Daily Departures to Cancun!
ADO has a night bus from Belize City to Cancun, Mexico, with stops along the way in Tulum and Playa Del Carmen. Unfortunately information on this bus service is limited and (sometimes) contradictory. Even the website that ADO publishes for information is a dead end. (www.adobelize.com)
We asked several tour operators on Caye Caulker and received different information from each on departure times, cost, and duration of the trip. The only thing they agreed on was that they couldn’t sell us tickets
Hopefully this post will help future travelers take advantage of this great trip option, while minimizing hassle and stress.
Bus Station
Buses depart from Novelo’s Bus Terminal in downtown Belize City at 7:30 PM.
Tickets go on sale at 5:30 PM or so. The line to buy tickets can be long, and if tickets sell out you have to wait until tomorrow, so it is best to arrive a little before 5:30. One travel agent in Caye Caulker told us they were on sale starting at 2. When we arrived at the ferry terminal in Belize City just after lunch, one taxi driver told us tickets went on sale at 3. But then he wanted to make sure we gave him the fare. Clearly he was a bit of a jerk
The neighborhood around the bus station is 100% sketchy. The neighborhood seems to be a collection of drug addicts and alcoholics, many on the hunt for money for their next fix. We were asked no less than 100 times for money, repeatedly and aggressively. People were drunk enough to fall down when walking on level ground at 2:00 in the afternoon on a Sunday. One nice gentlemen tried to start a conversation with my wife by saying, “You can be my bitch if you want.”
Unless this is your idea of a good time, I would time arrival at the bus station for no earlier than 5 PM. If you do happen to arrive earlier, or want some take-out for the trip, the Chinese restaurant across the street has good food at reasonable prices
Ticket sales are awkward. At the bus station in Belize, they collect a total of 19 Belize Dollars (BZD.) This is $9.50 USD, with the exchange rate fixed at 2:1. The rest of the fare is paid after crossing the border into Mexico.
Total Fare to Cancun is 83 BZD, with 19 BZD paid in Belize City and 64 BZD paid in Bacalar, Mexico. In addition to the fare, there is an exit tax for Belize of 37.5 BZD. All payments are in cash and in BZD, although it is possible to pay the fare in Mexico in Pesos at a less than favorable exchange rate. Total cash required to get to Cancun is 120.5 BZD
Total fare for other destinations is detailed in the picture below.
Bus Fare to Various Mexican Destinations
The border crossing is done in a few steps. At the first stop, everybody gets off the bus to pay exit tax and get a passport stamp for Belize and Mexico. After a few minute bus ride, everybody gets off the bus again, this time with all of your bags and personal belongings for X-ray and inspection. Some lucky winners get a more personal inspection of all of the contents of their bags.
Once everybody has been inspected, the bus is reloaded. A few miles down the road the bus stops again for everybody to pay the rest of the bus fare.
The bus itself is modern and comfortable, with the exception of the air conditioning. It is quite possible that the inside temperature was around 13 C / 55 F. We were wearing multiple layers, jackets, and hats on the bus, trying to sleep in a freezer, only to have to get off the bus and step out into the heat and humidity at each stop along the way. Definitely bring layers, and be prepared for a cold ride
After the fare is paid, the only additional stops are for passenger stops at Tulum, Playa Del Carmen, the Cancun Airport, and downtown Cancun. We arrived in downtown Cancun around 6 am, about 10 hours after departure from Belize City.
We weren’t exactly well rested, but we made it. The ideal next step is to check in to a hotel and catch up on some Zzzzzs. Check out the hotels shown below, they might meet your needs
Happy Travels
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City Express Hoetl Cancun
Location: Cancun, Mexico
Customer Satisfaction 0 %from
US$ 79one night
City Express Hoetl Cancun is perfectly situated in the Central district of Cancun, near major shopping…Condominos Carisa Y Palma Hotel
Location: Cancun, Mexico
Customer Satisfaction 0 %from
US$ 80one night
Condominos Carisa Y Palma Hotel puts you only 25 minutes from Convention Centre / Trade Fair in Central,…
City Express Hoetl Cancun is perfectly situated in the Central district of Cancun, near major shopping…
Caye Caulker Plaza Hotel
Location: Caye Caulker, Belize
Customer Satisfaction 0 %from
US$ 63one night
All guests are free to use the hotel’s Multilingual staff, Concierge and Room service.All guest rooms…Island Magic Beach Resort Ltd
Location: Caye Caulker, Belize
Customer Satisfaction 0 %from
US$ 240one night
Island Magic Beach Resort Ltd …
Please please please do warn your readers about the dangers of a night bus in mexico. Gun point robbery is a pretty common occurence there.
If you can arrange for the same bus on daylight, go for it. If you must take a night bus, do take an expensive one without any stop. Cheapest one tend to stop on the road for more customers, including the ones that will rob you…
Hi Hugo, thanks for stopping by. Do you have first person knowledge of statistics on bus robbery in Mexico?
We’ve been on several night buses, including this one, and felt as safe as could be
Not really statistics, just personal story and tavellers stories. I’m quite adventurous and I love travel (6 backpacking RTW trips), but I still think there is a bias against night busses in this country.
If you think about it, mexico is one of the few country with metal detector for boarding busses, specially on the west side.
But I don’t want to sound like a nag. I already did :-)
Things do happen. I don’t have the statistics either, thus the question
I tend to follow the lead of the locals, and every night bus I’ve been on has been full of people, both local and foreign.
Thanks for adding to the discussion Hugo, I appreciate it!
I remember those excessively cold night buses in Mexico. They seem to be the norm in most of Latin America as I’ve experienced the same in Argentina. They make sleeping impossible if you don’t have enough layers.
It’s almost as if the bus companies think they are transporting ice cream rather than humans
Hi. Thanks for your information! Just a quick question, can you but for other persons tickets when buying yours? If it’s dodgy then if rather have my wife wait at the restaurant near by with the bags while I fend off any potential trouble? Or do they need to sight the person and the passports?
Cheers
Hi Oliver, I don’t recall if the other person needed to be present when buying tickets. Maybe another reader will have a suggestion
The Chinese restaurant was full of drunks and people would come in asking for money, so it isn’t exactly a safe haven. Most people buying tickets just followed the practice of staying together or in a group. Once tickets go on sale there are about 50 other people trying to get them, so not a bad group to hang out with
Thank you so much for your post. We are going to take the bus in October from Belize City to Cancun and your information is excellent, I had no idea where to begin and your experience being so recent is a great help.
A couple of quick questions, Is there a daytime bus from Belize to Cancun? How easy was it to check into a hotel at 5a.m.? I was thinking we may need to book the hotel for the night we are travelling and then just do a super late check in.
Hi Laurie. There is no daytime bus that I am aware of, although you could probably piece together several different legs, either from Belize City or from Chetumal, Mexico. The ferry from Caye Caulker or San Pedro can bring you to Chetumal directly.
We didn’t have any problem checking into a hotel at 5 am. In our experience, if a hotel has vacancy they are generally happy to have you check-in at whatever time you arrive if you are friendly and ask nicely. I’ve never paid for the previous night to allow early arrival, and that includes years of business travel as well
Enjoy your trip!
Hello, does anyone know if this information is still valid for March 2014? I can only find information about this through blogs and not official websites so am not sure if it is still running or not.
I live in England so don’t want to book flights to Cancun if I can’t then easily get round the resr of central america from there.
Thank you.
Adele
Hi Adele, we had the same problem… couldn’t find any official public information. But… you can easily get around to the rest of Central America from Cancun. People do it all the time, but not everything is like Europe and the US where everything is online
Thanks for the info!
Can you tell me more about the ferry to/from Caye Caulker? Or where I can read about it?
I didn’t have any info on the ferry so I just searched for details. Here is the website of one of the two ferry companies:
http://www.cayecaulkerwatertaxi.com/
thank you!
does the Ado bus from belize to cancun stops at the airport in cancun?
Yes, it stops at the airport and then continues to downtown Cancun
Hi Go Curry Cracker,
Any advice on what to do for people who need a visa to get into Belize? I’m planning on spending a week in Cancun prior to my planned trip to Belize, but to get a Belizean visa, I first need to get proof of entry and exit tickets to the country. I’d love to avoid a $500 plane ticket if possible but can’t seem to get any reliable information on the ADO bus service between Cancun and Belize City on the ADO website. Do they just not advertise it at all? Your advice would be much appreciated.
Thanks,
I don’t think ADO advertises this bus. The information doesn’t seem to be readily available, which is why I wrote this post and why it gets so many views
Hopefully another reader can advise on the visa situation, neither of us needed one other than what we got at the border. I have heard of people purchasing a fully refundable plane ticket and then getting a refund once they have their visa.
somebody knows the total Price between belize to cancun using ADO?
That is BZ$83.
We are taking the overnight bus from Cancun downtown terminal to Belize City in December and would like to return from Belize City approximately 2 weeks later. Is it possible to purchase the return bus ticket at the same time? It would sure help to avoid the cumbersome purchase process in Belize City. Timing the arrival at the bus depot and then hoping to get tickets for three doesn’t sound like that would be much fun. We are adventurous, but the thought of all those people harassing us isn’t really my cup of tea.
We rode the bus to Belize City last year and boy do I know what you mean about the cold. It’s impossible to ride that thing without being covered head to toe. LOL
Last year we returned to Cancun by water taxi from San Pedro to Chetumal and hopped a bus with frequent stops. It’s touchy timing the water taxi and getting to the bus station to grab an express. This bus did not have a bathroom and we hadn’t eaten for hours…made for a long, hangry day ;). That’s why we’d like to avoid the day trip and catch an overnight bus so we can hopefully sleep and not waste a day to travel.
IS it currently safe to take the bus? I am currently worried about packing and waht I should be brining/shouldn’t be bringing. I would like access to the internet on the trip but figure an Ipad would be in danger during border crossings if I’m searched and they’re sketchy.
THANKS!
Hey Scott
I’ve been through many border crossings with lots of expensive electronics, and haven’t lost anything yet. We’ve had border people ask for cash for mysterious fees, but that is the worst of it. Your mileage may vary, but were I in your place I wouldn’t worry about it
If it helps, the border crossing from Belize to Mexico had 50+ other travelers and all inspections happened in front of the whole group.
Have a great trip!
Thanx for the info we just got back from Cancun, we were trying to find some info on getting to Belize and got so much conflicting info we decided not to go. We are back to Cancun in April and will attempt a trip into Belize.
Thank HW
Thanku so much for this post! It helps us a lot- not so easy to get information like that somewhere.. Thanku, again!