IT’S tough all over, but for Tijuana, the last few years have been murder.

Terror fears? Let’s build some walls. Illegal immigrant fears? More walls again, tighter restrictions, longer lines. Oh, and now that crossing the border is a huge pain, how about we tack on a bird flu scare. And just for fun, the drug wars?

Stroll down the Avenida Revolucion these days – the heart of this Baja California border city’s tourist zone – and you’ll find it as forlorn as a winter’s day on the Coney Island boardwalk, with gate after gate rolled down, shut tight. Last year, it was reported that nearly sixty percent of the businesses in the once-thriving district had failed.

Something happened, though, while we were out. Today, with the local drug wars at a lull and the mood around town one of cautious optimism — statistically, the city is safer right now than popular American destinations like New Orleans, says Jason Thomas Fritz, editor of culture and news site Tijuanalandia.com – Tijuana feels different.

PHOTO GALLERY: THE NEW TIJUANA COOL

These days the second largest city on the West Coast and one of Mexico’s wealthiest per capita, it may still look like the sprawling, sun-splashed border town it has always been, but 125 years or so after its beginnings as a city, Tijuana seems to be moving on up. There will probably always be cheap beer and pills and hookers and cosmetic surgery, but as the city comes out of hiding after this latest forced cooling-off period, Tijuana seems ready to experiment at being known for something new.

It’s working. The outside world is taking notice, particularly of the local culinary scene. Tastemakers in Mexico City. Food writers in Los Angeles. Television chefs on both sides of the border. Even Rick Bayless, that hopeless traditionalist, will feature the region on the next season of his PBS show, starting next month. His meals in Tijuana, he has said many times since, were some of the best he can remember.

“Right now, all eyes are on Baja,” says Bill Esparza, one of Los Angeles’ most influential food bloggers and an early champion of the regional dining scene.

“Tijuana and Ensenada are really on the edge,” Esparza says, “doing a lot of cool, contemporary things that are organic. They’re not trying to be fancy, it’s just natural.”

That’s unsurprising, considering what local chefs are working with, from the outstanding seafood they can yoink straight out of the Pacific Ocean up the street, to one of Latin America’s most promising wine regions, the Valle de Guadalupe, just an hour south of town. Then, of course, there’s the incredible local produce. In short, think San Francisco without the pretty but with a ton more sunshine, not to mention an elite group of chefs that take an unashamedly sophisticated approach to cooking.

Beyond the food scene, there’s the cultural shift in the region itself. With the quick and easy tourist trade on life support, Tijuana, like Baja at large, is now forced to take an entirely different tack. This is how you get from an Avenida Revolucion in the 1990s with lines of suburban SoCal teenagers out the doors to an Avenida Revolucion so desperately out of ideas that last week, the city cleared the street and sold tickets to an outdoor opera concert, featuring one of Mexico’s most acclaimed tenors, Fernando de la Mora.

This is how you get a city known for bars serving cheap Coronas and crummy margaritas to create an entirely new kind of nightlife district, still in its infancy, with mezcal bars and solid restaurants that draw in a Williamsburg-like crowd. How you get chic coffee bars, stylish ceviche joints that that can draw foodies from as far as Los Angeles, classically-trained taqueros, multicourse tasting farm-to-table tasting menus with local wine lists and cheese carts in LEED-certified spaces, microbreweries in a country held hostage by the majors, one upscale shopping center after another.

“The type of tourist is changing,” says Derrik Chinn, a Tijuana resident, one in a small but active group of U.S. citizens that’s opting to live here, rather than a relatively sleepy San Diego next door. Chinn recently founded Turista Libre, a tour company that aims to show off the city’s best – and kitschiest and most fun – sides to growing groups of visitors. Growing so fast, in fact, that Chinn says he’s having to turn people away and is considering expanding his offerings.

One thing hasn’t changed at all, though. Tijuana may be turning into one of the coolest towns on the continent, but it’ll always be an easy day trip from anywhere in Southern California. Here’s what you do, after the turnstile has squeaked its last.

#1 Sign up for a tour. Not sure about navigating Tijuana on your own? No problem. Sign up for one of the unique tours offered by Turista Libre, the creation of Ohio native Derrik Chinn, who adopted Tijuana as his home just over three years ago. From beer tastings to gallery crawls to water park visits to guided trips to lucha libre matches, he’s done it all; the company is expanding to offer even more regular weekend happenings. Whatever you sign up for, you meet right at the gate into Tijuana, where someone will be waiting with a big sign. It doesn’t get much easier than that (turistalibre.com).

#2 Do lunch No matter where you are in Southern California, you really should come to Tijuana to eat, at least once. Just bolt down the 5, ditch your car, grab a cab and within minutes of crossing you could be eating some of the best food – no lie – available on the west coast right now. He isn’t the only chef worth knowing in town, but Javier Plascencia is definitely Tijuana’s brightest star at the moment. At Erizo, Plascencia’s lunch time ceviche (and more) spot across from the golf course on the tony Avenida Sonora, it’ll all become clear. Here, you’ll find San Diego food bigs like Jay Porter (El Take It Easy, The Linkery) eating mesquite-grilled octopus, smoked marlin tacos and fascinating things you probably haven’t tasted lately, or ever, such as chiccharon de atun (fried tuna skin) in a miso garlic glaze. The on-premises seafood market might make you wish you lived in the neighborhood (Av. Sonora 3801-11, near Blvd. Agua Caliente).

#3 Better Sexta Once a seamy footnote to the bawdy Revolution, Calle Sexta, or Sixth Street, has become a magnet for the city’s young and hip, who have created an Brooklyn-esque neighborhood to play in after dark (seriously, there is a hipster bar called Moustache, and it is very hip indeed). Tijuanalandia.com’s Jason Thomas Fritz, frequents (and recommends) El Tinieblo for its outstanding mezcal cocktails, which will make you forget all about the margarita (Sexta at Madero). When hunger strikes, head across the way to Pizza al Volo for its beautiful, floppy slices. Don’t leave without a stop at nearby La Chupiteria, an of-the-moment beer bar, which recently hosted what is perhaps the city’s most cutting edge musical act, Maria y Jose. The creation of 24-year-old Tony Gallardo, Maria y Jose is at the forefront of Tijuana’s “ruidoson” sound, which marries electronic beats with traditional folk and tropical sounds – a rather addicting combo.

#4 Regroup at La Stazione This should probably be your first stop in Tijuana, because of how perfect it is, and also for how quickly it makes you forget that you were in any way stressed out about crossing the border. Sitting across from the Agua Caliente dog track and casino, La Stazione, the baby of local culinary school grad Alex Rios, is a chic coffee bar with friendly staff that have a real knack for latte art, not to mention serious skills on the iced tea front. The crowd in here is a who’s who of Tijuana 2.0, from bloggers to chefs to hipsters and kingmakers; an hour here can easily turn into two, if you get to chatting (Tapachula 5-C, Col. Hipodromo; lastazione.com).

#5 Eat at one of Mexico’s finest restaurants You can eat really well in places like Mexico City, but right now, you really won’t find a restaurant quite as fresh and exciting as Mision 19. Housed in a sparkling new Zona Rio office building, this latest addition to the Javier Plascencia empire is, quite simply, one of the best restaurants in Mexico right now. For $64, you can sample the 8 course farm-to-table tasting menu that elevates traditional flavors into the stratosphere. Dishes such as local oysters topped with lamb chicharrones, chilled cotija cheese soup with pepper jelly, beautiful Sonoran beef, a watermelon sangria palate cleanser — it all starts to run together after awhile, into one big happy blur. Then again, that could be all the great Valle de Guadalupe wines talking. “Mision 19 has it right where other parts of Mexico don’t,” says Bill Esparza, who counts dinner here as one of the best reasons to come to Tijuana. “They have a sommelier that knows all the wineries, they have a wide variety of aged Baja cheese, served with local condiments — it really is the full experience of fine dining. It’s the whole Mexican experience.” Make reservations, particularly on weekends (Mission San Javier 10643, inside the Via Corporativo building; mision19.com).

#6 Cheer on the Xolos Local futbol fans are in seventh heaven these days, with the local team — the Xoloitzcuintles, say that five times fast — now in the Primera Division, or, en ingles, the big leagues. Matches, held in the easy-to-reach Estadio Caliente, are a must for any soccer aficionado. Bonus: The season is just powering up now. Double bonus? Tickets start at about $15 (xolos.com.mx). If basketball is more your thing, you can always hold out for a Zonkeys game; the team is named after the donkeys famously painted up to look like zebras for tourist photo ops, down on the Avenida Revolucion (tijuanazonkeys.com).

#7 See the art Any city with an edge like Tijuana’s is guaranteed to be a hotbed of creativity — this is clear in its music and culinary scenes, but less so perhaps on the visual arts front. Not that it isn’t happening. It’s just that the local gallery scene can be rather temperamental. One of the best stops right now for art lovers would be the Pasaje Rodriguez, a downtown alleyway that was once home to local craftsmen but in recent years had almost gone extinct, along with so much else in the tourist zone. Today, two dozen spaces house a younger, diverse mix of gallery spaces; the organizers hope the reincarnated space spurs the creation of a proper arts district (between Revolucion and Constitucion, 3rd and 4th Sts.).

#8 Try the tacos Not all the positive developments on the food scene are at the high end, though some local taqueros seem intent on pushing the envelope. Witness, for example, Tacos Salceados, which food writer Bill Esparza calls “the most contemporary taqueria in Mexico.” This local favorite was founded by a trained saucier (hence the name), but don’t worry, there’s no pretense about the place. Unless you count obsession with detail and quality as pretentious, in which case we really don’t want to know you. Salceados is famously home to the quesataco, which is what it sounds like. It is also a thing that is currently giving Tijuana a serious cred boost on the national taco scene (Av. Ermita Norte 30, Colonia La Mesa). It’s been around a lot longer than the quesataco, but the camaron enchilado — basically, spicy shrimp — is another type of taco that everyone visiting Tijuana really must try. Try the version at El Mazateno (Calzada Tecnologico 473-E, Colonia Tomas Aquino), but Esparza says that his favorite is found at Mariscos Ruben, a more centrally-located food truck where the shrimp are fried in butter and topped with red salsa and rich crema. They set up shop at 8th and Quintana Roo, just off the Av. Sanchez Taboada, not far from the Mercado Hidalgo. (Translated into English, that means it’s a short walk from everywhere, including the border.)

#9 Stick with the classics Not everything in Tijuana is new. In fact, some of its greatest highlights remain some of its oldest attractions. Like so many other area cooks, Rick Bayless was wowed by the city’s Mercado Hidalgo, where you’ll find a ton of local everything, including some of the incredible local cheeses (Av. Sanchez Taboada at Independencia). Five blocks west of Revolucion and not far from the hotter-than-hot Calle Sexta nightlife strip, time long ago stopped at the Parque Teniente Guerrero, a smaller version of Mexico City’s lively Alameda, where you can relax under the trees, watch old men play chess and sample various street foods.

TIJUANA: HOW TO DO IT

“Tijuana is a very sophisticated place, says Jason Thomas Fritz of Tijuanalandia.com. “But it feels like a little third world city when you enter.”

Don’t let that put you off, though. The neighborhood near the pedestrian entrance into town may be a dumpy maze of pill shacks and souvenir shops, but it doesn’t bite, particularly not now, with the sharply declined party trade discouraging the once omnipresent horde of hawkers and touts. In fact, we’ve been harassed more coming out of arrivals at JFK than during recent crossings into Tijuana.

Okay, so it’s mellow, but that’s not to say you can move through the city with your eyes closed – this is still TJ. So, here, your ultimate, can’t-fail, no-worries guide to getting in and around.

FIRST THINGS FIRST Make sure to bring your passport – you’ll need it to get back into the United States.

PARK AND RIDE If you’re staying in San Diego, hop the city’s MTS trolley right down to the border, the same way you could hop it to Old Town or Qualcomm Stadium. Or, you could also drive, parking in the lot behind the duty free shop off the Camino de la Plaza, right where the freeways end. From here, you’re a couple minutes’ walk to the Tijuana gate, Once through, a cab ride pretty much anywhere we’ve mentioned in the story will be about $5 each way.

TAKE THE RIGHT CABS When you go through the second turnstile at the border that signifies your arrival in Mexico, walk past the yellow cabs and around the corner to the Taxi Libre stand, on Calle Frontera next to the bus station. The yellow cabs are a tourist trap. Ignore them, along with the overeager taxistas that try to block your path. (A common thing you will hear, that you can ignore: “You’re going the wrong way, Señor!” You’re not.)

WORDS TO KNOW When you approach the correct taxi stand – the one with the white taxis with the words Taxi Libre painted in orange — hop in and tell them where you want to go, then ask how much, e.g. Calle Sexta, por favor. Cuanto me cobra? They’ll tell you. Five dollars (cinco dolares) is a popular answer. (Stop at a bank before you head in and get a bunch of fives and ones to have on hand. In cabs, as with just about anywhere in Tijuana, dollars are accepted, but the less change you have to ask for, the better.) When you are ready to return to the border, bars and restaurants will call a cab for you; this time, you want la linea, or the border. You’ll be dropped off near the pedestrian entrance to the United States; follow the crowds (or, if it’s late at night, the signs) to the turnstile into the U.S. Customs area.

DRIVING IN It’s more doable than people say it is. Quite frankly, navigating the tangle of streets and freeways that is modern Tijuana is no more difficult than doing the same in New York City (anyone used to whacking their way through the likes of the Grand Central / Jackie Robinson / Van Wyck tangle will feel right at home.) Try, however, to keep street parking to a minimum, particularly after dark, sticking to guarded garages and lots. It’s just good practice in a city with a high rate of automobile theft. And make sure you have Mexican insurance – any car rental agency at San Diego’s airport should be able to set you up; ask in advance.

WALK SMART Tijuana is a car city. As a result it is not always the most rewarding place to explore on foot. Not that it cannot be done, particularly in more affluent areas like the Zona Rio. Still, always use your New York street smarts. One thing to not do though, that you might do in New York, is to assume that drivers see you as you cross the street. Based on a purely unscientific survey of Tijuana crosswalks, we’re guessing that the greatest danger faced by a tourist is being run over by a car. Or a truck. Or a bus. Seriously – do not jaywalk.

STAY OVER It all depends what you want – if you’re just taking one of Turista Libre’s tours or hitting a restaurant for dinner, it’s no problem to just duck in and out from the San Diego side. For more comprehensive overviews, however, it’s best to stay overnight, even though none of the hotels here are particularly interesting. The pleasant enough, secure Hotel Lucerna is located directly next door to the thriving Plaza Rio mall (check out the fancy Sears!), within easy walking distance of restaurants like Mision 19 as well as the cultural center, CECUT (hoteleslucerna.com). Located directly on the golf course at the foot of the exclusive Chapultepec neighborhood – and an easy stroll to both La Stazione and Erizo (that’s your breakfast and lunch handled) the Marriott is, well, a Marriott (marriott.com).

GET A MAP Before you hit the border, consider picking up one of the readily available adonde / where at map guides, pocket-sized primers on what’s what (and where it’s at) around the city. You can usually count on finding them at bars and restaurants in hipper neighborhoods like South Park and Golden Hill.

REQUIRED READING With one foot on both sides of the border, Tijuego.com

brings you the best of arts and culture from both San Diego and Tijuana. Meanwhile, Tijuanalandia.com

gives an inside look on TJ life and culture, from an American perspective. Hungry? Blogs like Bill Esparza’s influential Street Gourmet LA (streetgourmetla.com) have led the charge in terms of bringing Tijuana dining into the SoCal spotlight and feature comprehensive reviews of the best restaurants in town.