What’s New in Cabo and Cancún: A guide to Mexico’s glittering getaway gems, East and West

Unabashedly colorful and overflowing with culture, cuisine, and beaches, beaches, beaches, Mexico is a prime vacation destination, but with competing coastlines battling for your attention, exactly where to stay within the country is a tougher call. On the east coast, kissed by the turquoise waters of the Caribbean Sea, Cancún has been the Yucatan’s top choice for decades, drawing everyone from spring break revelers to stylish jetsetters. Not to be outdone, the west coast’s Cabo San Lucas and San José del Cabo ("Los Cabos") draw millions of visitors to the tip of the Baja Peninsula, where the deep blue Sea of Cortez and the powerful Pacific Ocean come together. Each city boasts sparkling seas along pristine shorelines, drawing a hefty hunk of Mexico’s nearly 40 million annual visitors and securing the nation’s consistent ranking among the ten most visited countries worldwide, and both offer plenty of adventure on land and sea along with world-class resorts for unwinding in style. Unless geography alone dictates your holiday preferences, it can be difficult to choose which coast to visit. So, to help you decide where to base yourself for a Mexican getaway, we visited both Cancún and Los Cabos to bring you an update of what’s new in each.

San José del Cabo and Cabo San Lucas are the sister cities collectively known as Los Cabos, and connected by roughly 10 kilometers of glittering coastline known as the Hotel Corridor, where top resorts perch along the most picturesque points of the capes. San José del Cabo has remained relatively quiet and more traditional in culture, closer in spirit to the early days of the region when these unknown spots were remote fishing villages. In stark contrast, Cabo San Lucas is now a party town bedecked in bars and nightclubs catering to the up-all-night crowd and the thrill seekers. The blue waters of Los Cabos are famous for the tremendous variety of marine life that inspired Jacques Cousteau to dub them "the aquarium of the world," and more than one impressive migration culminates in Los Cabos...