A Day in Ensenada, Mexico - Cruising with Princess Cruises

A day in Ensenada, Mexico. A beautiful winery, an amazing meal, and a taste of Mexico!

We are down to the last stop in our culinary cruise with Princess Cruises! (If you missed the previous posts about the culinary cruise, you can see them here – The Ruby Princess, Food Aboard the Ruby Princess, and Santa Barbara, California.) And what a day it was.

Ensenada, Mexico is located along the coast in northern Mexico. In fact, it is only 80 miles south of San Diego, California. Ensenada is a popular city for Californians to come down into Mexico for a taste of the Mexican culture. Ensenada is also a popular cruise port for cruises down from California, adding to it’s tourism.

After arriving in Ensenada, our group hopped on a bus and headed to Monte Xanic, a winery in the Guadalupe Valley. It seriously looked like a oasis in the middle of the desert! We spent the first half of the day touring the winery and learning about their processes. And just like at Fess Parker Winery, my sister and I stood back and were the non-drinkers – but it was all still very interesting. Their wine cave was actually pretty amazing – it is actually a real cave. In fact, the Monte Xanic building was quite new, and when they were designing the building, they literally built it around the wine cave.

As interesting as the winery was, the true highlight of the day for me was the meal that followed. We were seated under a canopy out in the winery and were fed a meal that I will not soon forget. It was one of those experiences that you know will never be repeated – sitting out in a winery in Mexico, being fed a multi-course meal full of food that was so fresh and local. We had these amazing oysters (the smoked one blew my mind!), super fresh abalone, this seafood stew that was so good that I wanted to lick the plate, and much more. There was actually a cheese course for dessert (that I completely forgot to take a picture of) that had 2 pieces of cheese that tasted completely different. Come to find out, they were the same kind of cheese, but one had been aged and the other was fresh. It was all so amazing.

After hopping back on the bus and heading back into Ensenada, we had a little bit of time to stop for fish tacos in Ensenada. The downtown portion of Ensenada is a bit more touristy – including the restaurant we went to. I would love to travel back to the area one day and really explore and find the real, off the beaten path Mexican food.

It was such an amazing day, and a great way to see a different part of Mexico!

Follow my travel board and never miss any eats or adventures while I’m out and about!

Follow Taste and Tell’s board Taste and Tell – Travel on Pinterest.

This post has been sponsored by Princess Cruises. I’m so glad to be able to work with companies and organizations that I truly believe in. Thank you for supporting them, too.