Lobster, fish tacos, beer, tequila, it all exists North of the Mexican border folks. Honest!

No way would I ever advise anyone to travel to MEX these days.

Ensenada == TJ. You need to be much further South than that to escape the border town mentality. Honestly take your friends to Old Town in San Diego. You won't get food poisoning, you won't come home with any lame ceramic lawn figures, and more importantly your odds of getting home alive are dramatically in your favor.

I have no desire to go back to Mexico.

My CPA got his Mercedes stolen in TJ while eating lobster, my sister had a vacation home in Los Gaviotes (sp) sold at the peak thank God. Her purse was stolen from her locked car, Los Gaviotes is a ghost town now, used to be a pretty cool place, no mas

You guys crack me up....xenophobia much?

My mother, aunt, and uncle have for the last 10 years or so rented different villas in Merida.. There is a thriving group of ex-pat retirees who take advantage of the inexpensive costs of an off the beaten path Mexican city..

My mom is 77... she is not afraid of going to Mexico,

Of course I know the border cities are sketchy.. and quite dangerous..When your number is up...it is!..

Well, the question was about TJ. Not Mexico as a whole. Mexico is a beautiful country that is very fk'ed up right now. TJ has never been a nice place. You would probably be safe there but there is just no real attraction to it.

You have to go deeper into Mexico to get to the nice parts. The border towns and areas are mostly slums and full of people trying to get out.

There is a thriving group of illegal immigrants who take advantage of the available social services and healthcare, creating a tremendous burden on taxpayers in the southern states, maybe not so much up New York way. Until a country so rich in natural resources, manufacturing, etc. takes care of their citizens and stops making them cross a border illegally to make a livable wage, I'll spend some tourism dollars there.

I mean Jeez H. Christ, the richest man in the world is not from Saudia Arabia, Russia or some other nation, he's from Mexico. Spread it around a bit.

Parfy rant over.

Why waste the gas to drive down to TJ? There are plenty of areas around LA that look the same! 4th and 5th street downtown LA....you'll swear you're in TJ.

My wife and I did a 36 state road trip in 2002 We parked on the US side and took a bus into Tijahana . That way we could leave our truck in a secured lot. We had a good time but returned before dark. In those days the bus seemed to get much faster clearnce at the border on the return. Sort of a triage was going on . Ie. The " wasp" tourists were put into a shorter line.
I felt safer than in much of LA and New Orleans, and Detroit etc. Things might be worse now. I again wouldn,t be there after dark but I wouldn,t feel safe a block from the white house after dark either.

WTF does that have to do with what many retirees have found about part time living in Mexico... or for that matter Costa Rica, DR, Nicaragua.. Many ex-pats live offshore....That has absolutely nothing to do with things north of the border

Not only does my mother pay her way for her villa in Merida... she still shares her skills... she was a teacher for 35 years here in NY.

To break up the monotony that can be retirement she volunteers and teaches English in Merida


Take your parfy trash to parf...Mentioned above, Mexico is a huge country, the border areas are sketchy.... skip that its a beautiful place...

I apologize for not focusing my reply on TJ since most of the other replies seemed to be a blanket avoid Mexico...

Husongs!!! Quite the hangout...back in the day. Of course, those days are most likely not to return in our lifetime.

An aside from Ensenada, there's Rosarita Beach...but again, I'm going off od 20 year old memories, so things may have changed. And certainly not walking distance across the border, so....I guess I'll shut up now. :)

Randy

Not that I know about these things... I'm just a niave boy from the country. But if you want some Mexico, instead of going to Tijuana, why not just drive to a different part of Los Angles.

That's one of my favorite city in all of Meeheeco. Wait, Merida is a different continent.

I've lived in the S.D. area since 1968 when I came to attend San Diego State College. I've been all over Baja and most of Mexico and TJ countless times. Right now I see no reason to go down there. If you have to worry about safety, dirt, and search for a decent place to take your family, why bother? I was last down there in 2009 and had a friend that runs a business there say if he lived in the U.S., he wouldn't bother because the general situation there gets worse every year. I've only walked across the border a couple of times to smell the piss on the stairways as you cross. It's your decision though & you should do what you want. If you go, have a good time.

Tim, Merida is one of my all time favorite cities to spend time. Years ago it had a real colonial feel to it.

Just to confirm... I as thinking of walking over the boarder in the morning and spending a few hours there.

I thought maybe because it is such a tourist trap they might keep crime down a little ALA the gangsters in Chicago and Las Vegas back in the day.

And I work in downtown Los Angeles... I am very familiar with our ethnic neighborhoods.

What about Coranado, should I be afraid of going there? :p

Just don't wear any Beat Army gear :)

HUSONGs!! is that the old school bar with the ice cold beer? it was a blur, but i think i was there..ate a fish taco on the street nearby.

i love that area!! so much fun.

My bro in law is Border Patrol, he won't take his wife near the border on OUR side. There are apparently a lot of things that don't make the news.

I have friends who live there. It's much different when your not wandering around looking for what to do. Nice resturants, malls,nightclubs very different when you know where to go. I never drive across 2-3 hours in border line.

Sounds about right! Loved going down there in the early 80's when I was stationed at El Toro, in the Marine Corps! Ahhh...good times! http://forums.pelicanparts.com/support/smileys/clap.gif

http://www.dailypilot.com/media/phot...8/55590316.jpg

Randy