It's the Heidi Julavits vs. Seth Stevenson Baja vacation smackdown!

Stevenson:

On arrival in Todos Santos, I see instantly that over-tourist-i-zation is just a matter of time here, too. The town is completely gringo-fied. There are the tacky, tequila-pounding gringos in jean shorts and mustaches. There are the bourgeois, NPR gringos in khaki pants that seem entirely constructed of pockets. Perhaps worst of all, there are the gringos who look remarkably like … me. This greatly reduces my sense of superiority.

Julavits:

And so, when we were invited to join two other families on a vacation to Todos Santos on the Baja Peninsula in Mexico, we eagerly hitched along. We'd been to Todos twice before with these same friends, but had since collectively amassed three kids, ages 2 and under. What better place, we reasoned, for preconscious children than a town where the coastline is so dangerous and unswimmable that one stretch is referred to locally as Killer Beach? This would be the perfect spot to spend two weeks pretending to relax as our toddlers charged heedlessly and relentlessly toward the 25-foot surf while we — not giving up, mind you — constantly looked after them.