We recently made plans to visit friends in Mexico, which had us flying out of Tijuana. “Why on earth would we do that?!'” you ask? Well, flying out of the Los Angeles’ LAX airport was not a direct flight and it was going to be ridiculously expensive. We actually called our friends to cancel and they are the ones who convinced us that flying out of the Tijuana airport was the best idea. Turns out they were right; the flights were direct and half the price. The adventure wasn’t just in the flying though. We had to drive to the border of San Diego and Mexico, park our car on the USA side and then walk across the Otay Mesa border, and take a taxi to the airport. “Are you nuts?!” you ask. Well, yes, we certainly thought we were, but we wanted to see our friends and we knew that by doing the right research it would be a safe, well organized, adventurous undertaking.
I found out that the Otay Mesa border crossing is the best one to take if you are going into to Tijuana to fly, rather than to shop or party, because the airport is only 2 miles away. I also found the best place to leave our car on the American side. It’s called Delta Truck Parking. Their website is so informative that it cleared up any concerns I was having. They were able to describe exactly what our experience would be like from the minute we were to drive onto their lot, all the way to the airport. I’d like to report, that everything went exactly as they said it would!
We made our parking reservations ahead of time through their site and pre-payed with Paypal. The whole thing cost us about $40 to leave our car with Delta for 6 days! When we arrived they were expecting us and a shuttle was ready to drive us to the border crossing within 5 minutes. It was under a 5 minute drive, and before leaving they made sure we knew which taxis were the right ones to take us to the airport and that the fare would be $12 (so we wouldn’t get taken by a driver thinking we had no idea and charging us more!) Delta also made sure we had their number to call them to pick us back up when we returned from Mexico.
Sorry, I didn’t take any photos closer to the border for fear of getting in trouble! When going through customs entering Tijuana, there was no line up at all and just one officer there. We had to send our luggage through a security scanner. The officer asked us where we were going, nodded his head and that was it! Super easy! Walking out of customs brings you right to the street where the taxis were waiting. We hopped in and made it to the airport pretty quickly, and only had to pay $12 just as Delta said. They did take American dollars, but everywhere else on the trip only accepted Pesos. Now, I do admit, there was a moment during the taxi ride where I panicked thinking “What if this driver isn’t taking us to the airport? What if he’s taking us somewhere awful where they’re going to kidnap us … sell us … or worse?” After all, we didn’t know the way to the airport ~ so in any city actually, that requires you to be a totally trusting tourist. This was especially difficult for me though, because of the reputation Tijuana has. I recommend reading these safety tips for travel in Mexico before you go.
Once inside the airport everything went really smoothly. I have to say that another misconception we had was that the Tijuana airport would be a run-down, crazy or questionable place to be. Boy were we wrong! This turned out to be the most organized, efficient flying experience I have ever had! There were agents everywhere to help you and we were ushered through the lines with ease. Mind you, no one spoke English, but we had a good idea what they were trying to say based on body language, and having traveled before. Perhaps the biggest mistake we made was not bringing our Priority Pass airport lounge card with us. We thought there was no way somewhere like the Tijuana airport would have a lounge. Wrong Again! They instead have one of the swankiest ones we’ve seen. After fuming with regret and laughing at our horrible misconceptions of this place, we decided to give it a try anyway. We went up to the lounge; they called in someone who spoke English, and after pleading our case they let us look up our card number on our phone and used that to let us in.
I have previously written about the joys of obtaining a Priority Pass card and its value became even more apparent on this trip. When it was time to board our plane there were a lot of instructions being given, and even though we strained our ears really hard, it still didn’t make us suddenly understand Spanish. This must have been pretty apparent as a kind stranger came over to translate for us. They split the passengers into 3 groups, and I really have no idea how they did it, but the entire plane was boarded in about 10 minutes. Brilliant! We were once again lost in translation as the captain came on the announcements and clearly said something really hilarious as everyone on board was howling. Doesn’t matter what he said, all that happiness put us at ease and we had a wonderful flight.
In closing I’d just like to say that we were equally impressed upon landing in Culiacan, a mere 2 hours later, where our friends picked us up. Before leaving the airport, an agent checked our luggage tickets stubs and matched them to our luggage to make sure we were leaving with the right ones. Bravo!
Know Before You Go
- Read the baggage restrictions and sizing guides for your airline. For our flight we couldn’t bring the traditional carry on luggage size, instead we all had to use small back packs.
- Print your boarding pass before you go. There is a fee for doing this at the airport.
- Do be prepared to see heavily armed security along the streets of Tijuana and within the airport.
- Once at the airport you will have to find the immigration booth and obtain a tourist visa. When you fly internationally this is usually taken care of within the price of your flight or by the resort you are staying at. We didn’t know this and my husband was randomly stopped by the Mexican police in our friends town and asked to produce this paper. That was really scary, but they luckily let us go with a little education on the matter.
- Enjoy your travels, and be prepared for a longer line upon returning and walking back across the USA boarder than you had upon entering Mexico.
Hi Brie! So glad to find this post because my husband and I are flying out of Tijiuana in September and flying to Mexico City. We have also heard from others that it is a good way to go so when I started comparing costs and connections I saw that the price was considerably less than anywhere else, and that the connections were much more direct. So we’ve booked our flights. Could you tell me how much time you allotted to arriving at the airport in advance of our flight. We are flying Aeormexico and our flight leaves at 11:30 a.m. on a Wednesday. We are thinking that if we arrived at the Delta parking at 8:30–3 hours before the flight–that that would give us enough time. What do you think? Can you give me your thoughts on that? It would be really appreciated!
Hi Kathy!
From your arrival at the Delta parking, it will take you no more than 30 minutes to get to the airport. I had called Delta and talked to someone before we left and he said that it doesn’t matter what time of day you are going, there is never a line to get through the Tijuana border if you are walking. They always have a shuttle ready to take you within 5 minutes of parking your car and it’s only a 5 minute drive or less to where you walk across. There are really helpful over at Delta so if you want any reassurance just call their contact number. The guy I talked to was more than happy to answer my gazillion questions about going there, coming back, taxis, and what other travelers had experienced.
We flew Volaris and I’m not sure it it’s the same thing for Aeromexico, but for checking in and checking bags they only had one line, no matter where your flight was going to. On their website they recommend getting there at least 2-2.5 hours early because of that. We printed our boarding passes before we left so that saved time and money. We traveled during peak times of Easter/Spring break so we gave ourselves 3 hours as well and we actually got through the whole process pretty quickly with a lot of time to spare, so I think you should be good traveling in Sept. midweek.
Hope that helps!
Hi Brie…thank you so much for your helpful reply. That is great to know about the timing for the Delta parking and shuttle. We too plan to confirm online and print out our boarding passes in advance so that should save some time. On the Aeromexico site it says that if you have boarding passes you should check in 90 minutes in advance so I’m thinking our three hour window should be plenty. (we have about a 2.5 to 3 drive to the border so we want to plan carefully.) Thanks again for your advice. ~Kathy
Amazing post. So many great and useful informations. Thank you so much for sharing this with us. They are very helpful.
We are flying into Tijuana next month. I am so glad I found this post. Thanks for sharing.
I’m so happy to be able to share my experience in order to help others, or at least make people more at ease with this travel adventure. Hope you have an amazing time!
WOW! I’v lived in California most of my life and I never thought of doing this! I also have preconceived ideas about how a Mexican airport might look. I’m going to book my next vacation from Tijuana, maybe I can afford that…
Thanks so much for posting this blog! You ROCK!
Wow! Thank you SO much for your appreciation! If it wasn’t for our friends I wouldn’t have known about this option either and I definitely wouldn’t have been brave enough to try it if they didn’t convince me. I think people who live in San Diego do this much more often. I hope you have a blast on your next adventure!
Such an interesting adventure. Looks like they had everything well planned, right from when they left Tijuana to when they got to Mexico, of course they. Am very sure they had a nice time with their friends
Thanks so much for the advice! I am glad it worked out so well for you and your husband! I am planning a trip to Argentina and would like to fly out of Tijuana but I don’t have a Global Entry pass. Did you and your husband have that? Do you need that pass in order to fly out of TJ airport? I would appreciate any advice you have!!
Thank you so much!
Deirdre
Hi!
We traveled using our passports only. Getting into Tijuana, you might not even have to show anything, but coming back into the United States was much more thorough. Still, a passport was enough. Don’t forget to find the immigration booth at the airport though to get a temporary tourist visa for the duration of your stay. Please don’t hesitate to do any further research of your own to see if anything has changed as it was a couple years ago now that we took that trip. Hope you have an amazing experience!
The airport looks really nice. I get your concern though about whether you’d actually get there or end up somewhere else. I had an experience in Egypt that I’ll never forget. But I guess you have to take risks sometimes huh. Thanks for the interesting story and the tip.
Amazing journey, keep it up!
I will be flying there soon. Thank you for the little walk around and pictures. Good to know what to expect before hand.