Visiting Ensenada

We cleared in at Ensenada on 6 December 2025 and stayed two nights at Hotel Coral & Marina. Budget a full day for bureaucratic nonsense while you’re clearing in.

Most of this circulates by word of mouth among cruisers. We pulled it together, organized it, and share it free. It is not official guidance, so don’t rely on it as such.

Hussong’s and a day in town From Some Tuesday

We cleared in on 6 December 2025 and stayed two nights at Hotel Coral & Marina. Dinner was at Hussong’s. A hardware-store run fit in the same stay.

The day itself was a van downtown to three offices. We had lunch with the driver and bought him tacos. Budget a full day. The port publishes a one-stop office, the Centro Integral de Servicios. Our day was three offices. Plan for ours.

Three offices, one van From Some Tuesday

The marina helps you clear in. They put you in a van downtown to visit three different offices on the same day. Seriously. We had lunch with the van driver and bought him tacos.

Clearing in at Ensenada is a ridiculous process. Even with the marina’s help it meant that van ride and those three offices. Allocate a full day. It may go faster, but there is no guarantee.

Our arrival was out of hours, so the Port Captain processed it as overtime: MXN 1,208, paid at the bank, at the 20–100 GT rate. That was the 2025 rate of MXN 604, doubled. The 2026 in-hours figure for the same band is MXN 626.93, and it still doubles outside office hours.

What the port publishes Heard from Cruisers

Ensenada’s Centro Integral de Servicios, Blvd. Teniente Azueta #101-1, is described as all the authorities in one place, plus a bank: Immigration, the Port Captain, Banjercito for the Temporary Import Permit, and fishing licences. That is the ASIPONA Ensenada description.

The steps, the visitor fee, and the Port Captain paperwork are on the Mexico clearing-in guide. The permit itself is on the Temporary Import Permit page.

Hussong’s, before the office opened From Some Tuesday

We came in at sunrise and the marina office was still shut, so we tied up at the fuel dock and slept until someone woke us. Two nights, a hardware-store run, and dinner at Hussong’s. Arriving in Ensenada.