baja itinerary: too short, too much?

hola amigos~

glad i found this. so my wife and i bought tickets to LAX for late march, and have decided to drive a rental across the border - our first adventure to baja begins...

first hurdle: some LAX rental location have policies against driving across the border. looked into driving one-way down to san diego, with additional $50 drop off charge... quoted an estimate of $95 each way, since i need to drive back from san diego back to LAX... phew... instead of driving down to SAN, just found a "reasonable" flight to el centro across from mexicali.

2nd hurdle: el centro hertz's charging USD35/day for the mexican auto liability insurance [MALI] should i bite the bullet?? just sent email to 4 different rental companies at the el centro airport to inquire if any of them would accept 3rd party MALI purchase online, fat chance, i know... if i go this route, i'd be forking out $760 for the flights+rental car+quoted MALI. another additional $100 for the 2 nights spent at el centro during my "transfer"...

should we follow the above plan, we'll pick up the rental from el centro mar28th, and will have to return it at el centro apr3rd, barely 7days... i thought we could drive down to la paz and back, but it seemed like too much driving?? i just found out that the road that connects south of san felipe thru las arrastras to rejoin Hwy1 at chapala is for 4WD only, the economy rental car will probably get stuck somewhere... so i guess from san felipe i'd have to reconnect to Hwy1 via ensenada - big detour...

i guess my question is:
1) how far can i go with 7days starting from mexicali? it would be nice to be able to stay in la paz for 2days 1night, is that pushing it?
2) the National Astronomical Observatory in san pedro martyr national park, is that reachable via a tiny rental car without 4WD & high wheel base clearance? i've read some stretches are "impassable"...
3) i'm trying to avoid the overly crowded places like tijuana & cabo during the spring break, and am looking forward to going off the beaten path to find some gems. if la paz is beyond my reach, how about loreto?? i'm just trying to plan an itinerary that's doable, but also provide a good first time experience.
4) we did a week of camping in the california desert [death valley, joshua tree, mojave, etc...] a few years ago and loved it, hopefully we'll be able to do some of that in baja too.
5) we also liked to explore street mercado and check out the local fruit & veges, i heard mexicali is great for that and also has got some chinese immigrant history to that town. is it worth spending more than a day in mexicali??

i'm not asking for a full-blown day-by-day itinerary, but if someone with baja experience can give me a rough idea of how far south can i go in 7days, that should help my planning a great deal. if possible, also help eliminate the locations that are inaccessible via the "economy" rental car...

muchas gracias!!!

ahh/say WHAT

7 DAYS,,come on,,are you for real ?? 7 days I'm speechless,,you must live in the usa,no?

Suggestion

7 days,,7 day7s

7 days/ 7 days

Why not fly to Loreto, rent car there and you will have enough time to see places north to San Ignacio and south to La Paz. The weather is a bit better in BCS this time of the year. Be careful of Easter week crowds at the beaches.

Lagoon at Santispac just south of Mulege.


[Edited on 2-21-2012 by Marc]

hey all, thanks for the responses. LisaR.&bajaguy confirms my suspicion that the drive down to la paz is longer than expected. i guess either fly down to LAP or just use the remaining 7days to explore baja norte as suggested by redhilltown, which i'm sure we won't be disappointed either. i just did a quick glance, ironically, the flight from LAX to cabo (SJD) is cheaper than LAP... rhintransit is right though, with the loreto flight, i might as well buy a car and drive it down.


also got a reply from budget rental car:
"Non-Mexican residents may drive a vehicle into Mexico provided the
following conditions are met:

1. Before traveling into Mexico, customer MUST purchase MALI (Mexican
Automobile Liability Insurance) from this location. The rental counter
will not accept coverage purchased from an outside company. The MALI
must be purchased at the rental counter at the time of pick up.

2. Minimum age is 25.

3..ONLY American Express, MasterCard & Visa are accepted for the
purchase of MALI.

4. Car Groups allowed are:
-Group B (Compact), Group C (Intermediate) & Group E (Full Size).
> The price for car groups B, C & E is $25.00 per day plus taxes and surcharges.

5. No one ways allowed. The vehicle must be returned to the contracted
Budget location in the U.S.
6. Vehicle with MALI is allowed for travel 50 miles into Mexico ONLY."

at the end of the day, if i failed to find a promo coupon for the el centro budget location, it's barely $38 of savings compared to hertz's $35/day MALI rate... just like the car commercial, no matter where you squeeze the balloon, they'll get you one way or another...


had we had more than a week from work, we would have considered the leisurely flyaway/amtrak transfer from LAX to SD/TIJ and rent a car from there. with our current condition, somehow all that additional transit hassle is just not worth spending the time and money... which is why we thought of flying to el centro across from mexicali, though tickets are still not booked yet, will have to make the call this week before they're gone...

i like paranewbi & Fernweh's idea though, find a quick way ($100+ each way taxi/limo/something) from LAX to TIJ, instead of spending my money on ridiculous MALI, i could use that $490 [for 2x pax] on volaris and fly TIJ=>LAP. i'll then have to figure out a cheaper mode of transport in la paz, maybe renting a vespa or a bicycle? and i'd then have 6days for loreto and la paz... though i'd have to spend $$$ to bump to an earlier flight, so that i can make the volaris connecting flight...

always something...
regardless, thanks for all the suggestion and advice, made my life easier! i'll update with a decision soon. hasta luego~

Vote for BCS

david,

we drove passed many military check points, and yes, they do carry AK47s, but most would just wave us pass. there was the one at the highway junction north of san felipe, right before heading west towards ensenada, where we were asked to step out of the car to facilitate their search, which ended in 2mins after they saw our tent camping equipment. if you asked me, the border search crossing back to america is more thorough, so i'm abit confused why are people so freaked out about military checkpoints... btw, they do speak english, just enough to make gringo communication easier. a sales lady at mexicali told us, everyone had english at elementary school, they're just shy to use it.

as for bandits, crooked cops, etc, i don't think they are any worse than our corrupted ILlinois politicians. as the rental car guy pointed out, the "date of expiry" sticker on the back of my driver's license. the state's just too broke to issue new IDs, because all the money has gone into the wrong pockets... so yet another example of our govt painting other countries as red, or "bad", including china, cuba, etc... weird reaction from co-workers when my wife told them about going to mexico or cuba, they'd ask, "why? what's there?"

the other gripe was pemex scams, blah blah blah... makes me scratch my head reading those urban legends from the internet, way way out of date and ridiculous. the peso bills have both roman number and spanish word indicating its value, i'm not sure how people can get scammed. the pumps are all modern, and would zero out automatically like any pumps here in america. attendants are always courteous and will speak english if you're struggling with español... they accept both pesos and dollars too.

as for the paved road south of puertocitos, we went as far south as KM123, roughly 32miles south of town before heading north back to the valley of giants. the guard was worried that our economy rental doesn't have enough clearance for the sandy road into the park, after much persuasion in broken spanish, he let us in, without collecting the entrance fee until we've safely returned from the sandy excursion. we offered him beer which he kindly refused, and was eager to tell us about the "new" road south of puertocitos and was recommending us to go ensenada that way =) i'm sure we missed out on some great scenery of Gonzaga Bay, in exchange for a changing scene from desert to lush vineyard westbound to ensenada.