Mexico travel guide

Book on the operators' apps or sites (ADO covers Mexico City, Puebla, Veracruz, Oaxaca, Chiapas and the whole Yucatán peninsula; ETN and Primera Plus the Bajío, Guadalajara and the Pacific; Estrella de Oro for Taxco and Acapulco). Classes matter: 'primera' is fine, 'ejecutivo/de lujo' (ETN, ADO Platino) has 2+1 seating and is worth the 30 % premium for anything over four hours. Mexico City–Puebla 2 h, €13; Mexico City–Oaxaca 6.5 h, €40–55; Mexico City–Guadalajara 7 h, €55–70; Mérida–Cancún 4 h, €25–35; Cancún–Tulum 2 h, €12–15. Mexico City has four bus terminals (TAPO for the east and south, Norte for Teotihuacán and the Bajío, Sur for Cuernavaca and Taxco, Poniente for Toluca); Estrella Roja runs directly from the airport to Puebla. San Cristóbal–Palenque via Ocosingo (5 h) is periodically blocked by protests; the longer Villahermosa routing is the fallback.

Rule of thumb: City pairs under six hours by first-class bus → bus, in ejecutivo class if over four hours. Book a day ahead in holiday weeks; walk up otherwise.

Aeroméxico (full service, bags included), Volaris and Viva (ultra-low-cost, everything extra, still fine). Mexico City–Oaxaca 1 h, Mexico City–Mérida 2 h, Mexico City–Cancún 2 h 15, Mexico City–Tuxtla Gutiérrez (for Chiapas) 1 h 30, Mexico City–San José del Cabo 2 h 15. Fares €40–120 booked a few weeks out. Mexico City has two airports: AICM (MEX), 30 minutes from Roma, and Felipe Ángeles (NLU), 45 km north with a 1–1.5 h transfer — a cheap Viva fare from NLU is not cheap once you add the taxi and the time. Oaxaca–Puerto Escondido (45 min) and Tuxtla–Cancún are the useful regional hops that skip long mountain roads; Oaxaca–Chiapas has no reliable direct, so it is via Mexico City or the 11 h overnight ADO.

Rule of thumb: Over six hours by bus, or crossing between regions (capital ↔ Yucatán, capital ↔ Baja, Oaxaca ↔ Chiapas ↔ Yucatán) → fly. Prefer MEX over NLU unless the saving exceeds €40.

Right-hand traffic, an EU or UK licence is accepted, no IDP needed. The catch is insurance: Mexican third-party liability is mandatory, cannot be covered by a credit card or European policy, and is added at the desk — an online €6-a-day quote becomes €35–50 all-in. Book with the insurance shown (Hertz, Avis, Europcar direct, or Discover Cars with the local TPL included). Toll roads (cuotas) are good and expensive — Mérida–Cancún about €30 in tolls, Mexico City–Oaxaca about €30 — and free roads (libres) are slow, with speed bumps (topes) every village. Petrol is paid at the pump to an attendant: check it reads zero. Sensible in the Yucatán (flat, empty, straight), Baja Sur, the Oaxaca valley and the Bajío. Never in the capital, never at night between cities, and never in the states on the security list.

Rule of thumb: Yucatán, Baja California Sur, Oaxaca valley and the Bajío → car, daytime only, with the desk insurance budgeted. Mexico City, Chiapas mountain roads and the Pacific highways → bus or fly.

There is no national passenger network. The Tren Maya, completed through 2024, loops Palenque–Campeche–Mérida–Cancún airport–Playa del Carmen–Tulum–Bacalar. It is comfortable but the stations are outside town (Mérida's is 15 km out at Teya, Cancún's is at the airport) and foreigners pay roughly double the local fare — about €50–60 Cancún–Mérida in Turista class for a 3.5–4 h ride. Door to door it rarely beats ADO; the one leg where it is genuinely useful is Palenque–Campeche–Mérida (about 6–7 h), which replaces an 8–9 h bus. Otherwise take it once for the novelty. The Chepe (Ferrocarril Chihuahua al Pacífico) is the country's great rail journey: Los Mochis–Creel through the Copper Canyon, 9 h on the tourist-class Chepe Express (about €120–250 depending on class, a few departures a week) or the cheaper, slower Chepe Regional over the full route to Chihuahua. Book weeks ahead and stop for a night in Divisadero or Creel. Mexico City–Toluca's El Insurgente is a commuter line; the Mexico City–Querétaro high-speed line is under construction and not a planning factor before 2028.

Rule of thumb: Trains are a destination (the Chepe), not a mode. Do not build an itinerary around the Tren Maya; use it for Palenque → Mérida, and otherwise only where it beats a specific ADO leg door to door.

Cozumel from Playa del Carmen (Ultramar and Winjet, 45 min, every hour, about €14 each way); Isla Mujeres from Cancún's Puerto Juárez (Ultramar, 20 min, about €14 return); Holbox from Chiquilá (30 min, about €12). Baja Ferries links La Paz with Mazatlán (12–14 h overnight) and Topolobampo near Los Mochis (7 h) — the only way to combine Baja with the Chepe or the mainland without flying, and worth it only with a car.

Mexico City's metro costs 5 pesos (€0.25) a ride on a 15-peso Movilidad Integrada card that also covers Metrobús; it is fast, packed at rush hour, and fine in daylight with your phone in a front pocket. Uber and DiDi are cheap (€3–6 across the centre, €12–15 to the airport), safe and the default after dark; do not hail cabs. Ecobici bikes cover Roma, Condesa and the Centro. Guadalajara has a three-line light rail; Mérida, Oaxaca, San Cristóbal and the colonial towns are walking cities with cheap taxis at fixed rates — agree the fare first. Along the Riviera Maya, colectivo vans up and down the highway cost €2–3 and beat the tourist shuttles.

Rule of thumb: Capital → metro by day, Uber/DiDi by night, no rental car. Smaller cities → walk plus fixed-fare taxis.