La Paz as a foreign traveler, you’re going to have two main ways to get to the city.

The first option would be to catch a direct flight from an American city to the airport in San Jose del Cabo.

From there, you can take a bus, a rental car, or even a cab to travel roughly 120 miles from the main Cabo airport to downtown La Paz.

That’s about a 2-and-a-half-hour journey by car, and the bus takes up to 3 and a half. With that in mind, would it be easier to fly to another Mexican city and catch a connection directly to the airport in La Paz? 

LA Residents Could Drive To Tijuana, But Is It Worth It?

The Tijuana airport is one of the few Mexican airports that carry direct flights to La Paz. Technically LA area residents could drive across the border and take a direct flight.

The problem they may find is that driving down to Tijuana from Downtown Los Angeles forces them to cover an even greater distance than the one that exists from Cabo to La Paz. 

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The situation is certainly not the same for San Diego area residents. It would make more sense for them to make the trip across the border by car, then take a flight from the Tijuana airport out to La Paz.

Currently, tickets can be bought for that round-trip flight at around 180 dollars if they are bought in advance.

A trip from LAX with a stop in Guadalajara, Mexico is the shortest trip from LAX to La Paz. That would see travelers take 7 hours from the moment they get on the plane at LAX to the moment they arrive in La Paz. Tickets currently go for around 380 dollars.        

Getting To La Paz From Atlanta

When looking to get to La Paz from US central cities like Atlanta, even the flight search engine recommends that you take a direct flight from Atlanta to Cabo and get to La Paz by car.

You may want to think twice about taking that suggestion, though. A one-stop flight from Atlanta to La Paz takes about 8 hours to complete if all goes well in the stop at the main Mexico City airport.

A ticket for that journey costs around 930 dollars.

You can purchase a ticket to Cabo from Atlanta on Spirit Airlines for around 250 dollars. However, that route is not direct.

In fact, it gets you to Cabo in about 14 hours. A direct flight to Cabo from Atlanta costs about the same as a one-stop flight to La Paz.      

Getting To La Paz From The US East Coast 

If you’re flying out of Chicago, Volaris runs a route from Chicago O’hare to La Paz with a stop in Guadalajara.

It goes for about 450 dollars and also takes about 8 hours. The direct flights to Los Cabos from Chicago go for over 500 dollars and take only 4 hours.

For people who want to fly out of one of the New York City airports, they’ll typically face a similar predicament.

JetBlue is one of the airlines that flies nonstop to Cabo from the NYC area. While Volaris flies the La Paz route through Guadalajara again.

It’s a three-hour difference from 6 to 9 hours in favor of the Cabo flight. Both options cost around 600 dollars for a round trip. 

Flying To La Paz May Be A Better Option In Many Cases

With a travel time difference within 3 hours, it may make more sense to take the route to La Paz with stops over flying to Cabo.

At least from these locations that don’t have low-cost direct flights to Cabo like LAX may offer. We also have to point out, though, that we’re making this statement based on the prices that we found for upcoming flights in April.

Rates can vary drastically, and therefore, the final conclusion of this debate would be as well.