A guide to crossing the border on foot from Mexico to Belize without flying
I decided to do a whole blog post purely on this crossing because we were very stressed trying to figure out how to do this. There really wasn't that much information available online and actually it was so easy... long, but easy!
After spending a week in Mexico with friends, our plan was to go to Belize. We finished Mexico in Tulum, which is half way down the country (towards Belize) and it really didn't seem far to get there. Originally we had looked at flying, but that meant getting back to Cancun, paying for a flight (including bags) to Belize City, then travelling all the way to the islands, it felt like there had to be a simpler way.
Summary of Border Crossing
Tulum → Chetumal - ADO bus
Chetumal → Mexican/Belize Border - taxi
Mexican/Belize Border → Corozal - taxi
Corozal → San Pedro/Caye Caulker - ferry / water taxi
Time: approx 10 hours
How to get from Tulum to Chetumal
When researching online, we saw there was an overnight bus from Tulum (Mexico) to Corozal (Belize). The ADO bus station in Tulum was near where we were staying, so after dinner one night we went to investigate. The staff at the bus station told us the bus from Tulum and Corozal had stopped running before covid. It made sense (different countries having different vaccine/testing requirements), but it was frustrating none the less. We figured out the closest we could get was to Chetumal in Mexico, right on the border of Mexico and Belize, so we bought bus tickets there and just hoped it was easy to get across. We had no idea how long it was going to take (or if we would even make it) so we got the first bus out of Tulum the next day.
We got to the bus stop about 30 mins before our bus was set to depart to Chetumal, so we could buy food, drinks and figure out our route. The bus route was about 4 hours, so we knew we wouldn't have an option to get food and drinks (it stops for about 5 mins at each stop along the way). The bus ticket was about £16 / 20 USD and we were surprised how nice it was. Just to clarify, it's a coach rather than a local bus, everyone has an assigned seat, they played a movie (in Spanish) on there and there are toilets on-board. The seats were really padded and comfy, much better than an aeroplane seat.
Bus times and prices can be found here:
Crossing the Mexican border to Belize
After 4 hours we arrived in Chetumal and were greeted by lots of taxis drivers. They are all quite used to taking people to the border, but do agree a price before you get in so they can't overcharge you. I think we paid about 20 USD for about a 5 minute drive, but at this point we just wanted to make sure we got across. The taxi driver drove us to the border, where we had to go out and fill out immigration forms, so he waited for us. He then took us to the next bit where you meet with a border control officer and get your passport stamped and pay a 'departure fee' of about 35 USD. He asked for the piece of paper we got when we arrived in Mexico (the one they tare off and give you at the airport) and annoyingly I had lost mine, so to get my passport stamped I had to an EXTRA 50 USD. Frustrating and not sure how legit that is, but I just wanted to get across so paid it. Once we had our passports stamped we then got back in the taxi where he drove us to the Belize border. We said goodbye to our taxi driver, got our bags and went through Belize immigration. Once out the other side we got a taxi to Corozal, where we heard the ferry goes from.
Ferry from Corozal to San Pedro/Caye Caulker
The ferry from Corozal to San Pedro leaves every day at 3pm and goes via Sarteneja. We were heading to Caye Caulker and I think the ferry does go direct, but when we travelled it didn't, so we had to go to San Pedro. A single ticket from Corozal cost 80 BZE / 40 USD and the journey takes about 1.5 hours. When we got to San Pedro about 5pm we realised we had missed the last daily ferry to Caye Caulker so had to stay a night there.
