Arriving directly to San Diego International Airport is not very common because the airport is very small and flights are very expensive. The reason is that the airport is somewhat small and there are not so many flight frequencies. Flying from Mexico, the most common is to fly to Tijuana International Airport and then use the Cross Border Xpress.

If you come from any city of the U.S. the best way would be to find a direct flight to San Diego, the second option would be flying to Los Angeles and then drive to San Diego.

I am going to talk to you about options to transfer you to your hotel from the airport but I think that the best option is always to rent a car. To get to almost everywhere in California the distances are very long and having your own car is very comfortable. When you rent a car you have to take into account other costs such as insurance, parking and gasoline.

San Diego International Airport - To get from the San Diego International Airport to the city center, the most efficient way is to take a taxi or an Uber. The approximate cost is 12 usd per car. The cost may change, so I recommend you go to the Uber page to verify the costs.

Tijuana International Airport and the Cross Border Xpress (CBX) - You can get to the Tijuana airport and cross into the United States quickly using the CBX. The cost of the round trip has an approximate price of 30 usd per person. Take this into account because it may seem cheaper to travel to Tijuana but it may not be so. To get from the CBX to downtown San Diego the cost of the Uber is approximately 35 usd.

When making the reservation of this itinerary I will share some tips for your crossing through the CBX.

This is a generic suggestion for renting a car in the United States for your trip.

Personally, I think it is very important to have the peace of mind that if an accident happens you will have insurance to support you. Many people think that their credit card insurance supports them and they do not need to purchase additional insurance on their car rental.

I cannot guarantee that your credit card insurance will not support you, but in my experience, credit card insurance for car rentals in the United States and Canada is limited. This means that they will only cover part of the accident.

I suggest you investigate carefully what covers the car rental insurance offered by your credit card, and what are the conditions for them to apply. If you do not meet the conditions then your insurance will not be valid and you will face a big problem.

Being covered against everything is the best in case of an accident, but in the United States I think it is particularly important to have third party damage insurance. I am going to share this little guide on car rental insurance in the USA. There are mainly three types of insurance that you should look at:

​Collision Damage Waiver (CDW) - Collision insurance covers the damage caused to your car in the event of a collision.
Loss Damage Waiver (LDW) - Insurance that covers your car in case of theft
Supplemental Liability Insurance (SLI) - Insurance that covers additional damages caused to third parties as a result of the accident. Normally your rent should already include this insurance but it has a limit. Buying this policy increases the amount covered, which is very important because damages caused to third parties can cause a very high cost (third party property, third party health, state property, etc...).

There are thousands of car rental sites, and the rates are very confusing because you never know what is really included. When booking this itinerary, secret information will be released with some tips that I am going to share with you so that your car rental is cheaper, and you have more options.