Avoiding the night bus to San Cristobal De las Casas

All prices in Mexican pesos ($). £1 = $24.21 at time of writing - Nov 2025

Despite being sure we were entirely unique in our Mexico itinerary, we quickly discovered that we were actually on the typical tourist trail: Oaxaca to Puerto Escondido to San Cristobal De Las Casas. Somehow, even while travelling down the road most trodden it didn't equate to good transport options. Sure with the new road, Oaxaca to Puerto was relatively easy but the next hop was a whopping 14 hour journey rather than an easy 3.

We had (before any real in-depth research) believed that a night bus would be the perfect option, after all the ADO buses we'd travelled on so far had been comfortable enough - but we quickly discovered in this case the bus itself might not be the issue. When looking up reviews on overnight travel for this particular route, they were fairly split into two camps - one in which the journey was "fine" and the other in which tales of non-stop police checks, bribery and police corruption was rife... and that's not to mention the few more urban legends of the buses being hijacked altogether.

So travelling overnight was seeming less enticing... and spending fourteen hours solidly on a bus during the day also sounded pretty terrible (have I mentioned I suffer with travel sickness?) so we needed a better option. Luckily for us, down the coast and halfway through the journey was a small town called Selina Cruz that worked perfectly as stopping point. After 7 hours of hurtling down the windy coastal roads, I understood very thoroughly why the buses on this route have been affectionately nicknamed "vomit rockets", and was so very grateful to be done for the day. Our guesthouse in Salina Cruz was nice enough, fairly inexpensive and most importantly not a bus. What we wasn't prepared for was the enormous street party that was happening right outside of it. Although we weren't entirely in the mood for the rather loud inescapable latin rhythms, it was fun to see an authentic celebration.

The rest of the bus journey went smoothly but slowly. We were boarded by officials about four times, and had to show our passports at least once. All easy during the day, but perhaps more intimidating in the dead of night when battling sleep deprivation and intentions may not be as honest.

We arrived to San Cristobal just as the sun was setting, and as the ADO bus station is located right on edge of Centro Historico, we opted to walk to our accommodation rather than hop in a taxi. Our first impressions was that the centre was very reminiscent of Oaxaca, but as we explored further, we began to notice the differences. While the architecture is similar, San Cristobal has much less uniformity and the colour pallet was way more vibrant. The paved roads were narrow, creating a maze of one-way streets that clog up with traffic. The pavements were also narrow, but have the added quirk of being entirely unpredictable - as much as we wanted to gaze around at our new surroundings, it was treacherous for our attention to leave the path ahead incase in changed in height, width, camber or just stopped altogether. The town felt more arty, with street art and graffiti adorning the historic walls of businesses and residences. Apart from a few main tourist streets that felt bougier, the town still maintained a very local atmosphere, at least to us.

After the humidity of the seaside, San Cristobal's crisp high altitude air came as a bit of a shock. It wasn't exactly cold, but being 2200m above sea-level sure made things fresher. We were more than happy to see a fireplace in our room when we arrived at our lodgings. Gaia Guest House was located just on the north edge of centro and had everything we needed; large comfy beds, a small shared kitchen to make hot drinks and stunning views over the rooftops of San Cristobal to the mountains beyond. It was also a bit of a steal coming in at a reasonable $500 per night. As it was getting late, we headed to Burros San Cris, a small but well rated burrito shop for a quick, delicious dinner before heading back to the warmth of our room.

As always, we spent our first full day exploring the town itself and getting the lay of the land. Roughly west and east of the Centro Historico are two hills that frame the town, and on each of these hills sits a church... so that's where we started. The church of San Cristóbalito sits to the west of the city and can be reached by climbing the rather dynamically laid out stairs. I would love to blame the high altitude (2200m) for how long it took me to climb them, but it's probably more likely the lack of any real exercise.

The small red and white chapel crowning the hill was simple in both architecture and decoration. The doors were open so we peeked in, here the simplicity from its exterior was mirrored, with plain white washed walls and a few scattered biblical paintings. The church may have been a disappointment had it been the reason for our climb, but as lovely as it was, we were mainly there for the view. Although the day was dreary and overcast, it didn't take away from our enjoyment of looking out over the city to the wilderness surrounding it.

Having worked up and appetite we wandered back down the many, many stairs in search of some more good food. Not too far away, down a more sedate off road from one of the busy tourist thoroughfares, was Te Quiero Verde. We chose to sample their version of tacos, Al Pastor and seitan (the whole restaurant is vegan) and were very impressed. The "meat" was smokey and flavourful and the salsas that accompanied it were just the right level of spice and tanginess. They were also huge and three each was more than enough to fill us up.

While we were still bursting with energy, we made our way to the hill on the east side of Centro, ready to tackle the stairs that led to the "Templo de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe". Thankfully this "climb" was slightly easier with a manageable 37 steps and we were up to the top before we knew it. This church, with its distinct white and orange scheme (feels like they could have picked a slightly more varied colour) was also simple in it's build. I think i preferred the viewpoint from this church, with the wide open avenue that leads off from the plaza and the base of the steps.

From here, with no real destination in mind, we wandered. At each juncture we would take turns to chose a direction, enjoying getting lost and seeing where each street would take us. We passed through quiet winding residential areas and busy tourist streets full of shops and restaurants. We stumbled across a vibrant local produce market manned primarily by Tzotzil Mayan woman, distinct due to their traditional hairy woollen skirts. Near the local market was the stunning Convento de Santo Domingo de Guzmán, with its intricately carved facade - we would have loved to go inside but it was unfortunately shut when we visited. 

 The “Centro de textiles de Mundo Maya” museum next door was also shut, and not just for the day but for our entire visit. It was on our second attempt at visiting that we found out they were doing fumigation works that just happened to coincide with our exact dates - how annoying! Although the convent and museum were closed, the maze of stalls selling clothing, fabrics, hammocks and hats was partially open at least. There was some interesting items for sale, but as we really didn’t need anything we tried not to linger too long so we could avoid the dreaded sales pitches. 

The sun had finally broken through the clouds, chasing away the grey and bringing along with it some heat - so we went in search of ice creams. Although I would normally go for a scoop and a cone over an ice-cream bar any day, the most popular and traditional form of ice cream in Mexico is known as a Paletas. Paletas have two main types - fruit only and with milk. I assume they’re made by the stalls selling them as most palette shops have their own range of flavours and none of the sticks are ever placed completely straight. On this occasion I went for a “Queso con Mora”  (cheese and blackberry) and Ben went for chocolate. Sounds weird, was delicious.

When we planned out our San Cristobal Itinerary we came to the realisation that one activity on our wish list was better done through a tour rather than solo: visiting the Sumidero canyon. We could have booked it online but often the tour companies will offer a better deal in person. After reading up on the reviews we decided to give “SycTravel” a go. The tour they offered included both a 2 hour boat trip along the river that runs through the canyon, stops at four viewpoints above and a trip to a nearby “Pueblo Magic” (one of Mexico’s designated “magic” towns - somewhere that has a specific cultural aspect that’s unique). What’s more is that it cost around half of the price it showed online.  It sounded perfect. While we were on that organisational kick, we popped onto the ADO website to book our bus tickets to Palenque and even sorted out our next hotel. 

With plans for later on in our trip organised, we decided to spend the next morning visiting a nearby nature spot : El Arcotete. Well first we had breakfast, heading to the beautiful and slightly bougie Jardin Jagur. Ben had Molequilles, a strange dish that seemed to be a soaked piece of bread with a layer of black beans on top, covered in tortilla chips covered in sauce. Although he ate all of it, he still insists it was odd. I had an omelette, much easier to comprehend. The drinks however were wonderful - I had a warm horchata (corn and soy milk drink with spices) and Ben had a delicious hot chocolate with added pox (local spirit). 

From there we wandered to the Plaza of Lady Guadalupe as I’d read online that the collectivos (shared vans) that go to El Arcotete have a stop there. So we waited, and waited not really knowing where to stand. Eventually, with zero collectivos having passed, Ben decided to do some further internet sleuthing and found that we should have been on the corner of Av Remesal X Niclas Ruiz. So we moved, waited another 10 minutes and still no bus! Giving up, we went back to the square and talked to the next collectivo driver we saw who told us to go back to where we’d been. Frustrating!

We arrived back to the spot just in time for a random passerby to tell us she didn’t think the bus was coming at all...and as if she summoned it, we finally saw it trundling down the street. We waved in down and hopped in - we didn’t have to pay the $15 each fee until we got off at our destination. 

The ride itself took a quick 20 minutes and there was some beautiful viewpoints over the valley along the way. We were dropped off just uphill from the entrance at the designated colectivo spot, we wandered our way down and paid the $20 entry fee to a rather official looking man wearing a cowboy hat and flip-flops. The entry fee would get us in but we would need to pay more for anything else we wanted to do inside.

Wanting to check out the caves first (it was the primary reason we visited) we followed the signs saying "grutas". The path led us into the tree and up a series of steps, and to a rather bouncy bridge hung over the river far below. Ben, despite his loud protests otherwise, enjoyed rocking the bridge making walking rather more pirate-y than it had to be. Of course, before we could climb up into the caves we first had to descend down the steps to reach the entry point - our legs sure were getting a work out since we arrived in San Cristobal. Here we paid another $20 each for this activity.

The steps into the cave were slippery and narrow, due to it being a weekend they were also very busy. I didn't mind waiting for others to pass before tackling some of the more challenging areas to get through, it just gave us a chance to slow down and really take our time exploring. It was also fun to see how some of the locals dressed for the activity - I was in full adventure mode with hiking shoes and cargo pants, while one woman i passed had high heels and short shorts, wild! The caves themselves were fun, I couldn't really see many of the formations they claimed were there like the "siren" but the viewpoints were well worth the effort.

From one of the viewpoints deeper into the cave, we were surprised to peer around and see a climber clinging on to a pretty difficult overhanging section of rock face just outside of the cave. While we watched he lost his grip, plummeting a few feet before his safety line went taut and he was lowered to the ground, frustrated but unharmed.

After leaving the cave the way we went in, we explored the rest of the hiking trails around the park. One led up to the zip-lines, fancying a gentle stroll about rather than an adrenalin rush, we gave these a miss. The route snaked around the peak of a hill before descending down all of steps down to the other side of the cave and the river that runs through it. From here we could clearly see the climber's starting point and could really appreciate how far up he made it. After a couple of hours we were ready to head back. As we approached the collectivo stand, one of the drivers indicated we should hop in his van, a relief as we thought we might have a bit of a wait waiting on other passengers.

As we arrived back into the town centre it was just in time to see a parade. I still don't really understand what the parade was for, there was brass bands, dancing ladies, spinning creepy clowns, people dressed as axolotls, and a DJ followed by a dancing crowd. It just wasn't clear. What was clear we that we had to be on the look out for flying projectiles as some of the paraders would throw handfuls of hard sweets into the crowd. Fun if you caught one, not so much when they hit you in the head. Ben managed to snag one of the treats but handed it off to a disappointed looking child who was watching the parade next to us. I feel like this is really typical of Mexico, quite often these seemingly huge spectacles happen without any rhyme or reason then everyone just continues on with their day.

Just a small snippet of the absolute chaos!

That evening we headed to a nearby seafood restaurant "Tacos Y Coctele el Bony". We knew it was going to be good when we walked in and the place was packed with locals. We snagged one of the few remaining tables and got stuck in deciphering the menu. We ordered a tostada each and a plate of three tacos, fish for me and prawn for Ben. When it came out we couldn't help but be slightly alarmed, it was enormous! We had definitely ordered too much. However, it was also delicious, so having too much wasn't really a problem because we managed to devour it all.

Our alarms went off bright and early the next day, giving us plenty of time to get ready for our pre-paid day trip to Sumidero Canyon, but there was just a small problem... we didn't feel so good. Sharp stomach pains, body aches, lack of energy and no appetite to be found. Ben was worse than I was, having symptoms of a fever thrown into the mix. As much as we wanted to go, we couldn't. The day was to be spent lying in bed feeling sorry for ourselves instead.

We had thought we would be some of the lucky few to make it out of San Cristobal without being sick but it wasn't meant to be. Due to a combination of the coca-cola plant on the edge of town sucking up most of the towns water supply, and rapid urbanisation mixed with inadequate sewerage treatment plans... the water than comes out of the taps is pretty toxic. We thought we had followed all of the advice to a T : using bottled water to brush our teeth, being super careful in the shower to make sure none of the water made it into our mouths, drying hands very throughly after washing. The advice seemed extreme, but we followed it... maybe one of the places we ate weren't so diligent. We'll never know what it was, just that we felt horrible for a couple of days.

So the rest of our time in San Cristobal was a bust, we ventured out a little on our last day. Long enough to grab something to eat and have a small walk but nothing too exciting. As we donned our heavy backpacks, and slowly trudged our way to the bus station we couldn't help feel a bit sad and frustrated. There was still so much we wanted to do. The canyon trip (although it was smart a bit having to pay for it twice) was still calling us, the hiking trails south of the city also caught our eye. Besides, despite spending half our time there sick, we liked the place and could have happily spent another week there getting to know the town.

As much as we've travelled there's still moments to learn and I guess this was just one of those times. A lesson in slowing down and that with time on our hands, having the next place booked and ready is not always for our benefit. That we might miss out on opportunities to discover more by thinking too much ahead. Sure, there might be less options for accommodation at the very last minute but we're travelling to places, not hotels... although a nice one doesn't hurt.

Catedral de San Cristóbal de las Casas.