Bus Through Mexico, Nogales to Mazatlan

Nogales to Mazatlan, Cross Border Bus Convenience, Tufesa Bus

Update 2013

Tufesa Bus runs first class buses over bus routes that 

connect Phoenix to Guadalajara

• Tufesa Bus

     The Tufesa, cross-border bus from Tucson to Mazatlan can be convenient.  You stay on the same bus and only get off briefly to pass your bags through an X ray check or through a custom check were you press a button for the random search.
     They are looking for taxable items that you failed to declare or that exceed the allowable limit.  You present your passport, secure your visa or tourist card, and then board the same bus for the remainder of the trip.

They also look for drugs and guns.  Dogs are used at some checkpoints in Nogales and Agua Prieta.
      Caution: Don't transport fruits, meat, plants, guns, ammo, or drugs.
     Dogs are also in use at border crossing check stations and at check stations within the US border.
Stick with your bags at the border check station and follow them through the x-ray and check stations.  Keep essentials in your day pack or better, on your person.  Your passport, visa, ATM/ credit cards, and money should be in your pockets.  Your, camera, laptop and phone, in your shoulder pack.

•      Tufesa Bus:

     Tufesa Bus Line  (link) runs luxury first class buses in the US and Mexico and they make the cross border trip.  They run from Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, NV, and 16 California cities to Guadalajara, Mexico with stops in major cities along the way.   They do not, however, make sufficient allowance for the securing of a Tourist Card (permission to enter and visit for six months) at the border (Nogales).  Their passengers are mostly Mexican with Mexican passports and they do not need a visa.  You must tell the driver that you need time to get the Tourist card and then go to the office and get the papers.
(visas are not required of foreign visitors to Mexico for  short stays or stays in the vicinity of the border) The tourist card  (290 Pesos, 6 months, 2013 price, 25 USD ) is required for all visitors that will stay beyond 72 hours and for all who will go south beyond the border states of the country of Mexico.

• Tufesa Bus To Guadalajara     

The Tufesa Bus for Guadalajara stops at a Nogales, Mexico terminal for a half hour but the terminal is about a mile inside the actual border and not close to the border where you get your Tourist Card.
     If your stay in Mexico will be longer than 72 hours and you will go south beyond the border State of Sonora or beyond Baja,  you should get the 180 day Tourist Card.

      Two Workarounds to getting a Tourist Card at the border:
One way around this short duration stop at the border is to apply for a tourist card at a Mexican consulate well before you reach the border.  Large cities   in the US will have such consulates. The consulate in Tucson AZ does not issue the card,  however.
Another way around this would be to buy a bus ticket to the Nogales Mexico Tufesa Bus station.  Leave the bus and check your luggage or take all of your luggage with you.  Cab to the immigration office at the border crossing, get your Tourist Card (permission to enter and stay in the country 6 months, 290 Pesos)  Then take a $7 USD cab back to the Tufesa station, buy a ticket and re-board the same bus if it hasn't left.

Tufesa Bus runs as far south as

Guadalajara,  Mexico

April 2013 Bus Fare, Nogales to Guadalajara, 1404 Pesos, $115 USD

     This is the safest way to both secure your luggage and save your ticket price, although it hardly makes for a convenient cross border trip.
        On one trip I took a chance and left my checked luggage on board the bus at the border crossing check station and told the driver I needed to get the tourist card.   He said he would wait.  Lucky for me there was no line and I received the visa quickly and then went to the adjacent bank to pay.  Again no line. I then returned to get the tourist card stamped.  Any line and I would not have had time to do this.  If you are part of a group or a couple you can take turns watching the luggage and going to the office for the tourist cards.
I made it back to the bus, now waiting for me with an impatient driver, and we continued on to the Tufesa station for the half hour stop. (servicing the bus)
On my next trip through Nogales, there was two of us so we took turns watching the luggage as it went through the customs check.
     There are many buses leaving Nogales and going south down the coast or inland to Chihuahua.  Tufesa is not the only one.
 Just next to the Tufesa Bus Station there is a station serving first class buses to Mazatlan,  Culiacan, and south.  Buses serving from Nogales include TBC, Tap, Elite,  and Omnibus.  They all  run luxury buses south.
If you do miss the Tufesa bus you will have options.
see      Other bus options and Mexico City Terminals 

     On this Friday morning trip, the Tufesa bus left Tucson at 11: am and was scheduled to arrive in Mazatlan at 430 am, a 17 hour trip.
At the border, several US agents boarded and checked out several of the Mexican passenger, thoroughly.  Otherwise the trip was uneventful and a good stretch of sleep followed after sunset.

     Arriving at Mazatlan at 4:30 am was not good planning since I had to wait until 7: am for restaurants to open.  I had planned to take a Primera Plus bus  (Flecha Amarilla) to Guadalajara but their first bus out was 7:am.  I instead made plans to visit Mazatlan for the day and perhaps overnight.

See Mazatlan

 Next: Touring Mazatlan