Travel question: What’s the best deal to fly to Mexico during July?

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Cabo San Lucas on the tip of Baja peninsula is an expensive destination (Alamy)

Q My girlfriend is having her 40th birthday in Cabo San Lucas in Mexico from 25 to 29 July. She is from Phoenix, Arizona, originally, so it makes sense for most of her “gang”. I’ve been lucky enough to be invited. But she warned me the flights might be cost-prohibitive. And she’s right. Do you know any way around this? I’ve tried Skyscanner with no restrictions on stops or time; I don’t mind taking longer. But it seems to make very little difference.

Russ W

A The southern tip of Mexico’s Baja peninsula is a dream destination, offering everything from astonishing landscapes and encounters with marine wildlife to colonial towns and full-on resorts such as Cabo San Lucas itself. But the week your girlfriend has chosen is about as expensive as it gets. I searched for flights from London to Los Cabos airport (actually beside the fine historic town of San Jose del Cabo) for a week from 23 to 30 July. The best deal I could find was through Lastminute.com for a return from Heathrow via Mexico City on Aeromexico for £1,047. You could get to Sydney and back, more than twice as far, for that sort of money on the same dates. I then searched for La Paz, a couple of hours by bus from Cabo San Lucas – and that proved even more expensive. So I then priced up the approach I took when I visited Baja a few years ago.

Fly on Norwegian from Gatwick to Los Angeles, for example out on 20 July and back on 30 July, for £790. Take the cheap and scenic train south to San Diego, and the Trolley (actually a tram) to the Mexican border at Tijuana. On the basis that domestic flights tend to be cheaper than international links in Latin America, you can fly from Tijuana’s modern airport to Los Cabos for around £250 return. It is a superb flight, tracking the length of the lunar-looking peninsula. But once you build in the cost of rail and overnights, the price goes well above the £1,047 on Aeromexico. Not going via the US also means minimising hassle, and avoids the need for an Esta permit (required even if you are merely changing planes in America).

So if I were you, I would grab that option before it disappears, and see if you can possibly build in a pause in Mexico City for little or no extra cost: it is a marvellous capital, with the added benefit of an airport that is practically in the city centre and therefore very convenient for maximising stopover time

Every day our travel correspondent Simon Calder tackles a reader’s question. Just email yours to s@hols.tv or tweet @simoncalder