BootsnAll Travel Community

Leaving in a week or so by bus, for Guatemala via Mexico.

Any recomendations for a fun and scenic bus ride from N. Mex boarder to S. Mex boarder? ie. what towns to stop at? things to see? places to stay? central vs pacific coast routes? I am anticipating taking first class the entire way with a/c, so heat may not be a factor.

My guess is to get to D.F. (Mexico City), then bounce around to the Mex-Guat boarder, then chicken bus it to Lake Atitlan or Antigua.

Travel buddies welcome.

Mexico is a very long country and there's lots to see. I recommend you take the Pacific Coast route, at least at first. Get a bus from Tijuana across through Mexicali to Mexican Highway 15. If you are going in the summer, it will be very hot, but there are some interesting places to stop. From Los Mochis, you can take a train up into the Copper Canyon for a couple of days. You can also go to San Blas, Nayarit and other small coastal communities out of Tepic, Nayarit.

Maybe from Tepic onward it would be best to take the central route to beat the heat. I recommend Guanajuato and Queretaro as colonial cities to visit.

If you do head down the coast from Tepic, via Puerto Vallarta, there are some small towns between there and Manzanillo that might be good places to stop: Tenacatitla and La Manzanilla come to mind. Zihuatenejo is also an enjoyable place to be. I'd skip Ixtapa and Acapulco (too touristy) and continue on down to Puerto Angel on the Oaxaca coast. If you're into ruins, indigenous culture, arts and crafts, and an interesting colonial city, head inland to the Oaxaca Valley. After stopping there, continue on down Hwy 15 (La Panamericana) stopping at San Cristobal de las Casas on your way to Guatemala. Whew! Have fun!

That's a good route.

Another choice would be to, instead, substitute going down baja to your heart's content, then ferrying over to the mainland from La Paz, to Los Mochis (to do the Copper Canyon thing), or whatever. Or taking the other La Paz ferry all the way south to Mazatlan then head to the interior. (Or hug the coast then head inland.)

You'll get plenty of beach/coast either way....definitely do some interior highlands, it's a great time of year to be there. Maybe from Mazatlan, head into Durango, then Zacatecas, then scoot down through Guanajuato, Queretaro, M.C., Puebla, Oaxaca, San Cristobal (and other, smaller places along this basic route.)

It's all good. Have fun! I'm envious.

P.S. There's also another ferry from mid-baja (not as far south as La Paz) that gets you to the mainland, but I forget where it departs.

Thanks for the tips

Hi!

I'm traveling from Northern Mexico into Guatemala this summer, and I see you've done this a couple years ago! How did your trip go?

I'd like to ask your advice: I need to eventually get to Quetzaltengo in Guatemala - where is the best place to cross the border from Mexico? Any inside info you can give me would be great!

Pax

quote:

Originally posted by paxsierra:

I'd like to ask your advice: I need to eventually get to Quetzaltengo in Guatemala - where is the best place to cross the border from Mexico? Any inside info you can give me would be great!

Pax

There are two crossings near Quetzaltenango (usually known as Xela). Which one is best depends on your route. If you're coming from the north (Yucatan or Palenque), the Ciudad Cuauhtemoc/la Mesilla crossing will be your best bet. From anywhere else, the Pan-Am crossing at Tapachula will be the best bet.

OP, it'll take you the better part of three solid days on the bus to travel the length of Mexico. If you have the time to break it up, the trips sounds like a blast. Coming from LA, you'll definitely want to hit the Copper Canyon railway - Creel is the jumping-off point for this. I know you can catch buses to nearby Los Mochis from Tucson. Northern Mexico isn't my stomping grounds, so I'll give you suggestions for south of Mexico City.

You basically have two broad options: travel down the Gulf Coast via Veracruz (much longer route), or the Pacific Coast. I'd recommend the latter one, as there's more to see, and the beaches are much better. Before heading south from DF, don't miss the ruins at Teotihuacan. After that, you can drop straight down to the coast at Acapulco and hug the coastline until Puerto Escondido (great surf town on the beach, where I spend this past winter), or veer over to Oaxaca City, which is a lovely old colonial town. After that, you'll have to transit Chiapas state, which is worth a lot of time. Sumidero Canyon is the first must-see spot there, between Tuxtla Gutierrez and San Cristobal. San Cristobal is a highland Maya town that people fall in love with - it feels much more like Guatemala than the rest of Mexico. After checking out the area around SC (lots of indigenous villages), you can either head north to the ruins at Palenque, and over to the even-more spectacular ones at Tikal, in northern Guatemala. Or, you can move right on to Xela, in Guatemala.

If you really have a lot of time, the Yucatan is well worth visiting, from either Chiapas, or the Gulf Coast route. From there, you can turn south, transit Belize, and enter northern Guatemala - you'll end up at Tikal again, but coming from the east on this route.

What they said. The copper Canyon is incredible and often missed.


Now, you don't need or want, really to take a chicken bus to Pana, since from Antiqua it is a two transfer process full of rush and bother,not to mention being packed like a sardine.

THeres a shuttle from Antiqua to Pana, and well worth it. It runs once a day in the morning.

Its a 4 hour trip from pana to Xela, and not so bad, once you transfer twice, or find, I think, the direct tourist bus from Pana to Xela. Not sure about that. Ask when you get to Pana.

I faintly remember taking both ways.

Say hello to pana and Xela for me!!!! I miss them

Felix,

Wow! Thank you! That's a ton of good insider information. I should have a little over a week to make it to Xela. I'll be starting out in El Paso/Juarez...I imagine I just show up at the bus station and get a ticket headed for DF? I imagine that would take me through the middle of Mexico, no? Or would you more strongly suggest heading west and following the coast? Juarez is pretty easterly.

How difficult is the border crossing into Guatemala? I'm imagining tthat it won't be too bad, but from what my friend in Guate tells me, things are hit and miss in that country.

I'm WAY excited for this trip. I'll be leaving from Juarez around the 10th of May, I think.

Thanks again for the good tips!

Pax

Go to El Paso. Cross the depressingly long bridge with 20 feet of fencing on both sides.

Go through the various gates to Juarez. Don't forget to get your stamp and your Tourist Paper, which are separate.

Take a bus in Juarez for Mexico city, if thats where you want to go. There are stations nearby.

Theres also a border in San Diego, with a town corresponding.

Thats more westerly.

If you want to see the Copper Canyon, then you get a bus to one of two places,one of them being Chihuaha,the other a smaller town with a more scenic train ride from that side,or so they say. The bus has a better schedule.

I love trains. I took a train up and had no regrets!!!

I went out to Chihuaha by bus.

Oh, don't count on El Paso for more than a place to get to Mexico. Its pretty much a border town dump. I stayed there a week waiting for a friend that never showed up!!!!