‘It seems so simple getting there’: Woman travels to Tijuana. Then she tries to cross the border back into America

One vacationer thought it wouldn't be a big deal to hop over the U.S. border into Mexico, only to stand corrected on the way back.

Traveler and content creator (@bmoneyy44) documented a border crossing from Tijuana, Mexico, back to the United States. The video has since accumulated more than 177,000 views.

“Child, what they don't tell you about crossing the border to go back to America from Tijuana,” the creator said, filming herself walking to the back of a line that appeared to span several blocks in Tijuana.

The line was filled with luggage-laden travelers, and some held umbrellas in an attempt to shelter from the sun. The creator expressed shock at the difference in her experience entering Tijuana versus the much longer wait she was facing upon her return to America.

“It seems so simple getting there,” she said. “It literally only took us five minutes to get there.”

The creator then revealed she'd ended up “waiting for three to four hours in this line, trying to get back to America.”

“I never seen nothing like this a day of my life,” she said.

How to avoid long lines at the Tijuana-U.S. border

The creator's comment section was filled with sympathetic viewers offering helpful tips to avoid such a predicament in future trips. Many said that the trick to shorter lines at the Tijuana border just comes down to timing.

“You have to leave between 3 [a.m.] and 5 [a.m.],” one viewer wrote. Another replied, “Sometimes when I leave around 11[p.m.], there's no line either.”

“Girl, I'm local here love, always leave at 11:30 [p.m.],” another commented.

“I cross walking at [2:30 a.m.] everyday for work for the past 3 years, my longest wait has been 20 min,” one commenter wrote with laughing emojis. “It's all about timing!”

“The key is to leave earlier,” yet another viewer echoed. “I typically only wait an hour. [Friday] and [Saturday] are the busiest days.”

However, other viewers also pointed out that savvy travelers also have alternate options to save time. Some advised joining travel programs such as Global Entry to skip lines. Others directed the creator to “cross-border shuttle services,” which cost $10 to board but end up drastically decreasing border wait times. The San Diego Union-Tribune reports these shuttles “have capacity for 30 people and will leave every half-hour” every day, seven days a week.

The Cross Border Xpress, which is a Tijuana airport terminal in San Diego, California, intended to streamline cross-border travel, also advises travelers to use its “Enhanced Passenger Processing system.” This program, which functions similarly to Global Entry, allows U.S. citizens to experience “quicker re-entry” by “[saving] time, [avoiding] crowds, and [staying] one step ahead of the holiday rush.”

Buzz News has reached out to the creator via TikTok comment.