How is it to drive in Mexico? Car or Van rental?
If you ended up on this post, then you are asking yourself the same questions I did when planning my trip to Mexico. How are the road conditions? Is it safe to drive at night? Is there internet connection along the way? Do I need an International Driving Licence? Police checkpoints? Are rental companies reliable? Thinking about renting a van? All of these questions are answered below…
Let’s start with saying that my experience of car rental and driving in Mexico was around the Yucatan Peninsula which is currently one of the most touristy area of the country and in ludes the state of Quintana Roo and Yucatan. We did drive all the way to Izamal, through the jungle and some very remote little villages along the way so we kind of saw the full picture of this area of the country. Overall driving around Mexico was fun and not a big issue at all as European, but there are a few things to keep in mind…
Road conditions and driving? Watch out for Topes!
So, how is it to drive in Mexico? Well, many people ask, and I must say, apart from a few gravel roads you will encounter in some remote villages or on your way to a few Cenotes around the area of Valladolid, if exploring the inner parts of the peninsula, all the main roads and motorways are in good shape.
There are a few highly annoying Topes around though that can really damage your vehicle if you miss them. Topes are basically speed bumps, very much needed in Mexico as some really drive like crazy, they are usually made of asphalt, concrete, metal and even massive ropes. Most of them are marked but some are not and if you don’t stop completely and drive over them carefully you could seriously damage your car! We missed two or three and it felt like the car was breaking in half! That’s how bad they are... So watch out for Topes at all times and do not get distracted while driving! When it comes to the driving skills of Mexicanos, some might be a bit crazy and you might have to deal with some random takeovers on the wrong side of the road but nothing that is not manageable. Just keep your eyes open especially in the cities and everything will be fine. We loved driving on secondary roads in the jungle though, you meet a few cars every now and then, so you practically have the whole ‘carretera’ for yourself. I mean some parts of Sicily, back home, are much much crazier than the Yucatan in Mexico in my opinion. You’re safe to go!
Is it safe to drive at night?
This is a question I kept asking the locals all the time. You get caught up in exploring and sightseeing and you might end up forgetting about the dark hours without even realizing, so I wanted to get as many opinions as possible on the matter just in case we ended up driving at time, which we did just on our last day in Tulum. We saw the sunset in the Sian Ka’an Reserve and left in the dark. The most common answer: It is kind of safe…ish.. But not recommended. One of the main reasons is lighting. The long straight roads crossing the jungle have no lighting at all when it gets dark (as well as no cell connection at all but more on that below), and if you see something like 10-15 cars passing by you during the day, at night you’ll see close to none. If your car breaks down in the middle of the night you might be in big trouble and also in danger if you will end up stopping someone with no good intention. Some others (mostly men thought) kept saying that there is no issue at all when driving at night. However, to be on the safe side, just avoid driving long distances and remote areas at night. The situation differs if you are in the city center of course. So, about that cell connection issue…
Internet connection on the road? Download offline Maps!
If you are planning to go to Chichen Itza by yourself, and even further towards Valladolid, Izmal and some other areas of the Yucatan, make sure you have offline maps downloaded. You will literally be in the middle of the jungle with no cell connection at all on some road (these are the ones you should not drive around at night) and offline maps can be very useful. I must say though that we had no issue finding our next destination through road signs either. All roads are basically straight and if you studied the map a little before your departure you won’t get lost. We did see a few petrol stations in remote areas, but I would still recommend you start your journey with a full tank!
Do I need an International Driving License?
Short answer number 1: No, they did not request one when I picked up our rental car. Short answer number 2: I preferred doing it anyways as knowing how things go in Mexico where every excuse is a good one to get money out of you, I still did one. Which takes me to the next point…
Police checkpoints
Yes, we did see lots of Police checkpoints while driving around but we were fortunate enough not to be stopped (thanks to our two little angel faces 😝). A guy with a scooter actually overtook us one day and the Police stopped him before us. Well too bad for him, good for us!
We did see some tourists being ‘checked’ along the way and we could tell it was a very thorough search. The car had all doors wide open; everyone was standing outside and at least 2 officers were inspecting the vehicle (one even personal belongings). Not a pleasant experience when on holiday, but I suppose this was just an extreme case and most of the time they will just let you go through like it happened to us.
Rental car companies' reliability (and prices)
I booked our rental car through a website called EconomyCarRentals. The service was however provided by Europcar. We picked up the car in the Cancun Puerto Juarez office, right in front of the Ultramar Ferry station. Now why I'm telling you this you might think. Renting a car in Yucatan is the perfect option if you want to explore the Peninsula by yourself, so don’t let this put you off on doing so but keep these tips in mind when renting a car. -First of all we were about to get a heart attack because when we got to the office it was still closed and apparently, I noticed that an email was sent to me which ended up in my spam folder saying they could not find my booking. At that point I already saw the rest of my holiday ruined as having a car was key for us! Thank God, it was just a ‘system mistake’ and the Europcar guy arrived 15 min late, nice and relaxed. Punctuality, not an option 😅. -Second issue, our cards didn’t work because he had no connection in the machine. He kept saying it was our cards, but we tried 3 different ones with 3 different circuits, and none worked. So we had to go get cash instead in a nearby ATM. Therefore, I would advise to get some cash out before and just pay the rest of the rental with it if renting in the city, hopefully people renting directly at the airport had a different experience. -Third issue, the car we had booked was not the same as the one we were given. We booked a Renault Kwid and we were given a Chevrolet Spark instead, and nope it was not a ‘similar’ category because we saw a few parked around the places we visited, and it was a completely different car starting from the size of the boot (trunk for the American friends). As we were moving around Mexico, we sometimes had all our stuff with us and we could barely fit both small trolleys in the back, ending up with our big backpacks on the back seat which is not really recommended to do in Mexico (we were advised to never leave anything in the car, but we had no choice when going from one Pueblo to the other of course). I complained about it and I was told that the Chevrolet was even bigger than the car we had booked (bulls****). However, it was already late, and they had no other car at the office anyway, so we didn’t have much choice and just went with it. -Fourth thing, purchase full insurance. I read plenty of reviews on the internet on how people were wrongly accused of scratching cars or damaging tires and whatsoever. Personally, I usually just purchase an online insurance through the search engine I’m booking the car with, but for Mexico, me and my friend decided it was worth it spending the extra money for peace of mind. -Fifth thing, maybe you will have a different experience if you rent a bigger car, but in our case a few things in the car didn’t work very well. I had to clean the windscreen myself a few times and you could tell the engine was already suffering when hitting 80 km per hour, slowing us down quite a bit during our trip. Incorportated GPS, non-existent of course. Apple CarPlay or the Android one, no. We used our phones all the time for navigation.
In terms of support, thankfully we didn't really need any so I can't really express my opinion on it (and I seriously hope none of you will have to).
Campervan rental?
The initial idea was to rent a campervan and travel around Quintana Roo and Yucatan in total freedom. Yet, with some more research we changed our mind and decided to go for a car instead. Reason number one was mainly experiences from other travelers. I read tons of blogs before my trip to the Yucatan and maybe just 1 out of 10 was recommending it. Once in Mexico I did ask the locals, some other tourists, and I also spoke about it with a tour guide I met who did not really recommend it either. Short answer, not really the best idea. There are not really many places where you can free camp around the peninsula (mainly what we were looking for) and it didn’t really see many campervan facilities along the way either. It might still be a good option if you are planning to stay much longer than 11 days as we did, or if you want to travel to other parts of Mexico. Baja California is great for vanlife apparently. Thus, the Yucatan Peninsula is not really one of them. Everyone just kept telling me we were better off with the decision we made of renting a car instead and finding cheap accommodation along the way.
One more thing to add, the deposit required for the van rental was out of this world. We had to send lots of money via some sort of Money Transfer app, and payment of course only in cash when getting the van. On top of that, I asked multiple times about insurance but apparently none of them could provide any sort of insurance for the rental.
That said, I hope you find my answers to these questions useful for your trip to the Yucatan Peninsula. If you are wondering how I planned my trip to Mexico check out the full itinerary in here. Happy travel or Happy driving in this case!
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