I'm heading to Cabo next month and I'll be staying at a friends time share. The place looks like it is about 2 miles east of Doyles surf camp. I won't have a car and it looks like the surfing spot there is in front of Doyles. Is Doyles the place for board rental or is there another place right there I should go to instead? Thanks for your help
I think they have a good selection at Doyle's. Costa Azul shop near the Surf Hotel has a good selection too. If at all possible try to get yourself a rental car. Downtown Cabo is like 15 minutes from where you are by car. Also, rent a car and drive up the coast a bit to Todos Santos and Cerritos Beach (rentals there from Costa Azul too). The San Jose Del Cabo/Cabo San Lucas area is a big area so it's good to have a car. Yes the area around the camp/Surf Hotel is the most popular surf breaks. There's several breaks around there Old Mans, Zippers, the Rock etc.
Stinkbug pretty much covered it all. I agree that renting a car is pretty much a no-brainer, you'll wish you had if you don't.
Mike Doyle's surf school is in front of the Cabo Surf Hotel which is located on Old Man's. They have a decent selection of boards and are cool with you swapping them out. It can be pretty small though without a south swell so you will likely want to make the hour drive to the Pacific side, Cerritos is the closest as mentioned.
Last time I was in Cabo all the car rental places (Hertz etc) at the SJC airport had a scam going where basically no matter what your online reservation said, the price was double or triple (i.e. you basically couldn't rent a car for less than $100/day)... looked it up online and it seems like this was happening to everyone, not just me.
DO NOT rent a car at the airport, YOU WILL be scammed. Contact Antonio at Cactus Car Rental in advance of your trip, he will treat you right. Shouldn't be much more than $20ish a day, including all taxes and Mexican insurance. No frills. They'll pick you up at the airport. I have no affiliation with Cactus, just a satisfied customer. Just my .02 cents: don't surf Zippers, Old Man's or the Rock unless you like surfing in an aggressive crowd. I was there last year during the high season and surfed Monuments every day for 2 weeks, there was never more than 5 guys out. There's plenty of spots away from the tourons, that's why you need a car.
Agree with going to Todos Santos and Cerritos. Great spot with a lot of waves and the crowd was pretty spread out. Also, Costal Azul was a great surf shop. Alex is the owner and a great guy. Actually picked a small group of us up at our hotel, with boards, drinks, and drove us to Cerritos for half day of surfing. If I recall it was pretty reasonable. If you don't rent a car, that may be an option. I did surf Old Mans one day as well and it was much smaller, probably waist high and a longboard type wave.
i had a awesome experience with cabo! went all inclusive with the fam when i was 15. me and my dad got a car and went to the costa azul shop got 2 boards and a dude there told us mile marker 45 on the west coast. we drove thru this sketchy ass desert it was wild. then we drove down this dirt hill to a literal surf paradise... girls...long rights peeling in.. dogs hanging on the beach waiting to greet you.. and best of all 10 cent chicken dillas... EPIC
Friedfish, that sounds killer! Just thought I would send a report in case it might help someone. Just got back from Cabo. I ended up not getting a car. Would have been cool to go to some of the spots mentioned above but I was with a big group and I was the only one surfing. I rented from Costa Azul all six days and the guys there were great. Super friendly and best prices around from what I saw. Surfed Zippers, La Rocca and Old Mans. All within paddling distance of each other. Water and weather was great. Everyone was really friendly and no problems. Getting a car and checking out some of the other places will be top of my list next time. A couple of places that were highly recommended while I was there was Shipwrecks and 9 Palms.
