Despertando Zih Turismo

Dear Talley Ho,

Many thanks for the tip. Everyone in San Diego is very aware of the CBX as it is wildly advertised and there are even signs on the freeways pointing travelers towards it. My wife likes to use it but when I travel alone to Mexico, I either take the trolley to San Ysidro or have someone drop me off in San Ysidro, exchange some dollars for travel pesos at one of the Casas de Cambio (much better rate of exchange than any other Casas de Cambio in the airports or tourist destinations, roughly equivalent to Xoom or Western Union) and then walk across. I can buy my tourist visa at the San Ysidro border crossing instead of at the airport as the border crossing line is usually much shorter. I then walk downtown and hit one of the restaurants in downtown Tijuana and intermingle with the locals. I then take the bus from downtown TJ directly to the airport. The one-way bus ride is typically $15 pesos (but it may have gone up since the recent devaluation of the peso).

The CBX, on the other hand, charges US$30 round trip and US$18 one-way. As a full-fledged member (non-paying, of course) of the Tightwad Club, this is highway robbery, in my humble opinion! With my Volaris V.pass last fall 2019 and early 2020, I was scarfing round-trip tickets to Huatulco, Puerto Vallarta, and my favorite Mexican beach location, Zihuatanejo, for between US$57 and US$87. I ain't gonna' pay US$30 for a four-hundred yard round-trip walk when I am paying US$65 for a 3,000-mile round-trip flight. As I mentioned in a previous post, I had my round-trip ticket to Zihua from Tijuana for the last week of March that I think I paid a total of US$87 for. The week before is when all "non-essential" travel into and out of Mexico was prohibited.

Again, best case scenario, I will be back in Zihua in September. Keep those photos comin', Rob. They are sights for sore and sad eyes!

Many thanks to all and please stay safe!

Sinceramente,

Frank Paiano
San Diego, California

P.S. For those who travel often within Mexico and are not familiar with Volaris's V.pass program, it is definitely something that you should check out. I was as happy as a domesticated, porcine, farm animal in rich, organic matter for the four months I got to take advantage of the program. However, I am still having $600 pesos withdrawn from my BBVA (nee Bancomer) debit account each month and *not* being able to take advantage of my one round-trip ticket. You pay $600 pesos each month (but I think it has gone up a bit) and then starting the first of each month, you can grab a round-trip ticket anywhere within Mexico (sorry, no connecting flights included) and only have to pay the taxes and airport fees. The taxes and fees vary from US$25 to US$45 depending on the airport and the $600 pesos is roughly US$30. My best deal was round-trip from Tijuana to Huatulco for US$57. That was awesome! Speaking of Volaris, I checked out their new and improved website today. It is even more buggy than the previous website. Hard to believe but ya' gotta' love Mexico!