BajaNomad

volaris out of tijuana-getting to the airport

msrla - 6-13-2011 at 03:31 PM

Hey folks,

Three of us are traveling out of TJ airport this coming Saturday on Volaris - last year it was was just me and I did the Crucero shuttle out of the Greyhound station - not a bad trip except for very a long wait for the bus from SD greyhound on our return trip - Just checked the fare for the round trip shuttle and it's about $85 bucks for the three of us...umm...wow...SO- Looking for alternate suggestions on hassle free (kid on board) way of getting to the airport. For $85 I'm wondering if there an airport van - OR - since we can easily get dropped off at the border and walk over, your thoughts on getting a cab (is it safe? how much should we expect to spend from TJ or Otay crossing to airport -obviously I'm not mexico phobic but not familiar with ins/outs of Tijuana border crossing or safety. I know Nomad advice is reliable, so help! :yes:

chippy - 6-13-2011 at 03:36 PM

Take the trolley to the TJ border then cab it to the airport. Trolley is 5 bucks each and the cab should be around 16 to 18 bucks. Total for three is 33 dollars mas o menos.

Dave - 6-13-2011 at 04:37 PM

At one time Volaris had a free shuttle from the San Diego train station.

dtbushpilot - 6-13-2011 at 04:55 PM

I have someone drop me off at the SY border and walk across, keep going till you see taxis and get one to the airport, $12 last time about a year ago. If you need tourist visas you get them at the airport, no need to stop at immigration at the SY crossing. My dad recently did the same thing from Otay, same drill, even easier and cheaper. He left his car at a US parking lot and they gave him a ride the few blocks to the border.....dt.

Curt63 - 6-13-2011 at 08:20 PM

Last November I was dropped off at the Otay Mesa border (Jack in the Box) and walked across (150 yards) and got a taxi to the airport ($10 or 15 for a 10 minute ride).

Very easy!

bajajurel - 6-13-2011 at 09:15 PM

I have used Gonzalo several times over the past few years. He picks us up at the house and drops us at the TJ airport. He is waiting for you as you come out of customs / immigration upon your return and delivers you to your front door. The last trip there were 3 of us he picked up at 2 different locations for $120.

Office 619-282-1515
Cell 619-405-8984
TJ 684-8283

LaTijereta - 6-14-2011 at 03:38 PM

Oceanside Transit Station was running $24 RT for a bus ride to direct TJ Airport last year.
You have free parking at the station, and can catch the Metrolink down from OC/ LA if that helps..
Not sure of the name of the bus, but they have a kiosk desk there where all the bus service is in Oceanside...

MitchMan - 6-14-2011 at 08:59 PM

I go to La Paz from Orange County about 10 times a year. I am cheap and I think that I have come up with the cheapest way to get to La Paz.

I drive my economy car from Orange County to Oceanside Greyhound bus depot. I park my car at the Greyhound bus depot parking lot for free for two weeks while I go to La Paz. I take the Greyhound bus from Oceanside to the TJ airport and board a Volaris airline to La Paz. Upon return from La Paz to TJ, I take the bus from the TJ airport back to Oceanside, then drive home.

The round trip Greyhound bust trip from Oceanside to TJ airport and back costs about $18 USD. I Park for free for two weeks. It costs me $10 USD for the gas for the round trip from Orange County to Oceanside. I take Volaris round trip from TJ to La Paz for about $140 USD to $190 USD as I wait for special offers and then make my reservations online.

With my approach, I don't have to pay for parking my car for 12 to 14 days, I don't have to pay for gas for my car for travel for the distance from Oceanside to the TJ airport and back, and I don't have to pay the taxi fare from the TJ border to/from the TJ airport ($12 border to airport, $15 TJ airport to border). The pros are financially obvious, the cons to my approach is that it takes about two hours more getting to and from the TJ airport from Oceanside using my approach (which means that I have to leave earlier on departure date and I get home two hours later than if I had driven to the border myself) and maybe the loss of privacy in having to ride a bus with mostly Mexican nationals. I save about $300 to $400 on the airfaire as opposed to flying out of LAX or Orange County, and save about $100 by using the bus and parking for free. Worth if for me since I travel to La Paz about 10 times a year.

Roberto - 6-14-2011 at 09:01 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by MitchMan
I go to La Paz from Orange County about 10 times a year. I am cheap and I think that I have come up with the cheapest way to get to La Paz.

I drive my economy car from Orange County to Oceanside Greyhound bus depot. I park my car at the Greyhound bus depot parking lot for free for two weeks while I go to La Paz. I take the Greyhound bus from Oceanside to the TJ airport and board a Volaris airline to La Paz. Upon return from La Paz to TJ, I take the bus from the TJ airport back to Oceanside, then drive home.

The round trip Greyhound bust trip from Oceanside to TJ airport and back costs about $18 USD. I Park for free for two weeks. It costs me $10 USD for the gas for the round trip from Orange County to Oceanside. I take Volaris round trip from TJ to La Paz for about $140 USD to $190 USD as I wait for special offers and then make my reservations online.

With my approach, I don't have to pay for parking my car for 12 to 14 days, I don't have to pay for gas for my car for travel for the distance from Oceanside to the TJ airport and back, and I don't have to pay the taxi fare from the TJ border to/from the TJ airport ($12 border to airport, $15 TJ airport to border). The pros are financially obvious, the cons to my approach is that it takes about two hours more getting to and from the TJ airport from Oceanside using my approach (which means that I have to leave earlier on departure date and I get home two hours later than if I had driven to the border myself) and maybe the loss of privacy in having to ride a bus with mostly Mexican nationals. I save about $300 to $400 on the airfaire as opposed to flying out of LAX or Orange County, and save about $100 by using the bus and parking for free. Worth if for me since I travel to La Paz about 10 times a year.


Bingo!

msrla - 6-15-2011 at 09:05 AM

Hey thanks for all the posts...Mitchman, great info! We may try that next time! how long is the bus ride from Oceanside to TJ,btw - I am assuming you take that 10:50am direct volaris flight?Do you stay on the same bus the whole way through and back from the border?

FYI since time was ticking, what I ended up doing is our usual bus from greyhound SD to TJ airport - however, i wouldn't have done it for that $90 and change I was getting via "volaris shuttle" which is actually the Crucero greyhound.....I discovered that if you book it directly on the Crucero website, and book it one leg at a time (not round trip), you get completely different rates -(go figure, it's wacky) - the round trip rate on Crucero was giving me $75 - booking it one way at a time, I ended up with a rate of $57 for the three of us (so $19 each r/t) -- We thought of doing the cab or the shuttle routine, but you can't beat that bus on the return to the border going thru the bus lane and dropping you right outside the doors of customs! All great info here, lets hope our bus this time goes smoothly (we got wrong departing times from Volaris last year,and got there way to early, and waited a LONG time for the bus back to SD after crossing the border - might hop on the trolley if that happens again though!

El Jefe - 6-15-2011 at 09:41 AM

Yes, sometimes the bus schedule north bound does not line up well with your flight arrival time, especially if your flight is late. A good reason to just buy your bus ticket at the counter upon arrival. We arrived last spring at 9 pm (California had sprung forward, and Baja Sur hadn't yet) and the next bus wasn't until 11:30. So we took a cab. It was easy.

Kalypso - 6-15-2011 at 12:33 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by msrla
but you can't beat that bus on the return to the border going thru the bus lane and dropping you right outside the doors of customs! All great info here, lets hope our bus this time goes smoothly (we got wrong departing times from Volaris last year,and got there way to early, and waited a LONG time for the bus back to SD after crossing the border - might hop on the trolley if that happens again though!


Don't count on it. The last time I took the Crucero shuttle from TIJ to the border the wait in the bus lane was 2+ hours. Pedestrian and cars were moving faster than we were. I ended up not rebording on the other side and taking the Trolley to Old Town (1 hour on the nose, SY to OT) and cab the rest of the way home.

Volaris was on time, my flight arrived at 8:30 am on a Saturday morning. The shuttle left the airport at 9:30ish. It was almost noon when the bus got to the drop off point. I walked in my door at 2:20, nearly 6 hours after landing. That was double the length of my flight from Morelia. :O

I like Crucero from downtown SD to the airport, but I think there are probably more efficient ways back across the border. I've also used one of the van services that crosses at Otay, but I had an available drop off location in Chula Vista at that time, and unless it's a full van it can be a bit $$$.

Good luck and enjoy your trip

MitchMan - 6-15-2011 at 02:23 PM

I book my round trip Greyhound bus trip from Oceanside to the TJ airport and back. Greyhound has coordinated service with Crucero bus lines. My Volaris flight from TJ to La Paz takes off at 10:55am. From Oceanside, my bus leaves at 7:30am, stops at San Diego Greyhound bus terminal for 7 minutes, then continues on the San Ysidro border. We stop there, get off the bus for the brief Mexican Immigration inspection, then on to the TJ airport. The bus ticket said the arrival time was to be 9:25am, but got there late at 9:40 am. Not a problem.

On the return trip, my Volaris flight from La Paz arrived at the TJ airport 10 minutes late at 3:20pm. There was a bus that was scheduled to depart the airport at 3:15pm, but I missed that one as it left either on time or early. The next bus was scheduled at 4:15pm, but the Crucero bus didn't leave the airport until 4:25pm. The bus stops at the border, lets all passengers off right at the US immigration/border crossing at a special entrance door to US customs in San Ysidro for busses and vans as our Crucero bus gets in that certain special lane reserved for such public transport vehicles. You then go through US customs like any other pedestrian and then walk out side of the building on foot. The goal is to make a B line to the Greyhound bus terminal wich is about a 4 minute walk from the customs building. There you wait for your next bus to (in my case) Oceanside. That bus is scheduled to leave at 5:40pm. It was late, it didn't show up until 6:05pm. Good thing as I was late by 5 minutes coming out of US customs myself. If that bus had actually left on time, 5:40pm, I would have missed it (has happened to me before), then I would wait for the 6:40pm bus and then take that one. I arrived at Oceanside later than the scheduled arrival time (which was 7:05pm) at 7:30pm). The bus drivers don't care if your ticket is for a different time, so long as it is within several hours of their departure for the same day.

The bus from the TJ airport to the San Ysidro border is usually a Crucero bus. The Crucero bus doesnt usually leave at the designated time on the bus ticket. It usually leaves later, but one time it left 30 minutes early. The bottom line is, on the Mexican side of the border, that the bus ticket time is usually disregared and they leave at a time that suits them for their own reasons. In my view, that can be up to + or - 30 minutes. That is frustrating. The good news is, in my experience, both Greyhound and Crucero buses don't really care what your ticket says for departure time, so long as it is close or at least for the same day, they will let you get on a later bus or even an earlier bus for the same departure and destination points. So, if Crucero is late or early making you late or early for the next leg or for the first leg of the trip, you can take that earlier or later bus, no problemo.

In my experience, the actual bus arrival time at the TJ airport is usually 10 to 20 minutes late, so I get a bus ticket that allows for that circumstance. My advice is to make sure that you schedule your bus arrival time at the TJ airport at least 1.5 hours before the flight departure time. A little bit more is you have to obtain an FMM before boarding.

Hope this helps.

msrla - 6-15-2011 at 02:25 PM

if you take a cab from TJ airport to the border, where do you get dropped, I take it from this post you don't have to wait in the long car lines if you go this route. Yes, that is my only gripe about the bus - the timing of your flight, customs, and the bus schedule... if the stars on in your favor, it's a great way to go - however, I'm not a big fan of the other side of the coin, so I wouldn't have minded trying some other methods this time around (which we may end up doing even though we have that return Crucero ticket paid for already - if we have to wait long for the bus out of the TJ airport, I'd be fine hopping a cab if that's what's recommended here! ;) All great info here, as always!

bajajazz - 6-16-2011 at 10:07 AM

Greyhound out of TJ airport to SY crossing is the least hassle if the schedules are working for you at your arrival time. Also the least expensive way to get to downtown SD. But if the wait for a bus is an hour or more it's best to cab it to the border, walk across, then check out Greyhound/Cruceros for an imminent departure to downtown SD and, if none, resort to the trolley.

On the return trip, I usually overnight at Motel 6 (Bayfront & E Street trolley stop) in Chula Vista, then take the trolley to the border, cross by walking over the overpass, then take a cab to the airport, takes about an hour, hour and a half from CV to TJ airport. The walk from the motel to the trolley is a snap, the walk across the overpass is getting a bit difficult as I age. Good exercise, though.

Mitchman has it down to a science.

MitchMan - 6-16-2011 at 11:04 AM

msrla,
you get dropped off about two minutes walk from the entrance to the US customs/border crossing. But, 19 times out of 20 there will be a line of border crossing pedestrians, the line that you must get in to cross the border and get checked by US customs officers. The line will take, most often, about 45 minutes to an hour (sometimes longer) to go through, most often closer to an hour if you are talking about mid afternoon on any day.

When you get out of the cab, you will be approached by aggressive sales people that will try to sell you a "ride" in a van for $5 USD that will take you through that special lane I wrote about above (the lane that the Crucero bus takes to cross the border). They will tell you that you will get across the border in only minutes with them. Don 't believe them, it is a bold faced lie. You will not save any time at all, it takes them the same amount of time to get you across the border as your getting in line and walking across yourself. I know because I did that the first two times I crossed the border to San Ysidro; didn't save any time at all.

As for taking a cab from the TJ airport to the San Ysidro border crossing, in only certain instances that may (but not certainly) save you an hour, and in a bit rarer circumstance save you up to two hours of time. It's a matter of timing for me as I need to catch the bus leaving San Ysidro going to Oceanside, which fortunately leaves every hour. Getting to the border from the TJ airport by taking a cab will only save you the amount of time that you would have to wait for the bus to leave the airport for the border. I advise walking to the bus terminal at the airport and verify the departure time of the bus by asking the bus driver himself and the dispatcher at the counter at the bus terminal before deciding to take the cab. That my save you a cab fare if you already have the bus ticket for the ride.