Stay Overnight on a Luxury Working Ranch in La Paz
Updated: May 10
Where the desert meets the ocean, Rancho San Lorenzo has created a relaxing oasis to unwind and pass your days full of adventure or repose, or why not a mix of both?!
Treat yourself to an all-inclusive stay at a working ranch that also includes beachy fun. Rancho San Lorenzo offers two different luxury accommodation options: Casa Caballos, which can easily accommodate multiple families or small groups, and Casa Bugambilias, which houses up to four people in two rooms.
The interior design is comfortable yet stately, and the decor chosen represents the culture of the ranchero people that have been working the land here for hundreds of years. Each house is situated to afford a sweeping view of the valley, the Coyote Mountains, and the Sea of Cortez in the background.
Fun fact: Cattle are not native to the Baja Peninsula. Ranchero culture grew from missionaries who first set up communities around Loreto in the year 1697 and brought cattle to serve as food and provide milk. The lifestyle spread up and down the peninsula from there and has remained stable for three hundred years. Technology and the growth of industrial agriculture are the largest current threats to this way of life.
Though inside, the houses are welcoming and warm, the outdoor living spaces and the ranch grounds will undoubtedly lure you outdoors.
Manicured, spacious, gentle landscaping mixes with endemic Sonoran desert fauna. The barn and pasture areas for the horses and farm animals are clean and well-outfitted to give each animal shade, water, food, and room to move about. It is very clear that the owners of this 1000-acre sanctuary have considered everything in designing a space that has a low impact on the environment but still offers a luxury experience to its guests.
Our favourite nooks in which to pass an hour of the midday heat, are either the rooftop palapa-covered terraces, swinging in a hammock, or under the shade of the gazebo in the midst of the animal paddocks. Bring a book down to the gazebo and look up every once in a while to watch the chickens, ducks, geese, peacocks, cows, goats, sheep, ostriches, horses, donkeys, dogs, and cats doing their things. The full-time rancheros and their families will also be doing their thing, caring for the animals that they clearly enjoy working with. If you’re feeling so inspired and have some basic Spanish skills, let the staff know you’d like to help out with some of the farm chores, or maybe collect the eggs for your own breakfast in the morning!
Speaking of mornings, you’ll wake up well-rested from a night spent on the comfortable mattresses and fine linens of the bedrooms. We also appreciated the spacious and modern bathroom facilities of Casa Bugambilias.
Each house has a fully appointed kitchen that comes stocked with groceries - a very thoughtful touch as the property is quite blissfully secluded, so popping out for the milk you forgot to bring wouldn’t be very convenient. And, you only have to worry about one or two meals a day for yourself - your stay includes an authentic Mexican breakfast or lunch each
day prepared and served right in your accommodations by a private chef!
Outside of the accommodation amenities, the activities included with your stay at Rancho San Lorenzo go above and beyond. Every day, you can take a guided horseback ride either on some desert trails or down to the nearby beach. If that’s not enough riding for you (and your legs and behind are in better shape than ours!), you also have unlimited use of the training ring; the rancheros will be happy to give you a small lesson to brush up on your technique if you’re an out-of-practice rider. All of the horse trails can also be ridden on any of the mountain bikes they keep tuned up and ready for use.
Finally, for the beachy fun we referred to at the outset of this article, the ranch also has a collection of kayaks and paddleboards that the staff will transport down to the beach for you. Let them know with a bit of advance at what time you’d like to go; pack a bag of snacks and drinks from your stocked kitchen; and head on down for some hours of warm white sand and refreshing crystal blue water, with toys!
Overall, we thoroughly enjoyed our stay at Rancho San Lorenzo and can’t recommend the place and the staff highly enough. It is a luxury option, but worth the investment for an all-inclusive ranch accommodation just outside of downtown La Paz.
If you have any questions that weren’t answered here, leave them in the comments and someone will get right back to you!
- The Trip&homes Team