Traffic Impacting Tourists At El Médano Beach

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Last Updated 1 year ago

A lot of local government and commercial business efforts have been made recently to improve access to El Médano beach for tourists. However, it appears that the rush of Los Cabos’ spring season tourists has taken a toll on the area, clogging streets with traffic and leading to tourist frustrations instead.

El Médano – The Tourist Center of Los Cabos

El Médano beach, or Playa El Médano, is the center of activity for most spring season tourists in Los Cabos. This area is home to most of the principal all-inclusive luxury tourist resorts, some of the best al-fresco restaurants, plenty of shopping, and of course, the local commercial businesses and food vendors.

The beach is also home to some of the best watersports activities available in Los Cabos. Because it is known as a swimmable beach, it is a popular hangout for jet skis, stand-up paddleboards, kayaks, and wave runners. It is also the main area for parasailing.

After dark, it becomes the party scene for Los Cabos during the spring season with palapa-shaded nightclubs and the best bars to be seen at. The drinks flow at the rooftop locations in El Médano, and the action doesn’t end until well into the morning.

Because it is the center of the activity, it is also jam-packed with Los Cabos tourists during the spring travel season and can often get congested with people and cars. The other issue is that the local vendors and food stalls also slow the traffic around the area.

Bumper-to-Bumper Traffic

The influx of visitors due to the increasing popularity of Los Cabos as a premier resort travel destination this year has put a significant strain on the area’s infrastructure.

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While local government officials have tried to implement programs over the last couple of weeks to prepare for the spring season rush, it appears that it was not enough for the visitor demand in Los Cabos.

An influx of an estimated 5,000 visitors during the spring season has brought a near standstill at times to the municipal and federal roads around El Médano and in the nearby neighborhoods.

While the restaurants, nightclubs, and commercial businesses are definitely thrilled to have the tourists visit Los Cabos coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns, they are also concerned about the impact it is having on the overall tourist experience in the area.

According to Leonardo Perlie Isea, who heads up the local organization of businesses along El Médano beach, the traffic and congestion in the past has been limited to the immediate vicinity of the beach.

But the demand is so strong for Los Cabos from visiting tourists this year that the traffic is actually spilling into the local neighborhoods as well. What has resulted is bumper-to-bumper road traffic and a mass hoard of people walking on the sidewalks and roads.

That has put a strain on Avenida del Pescador and Calle Pelicanos, which normally provide a convenient El Médano bypass to Los Cabos beach bars, resorts, and restaurants.

Next Route of Action

In response to the issue this year, local business owners in El Médano have proactively reached out to the Secretariat of Infrastructure, Communications, and Transportation (SICT) to start advance planning of potential traffic smoothing solutions as the spring season progresses.

Part of their concern is related to the hospitals in the area and the imminent danger of not being able to transport people to the nearby emergency rooms in a timely manner due to traffic issues.

Some of the ideas proposed to the government organization are a review of the Transpeninsular highway bypass, better traffic flow routing with stoplights and signs, and the potential of expanding or building more access roads to handle the increase in Los Cabos tourist demand.

However, the solutions proposed appear to be future-term solutions to a current-term problem.