Tijuana Mexico

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“Aquí Empieza La Patria” is the city motto of Baja California Peninsula’s north westernmost municipality. The literal English translation of the phrase is “Here the Fatherland begins”, however, local government decided to translate it as “The Gateway to Mexico”. This second translation is actually very fitting because many tourists and American citizens cross the border everyday in order to experience life and culture in Mexico. This Mexican municipality that shares its borders with its American neighboring city of San Diego, California is none other than the municipality of Tijuana.

Thanks to its tropical beaches, lively nightclubs, many cultural tourist spots, great climate and its hospitable local residents, Tijuana, Baja California has become a popular tourist destination all throughout the year. An average of 300,000 individuals drive, commute, or simply walk from San Diego and cross the border to Tijuana everyday. However, one cannot simple just up and leave the United States through any random point in the international border to go gallivanting around Tijuana. Those wishing to cross the border from the United States to Tijuana, Mexico need to go through the international border crossing points made specifically to ensure order and international territory laws are upheld.

There are two international border crossing points that connect San Diego with Tijuana, the San Ysidro border crossing and the Otay Mesa border crossing. The border crossing points are open at all hours of the day, everyday of the week so that tourists and vacationers can feel free to come whenever the mood pleases them.

If you plan on staying in Mexico for a week or less, visas, forms or paperwork of any kind are not needed. However, if you think your stay in Mexican soil will be longer than a week, you are required get a tourist visa. These tourist visas are actually very easy to obtain. All you need to do is present your birth certificate and an ID with a photo, your voter’s registration card and an ID with a photo, or your passport to one of the border points, Mexican consulates, or Mexican embassies. You also need to pay a small non-immigration fee amounting to around $20.

To get to the San Ysidro border point from San Diego, you can choose to take freeway 805 or freeway 5. Either way, any of these two freeways will bring you to the San Ysidro international border crossing. If you want to exit to Tijuana through the Otay Mesa border crossing which is farther to the east, you have to take the exit to freeway 905 from either freeway 5 or 805. A drive from San Diego to Tijuana will only take you a mere 25 minutes. You do not necessarily need to drive a car to get to these two international border crossing points because Tijuana is actually just 18 miles from downtown San Diego.

If you want a faster way to cross the border, you can also choose to get a SENTRI port pass. The SENTRI program is a system created by the United Sates government to help speed-up the process of border crossing. An American or a Mexican citizen with a SENTRI port pass can cross the international border in just a couple of minutes since they have their own bordered lanes. In order to get a SENTRI pass, interested individuals can enroll for a pass in exchange of a minimal amount.

When your vacation or business trip to Tijuana and the rest of Mexico is over, all you have to do is present your birth certificate and photo ID, voter’s ID and photo ID, or your passport to any of the two border crossing ports and you can go back to San Diego, USA.