need info on visiting the wineries in then Valle de Guadalupe
 

My wife and I would like to spend two days touring wineries in the Valle de Guadalupe . We would fly into Tijuana and then shuttle to Ensenada. My question is do we stay in Ensenada and take tours up into the Valle or stay in the Valle on highway 3 ? Can we arrange tours if we stay in the valle or is it best to do so in Ensenada. We want to be able to tour some selest wineries rather than a blanket tour.
Any advice would be appreciated.

If it were me, I'd rent a car in TJ and do a self guided tour. Often tours only take you to 'their' wineries, not some of the more botiquey places. And I'd stay in the Valle instead of Ensenada. Ensenada is OK, but pretty busy what with the cruise ships. I thought VdG was a lovely place. If you had your own transportation,, you could stop in Puerto Nuevo or Primo Tapia for lobster on your way down.

Thanks for the advice. Can you recommend a nice and well located winery wise hotel in the Valle ? Also, how are the restaurants there ?

Actually, we stayed with friends in Primo Tapia and did a day trip, so I don't have a hotel rec. But we left wishing we could've spent a night there (or 3) to have more time to explore, and vowing that if/when we return, we'd get a hotel or BnB. Hence my comment 'if it were me'. VdG seems that it would get kinda sleepy at night and that there would be little nightlife outside of your lodging. I'm perfectly OK with that, for a night, but maybe you're not? Tripadvisor has a surprisingly ample list of restaurants that seem interesting.
If you do decide to rent a car, we used Fox. They have an agency at the airport, but their cars are offsite. We went to their booth and their agent waited with us for transport to their garage a few blocks away. I think Avis was the only agency at the airport.

I am interested in any advice you can provide on car rentals at TIJ. We have California and Mexican drivers lisences. All of the sites I have visited show daily costs of $6 to $8 USD but do not list insurance costs. We would want to be fully covered. So, can you give me an idea of what the total cost per day for a compact or whatever you rented would be ?

Thanks

I think it was in the $40-$45 range, it for sure was not over $50. As I mentioned, we used Fox. Avis is onsite @ the airport, but really expensive. The only drawback we had was that the compact we reserved wasn't ready, (needed to be cleaned) and they offered to give us an midsize, but we would have had to pay for the upgrade. So we waited about 15 minutes for them to wash and vacuum the car. I rented through a third party site that did show insurance, but I don't recall which one. Fox's site does, however, and I don't think that booking with a 3rd party saved me any money.
https://www.foxrentacar.com/en/reserve-a-car.html#step3
You know, I hope I'm not imposing my travel style on y'all. We're just not big tour people, we live in Mexico and speak Spanish, and are just more accustomed to doing our own thing. But if you have a MX driver's license, maybe you live in Mexico too?