March/April 2024 - Wrapping Up in Ensenada / Final Thoughts on the Baja Peninsula

Our final stop on our winter Baja tour was the medium-sized port city of Ensenada. Ensenada is about 1 hour south of our stop in Rosarito last fall, and about 2 hours south of San Diego, California. Our goal to find a nice, temperate location continues, and the weather in Ensenada is pretty nice year-round. Actually, it can get a bit chilly in the winter, and we even had a couple of weeks of cold nights during our stay.

For our lodging in Ensenada, we found an apartment through Airbnb, located just north of the centro/downtown. With limited Google map information, we weren’t able to see exactly where we’d be staying, but I was able to determine that the neighborhood was built on a large, steep hill. Upon arrival, we found a very nice gated community, and the large steep hill was as-expected! It appears that the developer did very little earthworks when establishing the roads, leaving the homeowners to deal with steep streets and major elevation changes on their lots.

Our specific apartment was very nice and modern. The homeowners live on site in a very large home with two casitas on their lot. We had an upstairs unit, which was actually ground level from the street, so we never had to go up or down any stairs, which was great for Gunner. The apartment had a reasonable kitchen and dining area next to a small couch and living space. We had very good wifi, which is great because we are constantly online and we stream all of our TV content. Our apartment appeared to have a stacked washer/dryer, but in a locked closet and for the owner’s use only. The bedroom and bathroom were typical, the water was consistently hot, though the showerhead didn’t work as well as it should have. Based on the layout of the apartments and the main house, we didn’t have any sort of patio or outdoor area, though we did have a reasonable off-street parking space for our car.

Our neighborhood was very nice. Based on the size of the homes and the cars in the area, we’re pretty sure that we were in one of the nicest areas of town. Most of the homes are sprawling, multi-story structures. I would estimate the small units are at least 2,500 square feet and the largest have to be at least 5,000-6,000 square feet! With some trial and error, we were able to figure out a reasonable walking route, avoiding the steepest hills, and creating a 1-mile loop. Gunner’s endurance has waned, and he won’t typically walk that far anymore, but Sandy and I managed to walk the loop both morning and night, almost every day. As an added benefit, by walking 5-10 minutes outside of our neighborhood gates, we could explore the hilltops overlooking the city and the ocean. We spent a few evenings on the hilltops, watching the sunsets, and even caught an impressive Space-X rocket launch!

Ensenada from our mirador

The biggest surprise, and negative, to our hilltop location was that the hill was just too long and steep for us to walk into town. As with many of our other locations, we had hoped to walk 30 minutes to town, where we could explore and find lunch, then walk back home. But we immediately decided that this was not going to work, and instead, we drove into town almost every day. Fortunately, Ensenada is not too crowded, and it was typically easy to find parking wherever we went. The city has a nice centro district, with restaurants and shops lining the streets. The malecon is geared to cruise-ship tourists, with souvenir shops, bars, and boat tour operators calling for people to check out their wares.

Centro tourist district

Malecon and marina

Weather-wise, we had a beautiful stay in Ensenada. High temperatures were typically between 65 and 75 during the day, though we did have a few cool, rainy days in the low 60s. Along with the cooler days, we had at least 7 cold nights (upper 40s) spread over our 1st two weeks in town. Our condo did not have central heating, so we often wore light sweatshirts when sitting around, and our host provided a small space heater that we would use on the coolest mornings or evenings.

Ensenada is a large enough city that it has a nice variety of food options. Of course, we found traditional Mexican sit-down restaurants and taquerias, as well as some great seafood spots and a birriería. Of the Mexican options, one of our favorites was Lupita’s, a local seafood spot that we found on one of our field trips, but was unfortunately pretty far south, and not convenient as a go-to spot. Sandy fell in love with their tropical ceviche – a mix of shrimp, tuna, mango, and pineapple. They also made some very good seafood tacos, and our bills were reasonable, around 500 pesos ($30 USD) per visit.

By far, our favorite restaurant was Hacienda La Guadalajara. They make multiple types of birria, as well as birria tacos. With multiple visits there, I was able to try both lamb and goat, and am not sure I can pick a favorite. Sandy stuck with the birria tacos, eating both beef and pork (her favorite). We highly recommend this spot, and they have two locations in town so it’s easy to find them when you’re hungry. A full-sized bowl of birria runs about 250 pesos, and the quesabirria tacos are quite reasonable at only 50 pesos each. On average, we spent about 550 pesos ($32 USD) on each visit to La Guadalajara.

In addition to Mexican food, some other meals worth mentioning are the Israeli food we had at Falafel, as well as some very good ramen at Mexipón. Falafel had some very straightforward Mediterranean options, such as hummus, falafel, and stuffed pitas, at rock-bottom prices. We went twice, as spent around 350 pesos ($21 USD) each time. At Mexipón, we had some very good ramen bowls, priced at about 200 pesos ($12 USD) each.

Drink-wise, we were quite surprised to find a large number of microbreweries in Ensenada. We were equally surprised to find that most of these taprooms didn’t open until 5 or 6 PM, well after our typical time out in town. Our third surprise was the price-point – most of the craft beers were 70-80 pesos ($4-$5 USD) each, far more reasonable than all of the towns that we explored further south, and about half the price of the craft breweries in Cabo San Lucas! We did make it to at least 5 breweries in the area though, and can say that the collaboration-style taproom of Bruer and Cardera was our favorite spot. Both breweries have a large selection on tap, including a decent number of dark beers. There is also a small restaurant on site, making an excellent smoked pork torta with fries for only 120 pesos ($7 USD).

While touring around town, we discovered that Ensenada is the birthplace of the margarita! With further touring, we learned that multiple bars claim to be the originator of the drink. Sandy tested the margaritas at Hussong’s and Bar Andaluz, and thought that Hussong’s was better, but neither were the best she’s had – refer back to the Hidden Bar in our post about Posada Concepción.

Grocery costs were very reasonable in Ensenada, and on par with other locations in the Baja peninsula. With both a Costco and Sam’s Club available, we were able to find good prices on bulk cereal, boxed milk, frozen blueberries, and frozen vegetables. We also typically find great deals on tequila and wine, similar to the warehouse clubs in the U.S.

Our favorite excursion from Ensenada was a 45-minute drive north to the Valle de Guadalupe – the most productive and successful wine country in the Baja peninsula. We toured an interesting wine museum, a regional Baja mission site, and a few of the regional wineries. Well, we didn’t tour the wineries, so much as sat in their tasting room and sampled their product. Most of the places we visited produced both white and red wines.

Valle de Guadalupe vineyard

Sandy and I don’t really care for white wine, but the tasting flights typically included a mix of both. We did not become white-wine converts, but we were happy to find a few decent red wines, including a new grape varietal – Nebbiolo. Overall, we enjoyed the two trips that we made to the valley, but were disappointed at the price points for the tastings – typically ranging from 350-650 pesos ($21-$38 USD), but up to 1,000 pesos ($59 USD) for some flights. Even at L.A. Cetto – a bargain wine that we’ve found for 150 pesos ($9 USD) per bottle – tours/flights started at 250 pesos ($15 USD) each, with no sharing allowed, and no options for red-wine-only.

Another good excursion from Ensenada is 45 minutes south of town at “La Bufadora” (“the blowhole”). The drive to the surrounding Punta Banda area is very dramatic and scenic, ending at a couple of reasonably-priced parking lots (50 pesos/$3 USD for all-day parking). The area was much more touristy than we expected, and we noticed that many of the people there were part of cruise-ship excursions. The main attraction in the area is the blowhole, which erupts every 1-2 minutes, with larger and more-impressive eruptions every 10-15 minutes. Between the parking lots and the blowhole, numerous vendors line the street, with food, drinks, clothing, toys, and souvenirs. Most of the vendors spoke good English, and most appeared to accept dollars in addition to pesos.

Gunner at Playa Hermosa

We visited a couple of beaches near Ensenada – Playa Hermosa and Playa Pacifica. Both beaches were a bit dirty with not many shells to be found. We relaxed at each beach for 1-2 hours, but to be honest, we weren’t really impressed with either one.

We also visited three more mission sites around Ensenada. All were in ruins, with some level of restoration or protection. Furthest north, about halfway to Rosarito, we saw the Misión de San Miguel la Nueva. This site has a modern church in front and a covered area in the back, protecting the remains of some short walls from the original mission. There were some nice signs explaining the history of the site and the other missions in the area. A bit further south, we found the Misión de San Miguel de la Frontera. These ruins are next to a school and surrounded by a fence. The gates were closed and locked when we visited, so we were only able to take a few photos from outside the property. Our final site was the ruins of the Misión de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe del Norte, in the town of Guadalupe, in the heart of the Valle de Guadalupe wine country. Though the ruins are non-descript, there is a nice museum on site detailing the lives of the natives, missionaries, and many of the original settlers of the valley.

One of our coolest outings was not actually Ensenada-specific. Early in our stay, I saw

Space-X launch

would be another launch within a week. We were able to view the launch just after sunset from the mirador south of our neighborhood. We had a great, unobstructed view of the sky, with very few bright lights nearby. There was no sound to speak of, but we watched the rocket and contrail arc southward across the sky, and also saw the separation of the rocket stages, with the first stage falling back to earth.

While in Ensenada, we carved out some time for “business” as well. We returned to the same dental office that we visited in October, for a standard 6-month cleaning plus fluoride treatment. The cost was similar to the fall - $45 for the cleaning plus $22 for the fluoride (each).

Because our condo did not have a washer/dryer available, we found a good laundromat - Lavamatica Michoacana - near the centro, just a few miles away. They were a bit pricier than other places we’d been this winter, averaging 280 pesos ($17 USD) for two loads of wash/dry/fold.

In addition to cleaning our clothes, we also found a good drive-through car wash, which can actually be a bit difficult to find in Mexico. What’s most common is a neighborhood wash with a bucket and hose. Second is a car wash location, but still primarily using buckets and hoses. Drive through or express car washes are a newer system that we’ve only seen in larger cities. Our first wash at California Express was early in our stay, to wash off the 6-months of dirt that we’d accumulated, at a price of 180 pesos ($11 USD) plus tip. They did a nice job, so we returned at the end of our stay and added an interior service as well, for a total of 320 pesos ($19 USD) plus tip. The workers had great attention to detail when drying the car and with the interior, and we were extremely happy with the results.

Expats in Ensenada – yes, there are quite a few. Surprisingly, we would not see very many when dining out, or at the breweries, but seemed to find them when shopping at places like Costco. Ensenada appeared to be a popular hub for expats, but reportedly many of them live in smaller communities outside the city, which explains why we would typically see them when stocking up. Ensenada is also a popular cruise port. We saw cruise ships at the pier about 50% of the time, and occasionally there would be two boats on the same day. On cruise days, the centro area near the pier was noticeably busier, but never crowded.

Our costs and spending in Ensenada were very reasonable, and it was nice to finish our Baja peninsula tour with some savings to offset higher spending earlier in the year. Our condo was about $1,550 for 30 nights, or around $52/night. This is still higher than we were originally finding in the mainland, but less than our current target of $70/night, and we felt it was a very good deal compared to the lodging we’d had during our 6 months in the Baja. Our food costs came in at $44/day, compared to a target of $41/day. Dining out was right on target, groceries were a bit over budget, and alcohol was about 40% over budget, mostly due to buying some wine and margarita ingredients to take back to the U.S. at the end of the month. Ensenada has some tourist destinations, like ocean tours and adventure parks, but we passed those by and really only counted our tours to the Valle de Guadalupe as entertainment expenses. For our 30-day stay, we were very happy with our average cost of $106/day for lodging, food, gas, parking, and entertainment.

Not specific to Ensenada, but it’s also worth mentioning that the U.S. dollar continued to weaken against the Mexican peso. For most of our time in Ensenada, the exchange rate was around 16.60 pesos per dollar, before rising sharply at the end of our stay to over 17 pesos per dollar. With inflation adding 10-20% and exchange rates adding 20%, our daily living costs are approximately 30-40% higher than a year ago. Like everyone back home, we’ve adjusted our budget, and are still enjoying everything that Mexico has to offer us!

The three of us enjoyed our stay in Ensenada, but we agreed that it wasn’t our favorite destination. The weather was ideal, but we didn’t really care for the beaches, and didn’t feel that the city had much special to offer (our favorite destinations were outside of the city itself). We did appreciate the convenience of stores like Costco and Petco, as well as the large variety of micro-breweries. Traffic was busy, but manageable, though the roads in Ensenada were full of potholes, and were possibly the worst driving conditions that we found in the peninsula. Because of the consistently nice weather and access to the Valle de Guadalupe, we would enjoy a return visit to Ensenada.

Our Final Thoughts After 7 Months in the Baja Peninsula

Thinking back to our original goal when entering the peninsula, we were scouting for a potential medium-term location should we need to settle down with Gunner following our shift to Permanent Residency in about two years. Staying in the Baja peninsula would allow us to continue driving our U.S.-plated car as Permanent Residents, and many locations have mild, dry weather through the winter. After trialing numerous locations up-and-down the peninsula, we agreed that we didn’t find a perfect spot, but with some concessions, a few spots had most of what we were looking for (phew-no need to scramble thinking about other options, or going down the path of buying a Mexican car!). We settled on a short-list of three possible options that we would consider – San Felipe, Ensenada, and La Paz.

Ensenada has the most consistent weather, whereas our other two favorites can be pretty hot in the summer and shoulder seasons. We’ve summarized our key takeaways for these locations below, with “pros” in green, “cons” in red, and neutral factors in black.

Item	Favorite - San Felipe	Runner-Up - Ensenada	Alternate - La Paz
Weather	Warm fall and spring, nice winters	Ideal year-round	Could be hot in the fall and spring
Relative location	Approx 2 hours to/from the U.S.	Approx 1 hour to/from the U.S.	3-4 days drive to/from the U.S.
Roads and traffic	OK to poor road conditions, no traffic, occasional driving north of town for food or entertainment	Poor road conditions, medium traffic, often have to drive across town for shopping and destinations	OK road conditions, light traffic, most shopping and entertainment is located in a central area by the malecon
Shopping and groceries	Limited, only one option – Calimax, with ok selection and quality	Wide selection of grocery stores, including Costco and Sam’s Club	Good selection, plus a Sam’s Club, nearest Costco is Cabo San Lucas
Restaurants	Primarily Mexican or seafood, plus Italian and pub grub	Good variety, including some ethnic options, such as Japanese, Korean, and Mediterranean	Good variety, including ethnic options
Breweries	One, north of town, but with some good beers, food, and entertainment	Many breweries, and some with good quality and variety	Multiple good breweries making good beer
Beaches	Decent beaches in town, good places to find shells south of town, no good snorkeling options	Didn’t find any good options for sitting, walking or snorkeling	Good beaches north of town, limited snorkeling
Entertainment	Multiple festivals and Baja-style races year-round	Minimal in town, some surrounding the city	Various festivals during the year, good excursions and swimming with marine life
Expats	Many full-time residents, lower number of tourists	Most live in smaller communities outside of the city, most people in town appeared to be tourists	Some full-time residents, most expats appeared to be tourists
General feel	Very social, easy to meet people	Felt more isolated	Friendly area near the malecon, but limited reasons to explore the larger city
Gunner	8-months nice weather Easy to walk on the malecon Had short drives daily to get to walking area	Nice weather year-round Limited good areas for walks	6-months nice weather Easy to walk on the malecon Malecon is walking distance from many lodging options
Costs	Medium - $113/day Could likely reduce costs of lodging	Lowest - $106/day	Highest - $117/day Costs include multiple tours and entertainment

Overall, we’re happy that we could confirm some potential medium-term options for settling with Gunner in the Baja peninsula. Theoretically, we’d be choosing one of these options in the fall of 2025, but we’ll see how Gunner does this summer before we decide for sure.