FYI in case some of you are moving to Mexico or have friends coming in: The City Express chain is having an amazing sale right now. I booked my next Mexico trip for less than $35/night. They always have solid WiFi and their free breakfast spread is usually pretty decent. Expedia wanted $55 for the exact same room so it's quite a savings.

Which one you stay at? Tijuana?

I mostly stay at the two in Mexicali and enjoy them, never had a bad experience at either. The sale I wrote about was for their hotels nationwide, so it would be valid in Tijuana.

I currently have a condo in Rosarito that I lease, essentially month to month, but I don't get down there as much as I thought would be able to. So I'm thinking to find another solution like maybe some decent TJ hotels with good internet. I'm basically like a 2x/month Sunday Funday player, so obv don't need to keep renting a condo for the whole month. Maybe next time I'm down I'll check out the City Express property near the border.

That's pretty much me too. I'm self employed so I can go down for extended periods, but yeah, I mostly use the Sunday majors as the focus for my trips. You can read multiple Mexicali trip reports I made in this thread: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/92...icali-1545347/

I like the City Express chain. I equate it to something like a Hampton Inn chain - not fancy but far from a roach motel. Every one I've stayed in is clean with solid WiFi. I made a deep run in a Sunday Millions where I played for 10+ hours straight and had zero internet issues. I'm sure the breakfast selections vary, but the one in Mexicali puts out a great spread with both hot and cold foods, more than adequate to start your day for free!

Finally, the Mexican Peso just stinks against the Dollar right now. My trips seem to be getting cheaper & cheaper every time I book . I know I can pick up my own place for cheap in Mexico. But if you get on the City Express email list, they send sale offers pretty regularly. So when you start to get to under $40/night and consider that it includes food and WiFi, it's almost about as cheap as you can do it yourself with a condo, your own web connection, etc for the part-time resident. I figure two 5-night trips every month keeps me at about $350/month without any utility, cleaning or internet bills, no long-term commitments and free breakfast. Makes sense to me . . . Also, when I book on the City Express web site, they let me use PayPal, so I don't even have to give them my actual credit card number, how cool is that?

Anyways, thats enough of me being a shill But I totally get where you're coming from, the condo is a big commitment and you really have to be in Mexico about 75% of your time to have your own place make sense over a hotel.

Any of you in TJ or Rosarito ever done the winery tours down near Ensenada? I'm thinking of taking this chick on one of these because they're having a Valentine's Day special tour. But I have no idea if the wineries out there are worthwhile or not.

Hey guys, so per this thread I am planning to go to Tijuana just to do a withdraw on Pokerstars.

I need some help with the details and the logistics.

For sure I don't want to actually be driving in Mexico due to various issues such as insurance, crime, getting stopped by corrupt cops, and the long wait times to get in and out of the country.

1. Parking
My plan is to drive to the San Ysidro border and park on the US side and then enter Mexico via the pedestrian crossing. I've been doing some research about where to park at the border and the one place that keeps popping up is "Border Station Parking". This place has quite a few bad reviews on Yelp and Google, but it looks like it's the least worst alternative. Does anyone know of a better place to park?

I know there are other options like park and then cross the border by taking a bus or even a pedicab lol. What do you guys think of these options as opposed to crossing by foot?

2. WiFi/Internet
My second issue is getting access to the internet once I'm in Mexico. I really don't know the layout and what to expect at the border crossing. It would be nice if I could just cross into the Mexican side and while I'm still in the immigration building, be able to get internet service and do what I need to do right then and there. But I'm guessing it's not gonna be that easy or they probably don't even offer Wifi?

Assuming I need to leave the building/area, are there any cafes or coffee shops with Wifi that are within immediate walking distance? (And would it be safe to actually make that walk lol)

Or should I just take a cab to Avenida Revolucion(Zona Centro) and find a Starbucks/McDonalds there?

I guess an option of last resort would be to use data roaming on my cell-phone, but that could get expensive.

Any help or advice would be much appreciated, thanks.

Not a whole lot of differentiation b/n the parking lots IME. Just a couple $/day more expensive the closer you are to the trolley stop. But my expectations have been pretty low, so who knows.

Once you get back to the US, Big City rules still apply in San Ysidro. If there's no cop car parked at the front of the horshoe, it tends to attract the drug-sketch a bit. (But there's still people coming and going, so just be aware of surroundings and walk with purpose).

On the TJ side, it's a walking lane once you clear Passport Control to where a bazillion cabs are waiting for you on the street. It's where they drop you back off as well. (Frontera = Border)

Wifi, just take a short cab ride across the River to Plaza Rio Mall - it's probably the nicest one in TJ. $5 for fare is plenty (think the official fare is 50 pesos). There's a Starbucks there, and if you want to eat then FoodGarden Market (far Eastern end of the mall) has wifi as well, just ask one of the table-servers "wifi password?" and they'll type it in for you.

Go to Erizo (inside FG Market) if you want some quality seafood tacos/tostadas/ceviche. Pretty much everyone takes USD (@~10%+ vig)

If I'm visiting San Diego is Tijuana worth visiting? If so what are some recommended activities or places to go?

It really depends on the person, their interests, comfort level, and experience travelling/speaking Spanish (helps but not necessary).

Coming from the US, Tijuana can be a bit off-putting with the dilapidated concrete buildings, telephone wires everywhere, and general chaos/Big City-ness. But once you know where to look below the surface and have some direction & clarity, a bunch of awesomeness starts to open up.

For me personally sporting events (Toros, Xolos, etc.), going to top-notch restaurants (for about 50-60% of US prices), the occasional street food calorie-bomb or Baja craft beer-drinking are at the top of the list. Might be a totally different answer for other people

For a San Diego tourist doing a day trip, going with a tour company like Turista Libre for a weekend trek is a great way to do it IMO. Itinerary & transportation taken care of + get all the background info & question-answering.

If you're looking for the Redlight stuff, the Rosarito thread or JDawg's PG&C are probably better places to start.

Hey thanks for the advice. Someone else mentioned Food Garden and Plaza Rio when I was doing research before my trip.

So I went to TJ again yesterday, my second time in two weeks, and finally succeeded in making the withdraw.

The first time I went was two weekends ago, I ended up going with a friend who actually wanted to go and check out TJ, he subsequently invited his co-worker who's Mexican and speaks Spanish. So instead of going just to do the cash-out, we made a trip out of it.

We crossed the border and got a cab, the guy quoted us $5 to Plaza Rio and we took it. Went to Starbucks to use their Wifi but the internet was sooooo slow. I needed to download the PokerStars software onto my laptop but it was impossible cause the internet was just too damn slow. I gave up after an hour. Luckily my Mexican friend talked to some people and found an internet place in the plaza, Pronto Copy shop. They didn't have Wifi so I needed to use their computer, downloaded PS and was able to log in.

I also downloaded FullTilt so I could transfer all my funds from there to my PS account. And then I traded in all my StarsCoins for cash (love the new PS VIP scheme, everyone has access to all the cash bonuses, don't have to be SuperNova anymore). And then I tried to do the withdraw. But damn, it gave me a pop-up saying a 48 hour hold had been put on my account due to "new deposits"!. I'm assuming it was the FT transfer and/or the cash bonuses which triggered this. Sigh, so I was resigned to my fate of coming back to Mexico another time to complete this cash-out.

While at the mall, my friend talked to some people there and asked them what was a fair price for a cab ride to and from the border, the people said a dollar lol. So $5 is a straight ripoff price.

After this we went to Puerto Nuevo, stopped by a few different bars and restaurants, ate some lobster and then decided to call it a day. We waved down a cab and offered him $30 to take us to the border, he begrudgingly took it.

Now onto yesterday, the second trip. This time was just me and my friend, the Mexican guy was supposed to come with us but he flaked.

While walking out of the customs building on the TJ side, I overheard a cabbie a trying to str8 hustle this group. You know how the cabbies there go up to everyone coming out of the building. So this cabbie goes up to the group, they ask him how much to take them to the infamous 'Hong Kong' club, and the cabbie tells em $10...So ridiculous, these cabbies are out of control, completely dishonest and unscrupulous.

Armed with new information, we were determined not to get ripped off by the cabbies this time. The first stop for this trip was Food Gardens since we skipped it last time and we were hungry AF. We walk out to that main street where all the taxis are. We talk to a couple of taxi drivers and offered 50 pesos, but they all wanted $5. One guy offered 70 pesos but that was still over-priced. I noticed that all the cabbies in that area are all working together pretty much, they're all friends or know each other. It's price fixing and collusion so you're not gonna be able to negotiate with any of em.

I refuse to be a victim and was determined to get a ride at the fair price of 50 pesos. We made a left on that main street and walked away from all the taxis. We waved down a few different taxis but they all didn't know where Food Gardens was, my friend even had it cached on Google Maps and showed em on his cell but for some reason they all couldn't tell where it was, strange. We finally waved down this guy, showed him the map and he knew where it was. I said 50 pesos, and he SNAPPED it. So what does this tell me? It tells me that 50 pesos is a really fair price for that distance. Maybe he was even thinking "lol omg these suckers offering 50, I would have done it for 20!". $5 for that ride is seriously a bs price and I urge everyone to refuse those cabs and stop enabling them to charge such outrageous fares.

Once at Food Garden, I had some tacos at "La Taqueseria" instead of Erizo. I think I tried to get some shrimp tacos at Erizo but I wanted no-spicy and they told me they can't do that. My friend ordered something from the first booth on the right, seemed like the most popular stall, waited FOREVER for his order. Forgot what the dish was called, it was like chopped up fried tortillas with two eggs.

After we ate, it was time for business. Go to Plaza Rio again, back to that Pronto Copy store to use their computers. It should be noted that Food Garden really isn't near or part of the Plaza Rio mall. It's actually several blocks away, don't think it's walk-able especially in the recent hot AF heatwave. I asked a lady at Food Garden how much a cab ride would be to Plaza Rio and she said 50 pesos. So we took a cab and offered 50 and it was snapped again (cabbie probably thought we were idiots for offering so much for such a short ride lol).

Got to the copy shop and successfully transferred the money this time! Decided to walk around the mall for a bit and get some smoothies. We noticed that there was a casino in that plaza, a casino right in the mall lol. Decided to go in and check it out, didn't even get carded and I get carded EVERYWHERE lol. It's a very small casino, had some slot machines, a bar, and a few table games.

After this we left and went to go find this taco place that my friend had researched online and wanted to try. Walked for a few blocks into what seemed to be a rougher area of town. Stumbled upon this place called Tacos El Gordo, it looked good so we decided to eat there. We chatted with this Mexican-American dude who helped us order, apparently this place is quite famous and has a few locations in the US.

After this, we were too tired for Hong Kong lol so decided to just call it a day. Hailed a cab to the border and again offered 50 pesos, which was snapped.

Moral of the story, don't pay more than 50 pesos for a cab ride in Tijuana.

That's chilaquiles. One of my favorite dishes in Mexico, hard to go wrong with it.


Two trips to TJ and no Hong Kong? Time to turn in your Man Card! Seriously, everyone needs to go at least once in their life. It's quite a site to behold to see all those women dancing. Plus the hotel you use is clean, safe.

Yeah, there's no meters in TJ so you're on your own pretty much to know what the fare should be and to haggle. It'd be better for tourism if it was all metered, but that's not likely to change (in part b/c your avg. middle-class worker gets paid ~$1-2 hour, so driving a cab with a little hustle on the side is a pretty good gig).

If you have cell service Uber is great in Tijuana (and often cheaper than what the real cab fare should be).

Sounds like you went to the original Foodgarden a ways down Paseo de los Heroes - there's also one on the far Eastern end of Plaza Rio (Foodgarden Market vs. Foodgarden).

Glad it all worked out!

I thought it was a lot less than that. Most women I've dated and people I've spoken with have led me to the general number of $5/day as being a pretty standard Mexican wage.

Haha sounds like you've employed their services on more than one occasion lol. $60 for the lady plus $15 for the room right?

On our way back into the US from the first trip, the customs guy asked my friend "So did you guys go to Hong Kong?".

Don't worry, we'll go sometime. Waiting for a friend that's really into these sort of things haha.

On our first trip, that's actually what the lady at Starbucks suggested. Told us to just take Uber. But yea the problem is we don't have cell service there.

Omfg I knew that place didn't look right! From the pics I saw online, it looked really nice, new, modern, clean, and indoors. The place I went to was small and outdoors, looked nothing like the pics. Shoulda known there were two different Food Gardens lol.

Damn that's crazy, $5 a day for the middle-class? A taco is 20 pesos(~$1), so they can buy 5 tacos per day. And the Starbucks there is pretty much the same price as the US. So the people shopping at Plaza Rio must all be upper-middle or upper class, cause the middle-class certainly can't afford to shop there on their salary.

But now that we know $5 is the baseline day wage, that makes it even more crazy that these shysters are charging $5 for a <1 mile taxi ride, outrageous. Now that I think about it, 50 pesos might still be too generous, I think 20-30 would be more appropriate.

In Taiwan, the base fare when you get into a taxi is 70nt ($2.10). If we go the same distance (from the border to Plaza Rio), the meter probably won't tick at all, or it'll only tick once which is only 5nt. Let's just assume 75nt for the same distance cab ride, that's $2.25. Now if we compare that price to the Tijuana price, it puts everything in perspective. How is it possible that taxi fares in a 3rd world country like Mexico would be higher than in a first world developed country like Taiwan? It makes no sense. Even at 50 pesos, it would still be slightly higher than a comparable ride in Taiwan.

It's basically because the border towns know how to work the tourist dollar. For every 50 peso ride they have to give, there's 10 groups of drunk kids from UCSD willing to pay anything. Plus most people have no idea how strong the US Dollar is right now. Those $5 bills are a gift from heaven to those guys because their own currency is (almost literally) losing value on a daily basis.

As for the other question, most Mexicans don't eat out nearly as much as Americans do. The majority make things at home and/or they make things with other family members and get by in that way. You're looking at it through the eyes of a visitor, but their day-to-day life is really nothing like that.

I really never understood this entitlement BS when it comes to visiting a supposed "3rd world country." Yes, many things will be cheaper than in the US, a lot of things will be more expensive as well. So somebody, once upon a time, told you that taxis should be certain prices in different areas of TJ, so when you got here you just took that as gospel and ran with it. You realize how much 50 pesos is right? $2.70. God Forbid he would have cleaned an extra .$30 out of your pocket! Ya ever think when you were getting in one of these "rip off, unscrupulous taxis" that certain roads are closed and they have to go the long way? Or maybe a fire is going on? Or maybe gas prices are high right now? Im not saying bend over for every taxi driver, and for sure corruption is rampant (as it is in every taxi business) but let's keep things within reason here. You can't even get into a taxi cab anywhere in the U.S. much less actually go somewhere for less than $2.70. Remember, there's a reason the Mexicans let us come here, live here, party here, etc. Because we have money that they do not. That is the reason Americans are, for the most part, treated reasonably well. If we got treated like **** everywhere we went why would we live here?

Another take on this: By haggling over less than a dollar you look like a scrub. You just came from the richest country on the planet and entered one of the poorest and thats one of your first moves? Stiff the taxi driver over 40 cents? If everyone pulled this bs those taxis would be gone and gringos would not get the attention and convenience we now get. If you did not know this, your taxi driver actually can talk, a lot of them can even speak English. And they have cousins and friends and hombres that can probably hook you up with just about anything you can think of. They probably know a shortcut to where youre going. They could probably pick you up later at a reduced rate. So I challenge everyone next time you get in a taxi in TJ: Just be cool. Who cares if youre getting robbed for a few. Talk to the guy, be his friend, find out stuff about the city, best clubs, etc. It will be a much more enjoyable taxi ride if you avoid starting it out trying to tell the guy how much he is supposed to charge you on a route he probably does 400 times a day.

Well said

So, Tijuana has a basketball team - the Tijuana Zonkeys!!



Apparently a group of both American & Tijuana investors run the team, hoping to market to the younger cross-border generation to carry the interest in their local team.



The Zonkeys play in the CIBACOPA - more of a Development league in the NW of Mexico (Tijuana used to also have a LNBP team - the top BBall league in Mexico). Currently there are 11 teams in CIBACOPA, the season runs from March-June, and teams are allowed up to 4 international (i.e. American) players.

Think the intl. players make somewhere in the neighborhood of $5k/month +/- (?), though the info online is pretty sparse. The games are like in baseball where you travel, then play 2-3 games against the same team (obv. to save on travel costs, etc.). The season just started, so TJ & Mazatlan played back-to-back-to-back games, lol.



Had very low expectations going in, but several of the players (ahem, especially for the other team ) were playing on a pretty high level (compared to my expectations, the setting, etc.). The TJ intls. were all clearly talented, but more in a complementary way, as they seemed to lack the ability to drive strong off the dribble to create individually (like the top 2-3 players on the other team). Tijuana is the 2-time defending champs, so this year's team has some work to do early in the season.



The intl. "player-type" seemed to be former star-players from smaller D-I schools that didn't quite make the NBA cut (but are clearly good enough to have a 5 or 10-year playing career in various leagues overseas). The rest of the rosters were filled with Mexican players, 4 had to be local & at least one under-21. Each team had a couple of decent-to-good Mexican players, then there was a drop-off once it got to the 7th or 8th man.

The players were playing hard all game, yet there was still positive energy between the teams & refs (at least til the end when it was clear Tijuana was gonna lose ). There were only about ~250-300 people, so it was difficult to get/keep much energy going in the crowd (and it sounded like there was some piped in noise whenever TJ scored a bucket ), but there was consistent effort being made by the announcer & mascots. I was there on a Thursday - assume they get a few more people on a weekend game.



Not sure if non-sports people would enjoy a game, but for people who can enjoy the random sporting event or outing, probably worth checking out at some point for 100 pesos/ticket (&30 peso beers ). I'll be back once or twice before the season's over.

Me gustan los eventos en vivo Tijuana!!

Put me in coach.

As far as the taxi cab discussion going on; I've been quoted in Rosarito for 250 pesos ride when the ride is ~80-100 pesos. A ride I've done idk 70 times before. Should always agree on a price before you get in.

But haggling for ~$1-2 is def not worth the time lol. If you're going to be in the area for awhile get his cell# or biz card. Giving the same taxi cab driver biz you'll get lower rates.

Any favorite hotels? Thinking about staying two weeks without a car so a nice, walkable location is kind of important.

If cost isn't an issue, Hyatt Place is in a great location to walk to a bunch of stuff in a nicer area. For value, several grinders have done extended stays at Motel Sombrero on Blvd. Sanchez (might not be quite as good for walking).

A place like Real Inn on Paseo de los Heroes would work as well (near Plaza Rio mall, etc.). Somewhere on/near Revolucion would be short walk to a ton of places, though that might be sketch overload for some.

Most grinders here don't hotel stay much/ever, so kind of curious as well.

I was looking to head down last weekend and Hyatt Place seemed the nicest, and they have a deal where you stay 2 nights get one night free. My plan is to stay there in the future, just was to scared to head down by myself.

There's a 24 hour supermarket next door to Hyatt, and it's a short walk to the Paseo Chapultepec Mall (which is basically all restaurants, Starbucks, Das Cortez, etc.).

Also, Verde & Crema (one of the best restaurants in TJ) is a block away, they have English menus, and if you have a cooler/fridge to store food you can order a bunch of takeout for grinding if you please (just walk up and sit at the bar).

Erizo is just past Paseo Chapultepec, another great/chill restaurant where you can get great local food & order more for takeout if desired.

And BCB is one of the nicest (beer) bars in TJ and stays open late even on Sundays, if you need to drown out your sorrows.

Etc...