Mexico is a country bursting with rich culture, stunning landscapes, and vibrant cities, and offers an inviting realm for travelers eager to explore by car. From the sun-kissed beaches of the Yucatán Peninsula to the historic streets of Mexico City and the breathtaking Sierra Madre mountains, driving in Mexico presents an adventure filled with endless possibilities.
Like any other foreign land though, navigating the country comes with its own set of challenges and surprises. In this guide, I will cover the essentials of driving in this vast and awe-inspiring slice of Central America.
My experience comes from driving over the span of 2 months on the western part in the states of Quintana Roo, Yucatan, Campeche, Tabasco, Chiapas, and central Mexico, Puebla, and Oaxaca. For more information, be sure to check out this article my Mexico Road Trip.
Traffic Rules Basics
First and foremost, the basics: in Mexico, driving is on the right side, and all common driving requirements are followed (i.e., mandatory seatbelts, it is illegal to drive under the influence, and the driving legal age is 18).
Speed limits range from 70–90 km/h on rural two-lane roads and 90–100 km/h on two-lane highways. In urban areas, it is 40 km/h, which in small rural towns should be much lower as it is common to encounter local farm animals crossing the roads.
Speeding is common, as are vehicles that travel at a snail’s pace. Speeding limits and checks are not enforced so much.
Save the driving cheat sheet for reference
Road Conditions
The paved roads outside of the major highways are generally in bad shape, with hundreds of immense potholes that go to the center of the earth. Unpaved roads pose their own challenges depending on the season, and if traversed during the rainy season, they could be completely flooded, transformed into slimy mud, or filled with debris such as fallen trees. Also, there are frequent roadworks almost everywhere (presumably to fix the potholes), which slow down the traffic a lot. This should be kept in mind when predicting the time needed to traverse a certain area.
Highways have left hand side exits, on top of the “normal” right hand side exits. These are small bays that are used to make u-turns and are quite common. This allows to quickly change course, but you should also stay vigilant as a slow turning car might get into your side of the road (on the fast, overtaking lane).
Drivers license requirements
An IDP is not required to drive in Mexico. That being said, a general rule is that the license must always use the characters that are used in the country, so in the case of Mexico latin characters and if your drivers license is written with Chinese, Arabic, Cyrillic, or others you will need to an IDP
Driving
Driving is reasonable but somewhat out of control in some places. For example, in Cancun, the speed of cars is huge considering the urban area.
Outside, in rural areas, there will be many sudden speedbumps (each with its own street vendor standing nearby) near small towns and settlements. These speedbumps (topes) are tall as mountains, mostly invisible, and sometimes without warning signs or signs placed too late. They will wreck your car if you do not spot the somewhat hidden houses and cabañas (or dogs and chickens) on the side of the road beforehand. In the smaller towns around Mexico City, I realized or imagined that the speedbump yellow strips are scraped off by locals to make them less visible to foreigners, as one of the most common shops in rural pueblos are car mechanics.
Road tolls
Depending on the region, highway tolls can get quite expensive, relatively speaking. Almost all toll booths do not accept credit cards and payment must be done in cash (and in Mexican pesos, other currencies such as US dollars are not accepted).
Fuel
Gas is done the “non-American” way, for lack of a better word for it. This means payment is not done upfront to unlock the pump. Also, all gas stations in Mexico are serviced. Mexico does have a culture of tipping, so leaving a tip is common. Generally speaking, gas prices are in line with those of the continent, so they are comparable to those of other South American countries in the US and twice as cheap as Europe, for example.
Depending on the area not all fuel petrol stations may accept credit card so it’s always best to carry cash with you (which is an advice that you should follow in general anyways). In case you find yourself in a bad situation petrol-wise, you can also always find some fuel in grocery stores and buy a small essential tank to get you further on.
Police
Mexico isn’t the safest country in the world, and when it comes to law enforcement corruption, it isn’t the most transparent either. It is common to encounter police roadblocks or military police driving around. Usually, these have very specific targets related to organized crime and won’t bother a tourist, especially if a large rental car sign is present on the vehicle. However, as in many places, a police roadblock is mostly a matter of luck, and if the officers have to stay there all day and haven’t done much lately, they might focus on you just to do something.
When it comes to police corruption, I did not experience any directly (this is also due to the regions that I visited, which are very popular and tourism-oriented). However, it is a sad reality, and all advice reinforces the idea that it is better to give a “tip” or pay whatever fine on the spot rather than be harassed longer by the authorities.
Driving Etiquette
The use of turn signals is somewhat “altruistic” rather than referring to the owner’s vehicle. A left turn light usually indicates that the driver wants to be overtaken and sees no obstacle or danger ahead, instead of indicating that they are about to turn left. Four emergency lights indicate (to the opposite lane of oncoming drivers) that something was spotted on the road and needs attention. Because of this, lights must be interpreted somewhat in the opposite way: if you plan on turning left, do not put your left turn light on, as other drivers will overtake you on that side.
Driving Quirks
Most roads are single-lane, but there is a half-lane emergency on the right. This is where everybody drives. The center of the road is reserved for overtaking in both directions. With all sorts of vehicles on the roads, the speed differences between the fruit truck and the overtaking cars can be huge.
Wildlife
Contrary to Australia, where this is a serious issue that needs to be accounted for when driving, I did not encounter any major wildlife on the roads. However, roads are rarely safeguarded on their sides, and animals do roam the countryside, especially at night. Crossing the small pueblos, there would often be dozens of dogs, each with their own character: some would closely follow your car, others would move out of the way, and others would rest on the hot asphalt baking in the sun and not move no matter what.
In pueblos, it is also common to see several chickens on the side of the roads, but they have a good sense of vehicles and traffic and move out of the way, unlike some other animals (I’m looking at you, Australian Kangaroos). In more remote and jungle-ridden areas, such as those leading to archaeological sites, there are many signs informing people about crossing wildlife, ranging from monkeys, turkeys, and jaguars, but these are well aware of the dangers of the roads and tend to remain hidden during the day. Also, monkeys use the road overpass nets to cross from one tree to another.
The only animals that will probably be encountered and possibly run over are the huge black tarantulas, which simply cross slowly. They can be seen from far away and are much more visible than the speedbumps, which should give an idea of their size.
