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City in Baja California, Mexico

Ensenada

Ensenada is a city in Ensenada Municipality, Baja California, situated on the Pacific Coast of Mexico.

Ensenada
Ensenada · Wikimedia Commons (see file page)
The place

Ensenada is a city in Ensenada Municipality, Baja California, situated on the Pacific Coast of Mexico. Located on Bahía de Todos Santos, the city had a population of 279,765 in 2018, making it the third-largest city in Baja California. The city is an important international trade center and home to the Port of Ensenada, the second-busiest port in Mexico. Ensenada is a major tourist destination, owing to its warm climate and proximity to the Pacific Ocean, and is commonly known as La Cenicienta del Pacífico.

Adapted from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

What is there

Worth seeing in and around Ensenada

3 places within 25 km that the world writes about, in the order of how widely: the ones a visitor has heard of first, then the ones only a local would name.

  1. 01
    Roman Catholic Diocese of Ensenada

    The Roman Catholic Diocese of Ensenada is a suffragan diocese of the Archdiocese of Tijuana.

    1 km · diocese of the Catholic Church in Mexico · Wikipedia
  2. 02
    Emilio Lopez Zamora dam

    The Emilio López Zamora dam, also known as the Ensenada dam, is a dam with a water treatment plant in Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico, on the basin of the Ensenada stream. Its main use is the containment of flash floods, and as a water supply for the city.

    3.6 km · Dam in Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico · Wikipedia
  3. 03
    Cathedral of Our Lady of Guadalupe

    The Cathedral of Our Lady of Guadalupe is a Catholic church in Ensenada, Baja California, serving as the headquarters of the Diocese of Ensenada since 2007. It was built from 1951 to 1984, in the Spanish Colonial style, and dedicated to Our Lady of Guadalupe.

    1.1 km · Cathedral in Ensenada, Mexico · Wikipedia

Ranked by the number of language editions of Wikipedia with an article on each, from Wikidata; the sentences are the openings of those articles, CC BY-SA 4.0.

See

What Wikivoyage says to see

  1. 01
    Museo Histórico Regional
  2. 02
    Caracol Museo de Ciencias
  3. 03
    Cathedral of Our Lady of Guadalupe

    Obrera, 22830 Ensenada, Península de Baja California, México (5 blocks north of the Post Office (Correos), 6 blocks north of Av.

From Wikivoyage: Ensenada, CC BY-SA 4.0. Not yet checked by us.

Do

Things to do

The greatest experiences in Ensenada involve going out early to Bufadora, having ceviche at 1st street, drink at Hussong's, then go to a beach and end back in a club or bar. All of these require independent transportation so it would be wise to rent a car, and have a designated driver. Beaches. The city of Ensenada is on the Ensenada Harbor, so you'll have to drive south or north to get to a local beach.

From Wikivoyage: Ensenada, CC BY-SA 4.0. Not yet checked by us.

Eat

Where to eat

Seafood is ubiquitous in Ensenada, which has a large fishing fleet and a picturesque seafood market called Mercado Negro. Dining at the row of fish and shrimp taco eateries by the pier is an Ensenada must. The fish taco is said to have been born in Ensenada, and local cooks have their own variations, usually using white fish, shrimp, or a blend of both.

  1. 01
    Mercado Negro
  2. 02
    Tacos El Fenix

    This local favorite serves delicious tacos, shrimp and fish.

  3. 03
    Tortas La Michoacan
  4. 04
    La Guerrerense Carreta

    It also has a huge variety of salsas ranging from light to super hot.

  5. 05
    El Paisa Tacos

    10th street and 20 de Noviembre (ask a taxi to take you here).

From Wikivoyage: Ensenada, CC BY-SA 4.0. Not yet checked by us.

Go there

Getting to Ensenada

Airports
General Abelardo L. Rodriguez (TIJ), 83 km · San Diego (SAN), 112 km · Palm Springs (PSP), 219 km
Stations
Ensenada Airport, 7 km · Port of Ensenada, 2.1 km
  • Tijuana → Ensenada
    80 km · quickest by road, 2h 18m · MX$90–120
  • Hermosillo → Ensenada
    622 km · quickest by air, 7h 57m · MX$1,800–2,770
  • San Diego → Ensenada
    108 km · quickest by road, 2h 51m · $11–15
  • From anywhere
    The planner compares every way there from wherever you are.
    Plan a trip

Road and air are today’s quick answer; timetabled trains, buses and ferries load on the results page from the operators’ feeds.

Not yet researched

No local-transport research exists yet for Ensenada

Our researched notes are written from a sourced entry: every shared taxi, boat and village bus with its operator, its rule, its fare and the year we saw it, and what could not be confirmed. Nobody has done that work for Ensenada. What is above is what we hold from open sources; nothing here pretends to be more.

What Wikivoyage says about moving around
  • Go nextThe nearby cities of Tijuana, Tecate and Rosarito can be easily visited as a day trip.

From Wikivoyage: Ensenada, CC BY-SA. Not yet checked by us; that article was last edited 2026-09.

The nearest places where the work is done
  1. 01
    Port Townsend and the Olympic PeninsulaUS

    9 ways of moving, 17 sources

    1,881 km
  2. 021,972 km
  3. 03
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    11 ways of moving, 41 sources

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  4. 04
    Gibsons and the Sunshine CoastCA

    10 ways of moving, 21 sources

    2,034 km
  5. 05
    Courtenay, Comox and the Comox ValleyCA

    10 ways of moving, 14 sources

    2,101 km

If you know how people move in Ensenada – the stand, the rule, the fare – tell us, and the note gets an entry.

Around it

Next door to Ensenada