Ed and Fran
Nov 17, 2003, 5:27 AM
Post #2 of 2
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Well you are asking kind of a wide open question and don’t give us much to go on, but we can start with the usual standard advice:
The drive should be fairly easy and uneventful. The coast highway (Route 180) is usually in decent shape with only a few stretches with pothole problems. It’s all water level, so no mountains to cross. It’s mostly two lane undivided highway, with some sections of divided toll road. - You don’t seem to be in a hurry, and there are enough large towns along the route to allow you to easily divide the trip up into easily drivable day segments.
- Get a good map before crossing the border.
- Don’t drive in the dark (purely due to the possibility of encountering road hazards such as potholes, vehicles stopped partially on the pavement without lights, animals on the road, pedestrians or bicyclists without lights or light colored clothing, etc).
- Get a good Spanish phrase book and practice a few of the more common questions/phrases (you don’t say what your level of Spanish is).
- Refill your tank when it gets to half full. This isn’t the problem it used to be, there are more Pemex stations springing up all the time and there are very few stretches on the coast highway where you won’t run into a station within 30-40 miles. Pemex stations almost exclusively accept only cash, don’t plan on charging your gas. Their w.c’s are generally acceptably clean.
- Don’t count on being able to find a place to stay in the middle of the countryside. If it’s 4:00 pm, and you’re passing by a large town or city, you may want to start looking for a hotel.
- The first day, try to cross the border early in the morning. The lines to get your car entry permit will be shorter. You probably want to plan on making it to Tampico the first day (about 7 hours +/- from the border), so you don’t want to lose a few hours there at the start.
Speaking of car entry permit, please see elsewhere on the site (or use the search function) for long threads discussing what papers you need to get this. Hopefully the fact that you’re British doesn’t imply that you’re just over on a visit with a rental car, because that would considerably complicate things.
Well that’s it for starters. Ask again if you have more specific questions. Remember this is just our opinion, your mileage may vary.
Good luck,
Ed and Fran
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