Mexican Vacation

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November 10th, 2013 at 9:45:36 AM permalink
Nareed
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 346
Posts: 12545
Quote: theodores
Is it safe to take the subway from the airport to ZR? How much is a taxi?


It depends on the time of day. Late at night it's not a good idea. Also, the Subway closes around 10 pm if memory serves.

A cab from one of the authorized airport comapnies should be around 250 pesos. i've no idea what the exchange rate is at right now, probably 13 pesos to the dollar or so. That means aroun$20-30 US if the mental calculation I didn't make is anywhere close to right :)

Did you check Interjet from Tijuana to Mex City? I've no idea if they fly that route. Do NOT fly to Toluca, though. That would cost more in ground transportation to the hotel.
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November 10th, 2013 at 4:31:38 PM permalink
Pacomartin
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 1068
Posts: 12569
Quote: Nareed
Did you check Interjet from Tijuana to Mex City? I've no idea if they fly that route. Do NOT fly to Toluca, though. That would cost more in ground transportation to the hotel.


250 pesos is about $19. Toluca is the capital of the State of Mexico and is 33 miles to Santa Fe (a business district on the edge of Mexico City).

Tijuana-Mexico City route is served by Aeroméxico, Aeroméxico Connect, Interjet, and Volaris. Volaris is the major operator out of that airport.
San Diego Airport has flights to Puerto Vallarta and San José del Cabo on Alaska Air, San José del Cabo on Spirit and Mexico City on Volaris. Aeromexico no longer serves SAN.

When the pedestrian bridge opens up from the USA into Tijuana airport (for ticketed passengers only) the TJ airport should grow exponentially. The most obvious destinations will be to expand to Mexican cities like Cancun, Mexico city, and possibly steal from the current SAN traffic to Mexico resorts.

Central America and even South America are also possible expansion destinations

But with Aeromexico buying this huge order of Dreamliners, the Mexico City-Tijuana-Asian locations should open up beyond the current Shanghai and Tokyo route.

Strangely enough San Diego Airport has no non-stops to Florida or the Caribbean. It is possible that some Americans in south county will cross to TJ to fly to Orlando, Right now there are no flights from Tijuana Airport to the USA.
November 11th, 2013 at 9:13:25 AM permalink
theodores
Member since: Oct 28, 2012
Threads: 2
Posts: 85
I checked Interjet also. Their times were extremely inconvenient and all left very late at night. The prices were about $500 U.S.. AeroMexico was the only carrier that had reasonable times and reasonable prices, as well as non-stop flights. (No, I don't want to stop in Durango, Monterrey, Hermosillo, Culiacan and Puebla on the way, thank you very much :) )

I wouldn't buy the rental car myself. It would be provided by Caesars, who's paying for the trip to San Diego so I can go to their casino. They may or may not provide the car. If they do, I will go the Otay Mesa route since the border crossing times are shorter. I don't care to do the bus-trolley-walk-taxi gauntlet at San Ysidro unless I absolutely have to.

Thank you for the information about the subway. If it closes at 10 PM it is of no use to me. (I get in at 11:30). I take it normal people do not take the subway in Mexico City, unlike New York, Washington D.C., etc.? Taxi for $19 seems reasonable, especially since the hotel will be essentially free. I'm looking at economical options in the Zona Rosa neighborhood. Hotel Del Principado looks good and has a good rating. The rate includes breakfast.

Sunday I will taxi back to the aiport after some sightseeing to meet the package tour provided transportation around 6 P.M. If I miss it there is always the Pullman Morelos bus from Tasquena station. It leaves every 20 minutes and the fare is only $6.50 U.S. to Tepoztlan.
November 11th, 2013 at 9:33:27 AM permalink
Nareed
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 346
Posts: 12545
Quote: theodores
I checked Interjet also. Their times were extremely inconvenient and all left very late at night.


That's a chronic problem with that airline. but given all the rest, I'll take inconvenient schedules.

Quote:
Thank you for the information about the subway. If it closes at 10 PM it is of no use to me. (I get in at 11:30). I take it normal people do not take the subway in Mexico City, unlike New York, Washington D.C., etc.?


1) I checked the website, and it closes down at 12 am. Still, I wouldn't take it late at night. In most stations there are long, long walks theough deserted passages. That's a receipe for crime. Also, the clsoest stations to the Zona Rosa require you to walk or get a cab, neither of which si a good idea that late. But if your flight lands at 11:30, given immigration, customs and the size of the airport, I don't see how you can get to the subway in time.

2) Lots of people use the subway, but you'll find almost no one who owns a car uses the subway at all. I do very ocassionally when a) there's no place to park where I'm going or b) traffic is hopelessly snarled and the subway offers a quicker trip. You won't see bankers, stock brokers or any kind of executives riding the subway at all.
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November 11th, 2013 at 9:42:42 AM permalink
theodores
Member since: Oct 28, 2012
Threads: 2
Posts: 85
Does anybody have any experience with the PF hotel chain? Looks to be a solid economical option and they have two hotels in the ZR area.
November 11th, 2013 at 12:32:16 PM permalink
Pacomartin
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 1068
Posts: 12569
Quote: theodores
I wouldn't buy the rental car myself. It would be provided by Caesars, who's paying for the trip to San Diego so I can go to their casino. They may or may not provide the car. If they do, I will go the Otay Mesa route since the border crossing times are shorter. I don't care to do the bus-trolley-walk-taxi gauntlet at San Ysidro unless I absolutely have to.
Sunday I will taxi back to the aiport after some sightseeing to meet the package tour provided transportation around 6 P.M. If I miss it there is always the Pullman Morelos bus from Tasquena station. It leaves every 20 minutes and the fare is only $6.50 U.S. to Tepoztlan.


I stayed at the NH Hotel in Zona Rosa, but there rates are over $100.

The taxi from San Diego Airport to the border is going to be at least 20 miles, so figure minimum $75 with fees, mileage, and tip. If you get away with $15-$20 for taxi on Mexico side that is almost $200 coming and going. The place to be stingy is on the US side of the trip. You will save more with city bus to trolley, and trolley to the border. I wouldn't be stingy on the taxi fare in Mexico city. You are saving very little money.

Don't forget Nareed can ride the subway without luggage and you will look like a confused lost gringo.

The Otay Mesa parking to the place where you can get a taxi is quite a walk. Make sure your luggage wheels easily and that you can drag it up and down stairs.

You may want to pay up front for a late check out at the hotel. Since you are arriving late, you will want to party late and sleep in. If not, they will hold your bags while you walk around.

It won't cost you a lot to go from Tasquena to Cuernavaca, but it will be expensive to get to the hotel which is in a remote location. I would advise not missing the tourbus at 6PM at the airport.
November 11th, 2013 at 1:36:25 PM permalink
Pacomartin
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 1068
Posts: 12569


Tijuana airport flies nonstop to 28 Mexican destinations and Shanghai and Tokyo (as an intermediate stop from Mexico City). Nearly half the passengers go to Mexico City or Guadalajara Airport where connections are available. The airport carries 21% of the traffic load of one runway San Diego airport.

Of the 10,000 people per day who use the TJ airport as much as 1/4 to 1/3 are American citizens, mostly Mexican Americans going to family homes. No pure Mexican resort towns are serviced from TJ airport.

The cross border bridge will be available for a fee to ticketed passengers only. I have always felt that it should be available to any one who pays the fee (which will be mostly businessmen) as they will provide passengers for the taxi drivers who currently bring most people from the border to the airport.

Tijuana Airport will obviously compete with San Diego for the passengers going to Asia. As the Mexican planes will be picking people up in Mexico City and Tijuana, they only need a few from San Diego to make a flight profitable.

They will undoubtedly compete with San Diego airport for passengers to San Jose del Cabo and Puerto Vallarta. But hopefully they will add Ixtapa and Cancun to the list.

It is not clear if they will add flights from Tijuana to Europe. If they fly to Paris or Madrid then it will give San Diego passengers a non stop option. If they fly to London they will compete directly with British Airways to San Diego.

Orlando is the biggest final destination without a nonstop from San Diego Airport. As some people from TJ want to go to Orlando, possibly a few people in southern San Diego County will cross an international border just to fly to another US destination.

The possibility exists for Central and South America as well.
November 11th, 2013 at 1:53:49 PM permalink
Nareed
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 346
Posts: 12545
Quote: Pacomartin
The cross border bridge will be available for a fee to ticketed passengers only. I have always felt that it should be available to any one who pays the fee (which will be mostly businessmen) as they will provide passengers for the taxi drivers who currently bring most people from the border to the airport.


That's par for the course for government projects. The first thing a bureucracy does when it offers a service is figure out whom to exclude from it. That's so they'll have rules they can follow regarding who is allowed in to begin with. That the rules will make no sense a great deal of the time, even most of the time, is irrelevant.

At Mex City's airport there's a little train connceting both terminals. it's free, but only people with an unexpired boarding pass for the other terminal can get on it. This is in part because it's small and lacks capacity to deal with many people. but it might be carrying only three people and the bureucrat at the gate won't let you in regardless. That's the golden rule of bureucracy: you're expected to say "No."

Ask me someday about a proof of domicile document. I dare you ;)
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November 11th, 2013 at 2:22:02 PM permalink
Pacomartin
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 1068
Posts: 12569
Quote: Nareed
That's par for the course for government projects


The original idea was to make it a secure tunnel, so that people could board from the US side of the border, get on a plane and fly to a US destination and not have to go through immigration at their destination. In this case the Tijuana airport would act as a reliever airport for the overcrowded one runway San Diego airport.

That idea had so many problems that I wonder if people think at all.

So they wisely dumped the concept in favor of a pay per use border bridge. But they felt that in addition to a fee, it should only be available to ticketed passengers. The concept of building a 550' bridge for a few thousand people per day is only a little less insane.

A well to do couple from San Diego could spend a parking fee, $10 apiece to cross the bridge, and take a taxi to one of TJ's tonier restaurants. Whatever costs they incur will be made up by the much lower restaurant tab. As there are not that many people who are willing to do that, there is no danger of the pedestrian bridge being completely overcrowded, as the mobs will still go to San Ysidro and Otay Mesa in search of donkeys painted to look like zebra's. It would do wonders to improve TJ's image.

While every serviceman knows that you can walk across the border and walk a few hundred yards to go to a house of ill-repute, there is a thriving trade in nervous foreigners (mostly from USA but sometimes from Asia) who pay $100 or more to be picked up on the US side and taken to a prostitute. Undoubtedly some of the prostitutes are young.

The problems is that inevitably every crossing will sooner or later be used for something evil, and the rules of the crossing will be attacked.
November 14th, 2013 at 7:49:34 AM permalink
aceofspades
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 83
Posts: 2019
Next WoV-con in Juarez? :-)
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