My Trip to Ensenada, Mexico: Staying Safe While Having Fun

My husband and I recently took a 2-day, 1-night trip from Los Angeles to Ensenada. Those of you who have never dared venture into Mexico because of safety concerns, this is a good way to get your feet wet. It's only for a day, and being with a tour, you will be safer. Now, notice I said "safer" and not "safe." You still need to keep a clear head and be mindful of what you are doing and where you are going, as should always be the case when one is away from home.

For those of you who would like a weekend getaway but don't want the hassle of driving somewhere yourself or even doing any planning at all, this two day trip is a great choice. You just book, pay, hop on the bus, and off you go! No planning, no driving, no booking hotels on your own.

So our trip started by booking the trip with Travel Design USA in Torrance, California. (www.traveldesignusa.com) To those of you who plan on going online to take a look, the price is no longer $89 per person. It is now $95.00, but they have been a little lazy getting around to updating it. The price does include the hotel for the night in Ensenada, Mexico, so we thought it was a good deal.

We set out in the morning on the first day, and after a few stops to pick up passengers, we headed over to San Diego. Our first stop was Old Town San Diego. We had a little over an hour to freely walk around. The first place we walked to was Mason Street School. It was a tiny little schoolhouse with old fashioned desks and two tiny chalkboards. The type you would see in little house on the prairie. Not very impressive, but worth seeing for the historical value. Opened in 1865, it was San Diego's first public school building.

Next, we checked out the small shops that line one of the two main dusty little streets that make up Old Town. Walking around was reminiscent of old wild west cowboy movies, with stores that have wooden front porches and dirt roads that will actually blow into your eyes when the wind kicks up. But the place had its charms. For anyone who is interested, they offer free walking tours at the visitor's center everyday at 11:00 am, 12:00 pm, 2:00 pm and 3:00 pm. There is a store that sells nothing but hot sauces, for those who are fond of those. There are also numerous shops that sell traditional artifacts, and many of the old houses have been converted into open and free museums. For those of you who like to browse and read historical facts and tidbits, this is a great place for you to spend some time walking around.

But having only a little over an hour and not really the "historical" type of people, we were soon on our tour bus and ready to go. We were hungry, and the tour bus soon reached the next stop, which was a Chinese buffet lunch at a nearby restaurant. Now, none of the meals are included on the price of the trip, but the tour guide always arranges to lead us somewhere to eat. Of course, eating there is not mandatory, and those of you on a budget can always pack your own lunch and eat it yourselves. We have seen it done before. However, keep in mind that the tourguide and bus driver will also be eating, so sitting inside the bus will not be an option.

Next, came the beginning of the part of the trip we were waiting for: crossing the border into Mexico. We have never crossed the border into Mexico by car, and seeing the actual border was quite interesting to us. There are lanes of cars lined up at what looks to be like toll booth stations, and the tour guide goes out to greet the Mexican official. They talk and laugh about something, the tourguide gets back in the bus, and we are crossing the border into Mexico. Not as eventful as we thought it would be, but we still felt a little giddy with excitement. The tourguide picked up his mic and announced we were now in Mexican territory. Our next stop would be the border town of Tijuana, where he would let us walk around and shop for an hour and a half.

Here is where we started getting worried. Walking around Tijuana all by ourselves? The idea was a little scary to us, and we decided to stay on that one main street where the bus parked. When the bus stopped, many people headed off in the different directions, but we decided to stay close by and not venture into any of the little side streets.

Right when we were off the bus, we were bombarded with locals trying to get us to buy from their store, shouting that everyone on our bus gets discounts. Now, we had been made aware that you are expected to bargain when it comes to shopping in Tijuana, but we did not know that 90% of the shopping available there was leather goods. For those of you that are fans of leather products, this might be a good stop for you. But, we have to admit it was not our cup of tea. These are not the refined leather we see in stores here, these are rough, stinky leather is dull and pinkish in color. The craftwork is very unrefined, and very umm.... "handmade"?

Still, we had a good time just walking around, taking photos, looking at the locals, the leather goods, and just feeling the very different vibe on the streets. The locals are all very friendly, and they all speak English, which was frankly, a little disappointing to me. The one thing that I loved was that at every other corner, there was a colorful little "station" set up with "Tijuana 2007 Mexico" signs, a chariot and a donkey, adorned with colorful fabrics, for people to take pictures on. The price was somewhere around $2, and the picture comes out pretty well. We sat up on the colorful carriage, they put colorful fabrics across our shoulders and sombreros on our heads, and you have the choice of having them take a picture and print it out in their printer or letting them take a photo with your camera. We opted for our own camera because we were wary of the quality of their instant printer. Plus, we wanted to have the digital file to keep.

As it was getting close to time to leave, we found a supermarket. I wanted to go in the take a look at what the real locals buy, so we headed inside. For carb lovers out there, you MUST go into the supermarket if you ever find yourselves there! There are literally mounds of different breads, most of them sweet, that you can choose from. There were also lots of choices of tequila, but without the inflated prices meant for tourists. So keep that in mind if you plan on bringing back a bottle or two.

Back on the bus, we were told we had a 2-hour drive to La Bufadora, which was our next stop. So we took some time to take in the view. We were in the inner city, so it wasn't very impressive to look at. It was interesting, however. Those of you who have seen the movie "Man on Fire" will have an idea of what it was like. There were huge, gorgeous ocean view mansions on top of the hills, and there were broken little shacks that looked ready to tumble off the side of the hills. The contrast was amazing and disturbing at the same time.

We took a little nap and woke up to the tourguide announcing that we were approaching La Bufadora, or "the buffalo's snort". It is a point where the waves hit the side of the rocky cliffs so hard it, the water splashes up in a plume of mist and makes a "snort". Be sure to take some time to look at the very interesting shops all along the walk down to the "snort point". We found these shops to be more interesting than the ones back in Tijuana. There were silver bracelets, leather keychains, sunglasses, traditional foods, sweets that we were so tempted to buy but were kept at bay by the bees, and little bottles of tequila wrapped with leather and branded with "La Bufadora, Mexico". Those make great gifts. We were there around closing time, and were able to buy 2 for the price of 1.

We enjoyed La Bufadora. The shops were interesting, the "snort" was worth seeing, and the view was incredible. We would have stayed for another hour, but as the tourguide said, our schedule was the whole bus' schedule, so we had to leave. Before we knew it, we were headed to our hotel: Hotel Santo Tomas, or Baja Inn, in the port city of Ensenada.

The tourguide led us into the hotel lobby, where we were given our room keys. He then told us that those of you who wanted a seafood dinner at a local restaurant, he would meet us in the lobby in half an hour to walk us to the restaurant. My husband and I felt like grabbing some food on the go and walking around Ensenada before it got dark, so we skipped it.

We walked around the streets, and saw a street vendor selling hot dogs. Not just regular hot dogs, though. The sausages were topped with cheese, wrapped in bacon, and pan-fried alongside green peppers and onions. What sold us was the number of locals standing around the cart and eating it. So, we each got one, and happily chewed on it while we walked. It was amazingly good! I had expected it to be heavy and greasy, but it actually felt very light, and I kept staring at it to make sure I was eating the same thing I saw the guy preparing! It was great, and it was very cheap. Something like, $1.50 each. We walked over to the port, and there was a cruise ship parked there. Despite our slight fear and feeling of unsettlement, we enjoyed our walk. The air was clean and cool, and there was a peaceful feeling in the air. The locals were all very friendly, and even though it got dark while we were still out walking, we were comforted by the occasional Americans walking by with beer hats. We assume they have something to do with that cruiseship.

The next day, we boarded our bus at the agreed time, and we were questioned by fellow tour bus passengers as to our whereabouts during dinner the night before. We told them we decided to skip it to have more time to walk around, and they all thought it was a great idea. They went to the seafood restaurant with the tourguide, and said the food was slow to come, extremely unimpressive compared to what is found back home in LA, and very, very expensive. Tabs came out to twenty-some dollars per person, and by the time dinner was over, it was late and too dark for them to walk around. Most shops close pretty early, over there. After dark, the only shops open are restaurants and bars, which of course, leads to more unsavory characters walking around. So my husband and I were happy. We got to save the expensive dinner, had a more local experience by eating what the locals eat, and had time to walk around and actually see the city. Something our fellow tourists missed out on.

Soon, our bus had reached our first stop of the day: Hotel Calafia. We were scheduled to have a breakfast buffet at this landmark hotel. We wondered why it was a landmark. It was set atop a cliff, which gorgeous ocean views and a location that can't be beat. But aside from that, the building definitely showed aging signs... Once inside, however, we saw the "Titanic Room." It was a beautiful room that stood out from the rest of the restaurant, and was roped off and empty. All we could do was pass by and poke our heads to look in. It looked like it had been lifted by giant hands on plunked down in the middle of the place. Our tourguide explained that it was the room where the dinner scene from the movie "Titanic" was filmed. I was impressed, but my husband was suspicious as to whether it was true or not.

Anyway, the tourguide told us to go get our food, and come back to take some photos after we were fed. We grabbed our plates and helped ourselves to the food. But while looking around for seats, we could only find empty spots out in the patio, where it was kind of chilly that morning. So I went in and asked the tourguide if there was somewhere else we could sit because it was cold outside. So he said he would talk to the manager. Two minutes later, he came back and said that the manager had graciously offered us the Titanic room to eat in! The tourguide removed the rope, and we went in and plopped down at a table by a big picturesque window. A poor waiter walked by and saw us. Horrified, he said "wait, no, you can't go in there..." The tourguide assured him that it was the manager's idea, and the waiter immediately ran from table to table, picking up the china. We wondered what he was so frantic about, and it looked down to see that all the china set on the table had a Titanic logo on it. He was frantically running from table to table and removing these plates before someone ruined or (gasp!) put some scrambled eggs on it...

So we happily ate our breakfast, and even my husband, who had seemed unimpressed by the Titanic room at first, seemed to enjoy sitting down for breakfast in there. After we finished eating, we went to the back, where there are layers and layers of outdoor patios where we could just freely walk around, look out at the ocean and take pictures.

Before we knew it, it was time to leave again. We were sorry to see it end, and when the tourguide announced we were headed for the US border, we wished the trip was longer.

Maybe sensing some sadness that we were headed back to the border, our tourguide made a quick stop along the way and picked up a local friend of his, who happily brought a guitar on board and eagerly played it and sang to us. It definitely picked up the morale. He sang all the way to the border, where some of us gave him tips, and off he went. I don't know how he would get back to where he was from the border, but I imagine he has his connections.

Crossing back into the US was entirely different than crossing into Mexico. There was no friendly chatter and laughing this time! I was able to count 12 lanes of cars across, waiting in line to get back into the US. And that was only as far as my eyes could see. The tourguide assured us that there were many more lanes across that we could not see. It took us about an hour total, which was very speedy in comparison to private cars. Since we were a tourbus, we were in the fast lane, and apparently, we are given priority. But we still each had to lug our luggage out of the bus, put it through x-ray, present our passports to the immigration officer, and announce what we were bringing back into the US from Mexico. When I said I was bringing nothing back, he looked at me quizzicaly and said "nothing?!?". I was like, "umm....yeah... some keychains?" He did not look amused and waved me through.

Once back on the bus, our tourguide expressed relief that none of us had to be left behind, and said since we were ahead of schedule, he would stop by San Diego again, where we would be able to get a meal to go and eat it aboard a San Diego Harbor Cruise. To those of you that live in LA and have been to San Diego, this might be something that you have done before, and are not interested in doing. But it was entirely and extra stop that they put in because time allowed, and it was definitely not mandatory. Some people chose to stay on land and just browse around the harbor. My husband and I opted in, however, happy to be back in US soil and have the chance to look at the naval ships and submarines. The tour was one hour long, we got to relax, enjoy the view, and stretch our legs a little before having to get back on the bus. Once we got on, we were headed home.

In all honesty, this was not a mindblowing trip, nor did we expect otherwise. We just wanted a relaxing, but different weekend away. They have two tours each week. One that leaves on Wednesday and comes back on Thursday, and one that leaves on Saturday and comes back on Sunday. The Saturday and Sunday one allows people to get away a little, but not have to take a day off from work, which is great.

Like I said, and as you can tell from my description, this is a fairly uneventful getaway. Most of the time is spent sightseeing and relaxing. It's not an activity-filled, action packed weekend, but sometimes, laid-back is just what one is looking for. Our tourguide, Phillip, was very good, and he made the trip interesting by giving us little facts along the way. He even chimed in and sang a song while the local was playing guitar!

If you have a weekend and $95.00, why not give it a try? They will take reservations even a couple of days before, if there are seats still available. You can find the itinerary and their phone number on their website, www.traveldesignusa.com

Have fun!