Avenida Revolución — La Revu, as locals call it — is impossible to ignore and easy to dismiss. The strip of clubs, souvenir shops, pharmacies (many selling prescription drugs cheaply to US visitors), and tourist bars runs through the Centro neighbourhood and represents the most visible face of Tijuana's border economy.
It's worth an hour or two on foot. The baroque-revival architecture of some of the older buildings gives a sense of what the avenue looked like in its mid-20th-century heyday, when it was a genuine resort destination for Californians. The Tijuana Arch straddles the boulevard at its northern end, marking the gateway. Mariachi bands work the restaurants; the zebra-painted burros still pose for photographs near the arch.
For a more interesting experience, duck into the Pasaje Rodriguez — an alley running off the Revolución near Calle 3 — which has been colonised by independent galleries, coffee shops, and small businesses that represent a very different version of Tijuana.