driving to Mexico from East coast (trains, car, money, map) - City-Data Forum

marushka · 03-15-2007, 08:48 AM

I am just starting to plan a drive from the east coast of the US to Mexico. I have heard that driving is difficult in Mexico so I am thinking of leaving my car either in New Orleans or Santa Cruz with friends. Then either take buses, trains or fly into Mexico. I have lived and traveled in Mexico before and I speak Spanish. Has anyone traveled by car,bus or train to Mexico from the east coast? Can you recommend routes or have any tips? ,what about going through Baja California? Thanks! M

trusk01 · 03-20-2007, 08:52 AM

I drove from Philadelphia to Mexico City in December of 2006. For directions to the border I went to map quest. These directions were easy to read and follow and perfect on the mileage. For my travel in Mexico i found a government website - http://www.sectur.gob.mx/wb2/sectur/...ruta_carretera you then select the Mexican state your travel begins, then select the city, then the state and city of your destination. The directions given were easy to follow, but the time given for travel from Nuevo Laredo to Mexico City was not correct. I think it said 10 hours and 52 minutes and it was more on the order of 16 - 18 hours. I found the driving in Mexico to be fine. The toll roads i travelled were excellent and the free roads were fine as well.

CaliforniaTraveler · 01-10-2008, 01:25 PM

Last Spring I drove from San Francisco, to Cuernavaca, just south of Mexico City, and made multiple road trips to the coast from there. It was a most excellent experience.. as long as you have like $600-750 in TOLL money to spare, it's not a bad time, I found the free roads to be quite bad, disrepair and slow as molasses when you'd get behind a line of trucks..

if you have all the time in the world, just take 'em, you'll see more of Mexico, but you'll also subject yourself to more "contingencies" as I like to call them

I can't wait to go back this spring.. driving all the way to Oaxaca.. down the west coast...

I'm not familiar with the east coast/gulf route, but I can't imagine it being much worse..

Suerte!