Dr. Alejandro Quiroz · For patients traveling from the United States
You fly into San Diego, not Tijuana. The practice’s free shuttle meets you at the airport, the Amtrak depot, or the border, and VIDA Wellness & Beauty, the practice’s home in Zona Rio, is 15 minutes from the crossing. If you would rather drive your own car, the practice issues you a medical pass for the faster lane home. One coordinator arranges all of it, a companion rides along, and the documents are simpler than most patients expect. This page is the whole trip, step by step, with the rules that matter cited.
The itinerary, in one card
Five steps. Each one is planned for you.
The journey
The trip is 5 steps: a virtual consultation, the pickup in San Diego, surgery day with a monitored night, about 6 days in the Recovery Boutique, and the crossing home after sutures come out. Deciding whether Tijuana is safe, and who to trust there, is a different question, answered on the facelift in Tijuana page. This page assumes you are past it, and walks the trip itself.
It starts with a questionnaire and standardized photographs, reviewed by the practice. Then we speak, by phone or video: your face, your questions, the honest trade-offs. Afterward you receive a personalized quote, itemized line by line. Nothing is scheduled until the plan and the figure are both in your hands. If you are close enough to visit, an in-person consultation works too.
How the consultation worksYou fly into San Diego, not Tijuana. The practice runs free private transportation, Monday through Saturday, with one companion riding along, from four points; none is required, and patients who come alone are met and driven the same way. There is no Sunday service, so raise your flight options with your coordinator before booking. Prefer to drive? Bring your own car; the return crossing has its own dedicated medical lane. Pre-operative labs and an EKG are done at VIDA Wellness & Beauty and evaluated before surgery.
The surgeon you consulted is the surgeon who operates: Dr. Alejandro Quiroz, board certified in plastic and reconstructive surgery (CMCPER No. 293), performs the procedure himself at VIDA Wellness & Beauty, with Dra. Nadiezhda Garcia Bonilla, a board-certified anesthesiologist, present for the whole case. The first night of hospitalization is included in the package and spent on site with nursing on hand, because the rare serious complication declares itself early, and this is the place to answer it.
The facility and anesthesiaYou recover in the same building as the operating room: hospital-style beds, nursing around the clock, meals from the kitchen, drains commonly out at 48 to 72 hours. Your surgical quote covers the hospital nights around surgery; the Recovery Boutique is priced plainly at $190 a night, or $290 with a companion. Plan on about 6 days in Tijuana, recovering in the on-site Boutique.
A return visit around day 7 removes the sutures, and then you cross: the shuttle back to San Diego, or your own car through the medical lane with a pass from the practice. Southern California patients often cross home earlier in the week and drive back for this visit. Follow-up does not end at the border: the surgeon who operated reviews your recovery remotely, with a 24/7 line and the warning signs taught before you leave. 8
Recovery, week by weekThe pattern across all five: nothing is improvised on the day. From the arrivals curb in San Diego to the drop-off on the way home, every leg is driven for you, and surgery, recovery, labs, and pharmacy share one building. The pickup is scheduled, the pass is issued, the follow-up is structured before surgery is scheduled, not reassured after.
The documents
Under the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI), 3 documents cover almost every US patient: the passport book, the passport card, and the enhanced driver’s license. The differences only matter on the way home, and the land border accepts more than an airport does, which is worth knowing before you decide what to carry. 2
| Document | Into Mexico | Home by land | Home by air |
|---|---|---|---|
| US passport bookThe one document that does everything. | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| US passport cardLand and sea crossings only. | Yes | Yes | No |
| Enhanced driver’s licenseIssued by a handful of states. | Yes | Yes | No |
Trusted-traveler cards (SENTRI, Global Entry) also work at the land border, with their own faster lane. Children and other edge cases follow CBP’s published list. 2
The Mexican entry permit, the FMM
Officially, every traveler to Mexico needs one, even for a border-zone stay. For land entries staying under 7 days it is free, through Mexico’s immigration institute, and a facelift itinerary can touch that line: if your stay runs 7 days or longer, expect the paid permit. Your coordinator confirms which one you need, and how to get it, before you travel. 3 4
Your prescriptions, going home
Declare medication at the booth, keep it in its original labeled containers, in personal-use quantities, with the prescription or the practice’s letter; your records travel home with you for exactly this. Controlled substances carry stricter rules. 7
The companion’s papers
The same list applies to whoever comes with you. One companion rides the shuttle, is accommodated through recovery, and, if you brought a car, takes the wheel for the first days after anesthesia.
The border, northbound
There are 2 ways home, both arranged before you need them: the practice’s free shuttle back to San Diego, or your own car through the border’s dedicated medical lane, with a pass the practice issues. That matters because San Ysidro is the busiest land border crossing in the Western Hemisphere, on the order of 70,000 northbound vehicle passengers a day by the US General Services Administration’s count, 6 and patients here do not stand in the line that makes it famous.
Tijuana’s city government runs an expedited-crossing program through SEDETI, its economic development secretariat: the Fast Lane (Programa de Cruce Agil), whose pass patients know as the Medical Fast Pass, with dedicated lanes for medical patients at the San Ysidro and Otay Mesa crossings. The practice issues your pass: digital, valid for a single crossing within 48 hours, for a US-plated car carrying you and a companion, timed to your departure. 5
The medical lane bypasses the general queue, which routinely runs to hours. Three honest notes: the pass shortens the line, not the inspection, so your documents still meet CBP as always. Legitimate passes are issued only through registered providers like the practice; treat anyone selling them directly to travelers as a scam. And if you drive, carry Mexican third-party auto liability coverage for the trip, which US policies generally do not satisfy; short-term policies are sold online and at the border. 3 5 6
If you flew in, the same free shuttle takes you home: from VIDA Wellness & Beauty, through the crossing, to San Ysidro, the Santa Fe Depot, or the San Diego airport, Monday through Saturday. Round-trip border transportation is part of the surgical package, not an upsell, and your coordinator times it to your suture visit.
CBP publishes the live wait for every lane at bwt.cbp.gov, if you want to watch what you are skipping. 6
The advantage nobody prints
The American Society of Plastic Surgeons advises waiting 7 to 10 days after facial procedures before flying. 1 In most medical-tourism destinations, that guidance traps you in a hotel room abroad. Here it barely applies, because going home is a land crossing, not a flight: no cabin pressure on a healing face, no hours immobile at altitude. You cross into San Diego within the week. If home is a flight away, you fly from a US airport once the surgeon clears it, commonly 10 days to 2 weeks for shorter flights. And Southern California simply drives.
Flying in and out of Tijuana’s airport instead? CBX, the cross-border bridge terminal, serves only ticketed TIJ passengers, and departing through it is still a flight, so it does not change the fly-home timeline. The land crossing into San Diego is what buys the earlier trip home. 9 Most patients fly into San Diego, where the pickup already runs.
Where you stay
Upstairs. The Recovery Boutique is in the same building as the operating room, which means the first nights happen with nursing around the clock and the surgical team a staircase away, not across town in a hotel that does not know what a drain is.
Prefer a hotel? The practice partners with the Quartz Hotel and the Marriott at special rates, with transportation arranged by your coordinator. A companion is accommodated either way.
Deep plane facelift · flew in from the San Francisco Bay Area · posted publicly on Google
“I flew into San Diego, where the VIDA shuttle picked me up and took me directly to Tijuana… Everyone I met spoke excellent English, including the drivers, coordinators, nurses, and doctors… One of the best parts was that everything was in the same building: hospital, recovery center, pharmacy, medical offices, and cafe.”
More, in their own wordsDeep plane facelift and eyelid lift · reviewed a full year after surgery · posted publicly on Google
“I stayed for 5 days after my procedure because I didn’t want anyone to have to deal with post op care… I was kept so comfortable and I felt like a VIP. If you can, just stay.”
In her words
Delores flew in from the United States for a deep plane face and neck lift. She sat down with us twice, once before surgery and once after, and talks through the whole of it in her own words: the coordinator who arranged the crossing, the time with Dr. Quiroz, the facility, and the recovery. Not only the operation, but everything around it.
Questions
The questions US patients actually ask about the logistics. For safety, credentials, and cost, each has its own page:
Yes. The practice runs free private transportation for patients, with pickup at the San Diego International Airport, the Santa Fe Depot Amtrak station, Border Station Parking in San Ysidro, and Farmacia Roma in Tijuana. It runs Monday through Saturday, with no Sunday service, so raise your flight options with your coordinator before you book anything: every leg is scheduled around your appointments, including the trip back, and if the only workable flight lands on a Sunday the plan is adjusted before you buy the ticket.
Yes, if you travel by land in both directions. The passport card is valid for land and sea crossings between the United States and Mexico, and so is an enhanced driver’s license from the few states that issue one. What the card cannot do is board a flight: if there is any chance you will fly home, carry the passport book. Trusted-traveler cards such as SENTRI also work at the land border.
Yes, and many Southern California patients do. For the trip home the practice issues you a medical pass for Tijuana’s Fast Lane, the city’s expedited lane at the San Ysidro and Otay Mesa crossings, so the return bypasses the general queue that routinely runs to hours. Carry Mexican third-party auto liability coverage for the drive, which US policies generally do not satisfy. And one rule is not negotiable: you do not drive yourself in the first days after anesthesia, so bring a companion who can take the wheel, or leave the car at home and use the shuttle.
A digital pass for the dedicated medical lanes at the San Ysidro and Otay Mesa crossings, issued under Tijuana’s Fast Lane program (Programa de Cruce Agil), which SEDETI, the city’s economic development secretariat, runs for registered medical providers. Each pass is valid for one crossing within 48 hours, in a US-plated vehicle, for the patient and a companion. It shortens the line, not the inspection: you still present your documents to CBP as always. Patients of Dr. Quiroz receive theirs from the practice; legitimate passes are never sold to individuals.
The American Society of Plastic Surgeons advises waiting 7 to 10 days after facial procedures before flying. The geography here softens that rule: going home is a land crossing into San Diego, not a flight, so you can be back in the United States within the week and fly from a US airport once Dr. Quiroz clears it, commonly 10 days to 2 weeks for shorter flights and later for long-haul. Counted from landing, that means most fly-home patients plan 11 to 15 days away, with more margin for a long flight, and the days between the crossing and the flight are spent on the US side. Book a flexible or one-way return: the surgeon clears the date, not the airline. Southern California patients usually just drive.
In the Recovery Boutique, upstairs from the operating room: hospital-style beds, 24-hour nursing, chef-prepared meals, WiFi with free international and local calls, and bilingual staff throughout. The surgical quote covers the hospital nights around surgery; the Boutique is $190 a night, or $290 with a companion. Patients who prefer a hotel can use the practice’s partner rates at the Quartz Hotel or the Marriott, with transportation arranged by the coordinator. Most facelift patients plan about 6 days in Tijuana, with sutures out around day 7.
Yes, and it is encouraged, but none is required: patients who come alone take the same shuttle and recover in the Recovery Boutique with nursing on duty 24 hours a day. One companion rides the shuttle with you at no cost, is accommodated through your recovery, and sits in on whatever you want them to hear. They need their own border document, the same list that applies to you, and if you brought a car, they are your driver for the first days after anesthesia.
Yes, under the normal customs rules: declare it at the booth, keep it in the original labeled containers, carry personal-use quantities, and bring the prescription or the practice’s letter, which travels home with you as part of your records. Controlled substances follow stricter rules, worth raising in consultation if they apply to you.
Officially yes: the US State Department notes that every traveler to Mexico needs an entry permit, the FMM, even for stays within the border zone. For land entries with a stay under 7 days it is free, through Mexico’s immigration institute (INM), and a facelift itinerary can touch that line: a stay of 7 days or longer means the paid permit. In practice, your coordinator confirms exactly what to have in hand for your dates, before you travel.
Yes, throughout. Everyone you deal with is bilingual: the coordinator, the nurses, the drivers, and the surgeon. Dr. Quiroz has held a California physician and surgeon license since 1986 and trained in California and Florida, so your consultation, your questions, and your recovery all happen in English.
The virtual consultation is free. You complete a questionnaire and send standardized photographs, the practice reviews them, and a call with the surgeon follows, by phone or video: your anatomy, the plan, the honest trade-offs. After it you receive a personalized quote, itemized line by line. Nothing is scheduled until you have both the plan and the figure.
Start where every patient starts: a questionnaire, photographs, and a call with the surgeon who would operate, by phone or video. The quote is itemized, the plan is yours to keep, and nothing is scheduled until you decide.
Sources
Facts about the practice’s own arrangements (the shuttle, the Recovery Boutique, the passes) are the practice’s published services. Third-party rules below; rules and fees change, so your coordinator confirms the current ones before you travel.