Don’t Get Stranded at the Airport

If you’re not planning to rent a car, or won’t be met by friends or family when you arrive at one of Mexico’s principal airports, you usually have three options for ground transportation to get to your hotel or other accommodation: airport shuttle, airport taxi, or local bus.

Airport Shuttles – Most of the country’s principal airports offer an airport shuttle service. Pre-booking a shuttle from the airport to your hotel or other accommodation is the simplest way of arranging your ground transportation in Mexico, especially so if you don’t speak much Spanish, as the principal alternative to an airport shuttle is to purchase a ticket from the authorized taxi booth at the terminal. Airport shuttle staff will meet you or your party at the airport arrivals area. They will monitor the status of your flight and, if your plane is delayed, they will wait for you.  There are usually two classes of services offered: Standard and VIP.  With the Standard service, a comfortable suburban van drops-off a number of people at their hotels in the vicinity, in turn.  The VIP service is exclusive to you or your party; you don’t share the transport vehicle with others and you’re driven directly to your local destination.  We offer professional airport transfers from airports at all of Mexico’s most frequented cities and resorts.   Visit our Airport Shuttles page for more information and to make bookings securely online or by telephone.

Airport Taxis – Taxis from Mexico’s airports are among the most expensive taxis you’ll hire here; it’s not just Mexico—worldwide, airport taxis charge a high premium to travelers using their services.  All of Mexico’s airports offer official airport taxis, where rates are set by zone.  To use the service in Mexico, you buy a ticket from one of the ‘authorized taxi’ kiosks, proceed to a taxi rank outside the terminal building and board the next available cab. At some Mexican airports, travelers are bombarded by verbal offers from an eye-boggling selection of taxi/transport services as soon as they exit the customs area.  The experience can be somewhat intimidating to unseasoned travelers.  If you plan to use an airport taxi, we recommend you buy a ticket from the airport’s authorized taxi booth.  You can read a detailed guide about traveling by taxi in Mexico here on Mexperience, which also includes a section about airport taxis.

Local Buses – Some airports have a bus station situated at the terminal building; however, many of Mexico’s airports don’t have a bus station adjacent and so to use local buses you may need to exit the airport area and hail a local bus on passing road.  If you’re carrying a lot of baggage, the bus option may not be your best choice. Travelers arriving at Mexico City’s airport can avail themselves of the bus services which depart from there to popular colonial cities such as Puebla, Queretaro and Cuernavaca without the need of first having to take a cab to one of the capital’s bus terminals.  Note, however, that bus services offered from the airport are considerably less frequent in comparison to those which operate from the capital’s bus terminals, so if your flight arrives late in the evening or overnight, you may need to book a hotel overnight or take a taxi to a bus station to find later services than those offered from the airport.  Our guide to bus travel in Mexico is comprehensive and shows you how to get around locally by bus.