Drive to Belize

interested in your daily itinerary?
and costs share and ?

niteshadow wrote:

interested in your daily itinerary?
and costs share and ?

No cost sharing.
By "if you're driving in that direction" I meant you drive your own vehicle.
My apologies if I wasn't clear enough.

ok clear enough

Wish I were driving again Brigitte! I would love to follow along with you. I drove down last October and the drive was awesome! Thank you so much for all the helpful advice you gave me. It made the trip a breeze. I'm leaving for Belize next week for 2 months, back in Alberta in early August, then heading for Belize in late September again. Hope to see you there then. Left the car I drove in last year in Belize so now we have a reliable vehicle there.
MariLynne

bmcraig wrote:

Wish I were driving again Brigitte! I would love to follow along with you. I drove down last October and the drive was awesome! Thank you so much for all the helpful advice you gave me. It made the trip a breeze. I'm leaving for Belize next week for 2 months, back in Alberta in early August, then heading for Belize in late September again. Hope to see you there then. Left the car I drove in last year in Belize so now we have a reliable vehicle there.
MariLynne

I’ll keep in touch, MariLynne! But we’ll see you for sure, sometime late summer/early fall. Good news that you have reliable transportation. We love the drive more with every trip. So much to see and do. I’ll send you a FB message in the next couple of days!!

We have a friend who's planning to drive down from Calgary in the next couple of weeks. Any advise, route suggestions, etc. would be much appreciated! Also if anyone is planning to come down soon ,perhaps you could caravan:-)

bsherryg wrote:

We have a friend who's planning to drive down from Calgary in the next couple of weeks. Any advise, route suggestions, etc. would be much appreciated! Also if anyone is planning to come down soon ,perhaps you could caravan:-)

We cross at Del Rio/Ciudad Acuña. From there to Saltillo, San Luis Potosi, Santiago de Querétaro, to Puebla via Arco Norte, Minatitlan, Villahermosa to Subteniente Lopez/Santa Elena, where we cross into Belize.

It's mostly toll roads. We've driven the coastal route before. But we much prefer the central route.

And for the tolls you can use this
http://app.sct.gob.mx/sibuac_internet/C … eIdioma=si

I have driven from Laredo Tx to Belize and back 3 times. I always take the toll roads as they are safer, and faster.

Laredo -> Monterrey -> Saltillo -> Santiago de Queretaro (stay over night) -> ON 57D turn to go on Mexico city bypass on highway 45. Then through Puebla on 1500 through the mountain pass, past Cordoba on to Villahermosa (Stay over night). Then about a 7 hours to get to Belize. These are long days of driving, but only in daylight.

I have thought about breaking the trip up into one more day --- getting too old for long trips. I think that I would stay in Puebla.

You must have cash for all your fuel and toll on the highways. Only in the bigger cities was my Canadian credit card accepted.

I am headed to San Ignacio. What are peoples experience ... cutting across northern Guatamala?

I have thought about it several times. According to Google it does not save much time, so I have always 'chickened out'. I am usually the adventurous type. I talked with an expat that lives in Guatemala close to the entrance from Mexico on that road. He says the road is not that good, and it is a very rural outpost. He did not suggest I use it.

I have travelled the other way 6 times and had no problems.

bsherryg wrote:

We have a friend who's planning to drive down from Calgary in the next couple of weeks. Any advise, route suggestions, etc. would be much appreciated! Also if anyone is planning to come down soon ,perhaps you could caravan:-)

I’ve sent you a message.

Hi  2flyaway
Nice to see you back on the forum I was worried you had been chased way by the Anti Belize brigade. Hope next time i am at my place by Belmopan we can meet up.

Thanks terrific. I have been busy enjoying and setting our farm up in Belize. Yes there are those Belize haters trolling posts to try and discourage people.

I did my third trip from Belize to south eastern USA and back now. My toll road trip from Laredo to Belize was great again. My daughter then did it in February. Four successful trips.

-Stay on toll roads.
-Have full-coverage vehicle insurance from a Mexican insurer.
-Dont drive at night.
-Stay in hotels with guarded courtyards.
-Avoid Tamaulipas, or if you must cross over at Texas border, drive out of Tamaulipas as fast as you can, avoiding a little village called San Fernando (on hwys 101 & 97) at all costs.

toflyaway - I drove down from Edmonton last October - followed the same route you outlined above and used my Canadian Tire Mastercard for all gas purchases except one, which was a small place we fueled up south/east of Villahermosa. Surprised yours didn't work.
Good to have cash on you, though, just in case.

Has anyone taken the ferry from fla to progresso?

EricBuh wrote:

Has anyone taken the ferry from fla to progresso?

Assuming you meant FL to Progresso Mexico.

Simply google FL to Progresso Mexico. to see many comments on the failed service in 2002-2003, and information on the new startup that missed its 2017 startup date, and now saying it will start in Winter of 2020.

We very much enjoyed staying in Tampico, Veracruz, Villahermosa, and Oaxaca. Northern Mexico within 100 miles of US border is muy peligroso, but take your time and enjoy the country and the people after that.

I did. I was just wondering if I could chat with someone who actually did it. Fishing around for some first hand knowledge

EricBuh wrote:

I did. I was just wondering if I could chat with someone who actually did it. Fishing around for some first hand knowledge

Well stranger things have happened, but finding someone that used a service that apparently failed financially 16 years ago is a real stretch.   

I really hope someday it will be possible to drive my car onto a ship in Tampa Fl, get out of my car and walk up to my nice cabin on another deck, eat, sleep and gamble  in luxury for 36 hours, then drive my car off that ship onto a pier in Progreso Mexico.

unitedcaribbeanlines.com has been saying they were close to starting this in 2012, then again in 2017, now its winter of 2020.

BMCraig:

Maybe they saw my Belize license plate and they do not accept Belize credit cards. Great to hear that the trip went well. Thanks for letting me know.

Take care.

We have stayed in Tampico, Veracruz, as well. We did this when we flew our 4 seater airplane around Mexico and Central America. Nice hotels and no problems.