10 Things to Do in Tijuana (That Don’t Involve Tequila)

Historically Tijuana has been a drinking mecca.  Tijuana’s proximity to Southern California cities like San Diego and Los Angeles and its legal drinking age of 18 meant Tijuana was a popular place for the under 21 crowd to come for drinking and clubbing.  Tourism from the United States to Tijuana dried up for years when stories of crime and drug wars filled the news.  Now Tijuana is a safe place to visit again, and the implementation of a passport requirement means the demographic of the traveler looking for a day trip or weekend trip to Tijuana has shifted.  Tijuana’s streets are no longer overwhelmed with rowdy underage drinkers.  Now they are being strolled by couples and families looking for things to do in Tijuana that celebrate Tijuana’s beauty and culture. 

Tijuana Cultural Center

The Tijuana Cultural Center is the most important center for culture in northwest Mexico.  Founded in 1982, the Tijuana Cultural Center portrays the culture of Mexico close to the border.  The center has art galleries, a botanical garden, an aquarium, an IMAX theater, a performance hall, and an outdoor area that is a great place for events, festivals, and outdoor exhibits.  There is constantly something going on at the Tijuana Cultural Center.  The center hosts concerts, theatrical productions, movies, documentaries, and many other events, some of which are free to the public and others of which require paid tickets.  The Tijuana Cultural Center also showcases a number of exhibits, again, some of which are free and others for which there is a charge.

During our visit, the Tijuana Cultural Center was featuring a beautiful exhibit of the works of Massimo Listri, a photographer of interior spaces like libraries, churches, and palaces, some of which you may recognize from your own travels.  The Museum of the Californias is a permanent exhibit covering different times in the history of the Baja peninsula including European explorers, missions and missionaries, the Mexican Revolution, and more recent history.  Did you know Tijuana had an airplane factory in the 1920s?  We also visited an exhibit featuring the art of local Baja artists.

Plaza Saint Cecilia

Saint Cecilia is the patron saint of music, and music is what can be found in Plaza Saint Cecilia.  This is where the locals go to hire mariachi bands for their parties.  While we were walking through we got to see two young people performing the Mexican hat dance for a large crowd. 

Plaza Saint Cecilia is a colorful reminder of old Tijuana.  This is where Tijuana was founded in 1889.  In addition to the music, this pedestrian street, the oldest street in Tijuana, also has a number of restaurants, bars, and shopping kiosks.  We had a wonderful breakfast at Restaurante La Tradicion.  La Tradicion is a family-owned restaurant opened in 1997 which prides itself in being a restaurant of the people.  La Tradicion’s owner Martín Muñoz is also the president of Tijuana’s restaurant association. 

I was introduced to a new dish for me, and La Tradicion’s signature dish, molcajete.  Molcajete is named after the vessel in which it is served.  A molcajete is a Mexican stone tool similar to a mortar and pestle.  In this sizzling dish, there is chicken, tender beef, tequila shrimp, chorizo, cactus, queso fresco, and all sorts of other delicious ingredients that blend together to make a dish bursting with flavor.

Mercado El Popo

Near Plaza Saint Cecilia is the Mercado el Popo, a traditional market located within the alleys of a downtown Tijuana block.  Here you can buy fruits, vegetables, cheese, herbs, spices, piñatas, prayer candles, and anything else you might desire.

Pasaje Rodríguez

A block away from the Mercado El Popo is the Pasaje Rodríguez.  While Plaza Saint Lucia is old Tijuana, Pasaje Rodríguez is new Tijuana.  The new generation took over this alley and filled it with art and trendy shops selling records, clothing, and books.  Pasaje Rodríguez really took me by surprise and I hope to see more places like this in Tijuana.

Downtown Tijuana Shopping

When walking around downtown Tijuana it is guaranteed that you’ll be approached by ten different men selling the exact same silver necklace for a dollar, a necklace that is sure to turn your neck green while in the process of falling apart.  But there is some good shopping that can be done in Tijuana.  An example is the Hand Art Store, a store that has been around since 1955 and sells items handmade in Mexico in the traditional ways.  When shopping in downtown Tijuana, keep on the lookout for stickers in the window pronouncing the shop as being on the Outstanding Host list created by CeturMex and the Baja Secretary of Tourism.  These shops have been around for decades and provide honesty, quality, and service.  If you are looking for a silver necklace, the Emporium Plateria and The Silver Mine are on the Outstanding Host list, as well as other shops selling leather goods, wine, chocolates, and more.

Caesars Restaurante Bar

Caesar’s Restaurante Bar is a downtown Tijuana institution which has been around since 1927.  Did you know the Caesar salad was invented in Tijuana?  Well it was, and this is the restaurant where it was invented.  There are conflicting stories of exactly when and how the Caesar salad was invented and who invented it.  But there is no dispute that Caesar’s is the home of the Caesar salad, and you can still order it prepared table-side. 

While Caesar’s is an institution, it is also a modern fine dining establishment.  Caesar’s has been owned by the Plascencias, Tijuana’s famous culinary family, since 2010.  This means the restaurant is both historic and really, really good.  In addition to the Caesar salad, we had roasted beef marrow and a Mexican combination plate of grilled beef tenderloin, cheese enchiladas, and Chile Relleno.  Caesar’s also brews their own pale ale.

Playas de Tijuana

Playas de Tijuana is an area I only explored for a couple hours but would love to explore more in depth.  These are the beaches of Tijuana.  Playas de Tijuana is not full of sun-worshiping tourists but is rather mostly filled with middle-class families of Tijuana out for some family fun.  The beach can be reached by multiple staircases that lead down from the street and a wooden boardwalk provides a walkway to stroll along the sand.  Between the street and the boardwalk are multi-storied buildings, some housing restaurants and bars selling cold beers and fresh seafood, some housing private homes, and some vacant and ramshackle. Along both the street and boardwalk are colorful examples of street art.

At the northernmost point of Playas de Tijuana is where fun and relaxing beach community turns into sad dose of reality.  Here is where you can see the colorful fence that separates Mexico from the United States, which extends 300 feet into the Pacific Ocean.  This area is called Friendship Park / El Parque de la Amistad, a meeting place where families, friends, and loved ones come to meet, separated by a fence.  It was heart wrenching to witness these tearful meetings

GSalinas Vinos de Mexico

If you’re having a weekend getaway to Tijuana, enjoy wine, but won’t have a chance to get down to the Valle de Guadalupe, you can taste some of Baja’s great wines at GSalinas Vinos de Mexico.  This little shop carries some of the best wines the Valle de Guadalupe has to offer.  In addition to Mexican wine, the shop also sells mezcal and Baja craft beers.  GSalinas is family owned, having been started by the patriarch of the family 50 years ago, and is both a shop and tasting room.

Caliente Casino

I’m not much for gambling, but if you like hitting the tables or the machines, Caliente Casino is a large casino catering to all of a gambler’s needs.  The casino also holds Greyhound races every night and they are currently building a soccer stadium.  There is also a good restaurant and bar in the casino, Mujeres Divinas Restaurant Bar.  (While this article is about the Tijuana that doesn't involve tequila, Caliente Casino's restaurant does serve one of Tijuana's weirdest shots of tequila.)

El Trompo

El Trompo is something to do in Tijuana only if you have little kids. But for the kids this is a fun museum to visit with six interactive rooms that allow kids to both have fun and learn.  Kids can play with bubbles, look at animals, learn about plasma, play learning games, create things in workshops, and do lots of other fun stuff.

Where to Stay in Tijuana

A visit to Tijuana can be either a weekend trip or day trip from San Diego.  It’s always fun to be able to take a two-nation vacation.  If you decide to overnight in Tijuana, be aware that Tijuana is not a city of luxury hotels.  The accommodations in Tijuana are not as luxurious as those we had during our Ensenada weekend getaway or at the historic Rosarito Beach Hotel.   However, one option for a safe, clean, and comfortable Tijuana hotel is Hotel Palacio Azteca.  The hotel is a short nine-minute drive to downtown Tijuana and an 11-minute drive to the San Ysidro border.  Hotel Palacio Azteca has a pool, a restaurant whose head chef was amongst the first graduating class of Tijuana’s Culinary Art School, and a bar. They will also book tours for guests, including whale watching, culinary, and wine tours.

I remember the years, long ago, when it wasn’t unusual for families to cross the border on a whim for shopping and dining in Tijuana.  Happily those days are back and there are plenty of things to do in Tijuana to keep friends, couples, and families entertained for the day or the entire weekend.

Thank you to Descubre Tijuana for hosting our weekend getaway to Tijuana and making this post possible.  As always, all opinions are my own.

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A Relaxing Ensenada Weekend Getaway

The view of the marina and Pacific Ocean from our Hotel Coral & Marina guestroom's private balcony.

Life has been a little crazy in the full-time non-travel work sector, so I was ready to spend a weekend of relaxation away from it all.  The beautiful thing about having a destination like Ensenada so close to us is that while there are many things to do in Ensenada, there’s no pressure to experience them all in one trip.  So for this weekend trip to Ensenada we decided to take things slow, something we rarely do.  Our little Baja weekend getaway over the Valentine’s Day weekend included good wine, good food, a lot of relaxation, and a tiny bit of activity just so we didn’t feel like complete lumps. 

The coastal views on the way to Ensenada.

We stayed at Ensenada’s Hotel Coral & Marina, a beautiful place right on the ocean that makes it easy to just sit back and relax.  Every single one of Hotel Coral & Marina’s recently renovated 147 guestrooms and suites has a balcony and a splendid ocean view.  

If you’re able to tear yourself away from the spectacular view of the Pacific Ocean, an entire Ensenada weekend getaway can be planned just based on the offerings of Hotel Coral & Marina.  Here are some of the things you can get up to during a weekend trip to Ensenada.

Exploring Ensenada

After soaking in the view from our balcony while sipping on a complimentary beverage from the mini-fridge (I chose the sparkling water but there were also a couple beers available), we decided to head into town so we didn’t become people that never leave the resort (something that would be very easy to do). 

A colorful street in Ensenada.

Eddy, who had driven us from our home in San Diego to Hotel Coral & Marina, suggested a couple places in town for us to try if we liked fresh seafood and craft beer.  We followed one of his suggestions and visited Ultramarino Oyster Bar. 

Ultramarino Oyster Bar.

Just a half-block away from the pounding sounds of Papas & Beer, Ultramarino Oyster Bar is a small and quiet little place with a river rock floor, long bar held up by bottles, a few tables with blue pleather stools, and a chef cranking out some amazing seafood.  We had an early Valentine’s Day dinner planned but still managed to stuff ourselves with marlin burritos, oysters on the half-shell, and fresh shrimp ceviche, along with bottles of Cucapa beer.  Rome was pretty proud of himself when he discovered the new taste sensation of spooning the citrusy ceviche on top of his oysters.  Through the narrow window between the bar and kitchen we could see the chef’s hands fly as she deftly squeezed limes and stirred up the perfectly balanced mixture of citrus and heat, tasting a drop on the back of her hand each time to ensure perfection. 

While assisting us to our room with our luggage, Rubén clued us in on a special celebration happening in town that day, the Mardi Gras parade.  Having recently been to New Orleans and learning so much about Mardi Gras traditions, we were very excited to be able to join a Mardi Gras celebration.  Tourists and locals alike lined the street, cheering when each new float passed by.  The parade participants ranged in age from under 10 to over 70, all having a great time dancing to the music and tossing their throw, mostly baggies of colored confetti.  Within the first half hour the streets, as well as everyone’s hair and clothing, were covered in pink, blue, white, and yellow confetti. 

Hotel Coral & Marina provides shuttle service into Ensenada.  The taxi fare from Ensenada back to the hotel cost us $7.00.  Be sure to ask Hotel Coral & Marina’s drivers for suggestions as they are all certified tour guides ready to provide recommendations.

Pampering at the C Spa

C Spa relaxation room.

While we could have spent more time exploring the town of Ensenada, we had a romantic evening planned which started with a couples massage at Hotel Coral & Marina’s C Spa.  How I talked Rome into getting a massage with me remains a mystery, probably mostly having to do with me not giving him much of a choice.  Luckily the end result is he enjoyed the massage and, while not planning on seeking them out, is not opposed to future massage possibilities.  For a first-timer this was the perfect opportunity, as the couples massage obviously happens at the same time in the same room, and it also only lasts half an hour.  Upon arrival we were led into the his and hers locker rooms to change into robes and slippers before lounging, beverages in hand, in the waiting area, dimly lit with votive candles and sprinkled with rose petals in honor of Valentine’s Day.  Our massage therapists Margarita and Magdalena then took us to the couples massage room where we found more rose petals decorating the floor and massage tables.

Wine Tasting in the Valle de Guadalupe

One of Ensenada’s great draws is the Valle de Guadalupe.  This is where Baja California’s best wines are being created. We took a Valle de Guadalupe wine country tour offered by Hotel Coral & Marina, guided by another of the hotel’s drivers, Israel, to visit some of Baja’s exciting wineries. 

The Valle de Guadalupe, Baja's wine country.

We visited three wineries during our Valle de Guadalupe tour.  Vena Cava is one of the valley’s most popular wineries.  The tasting room is within a cave-like structure under an overturned boat.  Finca La Carrodilla has only been open to the public for six months.  This new winery is surrounded by 35-year-old vines and gardens that extend all the way to the upstairs patio which provides views of the valley.  We also visited Hacienda La Lomita, the sister winery to Finca La Carrodilla, which has been open for five years.

Related: A Winery Tour Through Baja's Valle de Guadalupe

Finca La Carrodilla's garden balcony with Valle de Guadalupe views.

In the midst of all our wine tasting we experienced one of the best meals we’ve ever had at Malva, the restaurant of Chef Roberto Alcocer.  But don’t just take our word for it.  Travel + Leisure Mexico agrees and awarded Malva the title of best new restaurant of Mexico for 2014.  While menu items unmistakably have Baja influence, they could be served anywhere in the world to great acclaim.  

The name Malva comes from a simple herb which makes a cameo in all of Malva’s dishes.  Our meal started simply enough with octopus sopes, but rather than the traditional green sauce, these were served with a tangy green sauce created with carrot leaves and green herbs.  Next came a salad which was slightly reminiscent of food we had in Scandinavia with pickled carrots adding an interesting layer of flavor to the beet and goat cheese salad.  Then our meal got really interesting, with a serving of grilled escolar, also known as white tuna, rarely served in restaurants other than sushi restaurants.  Next was oxtail, beautifully braised until it was falling apart and yet also with a crispy texture from being seared.  The oxtail was served with mole sauce, baby carrots, tomato, yellow squash, onion ash, malva, and peanuts.  The pièce de résistance came as dessert, a marshmallow chain perfectly flamed to a crispy melty texture accompanied by malva sorbeet and dots of yogurt.  If you want to impress your significant other, take them for a meal at Malva.

Stuffing Your Face at Brunch

Speaking of food, Hotel Coral & Marina has two restaurants from which to choose: BC Bistro & Cava and Marina Grill.  BC Bistro & Cava is the hotel’s fine dining restaurant, serving Baja-Med cuisine including seafood and steaks paired with wines from the Valle de Guadalupe.  The Marina Grill is the hotel’s more casual restaurant located on the Marina waterfront serving items like fresh shrimp cocktail and ribs.  The food served at both of these restaurants is very good, but where the hotel’s food really shines is at the breakfast buffet, especially for Sunday brunch.

What we didn’t know before that weekend is what a big deal Sunday brunch is at Baja hotels.  If we had known, we would have arrived at breakfast far hungrier.  The spread is unbelievable, and at an incredibly reasonable price.  In addition to the items that are always available at the breakfast buffet like omelets, chilaquiles, moles, tamales, fruit, yogurt, etc., at Sunday brunch there are delectable extras like quesadillas made with freshly made tortillas, crepes, raw oysters, chocolate clams, ceviche, and so much more.

Learn from our mistake, head down to Sunday brunch early and hungry!

Pedaling the Marina on a Hydrobike

After all that food you might want to do something active to assuage some of the food guilt.  Down at the marina Hotel Coral & Marina rents paddle boards, kayaks, and hydrobikes.  We’ve been doing a lot of kayaking lately, so we decided to try something new and test the hydrobikes.  Talk about fun!  Apparently the hydrobikes are the most popular rental because of how easy they are to manage.  They are very stable, easy to propel and navigate, and a fun way to tool around the marina and look at all the boats and yachts. 

Exploring the marina on hydrobikes.

If you are looking for a weekend getaway, either romantic or relaxing, Hotel Coral & Marina in Baja’s Ensenada is a perfect choice.  If you want to just sit back and relax and enjoy the amenities like the view, the spa, the pool, and the restaurants, you can.  If you want a little more to do like exploring Baja’s wine country, visiting the town of Ensenada, or even trying more active pursuits, those can all be booked through the hotel, making your Baja weekend getaway easy and stress-free.

Thank you to Hotel Coral & Marina for hosting our weekend in Ensenada and making this post possible.  As always, all opinions are my own.

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