How to…get from Belize to Mexico

Belize is a perfect holiday destination; sunny, exotic and friendly. Although there are only two main roads across Belize, we found it easy enough to travel around, well set up for tourists. However, when leaving Belize to go to Mexico we fell for a bus scam. So as a tip - don’t buy your bus tickets to Mexico from the Belize City Marine Terminal.

Two daily buses leave the Belize City Marine Terminal for Mexico - the San Juan travel agency minibus at 10:30am and a large ADO bus at 12:00pm. We bought a bus ticket from Belize City to Tulum, Mexico, for $30 USD from one of the many agents in/around the Marine Terminal offering tickets for the same price on the same bus.

We opted for the early bus. The ride was smooth, passing through tempting jungle and rivers and signs to quaint sounding places like ’Orange Creek’. We would have loved to stop but time and money didn’t allow. Instead we arrived in Mexico at Chetumal bus station, late, but expecting to carry straight on to Tulum.

At this point the San Juan bus driver disappeared, and when we went to the ADO ticket office we were told our bus ticket was not a ticket, just a voucher. We swapped it for a bus ticket that cost $10 less than the price we’d paid for it. We were then told that the next bus to Tulum was sold out and that we’d have to wait for two and a half hours for the next one. Humph!

So there was no direct connection in Chetumal to Tulum and we were sold a ticket at a highly inflated price. Don’t buy your tickets in the Marine Terminal! Just buy a ticket to Chetumal, Mexico, and make your own way from there - it‘ll take the same amount of time and cost you less.

You have to pay to leave Belize - $30 Bz (or $15 USD) for the “visa processing” fee and a $7.50 Bz Protected Areas Conservation Trust (PACT) fee. Everyone pays the visa processing fee, but you only pay the PACT if you’ve been in the country more than forty eight hours. The exit procedure was quick and easy - as you’d expect for that price!

Entering Mexico was also easy. If it’s your first entry you need to fill in a tourist card, but if you already have one (as we did) you can just stroll right in, through customs with all your bags.
We left Belize with a longing to return. It is a great place to go and is easy to travel onwards to Guatemala or Mexico overland. Just make sure you don’t fall into the same bus ticket trap as we did.
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How to…get to Mexico from El Paso, Texas

The El Paso/Ciudad Juarez border crossing ranks as one of the most shambolic we have crossed so far. Confusingly you need be in Mexico to get the papers to allow you to be in Mexico. Given the rigour of U.S. immigration upon arrival we were expecting a similar grilling upon departure, but on our bus journey from El Paso to Chihuahua there was no sign of American immigration.

The two adjoining cities straddle the border and immigration controls are confusing. Upon entry to the U.S. we were told that Mexico is considered a contiguous region with the U.S. so that for stays under 30 days we would not need a visa or tourist card to visit. It would also appear that U.S. citizens and World in Slow Motion backpackers with a U.S. visa can visit certain parts of Mexico within a certain distance of the border (e.g. to Ciudad Juarez) without a visa/tourist card.
Not wanting to chance it, we took the advice of the Foreign Office who state that British citizens need a tourist card to visit Mexico, which allows for a 180 day visit.

Given the lack of available information the following tips may help anyone taking the same route (El Paso to Mexico) by public transport. We cannot state the following as fact, but based on our experience so far we hope the following helps:
1) To get your Mexico tourist card go over the Avenue Juarez bridge from El Paso (U.S.) into Ciudad Juarez (Mexico). There is a covered pedestrian gangway and no questions were asked when leaving the U.S.
2) When over the bridge (across the border into Mexico) walk two blocks to the east to the Mexican Immigration Office on Avenida Lerdo.
3) Here you fill in a form, get a copy (this is the tourist card) and get a Mexico entry stamp in your passport.
4) Now you can choose whether to get a taxi to the bus station in Ciudad Juarez for onwards travel or get a bus from El Paso. We opted for the latter (it seemed simpler) so had to go back over the Avenue Juarez bridge (it costs $0.30 for pedestrians) through U.S. immigration back into El Paso, Texas.
5) Our bus then crossed the border to Chihuahua without a single piece of paperwork being checked, either on the U.S. or Mexican side of the border. There was nowhere to surrender our U.S. departure card, which we need to do as we will be out of the country for more than 30 days, so we will have to visit the American Embassy when we reach Mexico City. Apparently you can skip the queue and go around to the window at the back of the building.
6) When in Mexico, you need to go to the bank (any bank) to give them your tourist card and pay around $30 USD in exchange for a receipt. You need this receipt to leave Mexico.

As we’re not 100 per cent sure that the information we have is correct, we’ll be updating this page as our adventure continues, when we leave Mexico for Guatemala/Belize and then re-enter, before entering the U.S. one more time. In the meantime, if anyone knows more than us, do let us know…
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