It’s been a tradition for me to incorporate food tours into all my vacations since my very first food tour in Amsterdam a few years back (read about it HERE). Since then, I’ve done a food tour in New Zealand, Iceland, and New Orleans. They were all great. I’ve basically decided you can’t go wrong with a food tour. So, obviously when I was road tripping down the west coast a few weeks back, I started googling food tours ;). I found this tour on TripAdvisor and decided to give it a go. Unlike my previous food tours, this was more of a food tour + sightseeing, but as you will see, no one goes hungry on this tour!!
Our guide West (who is actually from Columbia) picked us up at our hotel in San Diego and we headed for the border! We stopped and took pictures of both sides of the border in Tijuana, and stopped for a few minutes in Friendship Park. Our first food stop was homemade tamales! I tried the a beef tamale and a corn tamale, which reminded me of dessert! This trip was off to a great start already ;).
We hopped back in the van and drove further down the coast towards Rosarito and Puerto Nuevo, stopping to do some shopping and then at a little fishing village/town for lunch. Lunch was fresh fish (caught that morning!), split down the middle and grilled with lots of delicious spices, fresh salsa, tortilla chips, rice, and beans! Oh and shrimp ceviche for an appetizer…oh man!!! It was seriously so good and, West wasn’t lying – SO MUCH FOOD!!!
On our way further down the coast towards Popotla and Calafia, we stopped at a roadside stand for some “ice cream”, at least that’s what they called it, but it tasted more like a sorbet to me. The owner said it was just fruit puree/juice mixed with ice. We tried three different flavors – guanabana, pitaya, and nieve (exotic desert fruits apparently?). Whatever you call it, it was great! Yum!
We drove on down the coast for some beautiful views of the coastline, and then stopped at a roadside candy stand, trying lots of different sweet and spicy Mexican candies. I mean, CANDY! Need I say more??
Since our tour was actually a combined tour of his Mexico Wine Tour and One Day Mexico Tour, we headed to the Guadelupe Valley for some wine and tequila tasting. Well, the rest of my tour group did. I don’t drink alcohol….but the scenery was amazing, the cheese and bread was delicious, and the whole process involved in making wine and tequila is interesting =). We stopped at like 4 different wineries, including a one-man operation is a guy’s basement…haha.
After the Guadelupe Valley, we headed back to Tijuana. We drove through the heart of the city (including the red light district, which was somewhat shocking…much more chaotic than Amsterdam’s red light district) and stopped for “the best tacos in Tijuana” per West, our guide. I don’t know if they are the best in Tijuana, but they were pretty darn good! We tried beef, pork, tongue(!!), and cheek(!!). He said they make tacos from EVERY part of the cow, and I think I believe him ;).
The tour lasted about 14 hours, and it was a long day but so worth it. You see so much AND eat so much tasty food! It’s the best of both worlds =). If you are ever in the San Diego area, I highly recommend this tour. West was super nice, friendly, and really goes out of his way to make sure everyone on the tour has a great time. It was AWESOME!!
Thank you for the great review. I’m glad you enjoyed your day in Mexico and all of the food! I like to make sure no one goes home hungry 🙂 You got some excellent pictures as well! I hope you don’t mind, I shared your post to my Facebook as well.
Happy travels,
West