Where Tijuana actually gets outdoors: the crews, the boardwalk and the border hills

Tijuana gets painted as a pass-through city: the border line, la Revu, a taco and back. But the geography says otherwise. This city has a beach with surfable waves right beside the border wall, bare hills surrounding it on every side — Cerro Colorado, and Cerro Gordo, its highest point — and a boardwalk in Playas where people run watching the sun set over the Pacific. The scene that uses all of it exists, is growing, and organises itself where everything organises itself now: Instagram accounts and Facebook groups you only find once someone shows you the list. This is the list.

The runners

The social run club phenomenon is fully Tijuanan now. In Playas, Pico Norte Run Club (@piconorterunclub) meets Sunday at dawn and prides itself on being beginner-friendly: show up, run along the ocean, stay for coffee. Tijuana Running Club (@trc.runningclub) is one of the biggest draws in town, with thousands of followers tracking every outing; No Running Club (@norunningclubmx) — 'running club for everyone' — counts a Tijuana chapter in its network; run tj run (@runtjrun_) documents the city by running it; and across the map, Zona Este Running Club (@zerc.runningclub) proves the scene doesn't live only in Playas and Zona Río. If you want dirt instead of asphalt, the Ultramaratón Baja Trail (@ubt50k) is the region's trail race. None of these clubs asks for race times: the format is social first, stopwatch second.

The hill people

Tijuana hiking has institutions. The most serious is Achacosos Senderismo (achacosossenderismo.org), Fernando Jáuregui's association, which has spent years organising hikes across Baja California — night hikes included — and has trained thousands of hikers and guides through more than a hundred courses. Hiking Club Tijuana (@hikingclubtijuana) runs its community between Instagram and its Facebook group; Baja Ladies Hiking (@bajaladieshiking) does its own thing for women; and the Club Alpino Mexicano de Baja California (clubalpinomexicanobc.mx) teaches hiking, rock climbing and mountaineering courses for anyone who wants to get technical. Where does everyone go? Cerro Colorado — the city's classic hike —, Cerro Gordo when they want the highest point, the Natura waterfall after it rains, and the dozens of routes AllTrails lists for Tijuana. The Senderismo en Baja California Facebook group is the notice board for all of it.

The riders

Tijuana bike culture has a modern founding date: Tijuaneando en Bici, the Alianza por la Movilidad Activa project that has spent more than fifteen years documenting and celebrating everyday cycling — in 2026 it marked its sixteenth anniversary with a ride and get-together rolling out from the Casillas Biker workshop on Calle Cuarta, with a picnic, short films and a bike-parts swap. Every May they also call the binational Bike Anywhere ride. Alongside them roll the collectives: A Dónde Rodamos (@adonderodamos) openly pushes for more cycling space in the city, and Colectivo Ciao Tijuana (@colectivociaotijuana) builds its own rides. The Paseos Ciclistas en Tijuana y sus Alrededores Facebook group gathers everyone else. One data point for scale: even the Tijuana Tech has its own cycling crew, the Galgos, with a Saturday ride from its sports complex.

The ones who get in the water

Yes: people surf in Tijuana. Playas de Tijuana breaks right where the border wall runs into the Pacific, and that's where Escuela de Surf Tijuana (@escueladesurftj) operates, with courses for beginners and advanced surfers off the boardwalk, and Club Surf Educa (@clubsurfeduca), which uses the board as a teaching tool. You need neither your own board nor experience: the schools lend gear and the cold water does the rest.

Climbing, still under construction

The uncomfortable truth: Tijuana indoor climbing is barely being born. Baja Boulder closed, and the relief effort is called GRIP Bouldering (gripboulderingtj.com), announcing walls of four metres eighty and visits booked over WhatsApp. While the plastic gains traction, real rock and the Club Alpino's courses remain the serious way in.

Where it all gets announced

Instagram first, Facebook groups second, AllTrails for the routes. That's the honest answer to 'how do I get in' — and also the problem: Tijuana's outdoor life lives scattered across ten different places, none of them complete. That is exactly the gap this magazine — and this platform — exists to close: real events, one city, one place.

If you run one of these crews, hikes, rides or surf classes: your events belong here too, and publishing them takes minutes. That is the whole point of ntl.events. See you on the boardwalk. no te limites.