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Step 1
Get your car checked before leaving the United States. To avoid language issues and potentially being stranded in rural areas, you'll want to make sure your car gets a clean bill of health so you can keep moving.
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Step 2
Make your car legal. Do not give officials unnecessary information about your origins, destination or duration of travel. In case of a run-in with the law, you want to have as little on the record as possible.
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Step 3
Be wary of the border towns. These might seem like enticing first stops, but crime rates are often higher and police are more corrupt due to higher foreign traffic. Someone sleeping in a parked car with U.S. plates is a prime target for police harassment or robbery.
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Step 4
Look for sleeping spots once you're far enough from the border. Mexico becomes friendly to the wanderlust driver. In a bigger city, motel parking lots are prime spots for parking and sleeping if there is no guard on duty. Also, street corners with enough visibility but sparse enough traffic are relatively easy to find. Beaches are also fine locations—scenic though slightly more dangerous. In smaller towns, you might run the risk of being woken up and sent away by locals, but the chances of a police encounter are low.
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Step 5
Try driving at night. If you can't find a place to stop, driving at night in Mexico is possible, though very difficult. Major highways in Mexico can become one-and-a-half lane backwoods streets in the matter of miles. Potholes and topes (speed bumps) appear often and, if not seen in time, can do significant damage to a car. This is no freeway system. Navigation at night is difficult and you won't have gas stations or fast food to sustain you. But nocturnal driving can be a fun challenge.
Comments
southbound13 said
on 1/20/2009 This Article albiet enticing is full of inaccuracies! First off much of Mexico has very nice highway systems, hell some of the newer highways in Baja and even in the mainland put those in the US to SHAME. Ever see LED lit roadmarkers in the states? Nope but they put them in on the road between Cabo & San Jose del Cabo, they look cool at night and are very effective. As to safety, God knows times are a changing south of the border! Having traveled for 15 plus years all over Baja and limited travels on the mainland, I have never had a security issue, thank God. Sure I have paid many many mordidas(bribes) and even been to jail and had cars impounded! But then again what do you expect when you drive through a hotel lobby drunk off your ass at 4am! You expect one night in Jail and to pay to get your car out!
Anywhy for those of you thinking of "road tripping" by all means go for it, b
drfugawe said
on 11/22/2008 Whooo! This article should have a warning qualifier attached to the front and back! This dude has a death wish. Maybe some of this advice would have been OK about 30+ years ago, but not since then. If there's one type of traveler that Mex authorities are on the lookout for, it's young tourists with limited $ - and even Mex natives are reluctant to drive at night!
Not good advice, my friend.
broomhandle said
on 11/11/2008 My 12 year old son and I would like to buy a home and live in Mexico. After I sell our property here in Texas, is it feasible for a mom and boy to travel by car alone? or is it too dangerous?