Mexico City Bus Stations, Terminal Norte, Terminal Tapo

Mexico City’s First Class Bus Terminals

Updated April 3, 2013

Mexico City, Four First Class Bus Terminals

Coming from the north of Mexico it is common to arrive at Mexico City Terminal Norte Bus Station.
From there buses are available in all directions including ADO first class bus to Oaxaca City, ADO to the northen border on the Gulf Coast, and Estrella Blanca Bus west and north with Chihuahuenses and Futura  First class buses.  Flecha Amarilla  running first class Primera Plus buses to the west coast and north to Mazatlan are also available.  

Norte is an old station but a great hub for bus trips throughout Mexico including trips to Teotihuacan ruin site and the ruin site at Tula.
Terminal Norte is one of four first class bus terminals that serve the country from Mexico City. You must start from certain terminals to reach a certain destination. That info is hard to find so I will list it here:

Mexico City’s Terminal Norte 
Norte is also called Terminal Central Norte and serves the country north to the US border and includes Matamoros, Nuevo Loredo, Juarez/ El Paso TX, Agua Prieta/Douglass, AZ, Nogales/Nogales, AZ, and as far west as Tijuana/San Diego. The States of Mexico served to the north and west include Baja California, Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahiula, Nuevo Leon, Sinaloa, Durango, San Lois Potosi, Tamaulipas, Nayarit, Zacatecas, Guanajuato, Jalisco, Hidalgo, Aguascalientes, Michoacan, Colima, and Queretaro. Southern and eastern States served: Oaxaca, Chiapas, Veracruz, and Puebla.

Mexico City’s Tapo Terminal
Officially called Terminal Oriente and commonly called Tapo, this terminal serves the southern and southeastern parts of Mexico including the States of Puebla, Oaxaca, Tlaxcala, Tabasco, Chiapas, Campeche, Veracruz, and Yucatan.

Palenque Ruin Site served by ADO 

first class bus.  

Mexico City’s Terminal Central Sur 
Central Sur serves the central and southern States of Guerrero Puebla, Morelos/Cuernavaca, Veracruz, Oaxaca, Tabasco, and Chiapas.

Mexico City’s Terminal Centro Poniente 
Poniente serves the central and western states of Michoacan, Jalisco, Guerrero, Nayarit, Queretaro, the State of Mexico DF, and northwest to Sonora, and Sinaloa.

My most recent trip was through Norte.
 The station has steadily improved and now offers clean restrooms, small restaurants, ATM machines, and many options for bus routes.
The trip from Norte to Oaxaca is a six to seven hour run.  Night buses are offered that reach Oaxaca City in the early morning just as the sun rises.   From the ADO station you can taxi or walk the ten blocks to the Zocalo.   The new ADO Bus station in Oaxaca offers underground parking, clean restrooms, baggage storage, and a small coffee shop.