By Kevin Wilkerson, PubClub.com San Diego Blogger
When you live in San Diego, Tijuna sits there like a pretty girl at the end of a bar. On the one hand, you want to approach and get to know her. But on the other hand you hesitate because you don’t know if she has a big boyfriend around the corner who will come up and want to kick your ass.
So you don’t do anything and thus, never know if you’ve missed a great opportunity or escaped some kind of danger.
That is why whenever I have the chance to cross the border on a group trip, I do it. I’ve done it twice now in my four-plus years of living in San Diego, once with our Travel Massive group of travel bloggers and most recently on a day trip with the San Diego Professional Tour Guides Association. For the latter, we had two local guides – one American who has lived off and on in Tijuana the past half-dozen years and another a TJ resident – a van and a driver.
We arrived late morning on a Wednesday in late May and stayed until early afternoon.
While there, we went to the Mercado Hidalgo outdoor market (okay for first-time visitors and those who love to try fresh and unsual fruits), up and down the main tourist and nightlife area of Avenida Revolución that included the restaurant that created the Ceaser’s Salad (true!), to a tourist-trap row of restaurants at the foot of the arch called Plaza Canya Ceilila and finished at the multi-level, multi-bar and multi-restaurant Telefonica Gastro Park.
For food and drinks, I had two margaritas, a very good one at a place called Tia Juana Tillly’s ($9.28, with tip), a tourist one from La Tradicion in the touristy Plaza Canya Ceilila area (tho at a un-tourist price of just $5.15 with tip) and two beers at Telefonica Gastro Park ($5.50 each) as well as some very tasty pulled pork there and a two I’ll-remember-them-for-a-while street tacos (keep reading).
Tilly’s by the way, looks like a place with good nightlife party potential. It’s located next to Jai Alai Fronton Palace, which took an incredible 21 years to build (1926 to 1947), hasn’t hosted jai alai since 1995 and now hosts occasional concerts and special event.
The Border Crossing (On Foot & In A Vehicle)
There’s two ways to get from the USA into Tijuana. You can drive or do my preferred method, take the trolley and walk across the border. The Blue Line trolley gets you there and it takes one hour from Old Town or about 40 minutes from the Gaslamp Quarter.
It’s a piece of cake getting into Mexico on foot. You stand in a line – how long depends on when you’re there but I only waited about 15 minutes this trip – hand your passport or Global Entry card to a border agent, put your backpack or purse/bag through a screening machine and walk out a door. You walk a few more yards and emerge into a busy scene of street vendors, cabs and Uber drivers. The landmarks are a convenience store and a pharmacy across the street. From there, you are only about a 10-minute ride to the heart of TJ, the arch and Avenida Revolución.
Coming into the USA is a bit more rigid. By foot, you get a more detailed screening by an agent and no fruits are allowed but it’s basically the same as entering Mexico. It takes longer because there’s usually more people leaving than entering, owing to the time of day. Frankly, it’s similar being at an airport.
By vehicle, entering back into the United States is a show. You inch along in traffic and are entertained by street vendors selling snacks, trinkets and other items that have you shaking your head. Heck we even saw a band playing Mexican tunes for tips. Border patrol agents take the time to inspect every vehicle, inside and out, and the process is agonizingly slow. It took us an hour to get back across the border and on weekends it can take three or more hours.
Tijuana Nightlife
TJ has been a destination for debauchery dating back to Prohibition and we went right into the heart of it. Although it was a Wednesday afternoon and hardly resembled the rowdy scene that happens on Friday and Saturday nights. I did learn that the main intersection for bars and nightlife in Tijuana is Revolution & 6th; go there on a weekend and you’ll have no trouble finding lively bars.
I also learned – and this was one of my major objectives for taking this trip – that it’s pretty safe to go there on a weekend, either alone or with a couple of friends. “It helps to speak Spanish,” one of our guides said, “but it’s not necessary.” As with any place, one needs to be cautious before you can be comfortable but partying in TJ is a overall safe experience according to our guides. In fact, they encouraged it.
A few places to stay are the retro stylish Lafayette Hotel, Ceaser’s Hotel and one our guide recommended as a bargain find (less than $100 USD and sometimes as low as $50), Hotel Baja. One place to avoid is Hotel Nelson at the foot of the arch because it’s the kind of place, our guide said, that rents rooms by the hour if you get my drift.
Street Tacos In Mexico
I live in San Diego and here you can’t turn a corner without running into a restaurant that seves tacos. But they take it to a different level in Baja, Mexico. When we got out at , one of our guides beelined to a taco stand just outside of the area and I followed him without hesitation. I learned a long time ago in travel that when a local wants to go to a place for food or drink, you follow.
It was a wise decision. Two guys were behind a grill, one dipping tortillas into a broth and flipping them on the grill while also tending to cooking meats. The other person assembled it all together with such flair it brough to mind those Vegas bartenders who flip bottles like Tom Cruise in Cocktail.
And they were awsome. The taste that stood out the most was the taco shell; it was so good the thought of it lingered in my mind the rest of the day.
Pesos Or Dollars
I learned that it’s a good idea to get $20-40 worth of pesos before entering Mexico. There are money exchange windows at the San Ysidro border crossing. That’s best for small purchases and street tacos, tho dollars are widely accepted. Sometimes you’ll even get change in both pesos and dollars. The current exchange rate is 20 pesos to $1, so 100 pesos is worth about $5. When I purchased food and margaritas, I used my Venmo card.
San Diego To Ensenada Ferry
One thing I did not learn was any update on the supposed – or perhaps I should say mythical?– ferry between San Diego and Ensenada. It’s not only been talked about but is supposed to be running now. When will it start, where will it dock in San Diego and how much will it cost are all unanswered questions that I was hoping someone down there could answer. The fact that they could not tells me it’s still a long way from happening, which is quite the bummer.
Conclusion
My takeaway is that I would like to go to Tijuana to go there in more of a PubClub.com way, and that is to check out the bars and nightlife.
Link: Tijuana Tourism Board
Leave a Reply