Cabo's striking desert landscape surrounded by azure blue seas invites you to play in the sun. Here, sports are king — at least any that you can play on sand and in the water. That's what put Cabo on the map, and that's what makes it so successful as a resort.

Beach It

You'll find Cabo's beaches in five different areas: in Cabo San Lucas and San José, along the Pacific, along El Corredor, and on the East Cape. They offer lots of variety, from those fronting the Sea of Cortés to the windswept ones along the Pacific. However, only a few are good for swimming.

Of all of them, Playa El Médano (Dune Beach) in Cabo San Lucas is the most popular and has the most water-sports facilities. Just beyond town is Playa del Amor (Love Beach), next to El Arco (the Arch) — the only one in the world with two opposing shores — the other side of which is often called Playa del Divorcio (Divorce Beach). Playa Santa Maria along El Corredor is one of Cabo's best swimming and snorkeling beaches.

Most of Cabo's good surfing beaches — Playas Costa Azul, Monumento, and El Tule — lie along El Corredor, but they're more for advanced surfers. If you're just beginning, you can try Playa Acapulquito in San José or Playa Los Cerritos, near Todos Santos. You can take lessons from Costa Azul Surf Shop (624-142-2771).

Boat It

Take a boat ride to El Arco, where the Sea of Cortés and the Pacific waters merge in a swirling spectacle of sea and foam. The magnificent rock formation has become Los Cabos' trademark. Sea lions live happily on nearby Rocas de los Frailes (The Friars' Rocks) on the surrounding rocks. Pelicans roost on the smaller Roca Pelicanos (Pelican Rock). El Faro de Cabo Falso, a lighthouse from 1890, stands on the rocky headland. One of the best ways to see all this is aboard a fondo de dristales (glass-bottomed boat) tour. The forty-five-minute trip takes in Pelican Rock, the sea lion colony, and the arch, and you can be dropped off and picked up at Playa del Amor.

Two-hour sunset cruises aboard the fifty-foot La Princesa catamaran or the forty-two-foot Pez Gato catamaran (624-143-2252) head out first to Land's End, bringing you close in for a bird's-eye view of El Arco, bathed in orange light at the end of the day. Some head out to the open Pacific for a panoramic view of Los Cabos, then sail up to Cabo Falso. If you prefer a smaller boat, carrying only ten passengers, try the thirty-foot Tlaloc (624-112-2349). Cruises depart an hour before sunset. Be sure to bring along a jacket. The cost includes onboard drinks. If you'd rather not go on a booze cruise, ask before you book your cruise.

If you prefer a dinner cruise, sail the Sunrider, an elegant yacht with full open bar and an all-you-can-eat Mexican buffet for slightly more than the regular cruises (624-143-3929).

Snorkel, Scuba, Fish

If you prefer to explore under the water rather than on top, you'll find good snorkeling and diving year round in Cabo. Three major ocean currents collide here and bring with them large amounts of plankton, attracting over 800 species of marine life.

Guided two-hour snorkeling tours to Land's End, with a stop to view the sea lion colony, cost $25 per person. You can also rent snorkeling equipment for $10 per day from dive shops around the marina and head out on your own. Most snorkel tours also leave from Playa El Médano.

Cabo's coastline offers innumerable lagoons that offer great diving. Because its waters are a temperate 72ºF, this area lacks the bright tropical coral of the Caribbean. What you'll enjoy about diving here is the opportunity to swim with such large creatures as whales, sea lions, dolphins, manta rays, and groupers.

One of the best diving sites is halfway along El Corredor at Bahía Santa María and Bahía Chileno. You'll find a dive shop at Bahía Chileno. Be sure not to miss the Blowhole, a 40- to 100-foot dive down the backside of a rock wall covered with gorgonians (sea fans), as well as eels, various rays, guitarfish, and small nurse sharks.

Diving on the bay side of El Arco is excellent, with visibility from 30 to 60 feet down in winter and 80 to 90 feet down from July to November. If you're less experienced, try Roca Pelicanos, Dedo de Neptuno (Neptune's Finger), and the sea lion colony. If more advanced, you'll enjoy diving the challenging El Abismo (The Abyss) or the Sandfalls, a ninety-foot dive documented by Jacques Cousteau, which begins at Roca Pelicanos then drops to an incredible 1,200 feet. Playa Cabo Pulmo, containing the largest living coral reef on the west coast of North America, is another. Dive trips, including equipment, start at $40. Of the many dive shops in Cabo, the following are some of the best:

• Amigos del Mar: 642-143-0505, www.amigosdelmar.com

• Baja Dive: 642-143-3830

• Cabo Vacationers Contact (Cabovc): 624-144-3419

• Deep Blue Diving Club: 642-143-7668, www.cabodeepblue.com

• Land's End Divers: 642-143-2200

• Manta SCUBA Diving: 624-144-3871

During the 1950s, Cabo became known as the Marlin Capital of the World. In fact, it's still not unusual to hook one on your first trip. Fishing in Cabo used to be the sport of the rich and famous. Now, if you have the money, you can have the experience of a lifetime. You can hire a twenty-two foot panga for $165 to $198 or a thirty-six-foot cruiser for $300 for six hours, or $650 for eight hours. Larger boats can run as high as $1,300 for eight hours. Chartering a yacht can set you back as much as $3,500. Here are a few options:

• Cabo Magic Sportfishing: 888-475-5337 (U.S.)

• Cabo Sport Fishing Charters: 624-119-1603

• Gaviota Sportfishing Fleet: 800-932-5599 (U.S.), www.grupobahia.com

• Pisces Sportfishing Fleet: 642-143-1288, www.piscessportfishing.com

• SolmarSportfishing Fleet: 800-344-3349 (U.S.), www.solmar.com

PWC Rentals, Kayaks, Parasailing

The only limits in Cabo are your energy level and budget. You can rent Jet Skis, Sea Doos, and Waverunners for $40 an hour all along Playa El Médano. For self-propelled waves, try boogie or paddle boarding. On windier days, Hobie Cats and small sailboats are easy to maneuver around the faster vessels in the bay. If the wind's up, you can rent a windsurfer for $15 an hour, or, if you prefer not to get quite that wet, hire a Hobie Cat for $40 an hour. Arrange a ride from JT Water Sports (642-144- 4566, www.jtwatersports.com).

Kayaking has really caught on in Cabo. Lightweight sit-on-top kayaks are efficient, streamlined, and easy to launch in the gentle surf at Playa El Médano. Try kayaking over to Playa del Amor across the bay. Or try kayaking in Bahéa Chileno in El Corredor.

To get the best view of Cabo, and an exciting thrill, try parasailing, where you'll dangle from an enormous, colored parachute, soaring into the air while attached to a 600-foot rope being towed by a speedboat. You'll pay from $30 to $40 for ten minutes.

Ecotourism

Cabo is a great place to get back to nature. If you love birds, you'll find the palm-fringed Estero San José (San José Estuary) teeming with 150 species of tropical varieties. Rent a canoe and see the birds from water level, or stroll along the Paseo del Estero, following the estuary.

Whether you're a beginner or an accomplished climber, you'll find rapelling and climbing on the rocks of Playa del Amor exhilarating. RipTip Climbing offers a variety of guided rapelling and rock climbing tours, including instruction and climbing or rapelling gear, under the trained eye of its expert guides.

You can also rent mountain bikes for $5 an hour or $20 a day at Tio Sports in Cabo San Lucas and at Desert Park, Cabo Real's ecological reserve. Ride over the desert or over to El Faros at Cabo Falso. Be sure to take plenty of water and a map with you. Do not cycle alone in remote areas or on the busy streets of Cabo San Lucas.

The landscape around Cabo is made for ATVs. In Cabo San Lucas, guided tours to the Pacific Coast and into the desert run mornings and late afternoons. Take the twenty-five-mile trek through Cabo Real Resort's network of connecting trails along arroyos (dry river-beds), narrow canyons, and rugged hillsides with Desert Park ATV Tours. You'll ride at low speeds with many stops so you can enjoy views of the Sea of Cortés. You'll find this is a great way to experience the desert. Fees start at $50 per person (624-144-0127).

Rather not ride yourself? Take your family along on a Baja outback adventure, cruising in the air-conditioned comfort of a HumV with Baja Outback Adventures (624-142-9200). Or take a backcountry Jeep tour for $95 to $125 per person with Baja Wild (624-142-5300, www.bajawild.com). And not to be outdone by other resorts, Cabo offers its own version of a canopy tour. Instead of flying along through the treetops, you ride high above Costa Azul Canyon, suspended safely in a harness. Tours depart at 9 and 11 A.M. and 1 and 3 P.M. (624-115-4112).

If you prefer to see the scenery the old-fashioned way, go on a guided horseback trail ride for $25 to $40 per person along the surf or on a backcountry trail with any of the following:

• Cuadra Equestrian Center: 624-144-0160

• Rancho Collins: 624-143-3652.

• Red Rose Riding Stables: 624-143-4826, www.loscaboshorses.com.

Whale Watching

Marine biologists regard the Sea of Cortés, separating the Baja Peninsula from mainland Mexico, as the richest marine habitat on earth. It's home to numerous species of ballenas (whales), including the gray whales that make their well-known 6,000-mile migration from the Bering Sea in early spring to calve in the buoyant shallow lagoons north of Cabo. Ranging from forty to fifty feet long and weighing up to 73,000 pounds, shore-loving gray whales are the only ones to bottom feed.

On a whale-watching excursion, you'll see ballenas spouting, sounding (or showing their flukes), and, most dramatic of all, breaching, when a whale leaps out of the water and falls back with a large splash. Cabo Expeditions's whale-watching tours from January to March will bring you as close as possible for $30 to $50 per person (624-143-2700).

Tennis

Most of the major resort hotels have one or two tennis courts. The Mayan Palace golf course in San José has six lighted ones (624-142-4166).

Golf

Golf is Cabo's passion. And if it's your passion, you'll be in paradise. As Mexico's premier golf destination, Cabo offers enough holes of challenging golf to fill your entire vacation. You'll need a reservation for a tee time from October through April. Here are a few courses to choose from:

• Cabo Real Resort Golf Course: Two dramatic seaside holes and three outstanding mountain holes are the signature holes of this Robert Trent Jones course. Situated midway between Cabo San Lucas and San José at the Meliá Cabo Real Hotel (624-144-0040).

• Cabo del Sol: Two separate eighteen-hole courses, one a desert layout, provide what designer Jack Nicklaus calls the “the two best finishing holes in the world” (624-145-8200).

• Mayan Palace Golf Los Cabos: Originally Cabo's nine-hole public course, it's now part of the Mayan Palace Hotel and has been restructured to double greens for each hole, so you can play eighteen (624-142-2090).

• Club de Golf El Dorado: At this eighteen-hole resort course, designed by Jack Nicklaus, accuracy is prime (624-144-5451).

• Palmilla Golf Club Jack Nicklaus' first Latin American course, and the one that put Cabo on the world golf map, this twenty-seven-hole target-style desert layout was the best course in Mexico when it opened in 1992. And even though others have come along since then, it's still one of the most challenging (624-144-5250).

• Raven Golf Club: Designed by Roy Dye, this eighteen-hole course, formerly the Cabo San Lucas Country Club, offers splendid views of Land's End and a junior golf program for kids aged six to fourteen (624-143-4653).