Flight
Valle de Guadalupe can be reached from 3 airports: Los Angeles (LAX); San Diego (SAN); or Tijuana International Airport (TIJ)! If you fly into LAX or SAN, you will need to rent a car and drive over the border into Mexico! LAX is a 5+ hour drive from Valle, depending on traffic. SAN is about a 1.5 hr drive to Valle. Tijuana International Airport (TIJ): is the closest airport to Valle de Guadalupe, about a 1 hr and 20 min drive away. Although it is more difficult to reach by flight, once you arrive, there is no border-crossing required, AND it is also the shortest drive. There are taxis and Ubers available. Please let us know if you need help coordinating a ride to/from the airport!
Rental Car
Valle is about 1.5 hr drive from San Diego, just over the California-Mexico border. Highly recommend using the CBP website for estimated border wait times (click the VIEW link below to go to their website). Crossing into MEXICO: Crossing into Mexico from the US is fairly easy with little wait! Crossing into CALIFORNIA: Wait times back into the US can be much longer. We highly recommend applying for SENTRI or GLOBAL ENTRY in order to reduce wait times traveling back to the US. *Note: Everyone in the car has to have Global Entry in order to use the fast lanes. If one person in your car doesn’t have it, you will be fined & get held up at the border. BORDER OPTIONS: Crossing back into the US requires careful planning by monitoring the border wait times on the CBP website for two main options: SAN YSIDRO & TECATE. If you are driving north on RTE 3 from Valle, there will be signs for both options. 1. San Ysidro (San Diego). This is the main San Diego border that is very busy, but is manageable with Global Entry/Sentri/Fast Pass. **Note that for the San Ysidro crossing, there is a short toll road in Mexico before you reach the border. They take US dollars - be sure to have small change in US ($1’s, $5’s). 2. Tecate (about 45 mins East of San Ysidro), crossing through a small hill town into suburban California, landing you just East of San Diego. There is NO SENTRI LANE available at Tecate. Also important: in Tijuana, the San Ysidro border is complex and difficult to navigate. Watch your GPS very closely, follow the signs carefully if you are taking Sentri lanes (the entries are different than regular re-entry lanes). It is very easy to get turned around in Tijuana, so please be careful. Car Insurance: Mexico doesn’t accept US liability insurance. We recommend checking with your insurance provider for a separate policy for your time in Mexico.
Travel Note
If you are driving, we highly encourage everyone to get Global Entry. In some cases, you can get Global Entry at your local airport a few hours before your departure - check appointment availability. ACTIVATE YOUR GLOBAL ENTRY. Once you receive your Global Entry card, please be sure to go to your online Trusted Traveler Account and ACTIVATE your Global Entry (check the status in your profile on this page after logging in to be sure your status is “Active”). If you do not activate your Global Entry correctly, you will get pulled for special inspection in the Sentri line, and this can take an hour or more. Also, please be sure your account includes Sentri, which is a service included with Global Entry, but requires a few minutes of extra information to submit in the online portal. If you are still waiting for a Global Entry appointment, try this website: https://appointmentscanner.com/. It scans for cancelled appointments that you can try to book last minute!
Travel Note
IF YOU CANNOT GET GLOBAL ENTRY, this is a solution for you!! There are several hotels in the Valle/Ensenada/Rosarito area that offer a 1-time use “Fast Pass” for a fee that will allow you to use the Sentri lanes to cross back into California. Coral & Marina Hotel in Ensenada, for example, offers Fast Pass. Click the view link below to see a list of hotels in you can try to contact to inquire about purchasing a Fast Pass.