Heading across the border and driving down to Ensenada, Baja California, to enjoy the quiet seaside town with its restaurants, bistros and mariachis performing on street corners is a great way to escape the humdrum of your daily routine and fully enjoy yourself.
Before crossing the border, it is best to have comprehensive automobile insurance, which you can purchase for the length of time of your visit. Mexinsurance, Mexpro and other insurance companies operate both north and south of the border and also sell policies online.
After you cross the border, you can certainly make purchases with your U.S. greenbacks, but exchanging your dollars for Mexican currency at a money changer will yield more pesos for your buck.
On a typical trip to Ensenada, it is tempting and certainly enjoyable to stop first in Rosarito, which was built largely as a tourist town where visitors can enjoy a relatively safe environment with plenty of English-speaking restaurateurs and souvenir vendors. The downside is the high prices as compared to Ensenada and the feeling of seclusion from authentic, everyday Mexican life, which you will enjoy to the fullest in Ensenada.
You will know you are approaching Ensenada when you pass through the town of El Sauzal and later the Autonomous University of Baja California (UABC) on the long toll road, Highway 1, hugging the coast. Once in town, you will marvel at the number of restaurants and bars lining the streets, but one of the most famous is Hussong’s Cantina, a longtime favorite of expats and new arrivals alike.
Hussong’s was established in 1892 by Johann Hussong, a German immigrant who settled in the area and bought an old stage coach stop with the dream of turning it into a bar. The building standing today on Avenida Ruiz is the site of the original Hussong’s, which is still operating with the same liquor license, No. 002.
The Hussong’s of today remains largely unchanged from 1892, just a small “hole in the wall” with a bar, a few tables and plenty of beer on tap and liquor for your favorite cocktail. Of course, you have to try their margarita, which, if memory serves, is superb. They also serve their own signature bottled beer, which you can also purchase as a liquid souvenir of your Ensenada adventure.
Papas & Beer is a well-known gringo hangout for American college students who head down below the border for spring break or summer vacation. Not only will you enjoy the libations, but the menu of short-order meals is just the thing for active, young people who want light fare in a party atmosphere instead of the full dining experience offered at traditional restaurants. Order something from the taco and guacamole cart when it passes your table and keep the fun going! Papas & Beer is perhaps best known for its practice of having someone pick you up and turn you upside down while the barkeep pours a shot of tequila in your mouth!
Fat Tuesday, open every day from 10 a.m. to 3 a.m. the next day (bartenders need to sleep too), is another cantina favored particularly by young American tourists. The surfboards, boogie boards and ladies’ braziers lining the walls should be a clear indication this place is for the heartiest of party-goers, many of whom hail from colleges and universities in Southern California.
For seating, choose between a colorful rope swing or a standard barstool, which offers the obvious advantage of closer access to the bartender for your next tequila shooter. Fat Tuesday caters to a young crowd looking for light bar food and a wide variety of popular mixed drinks, including margaritas, piña coladas and tequila sunrises, plus your favorite Mexican beers, such as Tecate, Corona, Dos Equis and others.
A popular surfer hangout is Dick and Willy’s, featuring swings for bar seating and an environment completely bathed in neon lighting. Spring-loaded table stools shaped and painted like bikini-clad ladies’ bottoms add to the zany, fun buzz of this unique drinking establishment.
If there is any food available at Dick and Willy’s, it is almost certain to be limited to tortilla chips and tacos, since the atmosphere is definitely geared to hardcore partying, not for lingering over a dinner of tamales, rice and beans as you might find elsewhere. Enjoy the vibes and hang on to your swing!
For families and for couples well past their teens, enjoy a quiet, sit-down meal in a charming Mediterranean environment at La Ensenada, which features classic American and European food, including clam chowder, filet mignon with potatoes and asparagus, coconut shrimp with asparagus and rice, grilled vegetables, freshly baked dinner rolls, octopus tacos, guava salsa and other sumptuous temptations. Although La Ensenada lacks the excitement of loud music and spring-loaded bar stools, the food and quiet ambience will be a soothing, welcome sight after a day of bar hopping and souvenir shopping.
Another gourmet restaurant well worth trying out is Planta Baja Restaurant, a quiet place overlooking the ocean waves with inside seating in cold weather and patio seating for bright, sunny days. For starters, Planta Baja’s bar selection includes a healthy list of Mexican, American and German beers, and their liquor choices cover an entire wall behind the bar.
To whet your appetite, sample among a long list of starters, like an octopus or fish taco with a beer or a margarita. Then move on to a salad of your choice, from a combination of cous-cous, baby zucchini, baby carrots, spinach, tomato cherries, avocado and other fresh ingredients.
The dinner menu offers a robust variety of steaks, burgers, pasta, crepes, vegetarian croquettes and other enticements. There is also a separate vegetarian menu with some of the most interesting selections to be found anywhere above or below the border: mushroom sandwich on beer bread, coconut risotto with grilled and tempura vegetables, spinach and mushroom crepes and more.
A quick weekend trip below the border to Ensenada is destined to be a fun, affordable getaway, even if for only a day. After all that drinking, though, you are best advised to find a room at one of the numerous clean, affordable hotels in town. Give yourself a break and visit Baja – you’ll be planning your next trip before you even return home.
