Mexico on your own
Turquoise cenotes beneath the jungle, pyramids without the crowds, cactus deserts facing the whales: Mexico by car is a continent in itself — and it drives far better than its reputation.
When to go
Dry season November to April almost everywhere: that is THE window. April-May roast the Yucatán (38 °C and up); June to October bring afternoon rains and hurricane risk on both coasts (August-October above all). One major special case: Baja California's grey whales are visited January to March, La Paz's whale sharks October to April — set your dates by them if that's the point of the trip.
What it costs
Gentle by American standards: a compact €30-50/day WITH third-party liability insurance included — beware the €5/day teaser rates that exclude it; it is compulsory and gets charged at the counter. Fuel ~€1.20/L (Pemex stations with attendants), cuota toll roads pricey but safe (Cancún-Mérida ~€30). Lodging €30-60 in guesthouses, €80-150 in colonial boutique hotels. Budget €2,000-3,000 for two over 15 days excluding flights, with cocinas económicas and markets lightening the bill.
Driving & transport
Right-hand driving. The golden rules: never drive at night (invisible topes, cattle, unlit pedestrians), slow down at EVERY village entrance even without a sign — the unmarked tope is the country's number-one trap — and choose the cuota (toll road) wherever one exists for long hauls. At Pemex stations, check the pump reads zero before filling and pay cash in small notes. Military checkpoints are frequent and uneventful: windows down, a smile, sometimes a look in the boot. The Ángeles Verdes, free roadside-assistance patrols, watch over the main highways.
Forget all-inclusive Cancún: back-road Mexico is one of the finest playgrounds for independent travel. In the Yucatán you string together cenotes, colonial towns and Maya cities on flat, quiet roads; in Oaxaca and Chiapas the indigenous highlands unroll markets, pine forests and waterfalls; in Baja California the Transpeninsular runs between giant cacti and grey-whale lagoons. Each region is a trip in itself — you pick one or two blocks, never everything.
Driving here takes three reflexes more than courage: drive by day (topes, animals, zero street lighting), lift off at every village entrance — topes, those often-unmarked speed bumps, are the real local police — and take military checkpoints for what they are: a courteous thirty-second formality. A compact sedan suffices almost everywhere; an SUV earns its keep for Calakmul, Cabo Pulmo or the Chiapas back roads.
The destinations that matter
6No. 012 to 3 nightsValladolid and the cenotesA pastel colonial town sitting on a honeycomb of underground rivers: around Valladolid, every country lane leads to a turquoise well where the jungle dips its roots.No. 021 to 2 nightsUxmal and the Ruta PuucAn hour from Mérida, the continent's finest Maya architecture is visited in a silence of birdsong: Uxmal and its Puuc route are the absolute anti-Chichén — and the road trip's clinching argument.No. 033 to 4 nightsOaxaca and the central valleysA colonial city the colour of green cantera stone, markets where tlayudas smoke on the grill, and three Zapotec valleys where every village has its craft: Oaxaca is the beating heart of indigenous Mexico.No. 043 to 4 nightsOaxaca coast: Puerto Escondido to MazunteA coast still free of hotel towers: mythical surf beaches, villages where turtles come to nest, and sunsets from Oaxaca's southernmost point — the Pacific as it used to be.
No. 055 to 7 nightsBaja California SurA cactus desert between two seas, lagoons where grey whales come of their own accord to nuzzle the boats: Baja California is Mexico's most unreal road trip.No. 064 to 5 nightsChiapas: San Cristóbal and PalenqueFrom mist-drowned Maya highlands to the jungle-devoured pyramids of Palenque: Chiapas is Mexico at its deepest — and the region that demands the most respect at the wheel.
Our flagship guide — €29
Guide available“Mexico on Your Own”, the complete edition, is out
10 chapters: day-by-day itineraries, driving and transport, a costed budget and checklists — the same method as our Namibia guide.
The guide is currently written in French — an English edition is in the works.
Explore other countries