ROAD TRIP ITINERARY

For anyone reading this post, disclaimer if you didn’t notice in the title, this is a ROAD TRIP. In order to follow this itinerary you’ll need to rent a car in Mexico. Not only does this require the basics like a driver’s license, but also that the driver is comfortable driving in a foreign country. In terms of traffic laws, the rules are basically the same in Mexico as the U.S. so no worries there. However, when I told people I was driving through Mexico that raised a lot of red flags for them in terms of safety. So I want to address it for anyone thinking the same thing and because I want to be honest. 

I planned this trip for myself knowing that I had traveled to South Africa alone, and my boyfriend coming with me was also well traveled. Therefore, I was not too worried about us driving in Mexico, but did understand we needed to at least be cautious. I don’t say this to stereotype a country or people, or to make out Mexico to be a severely dangerous place. But rather because there are certain situations you could possibly find yourself in, and in fact, we did.

When my partner and I drove through Mexico, we had no problems except for in Cancun. Which makes sense, because Cancun is full of tourists, therefore cops look to target them, and that’s exactly what happened to us. As soon as we picked up the car we were pulled over for no apparent reason. It became very obvious that the cops were corrupt and were simply trying to squeeze cash out of us, and threatening to take passports away or even put my boyfriend in jail if we did not pay hundreds of dollars. My boyfriend asked that I stay in the car while he talked to the cops. He was able to convince them we did not have that much money on us and called them on their bluff to take him to the police station so he could talk to the police chief himself. Finally, to get out of the situation we paid the much lesser amount of about $50 USD and then left. 

From that event, we realized we were targeted because our car blatantly said “rental car” on the back, making it obvious we were tourists. So we immediately went to the store and got duct tape to cover this up on the car. From then on during the trip we were not pulled over and had no problems at all.

I tell this story, not to scare but rather to shed light on the reality and that anyone considering this trip understands the possibilities and precautions to take while driving. 

If you’re thinking of driving in Mexico, I advise caution, and that you only do so with someone and not alone. You or that person should be well traveled, and understand what to do in certain situations. Knowing some Spanish helps too. Follow the law and respect the country and you should stay under the radar and be perfectly fine, especially if you spend the least amount of time in Cancun as possible.

For more information on driving in Mexico, Travel Yucatan has a good post.