GETTING THERE
Ensenada can be a little tricky to get to, so we’ve put together the following options for you to make it an easy journey.
Driving yourself would usually be the best option, however most car rental companies wont allow tourists to hire a car and drive across the border - so you'll likely need to follow one of these other options instead.
Once on the road, it’s a beautiful journey down the pacific coast!
Before starting your journey into Ensenada, you will need to fly into one of the surrounding airports.
These are your best options:
San Diego
The easiest option is to get a flight (or any other transfer) into San Diego and start your commute from there.
Once in San Diego, you will have the following options:
Option 1 - Shuttle Direct to Ensenada
Many tour companies run private transfers which will pick you up in San Diego, take you across the border, and drop you in Ensenada. The drive should take around 2 hours, plus however long it takes to get across the border on that day.
Soph and I are in contact with a few companies so that they can pool our guests together and take advantage of group discounts - It’s currently looking to be around USD$80-120 per person, each way.
If you’re keen on the group booking, sit tight and we will post the details soon - all you need to do is work out how you’re getting to San Diego.
If you’d rather book you’re own thing, then feel free to start reaching out to tour companies now.
Option 2 - Get Yourself Across the Border
If you’re looking for a cheaper alternative, it’s best to get yourself across the border before starting your commute down to Ensenada.
To do this, you need to get yourself to the San Ysidro Port of Entry in San Diego. The Blue line on the San Diego Trolley light rail runs to here quite easily (30ish mins, depending on where you’re starting from), however there would be numerous other bus/train/taxi options.
https://www.sdmts.com/transit-services/trolley
Once at San Ysidro, you simply complete the border crossing on foot.
After crossing the border you are now in Tijuana. From here you can look to either hire a car, catch a bus, or organise a private transfer (these will be cheaper when starting within Mexico).
Once in Tijuana, you can expect to get to Ensenada in around 1.5 hours.
Soph and I are visiting Ensenada in October and we’ll be travelling this way; so we will post some more tips and tricks later in the year, for this option.
Option 3 - Uber + Uber
For those that are happy to wing it, many people online suggest Uber or Didi as another cheap option:
We’re reading that you can Uber from San Diego airport to San Ysidro in 30 minutes and the average cost is USD$45. After walking across the border you can then book another Uber to Ensenada which will take approx. 1.5 hours and cost around USD$100-150 (for the car, not per person)
You might even be lucky enough to find an Uber driver who will take you across the border and drive the whole way for you.
Los Angeles
LA is the easiest to fly into, as many major cities fly direct to LAX, however it is a little further from Ensenada (3.5-4 hour drive).
From LA you can still look to arrange a private transfer into Ensenada (although it will cost more, given the extra distance), otherwise it’s best to get yourself to San Diego and follow the options above. It’s about a 2-2.5 hour drive from Los Angeles to San Diego if you wanted to hire a car, or you can look for train/bus/flight alternatives.
Tijuana
Tijuana is the closest airport to Ensenada and is within Mexico, so it removes the hassle of border crossing, however not many flights run direct to here.
The flights that do run direct are mainly domestic flights from other cities in Mexico, or there also looks to be a flight from Phoenix, Arizona. So if you’re planning on travelling around before the wedding, then we’d suggest looking to fly from one of these cities into Tijuana Airport.
Once in Tijuana, it’s a pretty straight forward journey down to Ensenada via:
-Driving (hiring a car) = 1.5 hours
-Private Shuttle = 1.5 hours
-Uber = 1.5 hours ($USD100-150)
-Bus = 1.5 hours