Tijuana Travel Guide

Introduction

26km (16 miles) S of San Diego

Like many burgeoning cities in developing nations, Tijuana is a mixture of new and old, rich and poor, modern and traditional. But Tijuana is increasingly an important city in Mexico; the population has swelled to nearly two million, making it the second-largest city on the Pacific coast of North America (after Los Angeles). Despite obvious signs of widespread poverty, the town claims one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country, and high-rise office buildings testify to increased prosperity, as does the emergence of a white-collar middle class that shops at modern shopping centers away from the tourist zone.

Tijuana is a city that has seen its share of booms and busts. Its reputation for having a hustling, carnival-like atmosphere and easily accessible decadence stems from its early notoriety as a playground of illicit pleasures during the U.S. Prohibition, when scores of visitors flocked here to the site of the world's largest saloon...