Walk across the US border from downtown Tijuana

Did you know you can easily walk across the US border from downtown Tijuana (immigration pending)? In fact it’s probably the easiest way to travel between Tijuana and San Diego. The focus of this article is walking from Tijuana to San Diego but you can easily make the journey the other way, which is also discussed here.

The whole walk from the Tijuana arch to the border crossing takes just 15-20 minutes, and is along a well sign-posted, mostly dedicated pedestrian pathway with trees and shops on the side. Although when I went in late December 2023 most of the shops were closed, perhaps due to the holiday period.

Probably the biggest question you may have is safety. You can see from the photos above that some areas can be a bit grungier than others. There are homeless people and beggars along the way but overall I did not find it to be unsafe, especially if you go during the day. I did however go the opposite way during the night (from the border to downtown Tijuana), and I have to admit it did feel a bit dark and creepy as there generally weren’t many people and the shops were all closed, but I did not encounter any issues. The walk to downtown Tijuana is also a bit less intuitive as there are no signs pointing you in the right direction, unlike going the other way where there are plenty of signs. There are homeless people but none of them acted aggressively towards me. I did also notice a police tower atop one of the pedestrian bridges as you can see below, however there weren’t actually any police inside.

Once you get to the immigration area, prepare to stand in line for a while. The wait time will depend on when you go but expect it to be over an hour during peak periods. My wait was about an hour when I went on new year’s eve, but I was told it could be up to 4 hours during Christmas time! Note that the line for walking is almost always shorter than that for driving.

Eventually you’ll pass through immigration and end up in San Ysidro where you can hop on the light rail towards San Diego. Conversely, if you are coming from San Diego and crossing the border into Mexico, then you would take the light rail to San Ysidro (the last stop) and just walk across the border to Mexico. Note that going into Mexico you’ll still need to pass through immigration, but it is quick and painfree compared to going into the US and there almost definitely will not be any queue at all! The entrance into Mexico looks a bit foreboding though as you can see from the photo below, but nothing to be worried about.

Overall if you’re travelling between San Diego and Tijuana, walking is the way to go. It sure beats driving!