After months of reading reviews here,...

After months of reading reviews here, I finally ventured down to TJ to check out the scene. The reviews really helped. Although it was my first time, I felt very confident and safe. So my first piece of advice to anyone thinking of going for the first time would be to first read as many of these reviews as possible.

I parked on the US side to the west of the freeway. I drove past the parking lots and parked for free on the street. This adds about 10 minutes to the walk, but I'm a cheap bastard so it's worth saving the $8-$12 in parking lot fees.

Unfortunately, the border crossing was moved to the east side of the freeway, which adds a good 20 minutes of walking. Follow the signs. At the actual point where you cross the border, you'll find yourself in a bright white room with scary looking Mexican army dudes standing around with big guns. I nearly crapped myself, and I think they could tell. One of them eventually waived me by when I gave them a confused look. Moral of the story: just keep walking through the room and act like you know what you're doing.