Conrad Stanley has been on sabbatical for a while — meaning, he’s actually been working — but last Saturday, he headed down to one of his favorite haunts, Cabo San Lucas, for 15 days. Of course, he had to do it as inexpensively as possible and here’s how he played it.
A round-trip flight out of San Diego on his schedule was $718. Horrors!
Instead, he took advantage of the Cross Border Express (“CBX”) Terminal at the Otay Mesa/Mexico border. The Otay Mesa Port of Entry is one of the two border crossings in San Diego (the other is San Ysidro). Otay Mesa has an airport that actually crosses the border: You enter the terminal in San Diego, pass through U.S. Customs, then cross a secure Sky Bridge right over the border, then encounter Mexican immigration. Once past Border Control, you emerge inside Tijuana International Airport — right at the gates past security.
All of this happens in a matter of minutes.
Taking this route affords two big benefits. First, since it’s a domestic flight within Mexico, Conrad’s round-trip airfare dropped nearly 80%, all the way down to $157. And second, when he landed at San José del Cabo International, he walked off the plane onto the tarmac and straight to the shuttle to his resort. He didn’t have to wait in what he calls the “ridiculous” line to go through Immigration/Customs, like the thousands of visitors flying in internationally.
Nor did he have to wait for any luggage at a carousel. He carried on his personal-item-size backpack that works the same for the low-cost Mexican carrier Volaris he flew as it does for Allegiant, Spirit, or Frontier stateside.
Since it’s in the low 80s in Cabo now, he doesn’t need much in the way of clothes. He easily packed five days’ worth of clothing and supplies in the large backpack. And staying at a timeshare resort, he has easy access to laundry facilities. With a few Tide Pods and Bounce fabric-softener sheets, he can do one load of laundry twice and be fine for the 15 days.
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