Crossing the Tijuana/San Diego Border - Beware Dinner Time.

[Renato1]

After a nice day in Tijuana (definitely worth a visit), we made our way back to the US border and started waiting at the long queue. After half an hour, we had made some progress. The American girl in front of us with whom we started chatting, said that the queue was progressing well from her previous experience, and that we should be through immigration in another half an hour.

After nearly another half an hour, we had reached rails leading to the US officers checking people's passports through. There were thousands of people behind us, and many hundreds in front of us. One person had already collapsed and been taken away in a wheel chair.

And then the unimaginable happened. All the officers left and disappeared for an hour or so.

They showed up looking refreshed after the hour and started processing the queues, which must have grown to who knows how many thousands by then. They seemed to be working much faster than before they disappeared.

So, two and a half hours after joining the queue, we finally got through and jumped on our trolley train back to San Diego (a really nice place to visit too).

The moral of this story is that if one visits Tijuana via San Diego, make sure that you are at the return queue by 4pm at the latest - because dinner time appears to take priority among the immigration officers..

My wife and I were so sore from standing in the queue for two and a half hours, that it really did spoil what had otherwise been an excellent day.
Regards,
Renato

 

[Foreigner]

I crossed the border last Sunday. It took me some 75 min. on return to Ysidro. Yes, cross both ways early as possible.

 

[cove]

Did you see many scratching their coughs, picking their noses and spitting or have the locals improved in the last couple of years? Mrscove is not too keen to go over that border in recent years.

 

[Fantic125]

It does make a big difference on the day and time you're crossing the border from Tij back to SD, and it does seem a lot of the Border Security treats people crossing from Tij to SD with disrespect, which is interesting as a significant number of them usually have Hispanic background.
Otay is usually quicker than Ysidro.

 

[Renato1]

Did you see many scratching their coughs, picking their noses and spitting or have the locals improved in the last couple of years? Mrscove is not too keen to go over that border in recent years.

I had been told before I left on the trip that Tijuana was filthy and dirty, and not to bother. We only hung around the main tourist area (the street with the big arch), but there were street sweepers every where, and the place was a lot cleaner than quite a few major Italian cities I can think of.
People seemed fine to me too.
Regards,
Renato

I crossed the border last Sunday. It took me some 75 min. on return to Ysidro. Yes, cross both ways early as possible.

We didn't have any problem going into the Mexican side, and had quite some chuckles with the Mexican officers. On the visa, my wife's name was put down as Giudita, instead of Judith - which she thought was fun.
Cheers,
Renato

It does make a big difference on the day and time you're crossing the border from Tij back to SD, and it does seem a lot of the Border Security treats people crossing from Tij to SD with disrespect, which is interesting as a significant number of them usually have Hispanic background.
Otay is usually quicker than Ysidro.

Thanks, yes - something weird seemed to be going on there.
There were two types of queues, those for the general public and those who had some other status and who were meant to get through qucker. They all seemed to be going through equally slowly.
Regards,
Renato

 

[N860CR]

Has the US-Mexico procedure changed in the last few years? I last did it in 2014 and walked through the turnstile to simply appear in Mexico

 

[cove]

It is good news that Tijuana is improving. Mrscove dropped it off our more recent travel destinations. It was such a contrast staying at the Omni hotel versus going across the border. I love walking across the connecting walkway into the baseball park in San Diego rather than walking into Mexico.

 

[Foreigner]

Mexico has its share of poverty. The photo opportunity starts on the US sjde of the border at Ysidro...squirrels feeding on snacks.

For many the commute at the border is regular, for work or VFR.

I wouldn't mind crossing border in Texas just for the experience.

 

[Renato1]

Has the US-Mexico procedure changed in the last few years? I last did it in 2014 and walked through the turnstile to simply appear in Mexico

Maybe you walked through the local's line and nobody noticed?
Cheers,
Renato

It is good news that Tijuana is improving. Mrscove dropped it off our more recent travel destinations. It was such a contrast staying at the Omni hotel versus going across the border. I love walking across the connecting walkway into the baseball park in San Diego rather than walking into Mexico.

Seems like it significantly worse when you were there.
I assure that my wife is ultra fussy, and would have been out of there very quickly had it not been clean.
Regards,
Renato

Mexico has its share of poverty. The photo opportunity starts on the US sjde of the border at Ysidro...squirrels feeding on snacks.

For many the commute at the border is regular, for work or VFR.

I wouldn't mind crossing border in Texas just for the experience.

Love those squirrels. We have photos too.
Regards,
Renato

 

[samh004]

Some posts in this thread have been merged. Please note, when you intend to reply to multiple posts you can do so with the multi-quote button located to the right of the standard quote button. Simply click it on each post you intend to quote and then either hit quote or reply to open a text box with everything in one post.

 

[Fantic125]

Has the US-Mexico procedure changed in the last few years? I last did it in 2014 and walked through the turnstile to simply appear in Mexico

The Ysidro pedestrian crossing from US to MX changed around 2010/11, and there is only random checks of people entering MX. Renato1 was talking about crossing from MX side to US side, which usually has significantly longer queues and everyone's paperwork is checked.

This photo is taken from the pedestrian crossing on the US side at Ysidro looking toward Avenida Revolucion in 2010.