By Air:
Alaska Airlines serves Loreto from LAX five days a week at this writing. As with all airlines, book early and shop dates for the best prices that will often run from reasonable to ridiculous. The plane arrives just after 1pm giving you plenty of time to get to our casa, unpack, unwind and get oriented to Loreto Bay. Loreto recently opened their spacious new international airport with pride. Taxis and car rental desks are there for your convenience. A compact car will get you anywhere on most local area Mexican roads, paved or unpaved. You may be surprised to find how well maintained the roads are.
From the airport turn right (south) onto the main highway and travel about 5 miles and take the Nopolo exit to the right. It will take you to a stop sign so you can cross the highway onto the Nopolo road. Drive one mile as far as you can go and turn right at the T intersection. Continue driving until you see the towered casas. Just as the road divides look for the TCC Property Management and Construction office on the right side of the road. You can ask for the easy directions to your destination, our nearby Casa Jane’ at the AV-115 address, from Laurie there.
By Car:
Driving from San Diego along Hwy 1 was a delightful and beautiful drive recently for my wife and me. The Mexican government is investing a lot in infrastructure and sees southern Baja and Loreto as a future major tourist destination. One indicator is that in 2013 the wealthiest man in the world, the Mexican businessman, Carlos Slim, bought the Loreto Bay Resort, its golf course, the undeveloped lots and is working to construct over a hundred condos down the road here in the coming couple of years. Therefore you will see 2 or 3 road construction projects along Hwy 1 building bridges over the dry river beds, widening miles of pavement and adding shoulders.
Advice:
Be sure to purchase required Mexican liability insurance and have the document in your glove box. For cheap, cheap rates try downloading your contract copy by going to costco.com and clicking on their auto insurance line. Please use caution in the older narrow road sections and do not drive at night because of hard-to-see livestock that wander along the highway.
It will take 15 to 17 hours to drive the 750 miles to Loreto, so plan to stop overnight at Guerro Negro or at my favorite, Catavina, with its gorgeous, art-filled, reasonably-priced hotel and stunning natural badlands landscape – and they are dog friendly. Expect to stop your car a few times at Federali checkpoints during your journey, but know that their show of arms and their looking at your luggage is just a routine designed to keep you safe. They are typically very friendly young fellows in military gear who find tourists (yawn) not very suspicious characters.
In Loreto you may notice that many laws like stopping at stop signs and obeying the posted speed limits are treated casually by the police. Although this is the local norm, know that many laws including drinking and driving rules are enforced only when you are blatantly operating unsafely or are in an accident. Then there is no mercy. Know that the mainland Mexico custom of officers preying on tourists, threatening to take you to the police station and expecting a bit of a bribe to keep that from happening, seems not be a custom here in little Loreto.
Map of Loreto