Cabo San Lucas: walkable and loud
Cabo San Lucas is the marina town at the tip of the peninsula. Almost every boat trip in the region leaves from here, the bar strip is walkable from most downtown hotels, and Medano Beach is the only genuinely swimmable town beach in Los Cabos.
It is also the loudest place in Baja California Sur. Medano Beach has vendors approaching every ninety seconds and music from several directions at once. That is the appeal for a lot of visitors and the dealbreaker for the rest.
San José del Cabo: the better town, the worse beach
San José predates tourism by 250 years and still reads as a Mexican town. The historic district is compact, the restaurants are chef-owned, and the Thursday Art Walk from November to June is the best free evening in the region.
The trade is the water. The hotel zone fronts open ocean with a steep drop and strong undertow, and most of it is not swimmable. It is fifteen minutes from the airport, which is the other reason people choose it.
The Tourist Corridor: beaches, and a taxi bill
The Corridor is the twenty miles of Highway 1 between the two towns, and it holds the region's three best swimmable beaches — Chileno, Santa María and Palmilla — plus most of the luxury resorts.
Nothing here is walkable. Every meal outside your hotel is a $25–$45 taxi each way, which is why a rental car pays for itself in about three days if you are staying more than a long weekend.
The alternatives: Pedregal, Todos Santos, East Cape
Pedregal is the gated hillside immediately above Cabo San Lucas marina — villas, the best views in the region, five minutes from town, and a Pacific beach below that is scenery rather than swimming. Split between six people it is often cheaper per head than two hotel rooms.
Todos Santos, 75 minutes north, and the East Cape, up to two hours northeast, are for travellers who want to be somewhere other than a resort strip. Both require a car. The East Cape is where Cabo Pulmo is.