March 16, 2023 • 38 mins
Mexico is an amazing place for a beach vacation, a road trip, or a few weeks or months of traveling around! There is so much to see and do in Mexico, but because it's such a big, diverse country, we often get asked what is the best way to travel Mexico. In this week's podcast episode, we discuss the best ways to get around Mexico - plane, bus or driving. We share considerations for each, companies that we recommended, the pros and cons of each mode of transportation, price considerations and more. We hope this episode is informative and helps you plan your next trip to Mexico! Enjoy! In this episode:
- The best ways to travel in Mexico
- Flights, buses, and driving - everything you need to know
- The pros and cons of each mode of transportation
- Considering pricing while traveling
- Things to try and avoid at the airport
- Companies that we recommend traveling with
- Options for traveling in a car
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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(00:02):
Hello, and welcome to the WorldWanders podcast, a proud part of the
wander Barn podcast network. I'm Ryan, I'm Amanda, and we're your host.
We're a traveling couple and digital nomads, taking you on our adventures as
we explore locations, destinations, andcareers. Enjoy the show. Hello everyone,
and welcome back to another episode ofthe World Wanders Podcast. As always,
(00:25):
we are super grateful and excited thatyou've decided to tune in to today's
episode of the show, and we'vegot a fun episode today on a topic
that we've never really covered in lengthon the podcast, and it's around the
different methods of travel within Mexico.But we wanted to kick off this episode
by just talking about, you know, a couple of reasons why we love
(00:47):
Mexico and give a little bit ofbackground as to why this is something we're
talking about, because you might bethinking like, Okay, well, I
don't really care about bus companies orairline companies in Mexico Ago, but if
you do decide to travel here,it actually will become a big part of
your planning. Yeah, I thinkthis is one of the biggest things.
(01:07):
When we know people who are comingand planning to spend time in Mexico,
is that like how you actually goabout getting around the country. So for
us, like over the years herewe've been able to try out basically like
every means of transportation through Mexico.And one of the things we love about
the country is just like there's somuch to see and to do. It's
not just like one city, oneresort, one beach. There's so much
(01:32):
to do. And so one ofthe great things and one of the things
we recommend when people come here islike get to different places. Start here,
go there. And so if you'rethinking about taking a longer trip,
especially you know, working and travelingor whatever, you need to start thinking
about like what are the different waysyou want to get around a place.
And so that's kind of where wecome from here because lots of people are
(01:53):
asking questions of like one of thebest ways to get around is busting safe,
etc. Etc. So to divein from there, yeah, for
sure. This episode was actually kindof inspired by a friend of ours who's
going to be coming to Mexico inMay so in a couple of months,
and her and I went back andforth a lot, just like she's like,
hey, you know, this ismy itinerary. I'm going from here
(02:15):
to here and then here to here, Like would it be better to take
a flight here to bus here?What's the best way to get from this
point to this point? And evenwe've had other friends who know Mexico quite
well say, Hey, I'm flyinginto this airport. You know, do
I take a bus? What companydo I go with? Do I rent
a driver? How much does itcost? Is it worth it? And
so, like Ryan said, Mexicois a fantastic place for like a one
(02:38):
week beach vacation, but it's alsoa great place for like a three week
kind of backpacking trip or a twoweek road trip, or to come for
a couple of months and spend youknow, a great amount of time in
a couple of different cities, orto even like we've done over the past,
based yourself in one city and thendo travels from there. And I
think one of the reasons that we'vecontinued to come back to Mexico, moved
(03:00):
to Mexico called Mexico home, isjust because there are a lot of things
to see and do in this country, and we've explored a ton and I
still feel like we both have anextensive bucket list because there's just there's just
a ton to see and do here. So really is a great place to
do a bigger type of trip.All right, So the three main ways
that you would get around in Mexicowould be flying, busing, or driving.
(03:25):
There isn't really a train system herethe way there is in Europe.
I think there's a few places whereyou can train, but in general,
training is not going to be apart of your like the way that you're
going to get around in this country. One thing we're not going to touch
on because this isn't within our experienceand probably not something I would recommend in
(03:45):
general, is we're not going totalk about hitchhiking. This is just not
something we've done in the country,and we'll go through this because Mexico does
have a reputation for being a bitunsafe, especially if you are driving,
and while in general we think thatit is safe, I personally would not
choose to hitchhike in Mexico. There'svery few countries in the world that I
actually probably would feel comfortable with that. So if that's the means that you're
(04:08):
going to take, then obviously youmake that choice. For yourself. But
we're going to cover flights, buses, and driving, all right, Yeah,
so starting with flights, I thinkone of the things that I don't
actually know if this one is likesurprising to us. I think one of
the things when we first got herethat we found really like enjoyable, especially
about being in Mexico City, waslike access to flights and kind of ease
(04:30):
of going so many places. Likewhen we were living in Mexico City,
we are traveling kind of every fewweeks, going checking out somewhere new in
Mexico, and being able to dothat from Mexico City is great because there's
direct flights basically to every mid sizeor larger city in the country, and
so to really take advantage of that, and there are a number of different
airlines. Some of them don't havethe nicest like frills, but they're all
(04:55):
pretty solid and if you kind oflike know what you're getting into, it's
a great, relatively easy way totravel around. Mexico's a really big country,
and so that plus some of theroads not being the most direct,
means some of those long trips youtake if you really want to look at
flights, because you can save yourselflike entire days of travel, Yeah,
for sure. So I think thatflights would generally be my recommendation for the
(05:20):
longer trips. So say you're planningto go from like Mexico City to Medida,
and you're like, what is thebest way of getting from point A
to point B? And you know, how am I going to make this
choice? So I think the firstthing that you want to do is sit
down and look at like, Okay, how long is this adventure? Now,
(05:42):
doing a road trip between those twocities, if you've got the time
and you want to stop, couldbe a great option. But I think
in general for most of us,we're going to say, Okay, this
is going to be a pretty extensivedrive. You're going to go through many
different places. It's not really goingto be doable through like one direct bus
or something like that. So aflight is going to be the best option.
So usually we would hop on somethinglike skyscanner, look at all the
(06:03):
different options and see what's available.In Mexico, there's a number of different
airlines. Like Ryan mentioned, Ithink the most common, most popular,
most well known one would be AeroMexico. Aero Mexico is the nicest airline
in Mexico, but it also isthe most expensive one. So that's why
we usually hop on Skyscanner just tocompare. Because there's also a couple of
(06:26):
budget airlines which are Valerius and VivaAero Booths and so those ones fly a
number of different routes throughout Mexico.And then there's a couple of smaller airlines
that have kind of more specialized routes. One it's Tar Airlines and the other
one is Aeromar. So Aeromar isan airline that we flew one time that
flew between I think Mexico City andPortoscandido. I think it does Wahaka to
(06:48):
Porto Escndido as well. So youdon't have to memorize all the airlines.
I think just knowing something like GoogleFlights or sky Scanner is going to be
really helpful to start doing that.But when you start mapping out, okay,
how long is it going to takeme, what's going to be the
cost If I have to take abus from here to here, maybe stay
overnight and then take another bus fromhere to here, it's going to take
(07:08):
me two days versus like, hey, this is a one hour flight that
I can get for relatively affordable,you can kind of start making your decision
just based on that. And whenwe first moved to Mexico, like six
years ago, flights were really reallyreally affordable, Like domestic flights were incredibly
affordable, which is why we're ableto basically take a trip like once a
(07:29):
month. We've found that flights havegone up, and one thing you do
have to be cautious about is likeall the additional add on So you'll look
at kind of the base fair onValaris or Viva Aero boosts, and then
you go through the whole process.By the time you've purchased seats and maybe
at a checked bag, and maybeyou want to do some sort of upgrade,
it can be a bit more expensive, but I would say in general
still if it's a matter of liketwo days in a bus, taking like
(07:54):
a one to two hour flight isgoing to be way better like just cost
benefit or you in terms of travel. So that kind of goes over.
Like the airlines the different ones tolook at, but I would say the
biggest thing with airlines is like theyare the best option for longer travel because
Mexico is, like we've mentioned ahuge country. Yeah, and kind of,
(08:15):
like you said, it's good tobe where, like, especially if
I was trying to come in andtravel on a fairly low budget of probably
wanting to travel with as minimal luggageas possible, because if you're going to
take flights, that's really where you'regoing to end up paying a lot the
airport taxes. The government of Mexicohas raised the airport taxes quite a bit,
but those do vary from airport toairport. So for example, you
(08:37):
can look at the new airport toMexico City, which the government is trying
to incentivize people to use, andkind of say like, okay, well
I can you know, save somemoney by going there. Another thing is
there's often, like especially in CentralMexico, different options between airports. If
you're in Mexico City, you couldgo to Toluca, you could go to
the second Dairy new airport, youcould go to Puebla. If you're in
(09:00):
you know, going to San Miguel, you can go to Leon, you
can come to Careta. So it'skind of working worth looking at different airports
too, and you can you shouldbe finding some deals that way. Yeah,
absolutely, And so I feel likeone of the things that becomes like
the most tricky when you're planning atrip in a country like Mexico is when
you've got kind of the medium distanceplaces. So we actually just had this
with our most recent trip to Portof Aorta, where we looked at flying,
(09:26):
which I think for most people,between Caretto and Port of Arata that
might seem like a really obvious tripto fly, but it's about nine hours
in a car. Guadalajara is rightin the middle. That's a city we
really love, so we're like,okay, we could kind of make a
trip out of it, and thenthe benefit of that is that we would
have a car in our destination.And there are only direct flights between Careto
(09:48):
and Port of Arita like a coupletimes a week, and I don't think
they worked exactly with our days,So we were looking at having to fly
via Mexico City. So when youstart kind of adding up the time of
like, hey, we should beat the airport like two maybe two two
and a half hours early, theairport's thirty minutes from our house, that's
three hours. Then it's going tobe about like five hours because we've got
(10:13):
a one hour flight, a layoverin Mexico City, and then another one
hour flight. You're almost looking atthe exact same travel time as driving.
And so I feel like these arethe kind of destinations where when people are
traveling, they're kind of thinking alittle bit more about like do I drive
rather than fly? And what arelike the cost differences with these like medium
(10:35):
term, medium distance destinations. Yeah. I think for us, whenever I
think, especially now like that wehave a car here, we're always kind
of balancing out, like, hey, would just be nicer to drive,
not have to do the security stuffwhere about baggage and all of that.
But I think are probably like ifsomething's under like three hours, we're definitely
(10:56):
looking at taking buses is first,Like when we were in Mexico City,
if we were going to go toPuebla or Cadetro San miguel U, Cornovaca,
Yeah, all of those places.We flew to Guandalajara, But like,
I think busing that's a reasonable distance. So yeah, I think we're
always kind of balancing out, like, Okay, flying is going to be
(11:18):
quicker, but you add all thisextra time in busing is smoother in some
regards. The thing that can bechallenging about it, especially like depending on
what city you're in, is likeare you going to get there? Is
the bus station going to be overallpretty chill? We have like one really
bad experience of a like wildly crazybus station around Christmas time in Mexico City,
(11:39):
but overall that you can show upat a bus station much closer to
the time your bus is leaving at. Buses are reasonably reliable in terms of
the time they arrive. But we'regonna get more into buses. Yeah,
for sure. Maybe let's wrap upairlines and flying a little bit more so.
I feel like one thing that ifyou've never flown in Mexico you might
be wondering, like, a,what is it like when I get to
(12:01):
the airports? Are the airport's nice? Do they have good facilities? If
I have to be there three hoursearly because I'm checking a bag, We're
checking a couple of bags, Like, you know, is it going to
be a nice experience or would itbe better for me to just hop on
a bus. Yeah, it variesa lot from city to city, but
in general, the airports aren't likegoing to blow you away, but are
(12:22):
like totally fine, reasonably chill.I think we both find like going through
security in Mexico tends to be abit quicker, lines tend to be a
bit shorter, and it just doesoverall a little bit more chill than most
airports and like the States or Canada. And then yeah, once you're in
the airport, like especially the kindof Meximane Mexico City airport, a little
(12:45):
bit chaotic, but lots of likefood options, stores, that type of
stuff. Smaller, more regional airportslike here in Cadthao we've been to,
like the Guanahata airport, like theother places where it's like, you know,
a little bit more bare owns andmaybe a small airport than you'd think
given the sizes of the city,but still overall pretty chill, easy experience,
(13:07):
and even if you didn't speak anySpanish, like, there's typically people
at the air airport who speaking USwho can help you out and directuating to
go by. Airports tend to workthe same kind of everywhere in the world,
so it's pretty pretty easy and straightforwardto navigate. Yeah, for sure,
I don't think we've ever had anylike terrible experiences that any airport in
Mexico and I think it's also worthmentioning if anyone has like lounge access through
(13:31):
priority pass or a credit card orsomething. The majority of the airports that
we've been to here do have that, and all the lounges seem to be
relatively nice. Some are a littlebit smaller than others, but in general
that's that's a nice experience. EvenCaretro which is quite a small airport,
has a little lounge that you canaccess. Yeah. One thing I will
say that comes to mind for meis I think checking bags in Mexico seems
(13:56):
to be like longer lines and morechaotic than other places. I don't know,
that's just like it's gotten worse overthe years, and we've been here
and it's actually worse everywhere now.But that's something I would really try to
avoid if you can, is checking, because often you'll show up at the
airport and that's where you're going tospend your most time, is like standing
in a line to check a bag. And so yeah, avoid that if
(14:18):
you can, or like you know, pay for a priority so you can
get around to the main line,because that's like probably the biggest annoyance that
we've found at Mexican airports. Yeah, for sure, I think that that
is very true. And one thingthat has been I guess a little more
challenging with traveling with a baby nowis that I mean, one, she
has a lot more stuff, andtwo, most airlines actually won't grant you
(14:41):
your tickets even if you're not checkinga bag when you have an infant on
your lap, you have to gointo the check encounter. So I feel
like we've just spent like a lotmore time having to wait in these lines
and go to the check encounter.And for me, it's like, because
everyone's kind of showing up two twoand a half hours early, I'm to
the point where I'm like, let'sjust go three hours early, because I
(15:01):
would much rather like get through theline quickly, get through security, and
then go to a lounge or goto a Starbucks or you know, grab
a coffee and chill. Like tome, it's a lot like I would
rather be waiting on the side ofwhere my gate is and just having a
coffee and relaxing versus like standing ina line checking my clock feeling a little
bit stressed. So I feel likethat's definitely weighed into a lot of our
(15:24):
decisions recently in terms of like dowe do we fly, do we bus,
do we drive, etc. Etc. Because it really does make a
huge difference if you need to goto the airport three hours in advance,
like even if you have a onehour flight, that makes it like a
four hour trip versus I feel likea couple of years ago, it was
like you carry on, you've gotyour bag, you can show up like
(15:46):
one hour early. Everything's super chill. Hopefully things will go back to that
as travel kind of evens out alittle bit, kind of post pandemic.
But I feel like our experience overthe last six ish months has been that
airports are really hectic and seemed tojust have a lot of lines, and
you do have to be there quitea bit early. Yeah I want to
move into busing, Yeah for sure. So I think that you kind of
(16:07):
touched on it before, but wekind of have, you know, sort
of a distance that we kind oflook at, and I feel like,
knowing how long you have to beearly for a plane ride, et cetera,
et cetera plays into it. Sowhen I was chatting with my friend
who's plenty a trip, she wassaying, like, Oh, I'm looking
at flights between Mexico City and Keretro, and I was like, well,
I would just take a bus personally. So just to give you some context
(16:30):
on that, you know, it'stwo and a half to three hours,
generally about three hours on the bus. You can bust right from the airport
or go to one of the busstations in Mexico City, and then the
bus station in Kretro is super closeto the centro. It's maybe like a
ten minute uber to the historic centrowhere a lot of hotels and a lot
of people would be staying and thattype of thing. And so it costs
(16:53):
about four hundred and fifty pasos,which these days is about twenty US dollars
maybe a little little bit more thanthat, maybe twenty twenty five U s
dollars for a seat. And sowhen you think about the cost of a
plane ticket, which is going tobe significantly more than that, especially if
you have checked baggage, plus youneed to be at the airport a couple
hours early. You know, eventhough the flight is really short, you're
(17:15):
basically going to spend about the sameamount of time in transit. So yeah,
we always kind of take that intoconsideration, and then look at like,
Okay, so the distances, Iwould say probably around four hours and
less. We're definitely comparing between flightsand buses, and buses almost usually almost
always win in that type of distance. Yeah, and with buses there's a
(17:40):
big range. Like there's a coupleof companies that are kind of like the
premiere long distance bus lines Premira plus, ETN and Ado, And so we've
taken all those fluss companies and hadsolid experiences, but there's also a lot
more like regional companies, and soyou can really pay like as little,
(18:00):
you know, you pay for comfortand so for us, like we typically
look at like a pre Marita pluser at ETN and like you said,
that price like twenty five dollars I'mhere to Mexico City. That gets you
into one of the buses that havekind of a big seats. There's only
three per row, so you cansit by yourself if your solo, and
just have a lot more space anda lot more chill, comfortable trip.
(18:21):
But you can also find more regionalcompanies that'll do it for you know,
for a lower price. But yeah, typically as well with the bus lines,
whether it's here, especially if you'regoing to like more like secondary cities
in Mexico, those bus stations tendto be a lot closer to the city.
So you're looking at flying and it'slike, hey, take an uber
(18:41):
out to the airport, be thereearly, go through the whole security process,
deal with your baggage, get onthe flight whatever. Then you're at
an airport that's outside another city,you have to take a taxi and versus
often getting in the bus line thatyou might be able to walk to or
take an easier cab too, andthen get to a city, you're like
already in the center of the city. So that's one of the big advantages
(19:03):
with busing. They tell you tobe I think an hour early, but
I think it's generally thirty minutes.Yeah, and you can pretty reliably do
that busing here. Just from ourpersonal experience, I feel like twenty five
percent of the time we go thebus, maybe less than that, maybe
like fifteen percent of the time,it's been late, especially if you're not
like departing from the city the busdeparts from. But overall relatively reliable and
(19:29):
we haven't had any like crazy lightexperiences other than one time around Christmas.
Yeah, for sure, that wasI think kind of an anomaly, just
a lot of people traveling to gosee their families outside of Mexico City,
etc. Etc. But yeah,overall, our experience has been that the
bus stations are all relatively nice,relatively chill. I think my experience has
been that they don't have like aton a ton of food options. I
(19:55):
feel like that's one thing to consider. Like airports definitely have more rust drawns
and food options and stuff like that, but they generally are nice and clean
and have you know, good bathroomfacilities and all that type of stuff.
And like Ryan mentioned, we've neverhad a bus that like departed early.
That's definitely not a Mexican style.So if anything, you know, thirty
(20:17):
minutes is plenty of time to beat the bus station. I think one
thing for me, especially a coupleof years ago, when we didn't speak
as good a Spanish and we werea little bit more uncertain, is that
I worried a little bit more aboutthe bus leaving without us, just because
like with flights, it's like ona board, you have a gate.
Even if you don't speak Spanish orwhatever language it is, you know you're
(20:40):
going to like a two that's whereyour flight's taking off. You can go.
You can kind of like follow thecrowd a little bit. And I
find with the bus depots the busstations, it's like the bus is kind
of just pull up and you've gotto really be listening for like your city
to be called. And yeah,it's the type of thing that I think
if you're not comfortable with language,is a little bit more stressful. But
(21:02):
for me, if you're doing somethinglike Mexico City to Keetro or to Puebla
or something like that, I justfeel like taking a bus is a way
better option than taking a flight becauseit's going to be significantly cheaper. And
this is especially if you have checkedluggages luggage, because the buses don't charge
you extra. You get to putyour luggage underneath. And you know,
(21:22):
for us to like fly between CaretroA Mexico City, for example, would
just be super expensive, especially withtaking all the babies things versus like for
the three of us to go,it's about for three seats too, it's
about twelve hundred pesos, which islike sixty dollars sixty USD something like that
for the whole trip. And wecan take her travel crib and her car
(21:45):
seat and her stroller and the suitcasesthat we need, and there's no like
problems with that. It's not like, oh, fifty more dollars, fifty
more dollars, etc. Etc.So I do feel like there's a lot
of cases where buses are a reallygreat option. Yeah, and I think,
like you said, kind of theexam pull of our friends asking us,
bus tends to be the place maybepeople overlook as a travel option because
we're kind of accustomed to like flyingaround Canada in America and less so taking
(22:10):
like those longer buses. But yeah, can be really nice if you're getting
on the right bus line. Primaraplus et N. I believe Adeo does
as well have online booking, soyou can go online compare the time so
you don't need to go to thebus station in advance to buy the ticket.
You buy it online and go fromthere. But yeah, buses are
really solid. We use them quitea bit, but do tend to find
(22:33):
like once you get to like aseven hour bus ride or like that type
maybe probably over five hours on abus. Often you can find like with
one of like a vivo ed abuseof a lattice, one of these regional
airlines a plane ticket that's like comparableprice and is going to save you like
five hours. So we haven't doneany of those long trips in Mexico,
(22:55):
although we do know some people whohave. But yeah, bus overall in
Mexico very solid and reliable way ofgetting around the country. Yeah. Absolutely.
I think just an example that I'llgive of, you know, a
situation where I would definitely look atflying over busting is like Wahaka City to
the coast, like Porto es Candidoor Mazoon Day something like that. It
(23:15):
doesn't look very far on a map, it looks like it'd be quite close,
so you'd think like, oh,yeah, we'll just pop on over
this mountain range and we'll be atthe beach. But the road isn't very
good there. It's super windy,it's through the mountains. There's like big
trucks going, people passing, soit's a bit dangerous, and it just
takes a long time because it's likean older mountain road. So something that
(23:36):
you can do with like aeromar orprobably some of the other airlines that'll maybe
take you probably even less than anhour of actual flight time, takes you
about seven or eight hours in acar, and we've had a few friends
who have done that that are like, it's horrible, I was car sick.
You know, it's just not avery pleasant ride. So definitely worth
doing like a little research on thingslike that, because I feel like,
(23:59):
to me, that is like anobvious like I would fly in that case
unless you're very very strapped with avery tight budget. I think that that's
a really great choice for choosing aflight over a bus. And then you
know, versus I use that otherexample of like Mexico City to Kretro to
me is like a very obvious choicefor taking a bus or a car,
just because that's going to be alot simpler, a lot more affordable,
(24:22):
a lot quicker. Yeah, Andso that kind of takes us into like
another chunk of options, which aremostly like car options, so like if
you're doing a round trip somewhere,renting a car, hiring a private driver,
even looking at taking like a longdistance uber. And also there's a
kind of car sharing service that's quitecommon for people to use in Mexico called
(24:44):
blah Blah Car. We've had somefriends to use it as well. So
let's start maybe with rental cars.One thing we've found we've rented a couple
of cars in Mexico, it isthere's always like a bit of shenanigans going
on with rental cars. I thinkeverywhere in the world there's some like sketchy
businesses, but we've had in Mexicoit being a little bit challenging sometimes with
(25:07):
oh there's this fee, there's thisthing, we don't have cars. So
we found typically like there's maybe likea smaller, more local company that is
reliable in a city, and someof these big companies, like they're doing
stuff like you make a reservation,they say they don't have a car,
there's extra fees. And the otherthing with mental cars is often the charge
for drop off, So if you'redriving from one place to another and leaving
(25:30):
the car, it's quite a bitmore than it is in the States.
That said, we've taken a numberof trips where we're going maybe a couple
hours out coming back to the samecity. We've used gentle cars and had
a good experience. Yeah, it'skind of interesting. I feel like in
most cases with this type of stuff, especially in a foreign country where maybe
you don't speak the language, i'drecommend like go with the bigger, more
(25:52):
national brands, like the ones thatyou're familiar with from maybe the US or
Canada. But it's so interesting becausewe've had like the most problems, for
example, with Alamos Rental Car.I would absolutely not recommend renting with Alamos
Rental Car. I feel like we'vejust had problems with them. Every time
they've hassled us, they've told usit's more expensive than what we booked,
(26:15):
They've tried to add on a bunchof things. We've had to contact like
head offices. One time we didn'teven get a car, just you know,
stressful stuff. And so one thing, if you are going to rent
a car, I would you know, go on Facebook, find some local
Facebook groups, see if anyone's recommendinga company. Like for example, when
we were in the Yucatan based inMedida, we had a friend recommend a
(26:36):
smaller company called Velos. We renteda car like a number of weekends so
we were there. We never hadany problems with them. They were always
really great, good quality cars,etc. Etc. And then also if
you can't find that, or you'renot comfortable with that, or maybe it
doesn't exist, I think actually bookingfrom the website. So we've had the
most problems when we've done things likePriceline, Expedia, and I know those
(26:59):
are team because they give you thebest rates. But the thing is is
that the companies don't want to rentto you. So you show up,
you've got a reservation, You thinkI have a reservation, give me my
car. Oh no, sorry,we don't have a car, and then
they try to give you a higherrate. And so we've found that if
we can't find those smaller companies,then we'll go directly to the website,
like we'll go budget dot com,we'll book right there. National a couple
(27:21):
of times and it's been solid.Yeah, National has been National has been
a good one, and I thinkBudget has been good as well. Alamos
has always been horrible. So definitelynot them. So smaller companies and then
booking directly from the website. Ifyou know a travel agent or somebody who
has like a reputation who can kindof do this stuff for you, that
can be helpful. Then one otherthing with rental cars here is that Mexican
(27:42):
companies or Mexico in general, justrequires that you have their insurance. So
even if you're covered like through anAmerican Express card or you have your own
insurance from your home country. They'regoing to make you pay insurance when you
get there. So my advice is, do you like the basic stuff online
and then when you get there,just note that they're going to add a
(28:03):
cost for insurance per day, sojust budget that into how much you are
able to pay and stuff like that. But in terms of driving, and
I feel like this goes for busingtoo, because I know this is one
thing that my friend said to me. She was like, well, I
don't really want to be in abus because there's like a risk of things
happening on the road, you know, cartel violence, etc. Etc.
In general, we found bus travelto be quite safe. We've never had
(28:27):
any issues with buses, and ingeneral buses are not generally targeted by crime,
so busing is pretty safe for themajority of the country. Obviously,
there's areas that you should be cautiousabout and just do a little bit of
research on that. With driving,though, you do have to be a
little bit more cautious. You dowant to make sure if you're driving from
(28:48):
one place to another, you dosome research online, make sure you know
which roads to take, we alwaysadvise taking toll roads, even though they're
a little more expensive. You'll findthat on all blog posts and all Facebook
or groups. Always take the tollroads here, but just do a little
bit more research. I feel likeit's not the type of country where you
just hop in your car and goand you need to plan out a little
bit more with gas stations and whereyou're going to stop for snacks or food,
(29:11):
just because the roadside facilities aren't thesame as like maybe we're used to
if we come from places like Canadaand the US. Yeah, I think
kind of the way I think aboutit is with buses, Like there are
some safety concerns involved in taking abus, like they're on the highway and
you know, sometimes buses get intocrashes, so it's worth like considering for
(29:34):
you. And I think flying probablyis like the safest option out of all
the options. We don't kind ofview the risks, especially like if you're
growing to day, you're not takinga long overnight bus route to be bussing
to be you know, it's anoverall very safe driving Being in a rental
car, being in your own carexposes you to a couple risks that you
(29:56):
don't have in the bus. Oneis kind of like highway bandit types and
the other is police corruption. Andso I think, especially for us,
like there's places where we would probablythink twice about having you know, renting
and driving ourselves, or may maybewe'd give us more a pause, And
that might be like closer to theUS border, if we were like in
(30:17):
and around Cancoon, Like, Iknow that's a place you hear often people
saying like, hey, there's morecorrupt cops. That said, We've rented
a car and Cancoon driven it toto Loom and had nothing but a good
time in that area. We've drivenall over the Yucatan and lots of other
places. So in general, it'slike it's just stuff you need to be
kind of mindful of because that theydo exist. But I think for us,
(30:40):
and like almost everyone we talk to, the like calibration needs to be
from Most people are kind of reallyafraid, really worried about it, and
there should be some like you know, concern and thought put into it,
but most people are like too faron that side of the spectrum, and
it is actually like a pleasant wayto get around. Yeah, We've had
really good experiences driving around Mexico.And one of the things that I really
(31:03):
love about driving around Mexico is thatyou do have the freedom to stop when
you want and create your own itineraryand get to a little bit more like
off the beaten path. Places thatmight be hard to get to you might
have to take like a bus andthen a collectivo and then an uber et
cetera, et cetera. Versus driving, you get to really, you know,
see the countryside, see the landscape, kind of get to know the
(31:25):
country in a different way. Andthere are a lot of remote places in
Mexico that are hard to get toif you don't have a car, and
they take a long time, soit might not be the best option via
tour or driver et cetera, etcetera. Like, for example, there's
a waterfall region in San Luis Potosi, and then there's also, you know,
some hot springs that are kind ofin the Dalgo region outside of Mexico
(31:49):
City. Those places are challenging toget to and one of the best ways
to go see them is to havea car, because then you can kind
of explore at your own leisure andpace, et cetera, et cetera.
One other thing about driving that Ijust want to add, And I actually
feel like this is probably, like, realistically, like the biggest concern or
safety concern that people should have,especially if you're not from this area,
(32:10):
and maybe if you are, likeus, from a country like Canada where
driving laws and driving rules and regulationsto actually get certified to drive, etc.
Et cetera. Are very different,is that there's a lot of chaos
here. There's a lot of youknow, things happening on the road that
you feel a little hectic to us. So driving in big cities can be
(32:30):
quite overwhelming and a little scary,and you know, driving on the highway,
you kind of got to figure outhow their how their culture is,
and there's things that are different aboutthat. And so I think realistically that's
the biggest safety concern I have withdriving, And well, I think it's
important to be cautious and do yourresearch and make sure you're traveling on safe
(32:52):
roads and good roads and good regions. I think that knowing that it's different
from other countries is like the bigthing, and you kind of have to
adapt and it is chaotic, yeah, but it has been awesome. I
think for us those shows where we'verented a car, has been able to
get out explore more seamore stuff andso yeah, BigMan of renting a car
(33:14):
driving around. The other thing thatI think most people maybe overlook in Mexico
is kind of access and affordability ofa private driver can sometimes be like really
good and so like you might beable to find if you've got a couple
of friends traveling with you, tosomeone who can drive you to a different
place and make it pretty affordable.We've typically found these kind of through connections
(33:37):
through friends. Sometimes if you're takingUber into city, you might be able
to like start a conversation with thedriver. The driver might even offer his
services. And then another great placeis Facebook groups where we've been connected with
with drivers who you know can takeyou from one city to another, can
take you on a tour, thattype of thing. Yeah, for sure.
I think Facebook groups like xbat groupsor whatever for the city you're looking
(33:58):
for is is super key. That'swhere I found the drivers here. We
have a couple connections to drivers thatthey can do, you know, airport
transfers, which will be a littlemore reliable and about the same price as
taking an Uber. They can driveto and from Mexico City. I know
we have friends that just hired adriver to go to and from Sam Miguel
day and day, which is aboutan hour from Quietro going to places like
(34:21):
the Leon Airport or Guanahuato, MexicoCity. You know, for us,
at least in our area, thoseare great options for hiring a driver.
The prices for hiring a driver aregoing to be more expensive than you know,
likely renting a car. Definitely havingyour own car, it's cheaper to
just drive that if you can.Definitely more expensive than a bus. But
(34:42):
I think the benefit of that isthat somebody comes and picks you up where
you're staying at your house, takesyou to your destination. You don't have
to do ubers back and forth frombus stations. You know. It's a
little bit more simple, straightforward,a little bit faster. You have the
option to stop along the way ifyou want, so. I think that
this is definitely something that, likeRyan said, I think people overlook because
(35:02):
they think private driver that's for youknow, millionaires, billionaires. You know,
I'm not somebody who hires a privatedriver, especially if you live somewhere
like New York, LA. It'sjust going to be insanely expensive to have
that, but here in Mexico it'sactually a really feasible option. And one
thing that we just found out fromour friends here who actually have a pet
is that the bus companies here don'tallow animals on them unless you want to
(35:27):
put your animal down below, andthey have like a small cabin sized dog,
And so for them, hiring aprivate driver is actually the best option.
And hiring a driver for distances likeoutside of a city or you know,
et cetera, et cetera, aregoing to be a better option than
trying to depend on Uber, whichmight not want to take you or might
rack up cost really really quickly,or they might cancel on you, etcetera,
(35:52):
etcetera. So definitely something to consider, yeah, And kind of just
one final thing, like for people, especially if you're on like a tighter
budget, like people we know whoare on tighter budgets have used car sharing
services. Not something we've had experiencewith or can't really speak a ton about.
I think blah blah car is likethe most popular one, and there's
people who kind of do this alittle bit more as a business and you
(36:13):
might find like, hey, acollectivo, but that and then busing are
kind of the you know, thelow budget options if you're taking a longer
trip, more backpacker style, ifyou've got more of a flexible budget,
that really opens things up, andthen you can start kind of comparing flights
those like bigger, more national buslines that have like first class buses,
private drivers, even renting cars.But kind of overall, one of the
(36:36):
things I think that we like toget across people is so many cool cities,
like big cities, midsize cities,small towns in Mexico and kind of
getting out and exploring them is anawesome thing to do. And so if
you're going on a trip to acity, try to find like some of
those places that are nearby and geton an adventure and you know, take
a bus there or collectivo or renta car and go explore. Yeah.
(37:00):
Absolutely, so I think this kindof wraps up everything we wanted to share
today. I'm sure there's more detailswe could go into, but those will
be more trips specific. So ifanyone has any follow up questions or is
planning a trip to Mexico and iskind of curious about more details on this
type of stuff, feel free toreach out info at the World wanders dot
com. Otherwise, we hope thishas been helpful and insightful, and you
(37:22):
know, obviously things are a differentcountry to country, but you can kind
of apply probably these same sorts ofprinciples in terms of how to find information
and considering different options to any countryin the world. Really, but hopefully
you enjoy and thanks so much forlistening. Thanks for listening to this episode.
If you want more to make sureto check out the World Wanders Insider
(37:43):
available on Patreon at patreon dot com. Slash the World Wanders for show notes,
head over to the world wanders dotcom. Find us on social media
at the World Wanders Podcast, andjoin the private Facebook community at World Wanders,
a community for travelers. You canalways get in touch us at info
at the World wanderers dot com.And if you enjoyed the show, don't
(38:04):
forget to subscribe and leave a review. It really helps us find new listeners.
See you next time.
Hello, and welcome to the WorldWanders podcast, a proud part of the
wander Barn podcast network. I'm Ryan, I'm Amanda, and we're your host.
We're a traveling couple and digital nomads, taking you on our adventures as
we explore locations, destinations, andcareers. Enjoy the show. Hello everyone,
and welcome back to another episode ofthe World Wanders Podcast. As always,
(00:25):
we are super grateful and excited thatyou've decided to tune in to today's
episode of the show, and we'vegot a fun episode today on a topic
that we've never really covered in lengthon the podcast, and it's around the
different methods of travel within Mexico.But we wanted to kick off this episode
by just talking about, you know, a couple of reasons why we love
(00:47):
Mexico and give a little bit ofbackground as to why this is something we're
talking about, because you might bethinking like, Okay, well, I
don't really care about bus companies orairline companies in Mexico Ago, but if
you do decide to travel here,it actually will become a big part of
your planning. Yeah, I thinkthis is one of the biggest things.
(01:07):
When we know people who are comingand planning to spend time in Mexico,
is that like how you actually goabout getting around the country. So for
us, like over the years herewe've been able to try out basically like
every means of transportation through Mexico.And one of the things we love about
the country is just like there's somuch to see and to do. It's
not just like one city, oneresort, one beach. There's so much
(01:32):
to do. And so one ofthe great things and one of the things
we recommend when people come here islike get to different places. Start here,
go there. And so if you'rethinking about taking a longer trip,
especially you know, working and travelingor whatever, you need to start thinking
about like what are the different waysyou want to get around a place.
And so that's kind of where wecome from here because lots of people are
(01:53):
asking questions of like one of thebest ways to get around is busting safe,
etc. Etc. So to divein from there, yeah, for
sure. This episode was actually kindof inspired by a friend of ours who's
going to be coming to Mexico inMay so in a couple of months,
and her and I went back andforth a lot, just like she's like,
hey, you know, this ismy itinerary. I'm going from here
(02:15):
to here and then here to here, Like would it be better to take
a flight here to bus here?What's the best way to get from this
point to this point? And evenwe've had other friends who know Mexico quite
well say, Hey, I'm flyinginto this airport. You know, do
I take a bus? What companydo I go with? Do I rent
a driver? How much does itcost? Is it worth it? And
so, like Ryan said, Mexicois a fantastic place for like a one
(02:38):
week beach vacation, but it's alsoa great place for like a three week
kind of backpacking trip or a twoweek road trip, or to come for
a couple of months and spend youknow, a great amount of time in
a couple of different cities, orto even like we've done over the past,
based yourself in one city and thendo travels from there. And I
think one of the reasons that we'vecontinued to come back to Mexico, moved
(03:00):
to Mexico called Mexico home, isjust because there are a lot of things
to see and do in this country, and we've explored a ton and I
still feel like we both have anextensive bucket list because there's just there's just
a ton to see and do here. So really is a great place to
do a bigger type of trip.All right, So the three main ways
that you would get around in Mexicowould be flying, busing, or driving.
(03:25):
There isn't really a train system herethe way there is in Europe.
I think there's a few places whereyou can train, but in general,
training is not going to be apart of your like the way that you're
going to get around in this country. One thing we're not going to touch
on because this isn't within our experienceand probably not something I would recommend in
(03:45):
general, is we're not going totalk about hitchhiking. This is just not
something we've done in the country,and we'll go through this because Mexico does
have a reputation for being a bitunsafe, especially if you are driving,
and while in general we think thatit is safe, I personally would not
choose to hitchhike in Mexico. There'svery few countries in the world that I
actually probably would feel comfortable with that. So if that's the means that you're
(04:08):
going to take, then obviously youmake that choice. For yourself. But
we're going to cover flights, buses, and driving, all right, Yeah,
so starting with flights, I thinkone of the things that I don't
actually know if this one is likesurprising to us. I think one of
the things when we first got herethat we found really like enjoyable, especially
about being in Mexico City, waslike access to flights and kind of ease
(04:30):
of going so many places. Likewhen we were living in Mexico City,
we are traveling kind of every fewweeks, going checking out somewhere new in
Mexico, and being able to dothat from Mexico City is great because there's
direct flights basically to every mid sizeor larger city in the country, and
so to really take advantage of that, and there are a number of different
airlines. Some of them don't havethe nicest like frills, but they're all
(04:55):
pretty solid and if you kind oflike know what you're getting into, it's
a great, relatively easy way totravel around. Mexico's a really big country,
and so that plus some of theroads not being the most direct,
means some of those long trips youtake if you really want to look at
flights, because you can save yourselflike entire days of travel, Yeah,
for sure. So I think thatflights would generally be my recommendation for the
(05:20):
longer trips. So say you're planningto go from like Mexico City to Medida,
and you're like, what is thebest way of getting from point A
to point B? And you know, how am I going to make this
choice? So I think the firstthing that you want to do is sit
down and look at like, Okay, how long is this adventure? Now,
(05:42):
doing a road trip between those twocities, if you've got the time
and you want to stop, couldbe a great option. But I think
in general for most of us,we're going to say, Okay, this
is going to be a pretty extensivedrive. You're going to go through many
different places. It's not really goingto be doable through like one direct bus
or something like that. So aflight is going to be the best option.
So usually we would hop on somethinglike skyscanner, look at all the
(06:03):
different options and see what's available.In Mexico, there's a number of different
airlines. Like Ryan mentioned, Ithink the most common, most popular,
most well known one would be AeroMexico. Aero Mexico is the nicest airline
in Mexico, but it also isthe most expensive one. So that's why
we usually hop on Skyscanner just tocompare. Because there's also a couple of
(06:26):
budget airlines which are Valerius and VivaAero Booths and so those ones fly a
number of different routes throughout Mexico.And then there's a couple of smaller airlines
that have kind of more specialized routes. One it's Tar Airlines and the other
one is Aeromar. So Aeromar isan airline that we flew one time that
flew between I think Mexico City andPortoscandido. I think it does Wahaka to
(06:48):
Porto Escndido as well. So youdon't have to memorize all the airlines.
I think just knowing something like GoogleFlights or sky Scanner is going to be
really helpful to start doing that.But when you start mapping out, okay,
how long is it going to takeme, what's going to be the
cost If I have to take abus from here to here, maybe stay
overnight and then take another bus fromhere to here, it's going to take
(07:08):
me two days versus like, hey, this is a one hour flight that
I can get for relatively affordable,you can kind of start making your decision
just based on that. And whenwe first moved to Mexico, like six
years ago, flights were really reallyreally affordable, Like domestic flights were incredibly
affordable, which is why we're ableto basically take a trip like once a
(07:29):
month. We've found that flights havegone up, and one thing you do
have to be cautious about is likeall the additional add on So you'll look
at kind of the base fair onValaris or Viva Aero boosts, and then
you go through the whole process.By the time you've purchased seats and maybe
at a checked bag, and maybeyou want to do some sort of upgrade,
it can be a bit more expensive, but I would say in general
still if it's a matter of liketwo days in a bus, taking like
(07:54):
a one to two hour flight isgoing to be way better like just cost
benefit or you in terms of travel. So that kind of goes over.
Like the airlines the different ones tolook at, but I would say the
biggest thing with airlines is like theyare the best option for longer travel because
Mexico is, like we've mentioned ahuge country. Yeah, and kind of,
(08:15):
like you said, it's good tobe where, like, especially if
I was trying to come in andtravel on a fairly low budget of probably
wanting to travel with as minimal luggageas possible, because if you're going to
take flights, that's really where you'regoing to end up paying a lot the
airport taxes. The government of Mexicohas raised the airport taxes quite a bit,
but those do vary from airport toairport. So for example, you
(08:37):
can look at the new airport toMexico City, which the government is trying
to incentivize people to use, andkind of say like, okay, well
I can you know, save somemoney by going there. Another thing is
there's often, like especially in CentralMexico, different options between airports. If
you're in Mexico City, you couldgo to Toluca, you could go to
the second Dairy new airport, youcould go to Puebla. If you're in
(09:00):
you know, going to San Miguel, you can go to Leon, you
can come to Careta. So it'skind of working worth looking at different airports
too, and you can you shouldbe finding some deals that way. Yeah,
absolutely, And so I feel likeone of the things that becomes like
the most tricky when you're planning atrip in a country like Mexico is when
you've got kind of the medium distanceplaces. So we actually just had this
with our most recent trip to Portof Aorta, where we looked at flying,
(09:26):
which I think for most people,between Caretto and Port of Arata that
might seem like a really obvious tripto fly, but it's about nine hours
in a car. Guadalajara is rightin the middle. That's a city we
really love, so we're like,okay, we could kind of make a
trip out of it, and thenthe benefit of that is that we would
have a car in our destination.And there are only direct flights between Careto
(09:48):
and Port of Arita like a coupletimes a week, and I don't think
they worked exactly with our days,So we were looking at having to fly
via Mexico City. So when youstart kind of adding up the time of
like, hey, we should beat the airport like two maybe two two
and a half hours early, theairport's thirty minutes from our house, that's
three hours. Then it's going tobe about like five hours because we've got
(10:13):
a one hour flight, a layoverin Mexico City, and then another one
hour flight. You're almost looking atthe exact same travel time as driving.
And so I feel like these arethe kind of destinations where when people are
traveling, they're kind of thinking alittle bit more about like do I drive
rather than fly? And what arelike the cost differences with these like medium
(10:35):
term, medium distance destinations. Yeah. I think for us, whenever I
think, especially now like that wehave a car here, we're always kind
of balancing out, like, hey, would just be nicer to drive,
not have to do the security stuffwhere about baggage and all of that.
But I think are probably like ifsomething's under like three hours, we're definitely
(10:56):
looking at taking buses is first,Like when we were in Mexico City,
if we were going to go toPuebla or Cadetro San miguel U, Cornovaca,
Yeah, all of those places.We flew to Guandalajara, But like,
I think busing that's a reasonable distance. So yeah, I think we're
always kind of balancing out, like, Okay, flying is going to be
(11:18):
quicker, but you add all thisextra time in busing is smoother in some
regards. The thing that can bechallenging about it, especially like depending on
what city you're in, is likeare you going to get there? Is
the bus station going to be overallpretty chill? We have like one really
bad experience of a like wildly crazybus station around Christmas time in Mexico City,
(11:39):
but overall that you can show upat a bus station much closer to
the time your bus is leaving at. Buses are reasonably reliable in terms of
the time they arrive. But we'regonna get more into buses. Yeah,
for sure. Maybe let's wrap upairlines and flying a little bit more so.
I feel like one thing that ifyou've never flown in Mexico you might
be wondering, like, a,what is it like when I get to
(12:01):
the airports? Are the airport's nice? Do they have good facilities? If
I have to be there three hoursearly because I'm checking a bag, We're
checking a couple of bags, Like, you know, is it going to
be a nice experience or would itbe better for me to just hop on
a bus. Yeah, it variesa lot from city to city, but
in general, the airports aren't likegoing to blow you away, but are
(12:22):
like totally fine, reasonably chill.I think we both find like going through
security in Mexico tends to be abit quicker, lines tend to be a
bit shorter, and it just doesoverall a little bit more chill than most
airports and like the States or Canada. And then yeah, once you're in
the airport, like especially the kindof Meximane Mexico City airport, a little
(12:45):
bit chaotic, but lots of likefood options, stores, that type of
stuff. Smaller, more regional airportslike here in Cadthao we've been to,
like the Guanahata airport, like theother places where it's like, you know,
a little bit more bare owns andmaybe a small airport than you'd think
given the sizes of the city,but still overall pretty chill, easy experience,
(13:07):
and even if you didn't speak anySpanish, like, there's typically people
at the air airport who speaking USwho can help you out and directuating to
go by. Airports tend to workthe same kind of everywhere in the world,
so it's pretty pretty easy and straightforwardto navigate. Yeah, for sure,
I don't think we've ever had anylike terrible experiences that any airport in
Mexico and I think it's also worthmentioning if anyone has like lounge access through
(13:31):
priority pass or a credit card orsomething. The majority of the airports that
we've been to here do have that, and all the lounges seem to be
relatively nice. Some are a littlebit smaller than others, but in general
that's that's a nice experience. EvenCaretro which is quite a small airport,
has a little lounge that you canaccess. Yeah. One thing I will
say that comes to mind for meis I think checking bags in Mexico seems
(13:56):
to be like longer lines and morechaotic than other places. I don't know,
that's just like it's gotten worse overthe years, and we've been here
and it's actually worse everywhere now.But that's something I would really try to
avoid if you can, is checking, because often you'll show up at the
airport and that's where you're going tospend your most time, is like standing
in a line to check a bag. And so yeah, avoid that if
(14:18):
you can, or like you know, pay for a priority so you can
get around to the main line,because that's like probably the biggest annoyance that
we've found at Mexican airports. Yeah, for sure, I think that that
is very true. And one thingthat has been I guess a little more
challenging with traveling with a baby nowis that I mean, one, she
has a lot more stuff, andtwo, most airlines actually won't grant you
(14:41):
your tickets even if you're not checkinga bag when you have an infant on
your lap, you have to gointo the check encounter. So I feel
like we've just spent like a lotmore time having to wait in these lines
and go to the check encounter.And for me, it's like, because
everyone's kind of showing up two twoand a half hours early, I'm to
the point where I'm like, let'sjust go three hours early, because I
(15:01):
would much rather like get through theline quickly, get through security, and
then go to a lounge or goto a Starbucks or you know, grab
a coffee and chill. Like tome, it's a lot like I would
rather be waiting on the side ofwhere my gate is and just having a
coffee and relaxing versus like standing ina line checking my clock feeling a little
bit stressed. So I feel likethat's definitely weighed into a lot of our
(15:24):
decisions recently in terms of like dowe do we fly, do we bus,
do we drive, etc. Etc. Because it really does make a
huge difference if you need to goto the airport three hours in advance,
like even if you have a onehour flight, that makes it like a
four hour trip versus I feel likea couple of years ago, it was
like you carry on, you've gotyour bag, you can show up like
(15:46):
one hour early. Everything's super chill. Hopefully things will go back to that
as travel kind of evens out alittle bit, kind of post pandemic.
But I feel like our experience overthe last six ish months has been that
airports are really hectic and seemed tojust have a lot of lines, and
you do have to be there quitea bit early. Yeah I want to
move into busing, Yeah for sure. So I think that you kind of
(16:07):
touched on it before, but wekind of have, you know, sort
of a distance that we kind oflook at, and I feel like,
knowing how long you have to beearly for a plane ride, et cetera,
et cetera plays into it. Sowhen I was chatting with my friend
who's plenty a trip, she wassaying, like, Oh, I'm looking
at flights between Mexico City and Keretro, and I was like, well,
I would just take a bus personally. So just to give you some context
(16:30):
on that, you know, it'stwo and a half to three hours,
generally about three hours on the bus. You can bust right from the airport
or go to one of the busstations in Mexico City, and then the
bus station in Kretro is super closeto the centro. It's maybe like a
ten minute uber to the historic centrowhere a lot of hotels and a lot
of people would be staying and thattype of thing. And so it costs
(16:53):
about four hundred and fifty pasos,which these days is about twenty US dollars
maybe a little little bit more thanthat, maybe twenty twenty five U s
dollars for a seat. And sowhen you think about the cost of a
plane ticket, which is going tobe significantly more than that, especially if
you have checked baggage, plus youneed to be at the airport a couple
hours early. You know, eventhough the flight is really short, you're
(17:15):
basically going to spend about the sameamount of time in transit. So yeah,
we always kind of take that intoconsideration, and then look at like,
Okay, so the distances, Iwould say probably around four hours and
less. We're definitely comparing between flightsand buses, and buses almost usually almost
always win in that type of distance. Yeah, and with buses there's a
(17:40):
big range. Like there's a coupleof companies that are kind of like the
premiere long distance bus lines Premira plus, ETN and Ado, And so we've
taken all those fluss companies and hadsolid experiences, but there's also a lot
more like regional companies, and soyou can really pay like as little,
(18:00):
you know, you pay for comfortand so for us, like we typically
look at like a pre Marita pluser at ETN and like you said,
that price like twenty five dollars I'mhere to Mexico City. That gets you
into one of the buses that havekind of a big seats. There's only
three per row, so you cansit by yourself if your solo, and
just have a lot more space anda lot more chill, comfortable trip.
(18:21):
But you can also find more regionalcompanies that'll do it for you know,
for a lower price. But yeah, typically as well with the bus lines,
whether it's here, especially if you'regoing to like more like secondary cities
in Mexico, those bus stations tendto be a lot closer to the city.
So you're looking at flying and it'slike, hey, take an uber
(18:41):
out to the airport, be thereearly, go through the whole security process,
deal with your baggage, get onthe flight whatever. Then you're at
an airport that's outside another city,you have to take a taxi and versus
often getting in the bus line thatyou might be able to walk to or
take an easier cab too, andthen get to a city, you're like
already in the center of the city. So that's one of the big advantages
(19:03):
with busing. They tell you tobe I think an hour early, but
I think it's generally thirty minutes.Yeah, and you can pretty reliably do
that busing here. Just from ourpersonal experience, I feel like twenty five
percent of the time we go thebus, maybe less than that, maybe
like fifteen percent of the time,it's been late, especially if you're not
like departing from the city the busdeparts from. But overall relatively reliable and
(19:29):
we haven't had any like crazy lightexperiences other than one time around Christmas.
Yeah, for sure, that wasI think kind of an anomaly, just
a lot of people traveling to gosee their families outside of Mexico City,
etc. Etc. But yeah,overall, our experience has been that the
bus stations are all relatively nice,relatively chill. I think my experience has
been that they don't have like aton a ton of food options. I
(19:55):
feel like that's one thing to consider. Like airports definitely have more rust drawns
and food options and stuff like that, but they generally are nice and clean
and have you know, good bathroomfacilities and all that type of stuff.
And like Ryan mentioned, we've neverhad a bus that like departed early.
That's definitely not a Mexican style.So if anything, you know, thirty
(20:17):
minutes is plenty of time to beat the bus station. I think one
thing for me, especially a coupleof years ago, when we didn't speak
as good a Spanish and we werea little bit more uncertain, is that
I worried a little bit more aboutthe bus leaving without us, just because
like with flights, it's like ona board, you have a gate.
Even if you don't speak Spanish orwhatever language it is, you know you're
(20:40):
going to like a two that's whereyour flight's taking off. You can go.
You can kind of like follow thecrowd a little bit. And I
find with the bus depots the busstations, it's like the bus is kind
of just pull up and you've gotto really be listening for like your city
to be called. And yeah,it's the type of thing that I think
if you're not comfortable with language,is a little bit more stressful. But
(21:02):
for me, if you're doing somethinglike Mexico City to Keetro or to Puebla
or something like that, I justfeel like taking a bus is a way
better option than taking a flight becauseit's going to be significantly cheaper. And
this is especially if you have checkedluggages luggage, because the buses don't charge
you extra. You get to putyour luggage underneath. And you know,
(21:22):
for us to like fly between CaretroA Mexico City, for example, would
just be super expensive, especially withtaking all the babies things versus like for
the three of us to go,it's about for three seats too, it's
about twelve hundred pesos, which islike sixty dollars sixty USD something like that
for the whole trip. And wecan take her travel crib and her car
(21:45):
seat and her stroller and the suitcasesthat we need, and there's no like
problems with that. It's not like, oh, fifty more dollars, fifty
more dollars, etc. Etc.So I do feel like there's a lot
of cases where buses are a reallygreat option. Yeah, and I think,
like you said, kind of theexam pull of our friends asking us,
bus tends to be the place maybepeople overlook as a travel option because
we're kind of accustomed to like flyingaround Canada in America and less so taking
(22:10):
like those longer buses. But yeah, can be really nice if you're getting
on the right bus line. Primaraplus et N. I believe Adeo does
as well have online booking, soyou can go online compare the time so
you don't need to go to thebus station in advance to buy the ticket.
You buy it online and go fromthere. But yeah, buses are
really solid. We use them quitea bit, but do tend to find
(22:33):
like once you get to like aseven hour bus ride or like that type
maybe probably over five hours on abus. Often you can find like with
one of like a vivo ed abuseof a lattice, one of these regional
airlines a plane ticket that's like comparableprice and is going to save you like
five hours. So we haven't doneany of those long trips in Mexico,
(22:55):
although we do know some people whohave. But yeah, bus overall in
Mexico very solid and reliable way ofgetting around the country. Yeah. Absolutely.
I think just an example that I'llgive of, you know, a
situation where I would definitely look atflying over busting is like Wahaka City to
the coast, like Porto es Candidoor Mazoon Day something like that. It
(23:15):
doesn't look very far on a map, it looks like it'd be quite close,
so you'd think like, oh,yeah, we'll just pop on over
this mountain range and we'll be atthe beach. But the road isn't very
good there. It's super windy,it's through the mountains. There's like big
trucks going, people passing, soit's a bit dangerous, and it just
takes a long time because it's likean older mountain road. So something that
(23:36):
you can do with like aeromar orprobably some of the other airlines that'll maybe
take you probably even less than anhour of actual flight time, takes you
about seven or eight hours in acar, and we've had a few friends
who have done that that are like, it's horrible, I was car sick.
You know, it's just not avery pleasant ride. So definitely worth
doing like a little research on thingslike that, because I feel like,
(23:59):
to me, that is like anobvious like I would fly in that case
unless you're very very strapped with avery tight budget. I think that that's
a really great choice for choosing aflight over a bus. And then you
know, versus I use that otherexample of like Mexico City to Kretro to
me is like a very obvious choicefor taking a bus or a car,
just because that's going to be alot simpler, a lot more affordable,
(24:22):
a lot quicker. Yeah, Andso that kind of takes us into like
another chunk of options, which aremostly like car options, so like if
you're doing a round trip somewhere,renting a car, hiring a private driver,
even looking at taking like a longdistance uber. And also there's a
kind of car sharing service that's quitecommon for people to use in Mexico called
(24:44):
blah Blah Car. We've had somefriends to use it as well. So
let's start maybe with rental cars.One thing we've found we've rented a couple
of cars in Mexico, it isthere's always like a bit of shenanigans going
on with rental cars. I thinkeverywhere in the world there's some like sketchy
businesses, but we've had in Mexicoit being a little bit challenging sometimes with
(25:07):
oh there's this fee, there's thisthing, we don't have cars. So
we found typically like there's maybe likea smaller, more local company that is
reliable in a city, and someof these big companies, like they're doing
stuff like you make a reservation,they say they don't have a car,
there's extra fees. And the otherthing with mental cars is often the charge
for drop off, So if you'redriving from one place to another and leaving
(25:30):
the car, it's quite a bitmore than it is in the States.
That said, we've taken a numberof trips where we're going maybe a couple
hours out coming back to the samecity. We've used gentle cars and had
a good experience. Yeah, it'skind of interesting. I feel like in
most cases with this type of stuff, especially in a foreign country where maybe
you don't speak the language, i'drecommend like go with the bigger, more
(25:52):
national brands, like the ones thatyou're familiar with from maybe the US or
Canada. But it's so interesting becausewe've had like the most problems, for
example, with Alamos Rental Car.I would absolutely not recommend renting with Alamos
Rental Car. I feel like we'vejust had problems with them. Every time
they've hassled us, they've told usit's more expensive than what we booked,
(26:15):
They've tried to add on a bunchof things. We've had to contact like
head offices. One time we didn'teven get a car, just you know,
stressful stuff. And so one thing, if you are going to rent
a car, I would you know, go on Facebook, find some local
Facebook groups, see if anyone's recommendinga company. Like for example, when
we were in the Yucatan based inMedida, we had a friend recommend a
(26:36):
smaller company called Velos. We renteda car like a number of weekends so
we were there. We never hadany problems with them. They were always
really great, good quality cars,etc. Etc. And then also if
you can't find that, or you'renot comfortable with that, or maybe it
doesn't exist, I think actually bookingfrom the website. So we've had the
most problems when we've done things likePriceline, Expedia, and I know those
(26:59):
are team because they give you thebest rates. But the thing is is
that the companies don't want to rentto you. So you show up,
you've got a reservation, You thinkI have a reservation, give me my
car. Oh no, sorry,we don't have a car, and then
they try to give you a higherrate. And so we've found that if
we can't find those smaller companies,then we'll go directly to the website,
like we'll go budget dot com,we'll book right there. National a couple
(27:21):
of times and it's been solid.Yeah, National has been National has been
a good one, and I thinkBudget has been good as well. Alamos
has always been horrible. So definitelynot them. So smaller companies and then
booking directly from the website. Ifyou know a travel agent or somebody who
has like a reputation who can kindof do this stuff for you, that
can be helpful. Then one otherthing with rental cars here is that Mexican
(27:42):
companies or Mexico in general, justrequires that you have their insurance. So
even if you're covered like through anAmerican Express card or you have your own
insurance from your home country. They'regoing to make you pay insurance when you
get there. So my advice is, do you like the basic stuff online
and then when you get there,just note that they're going to add a
(28:03):
cost for insurance per day, sojust budget that into how much you are
able to pay and stuff like that. But in terms of driving, and
I feel like this goes for busingtoo, because I know this is one
thing that my friend said to me. She was like, well, I
don't really want to be in abus because there's like a risk of things
happening on the road, you know, cartel violence, etc. Etc.
In general, we found bus travelto be quite safe. We've never had
(28:27):
any issues with buses, and ingeneral buses are not generally targeted by crime,
so busing is pretty safe for themajority of the country. Obviously,
there's areas that you should be cautiousabout and just do a little bit of
research on that. With driving,though, you do have to be a
little bit more cautious. You dowant to make sure if you're driving from
(28:48):
one place to another, you dosome research online, make sure you know
which roads to take, we alwaysadvise taking toll roads, even though they're
a little more expensive. You'll findthat on all blog posts and all Facebook
or groups. Always take the tollroads here, but just do a little
bit more research. I feel likeit's not the type of country where you
just hop in your car and goand you need to plan out a little
bit more with gas stations and whereyou're going to stop for snacks or food,
(29:11):
just because the roadside facilities aren't thesame as like maybe we're used to
if we come from places like Canadaand the US. Yeah, I think
kind of the way I think aboutit is with buses, Like there are
some safety concerns involved in taking abus, like they're on the highway and
you know, sometimes buses get intocrashes, so it's worth like considering for
(29:34):
you. And I think flying probablyis like the safest option out of all
the options. We don't kind ofview the risks, especially like if you're
growing to day, you're not takinga long overnight bus route to be bussing
to be you know, it's anoverall very safe driving Being in a rental
car, being in your own carexposes you to a couple risks that you
(29:56):
don't have in the bus. Oneis kind of like highway bandit types and
the other is police corruption. Andso I think, especially for us,
like there's places where we would probablythink twice about having you know, renting
and driving ourselves, or may maybewe'd give us more a pause, And
that might be like closer to theUS border, if we were like in
(30:17):
and around Cancoon, Like, Iknow that's a place you hear often people
saying like, hey, there's morecorrupt cops. That said, We've rented
a car and Cancoon driven it toto Loom and had nothing but a good
time in that area. We've drivenall over the Yucatan and lots of other
places. So in general, it'slike it's just stuff you need to be
kind of mindful of because that theydo exist. But I think for us,
(30:40):
and like almost everyone we talk to, the like calibration needs to be
from Most people are kind of reallyafraid, really worried about it, and
there should be some like you know, concern and thought put into it,
but most people are like too faron that side of the spectrum, and
it is actually like a pleasant wayto get around. Yeah, We've had
really good experiences driving around Mexico.And one of the things that I really
(31:03):
love about driving around Mexico is thatyou do have the freedom to stop when
you want and create your own itineraryand get to a little bit more like
off the beaten path. Places thatmight be hard to get to you might
have to take like a bus andthen a collectivo and then an uber et
cetera, et cetera. Versus driving, you get to really, you know,
see the countryside, see the landscape, kind of get to know the
(31:25):
country in a different way. Andthere are a lot of remote places in
Mexico that are hard to get toif you don't have a car, and
they take a long time, soit might not be the best option via
tour or driver et cetera, etcetera. Like, for example, there's
a waterfall region in San Luis Potosi, and then there's also, you know,
some hot springs that are kind ofin the Dalgo region outside of Mexico
(31:49):
City. Those places are challenging toget to and one of the best ways
to go see them is to havea car, because then you can kind
of explore at your own leisure andpace, et cetera, et cetera.
One other thing about driving that Ijust want to add, And I actually
feel like this is probably, like, realistically, like the biggest concern or
safety concern that people should have,especially if you're not from this area,
(32:10):
and maybe if you are, likeus, from a country like Canada where
driving laws and driving rules and regulationsto actually get certified to drive, etc.
Et cetera. Are very different,is that there's a lot of chaos
here. There's a lot of youknow, things happening on the road that
you feel a little hectic to us. So driving in big cities can be
(32:30):
quite overwhelming and a little scary,and you know, driving on the highway,
you kind of got to figure outhow their how their culture is,
and there's things that are different aboutthat. And so I think realistically that's
the biggest safety concern I have withdriving, And well, I think it's
important to be cautious and do yourresearch and make sure you're traveling on safe
(32:52):
roads and good roads and good regions. I think that knowing that it's different
from other countries is like the bigthing, and you kind of have to
adapt and it is chaotic, yeah, but it has been awesome. I
think for us those shows where we'verented a car, has been able to
get out explore more seamore stuff andso yeah, BigMan of renting a car
(33:14):
driving around. The other thing thatI think most people maybe overlook in Mexico
is kind of access and affordability ofa private driver can sometimes be like really
good and so like you might beable to find if you've got a couple
of friends traveling with you, tosomeone who can drive you to a different
place and make it pretty affordable.We've typically found these kind of through connections
(33:37):
through friends. Sometimes if you're takingUber into city, you might be able
to like start a conversation with thedriver. The driver might even offer his
services. And then another great placeis Facebook groups where we've been connected with
with drivers who you know can takeyou from one city to another, can
take you on a tour, thattype of thing. Yeah, for sure.
I think Facebook groups like xbat groupsor whatever for the city you're looking
(33:58):
for is is super key. That'swhere I found the drivers here. We
have a couple connections to drivers thatthey can do, you know, airport
transfers, which will be a littlemore reliable and about the same price as
taking an Uber. They can driveto and from Mexico City. I know
we have friends that just hired adriver to go to and from Sam Miguel
day and day, which is aboutan hour from Quietro going to places like
(34:21):
the Leon Airport or Guanahuato, MexicoCity. You know, for us,
at least in our area, thoseare great options for hiring a driver.
The prices for hiring a driver aregoing to be more expensive than you know,
likely renting a car. Definitely havingyour own car, it's cheaper to
just drive that if you can.Definitely more expensive than a bus. But
(34:42):
I think the benefit of that isthat somebody comes and picks you up where
you're staying at your house, takesyou to your destination. You don't have
to do ubers back and forth frombus stations. You know. It's a
little bit more simple, straightforward,a little bit faster. You have the
option to stop along the way ifyou want, so. I think that
this is definitely something that, likeRyan said, I think people overlook because
(35:02):
they think private driver that's for youknow, millionaires, billionaires. You know,
I'm not somebody who hires a privatedriver, especially if you live somewhere
like New York, LA. It'sjust going to be insanely expensive to have
that, but here in Mexico it'sactually a really feasible option. And one
thing that we just found out fromour friends here who actually have a pet
is that the bus companies here don'tallow animals on them unless you want to
(35:27):
put your animal down below, andthey have like a small cabin sized dog,
And so for them, hiring aprivate driver is actually the best option.
And hiring a driver for distances likeoutside of a city or you know,
et cetera, et cetera, aregoing to be a better option than
trying to depend on Uber, whichmight not want to take you or might
rack up cost really really quickly,or they might cancel on you, etcetera,
(35:52):
etcetera. So definitely something to consider, yeah, And kind of just
one final thing, like for people, especially if you're on like a tighter
budget, like people we know whoare on tighter budgets have used car sharing
services. Not something we've had experiencewith or can't really speak a ton about.
I think blah blah car is likethe most popular one, and there's
people who kind of do this alittle bit more as a business and you
(36:13):
might find like, hey, acollectivo, but that and then busing are
kind of the you know, thelow budget options if you're taking a longer
trip, more backpacker style, ifyou've got more of a flexible budget,
that really opens things up, andthen you can start kind of comparing flights
those like bigger, more national buslines that have like first class buses,
private drivers, even renting cars.But kind of overall, one of the
(36:36):
things I think that we like toget across people is so many cool cities,
like big cities, midsize cities,small towns in Mexico and kind of
getting out and exploring them is anawesome thing to do. And so if
you're going on a trip to acity, try to find like some of
those places that are nearby and geton an adventure and you know, take
a bus there or collectivo or renta car and go explore. Yeah.
(37:00):
Absolutely, so I think this kindof wraps up everything we wanted to share
today. I'm sure there's more detailswe could go into, but those will
be more trips specific. So ifanyone has any follow up questions or is
planning a trip to Mexico and iskind of curious about more details on this
type of stuff, feel free toreach out info at the World wanders dot
com. Otherwise, we hope thishas been helpful and insightful, and you
(37:22):
know, obviously things are a differentcountry to country, but you can kind
of apply probably these same sorts ofprinciples in terms of how to find information
and considering different options to any countryin the world. Really, but hopefully
you enjoy and thanks so much forlistening. Thanks for listening to this episode.
If you want more to make sureto check out the World Wanders Insider
(37:43):
available on Patreon at patreon dot com. Slash the World Wanders for show notes,
head over to the world wanders dotcom. Find us on social media
at the World Wanders Podcast, andjoin the private Facebook community at World Wanders,
a community for travelers. You canalways get in touch us at info
at the World wanderers dot com.And if you enjoyed the show, don't
(38:04):
forget to subscribe and leave a review. It really helps us find new listeners.
See you next time.
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