Playas de Rosarito (pop. 76,000) has many selling points, as its tourist promoters have discovered during the city’s transformation from elite hideaway to all-out gringo-magnet, but none counts more than its proximity to the US border. Baja’s youngest city is just 45min. by car from San Diego, a distance that seems to shrink as Californian weekenders come in flocks to party in Rosarito’s clubs and sunbathe on its beaches. The movie Titanic was filmed here and Fox Studios now has a tourist park on the site. Most enterprises are geared toward tourists, and the two most widely accepted languages are English and the US dollar. If you’re looking for the “real Baja,” then this is probably not the place to come, but if the seeping Americanization doesn’t bother you, the beaches and clubs are yours to enjoy.
To get to Rosarito from Tijuana, grab a yellow-and-white taxi van (30min., 20 pesos) from Madero around Calle 3. For the return journey, the same vehicles congregate in front of the Rosarito Beach Hotel. You can also flag them down along northbound Juárez, which is also the easiest way to get from one end of Rosarito to the other. Negotiate the price before you get in the van. Mexicoach sends buses to Tijuana (round-trip US$16) from the Rosarito Beach Hotel. At the intersection of Juárez and Cleofas Arriola is the ABC bus terminal (☎613 1151). Buses run to Ensenada (1hr., 4 per day 7am-4pm, 76 pesos), Mexicali (6hr., 3pm, 222 pesos), and La Paz (24hr.; 12:30, 6:30pm; 1983 pesos). Suburbaja also sends buses from the station to Tijuana (every 20min. 5am-9am, 14 pesos).
Rosarito lies roughly 27km south of Tijuana. Mex. 1 runs straight through Rosarito, becoming the city’s main drag, Juárez, before continuing south. Coming from the toll road, take the first Rosarito exit to the north end of Juárez, which can be befuddling because of its lack of street signs. Virtually all the businesses in town are on Juárez, with most tourist facilities concentrated at the southern end, between the PEMEX station at the corner of Av. Cipres and the Rosarito Beach Hotel. On weekends, hordes of SUV-driving visitors clog up Juárez, making progress painfully slow and parking spaces hard to find.
Most budget hotels in Rosarito are cramped or inconveniently situated far from the southern (and more touristy) end of Juárez. Prices soar during spring break, holidays, and summer weekends. If you’re going to stay for several days, ask how much you will be paying for each night.
With pricey restaurants serving international cuisine, Rosarito’s culinary scene caters mostly to tourists who consider US$10 cheap. Nevertheless, a good scavenger hunt yields quality budget eateries with simple, yummy food. For lighter fare, check out the city’s bakeries. For groceries, try the Calimax, at Cárdenas and Juárez. (☎612 0060. Open daily 7am-midnight.)
Rosarito entices with fancy resorts, beautiful shores, and wild nightlife. The beach itself spans most of Juárez, and there are two distinct parts. Tourists pack the beach near the pier and the town’s clubs, which cluster at the southern end of town, between Eucalipto and Nogal. A more local crowd visits the beach on the northern end of town, which is most easily accessible off La Fuente. Horseback riding with a guide is available at both places for US$5-10 per hr.
Rosarito has a proud tradition of hosting vacationing movie stars, but it has taken on new importance in the form of Fox Studios Baja and the attached Foxploration tourist park, 2km south of Rosarito. Fox’s blockbuster Titanic was filmed here, and following the film, Fox opened part of the movie set as a tourist park. Unfortunately, with a lack of foresight equal to that of the original designers of the Titanic herself, the studio has dismantled its main attraction—the ship is no longer there. As a result, a visit to Foxploration feels a bit like sitting through a series of film trailers without the feature presentation. (10min. drive on Mex. 1 south of Rosarito at km 32.5. Foxploration ☎614 9444; www.foxploration.com. Open W-F 9am-5:30pm, Sa-Su 10am-6:30pm. US$12, children and seniors US$9.)
Rosarito’s nightlife revolves around Hotel Festival Plaza, which has a number of bars and clubs of its own. The mega-clubs on the streets behind the hotel are packed with drunken revelers on weekend and summer nights. The clubs are not hard to find. Club hawkers sell drink bracelets valid for an unlimited number of a limited selection of drinks for around US$10. Depending on how hard you party, this can be a good deal. Iggy’s (☎612 0537; www.clubiggys.com), on Juárez at Hotel Festival Plaza, is a behemoth of a nightspot with its own pool and foam party. With capacity for 6000 partiers, Iggy’s offers three adjoining bars with food and all-you-can-drink cocktails. (Cover approx. US$10. Open 11am-3am, later on weekends.) Macho Taco, Juárez 60 (☎613 0630), across from Hotel Festival Plaza, is the one über-popular spot on the opposite side of Juárez. (Open daily 10am-2am, as late as 6am on weekends.)
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For 52 years, we have published the world’s favorite budget travel guides, written entirely by students and updated every year. With pen and notebook in hand and a few changes of underwear stuffed in our backpacks, we spend months roaming the globe in search of travel bargains.
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