Driving from Canada to Mexico - is this a bad idea?

In My Humble Opinion
1

We’re having a great time driving our car all over North America, but so far have limited ourselves to Canada and the US. I’ve been toying with the idea of broadening our horizons, and road tripping into Mexico (probably down the west coast to Mazatlan or Puerto Vallarta) if we ever go as far south as Arizona (which we probably will). My question is two parts:

  1. Is this something that can be done by two Canadians who have no Spanish at all?
  2. Is this something that we can do, but probably shouldn’t?
2

I’d sure check all the recent travel advisories for your destinations and for whatever regions you’ll be passing through to get there.

English, or a reasonable variant thereof, is to be found throughout most major tourist routes. Attempts at Spanish are appreciated by the locals but not essential.

Mexico is at it’s most dangerous now in quite some time. That’s not to say you can’t plan and enjoy a safe trip to some parts but you will need a plan and you will need to employ some discretion in your route and activities.

3

Some friends of mine rode a motorbike from northern BC to northern Brazil. It was in the 90s, granted, so things were different, but they had a blast. The only place they had trouble was in Colombia.

I say go for it!

4

It’s a great idea. I drove from Canada to Santa Barbara two years ago and it’s pretty much beautiful the whole way down except for maybe L.A. Even then, the Pacific Coast Highway through SoCal is interesting but very slow going. The Oregon coast and Big Sur coastlines are world class drives.

Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, and dare I say it, L.A. are very interesting cities. Redwood National Park in Northern California is spectacular. The Olympic Peninsula, although unfortunately going through a drought, is one of the few temperate rain forests on the planet.

I’ve also ridden a bicycle from Canada to Mexico and it was fantastic.

Try to take a lot of time as there is much to see. I’ll buy you a beer when you get to Santa Barbara.

5

Be sure to check with your insurance agent. I’m pretty sure that Canadian and US insurance policies are not valid in Mexico, and you will be required to purchase Mexican insurance.

6

Uh Oh! you opened up a can of worms there…I thought you knew about the Mexican ban on all lover’s of Hockey. :smiley: They may not allow you through in Nogales if you tell them you are Canadian, they think you all just want the cheap prescriptions and one bottle of Booze. :slight_smile:

Just kidding! :slight_smile: My wife’s family is Canadian [Québécois] and I always tease them when I see them because they are always asking about going to Riviera Maya - they are worried about getting stopped by federales… They see the stories on tv of people being detained for months in Mexican prisons.

7

From Arizona, jog west to San Diego and then down the Pacific coast of Baja. The road down to Cabo is just fine. Get Mexican insurance and drive defensively. Beautiful coastline, nice people used to tourists, and few of the problems you might run into in the rest of the country.

8

Slight hijack, but might be useful to the OP: Is there a ferry you can take from the Baja to the rest of Mexico or vice versa?

9

Have you been to Mexico before? Personally, I wouldn’t recommend that a driving trip be someone’s first trip. Even being a passenger on the roads can be somewhat hair-raising. And are you driving something extremely reliable? How would you handle a breakdown if it happened? Trying to get a tow truck driver that speaks English on your cell phone doesn’t sound fun. Admittedly I haven’t been to Baja and maybe that is just like California, continued, but from other parts of Mexico I’ve seen it seems too stressful to be fun.

10

I don’t think driving there your first time is that big of a deal, as far as traffic/driving itself is concerned. People feel less, shall we say, bound to rules like staying in one’s own lane, and not cutting people off, etc, but it’s not that bad. Not like Rome or something! There are plenty of round-abouts, so you should know how to navigate those. However, you might get lost once or twice – I speak Spanish, and I think the signs are confusing. Then again, I’m generally terrible at navigation/sense of direction in any country. You can get Mexican insurance at various places before you cross the border. It’s not too expensive. If you need directions or assistance in Baja, especially in the north, you can find someone who speaks English if you look/ask around. However, something I have noticed about Mexicans (IN GENERAL) is that they do want to be helpful, such as in telling you directions, so if they are not sure, they are more likely to tell you something questionable, rather than telling you they don’t know how to get where you’re trying to go. Anyway, I say go. And (speaking as someone who was born in Calgary, so I can say this) do try to get the hang of the “ah” sound. Taco does NOT rhyme with whacko. :wink:

11

Well, not to put a damper on what sounds a wonderful adventure…BUT…

I met some very adventurous people when I was traveling in South America who had, in fact, driven from Canada, through the U.S. into Mexico.

There intention was to drive right to the tip of South America. They were very savy and experienced travelers, had been many places, spoke fluent Spanish. They were three young men.

Unfortunately, shortly after stopping for gas, on a not very busy stretch of highway, a vehicle came up to overtake them only instead, ran them off the road. Two men, whom they had seen at the gas station, pulled guns on them, took their car and everything they owned.

When they finally made it back to the Policia, to report these events, they were met with the attitude, “Stupid foreigners, count yourself lucky you escaped with your lives”, they were then jailed for not having travel documents or ready cash for a bribe.

Yeah, they did work it out, got their travelers cheques replaced, passports reissued, money wired to them to pay the bribes to make the first two things possible, etc.

The most remarkable thing was not that they had continued on with their journey, (we met them in Bogota), but that they held no ill will toward Mexico. But, recognizing the danger they had made the rest of the journey on public transport.

You may want to think carefully about what you are proposing.

12

Crap, I didn’t even notice the part about driving through Mexico. Yeah, I’ve driven down to Cabo San Lucas and recommend it highly. That said, Tijuana down to Ensenada is very sketchy these days. Even veteran Baja 1000 drivers have been pulled over by look alike cops (real looking federales vehicles, and possibly just real corrupt cops) and have had their car stolen. I’d still do it, but there is some real gangland warfare going on in Tijuana these days.

SmellMyWort, yes there are car ferries going from Cabo San Lucas to the mainland.

13

Hmm, mixed responses. Yes, our car is extremely reliable, and no, we wouldn’t go without stopping at the CAA for travel insurance first, but we don’t particularly want to have our car stolen and go to jail.

14

Yeah, that seems prudent. Not to be too much of a downer here, but according to the CIA the country is the “world’s largest consumer of cocaine” as well as Colombian heroin; a “major consumer” of ecstasy and methamphetamine; a producer of cannibis; and a “money-laundering center”. Police corruption, even violence by the police, is not unheard of. The country has a strong gun culture and, many contend, an entrenched culture of machismo–many of the inhabitants may be armed and somewhat touchy.

Oh, wait. You were talking about Mexico, weren’t you?

15

I’ve taken several bus trips from Tijuana to Mexico City and back. I would advise against driving into Mexico, especially if you know no spanish. The roads are well kept but if you end up having to stop for the night at one of the many little towns along the way you could end up in trouble, there are also alot of army roadblocks in northern Mexico and the soldiers might take advantage of you if you are the only ones there and not let you go without handing over some cash.

16

OK, I drove down Baja in 1991 so these comments may be out of date, but here are some bits of advice about the highway. It’s not like Canada or US highways. There is no shoulder to speak of. And by no shoulder I mean that there are places where there is a 4 foot vertical drop off the side of the road. Do not get drowsy and wander about the road around these places. Do not drive at night because there are not reflectors or barriers and it can be difficult to see, but mostly because there are open range cattle wandering about and might be standing in the middle of the road at night. Granted, you probably run into moose and elk in Canada, but no one may come by for a while and you could be 400 miles from the closest hospital. Baja is very very remote. You can go 200 miles without seeing much of anything. Bring lots and lots of water. If you can, bring a couple of 5 gallon gas cans.

One thing that is completely awesome about the Baja highway is that there is an organization called the Green Angels. This organization is a group of federally funded mechanics driving green tow trucks that provide free emergency road service along the full length of the highway. Theoretically, the will pass by every point on the highway twice per day. They are expert mechanics and have reputations for being able to fix the most intractable problems. They have saved many tourists asses.

17

Just a reminder that we’re from the Canadian prairies - you’ll have to do better than that to scare us. :smiley:

18

Did it maybe 15 years ago with my dad. We drove down to Cabo San Lucas with the intent of taking the ferry from nearby San Felipe(?) to Mazatlan - more below. Niether he nor I spoke much Spanish - no problem. The road was actually not in bad shape, but they certainly take a different attitude towards safety warning devices - as in, there’s no sense trying to cater to inattentive drivers, so just keep your eyes open.

I believe that we were required to stop in Ensenada to get visa or some such for going any further into the country - just paperwork, no big deal - but you might want to check with your insurance or travel agent.

Got down to the ferry terminal, where we were told that we’d need to wait three days for the next ferry that could take passenger vehicles. Agricultural trucks otherwise have priority, we were told. We suspected that if we had spoken Spanish and knew the right way to ask (and the graceful way to show our monetary appreciation) that we might have worked something out… but we didn’t, and didn’t really want to risk any stupid misunderstandings. We drove back out to Mexicali (a truly impoverished pit hole), then another day down to Mazatlan. Then over to Guadalajara and Mexico City and up the east coast to Brownsville, TX. (It was a dirt road, shown on the map as being paved. Oh well.)

(That dirt road was where we ran into an impromptu “check point” of dubious legitimacy - they took $2 and let us go - traffic was starting to back up, don’t you know. Still, the thing was unnerving at the time.)

Otherwise, no problems, though it is a different culture.

19

Head straight west and drive down the Pacific coast. It is a spectacularly beautiful drive.

I have no worthwhile advice to give you about crossing the border south of San Diego though.

20

It’s already been mentioned but I cannot stress enough to get Mexican insurance. And the reason I repeat this is because if you call your insurance company and ask them about it, they will tell you you’re fine, you’re covered, don’t worry about it. YOU’RE NOT FINE OR COVERED. If you get in a wreck or get pulled over down there without Mexican insurance you will be thrown in jail. Get Mexican insurance.

And try to plan your trip so that you don’t have to drive at night. Most of the ghettos and drug/gang hotspots are up north so get a good night’s sleep in San Diego and try to drive as far south as possible before dark on your first day.