Part 2 of Building Baja Good: Research & Logistics

Hello, lovely people! 👋🏼

Part 2 of building this business and sharing my progress in real-time comes with many little updates. (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, check out Part 1 first.)

I spent the last couple of weeks letting myself go down various rabbit holes. Usually, getting lost in endless research is what keeps my perfectionist mindset from taking action… but this time was different.

It turns out I needed to sit with all my crazy ideas and let my brain make one connection after the other, without trying to control it. This let my usually suppressed creativity come to life without judgment, and off I went to the theoretical whiteboard with loads of ideas.

With all of the bureaucratic items checked off, it was time to choose an itinerary. I needed to decide where exactly this tour would be going. I could easily spend 2+ months in Baja - as I’ve already done - but that’s not a feasible timeframe for most.

From San Diego to the bottom of the Baja California peninsula are about 1,600 km (1,000 miles) of paved and off-road routes. From San Diego, the group will pass through a border that’s much calmer than the infamous Tijuana crossing, arriving in Baja’s wine region called Valle de Guadalupe for a night of wine tasting, music, and good vibes to celebrate our arrival into Mexico.

We’ll cross to the eastern side of the peninsula to get to the bay, traveling from San Felipe and carrying extra jerry cans of fuel to make it to the remote Bahía de los Ángeles, where we will wild camp for two nights among the dolphins and pelicans.

After our stop in Paradise, an ethical whale tour awaits in the dusty fisherman’s town of Guerrero Negro to see incredible grey whales up close. These whales value and initiate interactions with other species, including humans. They often come right up to the boats for a quick pet and hello.

From Guerrero Negro, we’ll drive through Mulegé to get to Bahia Concepción, known for it’s white sand beaches and insane sunrises. Of course, we’ll be parking right on the beach and enjoying a paddleboard session or three.

The next afternoon, we’ll depart yet another paradise to head to a hip little spot called Loreto. It’ll be a welcome night to park at a campground, take a proper hot shower, eat a delicious meal in town, and stock up on some groceries.

Depending on the group’s level of comfort off-roading, road conditions, and vehicle capabilities, we might drive to Agua Verde if everyone is feeling refreshed and ready. However, an expedition like this requires lots of real-time adjusting, and I want the group to collectively decide on what feels best.

I realized I have to build buffer days into the itinerary to deal with vehicle breakdowns, bad weather, or simply deciding that we want another full beach day wherever we currently happen to be. Agua Verde is one of my favorite all-time spots, but it requires the right conditions to get to safely.

Now that we’ll have made it to the southern tip of the peninsula, we’ll make our way to the kitesurfing heaven of La Ventana, the hippy town of Todos Santos, and a van-friendly beach called Cerritos that has the best tacos in Baja, along with a café that doubles as a dog rescue.

Once we are beached out, we will turn our way inland to San Dionísio, exploring white rock cliffs, hikes with waterfalls, and crystal clear natural swimming pools at one of the homiest campgrounds I’ve experienced in 3+ years of traveling in a van.

After all of that, it will be time to turn around and head north. We will take some new routes towards San Diego during our 3-4 long but manageable driving days, with a mandatory stop to sleep among the giant cacti of Cataviña.

After mapping the distances between each location, accounting for grocery and lunch stops, and building in some flexibility for each group to have a say in where we spend more time than not, I came up with 17-18 tour days, with a guided 3-4 days back to the United States.

The whole expedition will be exactly 3 weeks of travel: 21 days. Of course, depending on the preferences of those in the group, some may decide to stay in Baja if they are already living in a van full-time. Maybe others will want to board the ferry to the mainland of Mexico. I will help with each scenario.

1600 km down and 1600 km back is a lot of driving. It’s totally doable, but I’m anticipating some mandatory rest time before leading another excursion. 3 weeks on, 1 week off. That will put me at one tour per month. Since the prime season to overland Baja is between the months of December to March, that leaves me with four 3-week tours.

But then I got to thinking…

What if some people really want to explore Baja but can’t take off for 3 weeks?

Unfortunately, 3 weeks is mandatory (in my opinion) to go from San Diego, all the way down, and then all the way back up again. This way, you can actually enjoy your trip and not be driving every second (although the driving is half the fun, especially in a caravan with walkie-talkies and all the side adventures that the roads of Mexico bring).

While part of me wants to keep a standard tour and do it four times to get it completely dialed in, I’m also aware that 3 weeks is a big commitment for many people who aren’t full-time nomads.

I’m considering leaving one month open for two 7 or 10-day tours in Baja California Sur. That way, people can fly into Cabo, rent a van, Jeep, or other similar vehicle, and come on a shorter-but-still-epic expedition.

If this sounds like something you’d prefer, I’d love to hear from you. I plan to team up with a few of the rental agencies for a discount.

A big goal of mine is to make Baja Good as accessible as possible, while still providing an incredible experience for each person and giving back to the dog rescues in the area.

Now that the itinerary was pretty set, I dove into researching costs. How much is each campground? How much will food be? How expensive are the tours?

I want to bring a yoga or breathwork instructor along to start each morning right…

I want to have someone cooking delicious meals for the days we are wild camping…

I also want to bring along a videographer to document the experience…

These things aren’t cheap, nor do I want them to be. Baja Good must be all about quality and curating amazing adventures in community. No cutting corners.

With that in mind, I started looking at competitors to see what people are already paying for similar experiences.

While there is nobody doing tours for the age demographic that I have picked (mid-20s to late-30s), there are a few agencies that take primarily retired people who like to off-road on fully inclusive overlanding adventures.

For 6-7 days in your own vehicle, the cost is $2000-$3000 per person.

I will triple the adventure time, but I don’t plan on tripling—or even doubling—the price.

That being said, I still need to run several more numbers before deciding on a price in order to make this thing sustainable and feasible. That’s this week’s goal.

Now that the branding is about halfway complete, I need to get a website design ready to publish.

My main priority is a scrollable landing page with sufficient information to make a potential customer curious and excited enough to take action by scheduling a phone call, sending me a message, or even making a deposit to secure their spot.

I don’t want to have too much information that will leave someone overwhelmed to the point of closing the tab.

I’m used to working with WordPress, but I always get too bogged down by the many details. For Baja Good, I want a website that’s beautiful and simple. I need to integrate a form for email and a payment link for Stripe, along with some photos and videos. That’s about it. Webflow is overly complicated (and expensive) for how simple this site needs to be, but the Webflow design and feel are amazing. For a long time, I assumed I would use Webflow for this very reason, but then I went further into the rabbit hole…

Carrd.co is a great option for landing pages, but it doesn’t allow me to create additional pages, which I will definitely need… like an About page, a boring Terms & Conditions page, and other pages/blog posts that I hope to rank on Google to bring in organic search traffic.

I used to work with SEO (search engine optimization) in order to get pages to rank on the first page of Google. I’ve done this for websites about kombucha, coffee, and even my own personal website.

The idea is that if you Google “do I need Mexican car insurance to drive my vehicle into Baja”, a blog post I will write on that will give you the information you need, while also plugging my tour. I imagine many people searching for these things would love to travel in a caravan throughout Baja with other cool people.

Anyhow, I finally stumbled upon umso.com, which has a great feel to it. There is enough customization to make the website unique without getting bogged down in pixel-for-pixel edits. Their Pro plan is a bit pricey, but I will probably go for it.

Last but not least, I’ve had several meetings with a wonderful designer named Taís here in Brazil. Today, I received the first draft of the logo. As much as I want to share this version, I’m going to wait until it’s complete before sharing. 😊

Here is what I can share for now. Taís put my thoughts into words beautifully in Portuguese about what I want Baja Good to emit.

“Baja Good was born as an invitation to experience Mexico with a bare heart and a spirit in motion.
More than just travel, it offers encounters.
With nature. With others. With what is truly good.”

And here’s a bit about the brand personality.

Adventurous: Baja Good sees every curve in the road as a new story waiting to happen.

In Community: Values ​​genuine encounters. Enjoys chatting at sunset, cooking together, and turning strangers into friends.

Uncomplicated: Makes things happen easily. Organized, but never rigid. Takes the burden of bureaucracy off your shoulders and brings back the pleasure of traveling.

Reliable: Even with an adventurous spirit, Baja Good exudes safety and security. She is that friend who knows the shortcuts, solves problems, and guides others with confidence.

And a mood board for reference of the style I’m going for… vintage, hand-drawn, organic, suggesting movement, community, and adventure.

Slowly but surely, everything is coming together.

Soon, the branding and website will be complete, along with published prices and a way to take payment.

I’m also talking with shipping companies to send my van by boat back to the United States. It’s starting to feel real. 🤘🏼

Thanks for reading,
Alex