Border hopping: Mexico to Belize

Disclaimer: The following is based on our own experiences crossing the border in December 2025. While this worked for us, but I can't guarantee it'll work for you! Best of luck :) TLDR at bottom of page.

Really, when crossing a land border from one country to another there's two main options to choose from: go with a pre-booked organised shuttle service or make your own way. Normally, there's many options within these options but from what we could tell that wasn't the case here.

The only organised shuttle route we could find was with Marlin Espadas*. Their shuttles left from either Bacalar (a popular tourist destination) at 7am or Chetumal (the town next to the border) at 8.30am. The cost was a reasonable $25.00 and this got you to Belize city, but you could book buses all the way to San Ignacio.

The public bus only leaves from Chetumal, but unlike any other border we've crossed, it comes with you the whole way over the border with the last stop being in Belize. It's uncomfortable, it's crowded, it's loud, it's slow and it still costs 250 Mexican Pesos ($14.50 USD, £10.90).

So weighing up the pros and cons the organised shuttle seems like a clear winner right? It's only $10 more expensive and you're guaranteed a seat... the only problem was the reviews.

The Mexican - Belize border is (according to online reviews) rife with corruption and scams - the most prevalent being border agents demanding a fake exit fee (one that is conveniently the same cost of the real entry fee everyone pays when entering Mexico). While this scam seems like it has nothing to do with the bus company, they (apparently) stop at an ATM on the way to the border and tell their customer to get out enough money to pay this exit fee. Dodgy, in my opinion, so we went with the public bus.

To try our best to avoid this scam we brought with us the following;

• Passports

• A printed flight itinerary into Mexico that showed that entry fees had been paid

• A printed copy of our Quintana Roo tourist fee payment

Our day started with a taxi to the New market in Chetumal, this is where the buses to Belize leave from. We got on the first bus of the day which left at 10.30 am... although we arrived at the bus stop at 9.30 am to make sure we got seats. At 10.10 a colourfully painted old American school bus pulled up to the stop, the bench seats were small and the A/C non-existent but it would do the job nicely. We were told to go grab a seat, we'd pay once the bus was on the road.

10 minutes into the journey the attendant came around; we could pay in Pesos, Dollars or in Belize dollars. Once we paid our ticket fee, the bus attendant gave us a customs and immigration form for the Belize border and offered pens to fill it in. He even checked we filled it in correctly and everything - how nice! The journey to the border was smooth and soon enough the driver told us all to get off and to leave our luggage on the bus.

We made sure we were near the front of the queue for immigration - our thought process being that the border agent would be less likely to try and scam us if there was a big line of people waiting to be processed behind us. We went into the office, handed over our passports and when asked about "salida" (exit), showed our flights into the country. I can't be exactly sure what she was saying, rapid fire Spanish was all the communication we were getting, but we managed to get our passports stamped with no issues.

Back on the bus. The next stop was the Belize border, and here we needed to take all of our stuff with us. We filed into the immigration hall and got into the queue to get stamped in. The border agent was much slower here but we got through with no issues. Before we could get back on the bus, we passed through customs. Many people's bags were being checked but we were passed over, we obviously didn't look like we were smuggling fruit over the border I guess.

As we were the last ones back onto the bus we lost our coveted front row seats, but managed to find space in the back, stowing our large backpacks in the rack above to get the out of the way for the rest of the journey. The bus started back up, the music blared out of custom-installed speakers and we bumped our way from town to town, dropping off and picking up passengers, finally reaching Belize city 5 hours after we started. Once in the main bus station we were quickly ushered onto the next bus we needed, and taxis were ready to whisk away people who were heading to the boats for the islands instead... I did desperately need to pee so this wasn't quiet as convenient as you might think, but at least we were on our way.

So, would I recommend the public bus to cross the border from Mexico to Belize? Yes, 100%!

The bus was slow, the seats were uncomfortable and at times the bus was so crowded that there wasn't even standing room left, but it was fun. Watching the interactions, seeing the small towns go by, and enjoying the drivers eclectic music taste... it all felt like an experience rather than a simple transfer. I mean, if I had more funds a private taxi might have been nice too, but i'm glad i chose the route I did.

I honestly wish this wasn't the actual audio.

*As you don't need pay Marlin Espadas till you the day before you travel, we used this company to show proof of exit when we arrived in Mexico... that we accidentally booked our exit for the day we arrived is a story for another day.

TLDR :

• Public bus was good.

• Pay once bus is moving.

• Prepare border crossing documents - passport, proof entry tax is paid.

• Leave luggage on bus at Mexico border - it's fine.

• Take luggage with you Belize border.

• There are no exit fees for Mexico.

• The music is intense.

• Not a scam.

• You can buy snacks on the bus... I didn't, thats on you.