Tucson To Guadalajara By Bus    

Tucson Arizona

                                                                                        April 2013

The bus trip from Tucson Arizona to Guadalajara Mexico will take all of twenty-eight hours if you include the local bus in Tucson, taxi to the Tufesa Bus Station in Nogales, and the twenty two hour bus trip from Nogales Mexico to Guadalajara.

•   Local Tucson Bus and Shuttle   

This account starts with local bus transportation in Tucson, service that is inexpensive and extensive.  The Sun-Tran buses run routes throughout the city and pass through the Ronstadt Transportation Center, downtown.  Tucson Museums

• Nogales Shuttle

 From the center take the number eight bus to South 6th Avenue in the 300- 500 block where you find several shuttle van services to Nogales.  The Saguaro (sahuaro) Shuttle at 4202 S 6th Ave is a good ride at $12. USD.  The Saguaro vans are clean and the seat belts work. Tel 520-573-1399
 Other shuttles in the area include Sergios Shuttle and Sonora.  Figure at least an hours drive from South 6th to Nogales at the border.  Tucson Shuttles

• Tourist Card  Visa

If you need the tourist card, six-month permission for an extended stay in Mexico beyond the border states,  apply at the immigration office, just inside the border, and pay the 299 Pesos, $26 USD for the FMM, Forma Migratoria Multiple.
Once in Mexico you can go to one of the many bank ATMs and receive Pesos.  At the border, however many places, including Tufesa Bus, will accept dollars and calculate a fair exchange rate.

• Tufesa Bus

Take a six dollar taxi, 70 Pesos, to the Tufesa Bus Station to buy your ticket.  The bus to Guadalajara leaves at four pm.  Bus fare to Guadalajara from Nogales is 1,404 Pesos.  $115. USD
Tufesa Bus

Tufesa Bus Station Nogales Mexico

• Seating

You should choose your own seat.  Otherwise you might be assigned a seat in the back of the bus where road noise and lavatory noise could be a problem.
Any seat from seat one to seat twenty will provide a comfortable ride.  Seats on the left side of the bus on an afternoon trip heading south will avoid the hot afternoon sun.

• Sleeping

Plan on having a good long sleep to make the long night trip bearable.  Bring a jacket or sweater against the air conditioning system and bring ear plugs to overcome the noise from the action movies that will show until midnight.

• Mazatlan

The bus will arrive Mazatlan about 6 am after stops at Hermosillo, Los Mochis, and Culiacan.
From Mazatlan the bus heads through Tepic and then reaches Guadalajara where the Tufesa Bus serves two stations.  The bus will reach the second stop at about 2 pm in the afternoon.  The second stop is close to the Centro Historico of Guadalajara.

Guadalajara Mexico

To visit the Centro Historico cathedral and other sights take a 120 pesos cab.  To continue on from the Tufesa station by bus take a taxi or walk four blocks from the Tufesa Station to the Central Autobus for Primera Plus Bus and other buses to Mexico City and beyond.    Mazatlan

Primera Plus runs hourly buses to Mexico City Norte Station. The six to seven hour trip costs 612 Pesos.
Primera Plus Bus

Primera Plus Bus runs from Guadalajara to Mexico City

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.

Oaxaca To Tucson Bus Service

First Class Bus Service Oaxaca to Tucson
2014 Bus Fares, Bus Routes

First Class Bus service from Oaxaca City in South Central Mexico to Tucson Arizona can start with ADO first class service to Mexico City's Terminal Norte.  Four Mexico City Bus Terminals link

ADO Bus Terminal Oaxaca City Oaxaca Mexico

Ticket Price Oaxaca to Mexico City (DF), Terminal Norte  (bus station)

Cost varies depending on the level of service but the normal service offered by ADO will be 480 Pesos for the 6-7 hour trip. (2014 Prices)

ADO Bus offers three levels of service to Mexico City from 

Oaxaca City

Levels of service from the ADO station vary. GL Sevice is Gran Lujo, more leg room. Platino Service is the luxury option with three seats across instead of four.  ADO Bus Service

Internet Discounts

Internet discounts can often be found for the GL service. (www.ADO Bus Tickets) buy tickets ahead and save

Once you reach Norte station in Mexico City you will find many options for onward service.

This article describes the Central Mexico route, a bus route through Queretaro and north to Chiahuahua and on to Agua Prieta on the border at Douglas Arizona. From Douglas, AZ, van shuttle service starting at 7:00 am reaches Tucson Arizona.  Chihuahua Copper Canyon Bus and Train  for sightseeing en route

First class bus terminal Chihuahua.  From Chihuahua Bus Station buses reach the village of Creel in the Copper Canyonl

Terminal Norte Bus Service

Chihuahuenses Bus is one of the options for service from Norte to cities in the north. Chihuahuenses runs through Chihuahua and on to Agua Prieta and Nogales. The total time en route from Norte Station to Agua Prieta could be around 27 hours.  

A stop in a city along the way can break up the long bus ride.

The City of Chihuahua is one such stop. Other stops could be interesting colonial cities such as Zacatecas and San Luis Potosi.

Bus Fare, Terminal Norte to Chihuahua

The ticket price on Chihuahuenses Bus from Norte to the City of Chihuahua is 1,356 Pesos for the 17-18 hour trip.

Chihuahua To Agua Prieta

Chihuahua first class bus terminal offers several bus options to Agua Prieta.

Futura Bus

Futura Bus is an option at 576 Pesos for the 7-8 hour trip from Chihuahua to Agua Prieta. Other options are Chihuahuenses Bus and Omnibus.

Chihuahuenses and Futura Bus are divisions of Estrella Blanca   Estrella Blanca Bus

In Agua Prieta,  a 60 Pesos cab ride reaches the border crossing.
 A shuttle van connects to Tucson and Phoenix starting at 7:00 am  Douglas to Tucson, $25.00 USD
 Find the shuttle office just outside the US border check station.

Copper Canyon

Zacatecas  Sightseeing

Aguascalientes Sightseeing

Oaxaca Guelaguetza Parade July, youtube video

Bus Mexico, Douglas, Arizona to Oaxaca City, Mexico

First Class Bus Douglas Arizona to Oaxaca Mexico

Bus Travel Mexico

Tucson Arizona
     Several shuttles serve van service to Nogales and Douglas AZ. from Tucson and Phoenix Arizona.   Sergios Shuttle is one that has an office on South 6th in Tucson.
      The Douglas Shuttle reaches the Mexican border at Agua Prieta where first class bus service offers a trip of 1600 miles by bus from Agua Prieta to Oaxaca, Mexico.
The Douglas Shuttle cost 25.00 USD from Tucson.

Shuttles run all day from several locations on South Sixth.  The shuttle will stop at a gas station such as Circle K for gas up and food stop.
The route is on Route 10 east towards Benson and Tombstone.
The van takes Route 80 for Tombstone, 72 miles north of Douglas. Some drivers use the Douglas turn-off, south of Tombstone, others head for Bisbee and then Douglas.

Futura Bus, a division of Estrella Blanca Bus,  serves Mexico City 

 from Agua Prieta

The van stops at the border on the Douglas side.  Walk to the border crossing and go through Mexican customs and immigration.  Get the Tourist Card.  (visa.) after paying 290 pesos for a 6 month tourist card. (permission to visit Mexico for six months)

Just after the border check station, walk to the cab stand where taxis take you to the bus station for 60 Pesos.

The Central de Autobus in Douglas is a small station where you have choices of Chihuahuenses Bus, Futura Bus, and , across the street, Omnibus.   Chihuahuenses bus serve Mexico City for around 1500 pesos.
Cities along the route are interesting for a visit and can break up the extremely long bus ride.  Zacatecas is one of the interesting colonial cities as are San Luis Potosi and Aguascalientes.

The first class buses in Mexico are new volvos and Mercedez luxury coaches with deeply reclining seats, seatbelts, and one or two bathrooms.
 From Agua Prieta to Zacatecas is about a twenty two hour trip.  You can sleep much of the way during the night.

Zacatecas is ;an old colonial city where wealthy miners built 

luxurious homes and public buildings.

•  Zacatecas

Once in Zacatecas, you can taxi into the Centro Historico.  A hotel well located is the Hotel Condesa which is right in the center of the historic district and reasonable at 500 pesos. ($39 USD) Rooms range from 400 to 600 Pesos.
 No pool no Wifi but adequate. The restaurant downstairs is convenient and serves good food.

Zacatecas was once a rich mining town. Silver is still mined nearby. The wealth in colonial times built many great churches and colonial buildings. Zacatecas is walkable although it is at 7700 feet (2347 meters)  There is much to see in the Historic Colonial Center.
In the State of Zacatecas there are ruin sites of interest.  The city has a museum with artifacts. to the south of the city find La Quemada ruin site

Zacatecas offers a cable car ride

Zacatecas offers a mine tour and cable car ride.

• Mexico City

From Zacatecas, buses reach Mexico City after a nine hour trip of 370 miles. (490 pesos) This could be a Chihuahuenses bus.
The bus goes via Quertaro to Mexico Norte Station

The bus ride offers great scenery

From Mexico City Distrito Federal (DF), Terminal Norte, you can book an ADO bus for Oaxaca City,  490 Pesos.  Night buses are frequent up until midnight.

Oaxaca ADO Bus Station

• Oaxaca City

       Oaxaca, Mexico, ADO Station
The night bus from Terminal Norte arrives in Oaxaca in the morning after a six to seven hour trip.
For more about Mexico Bus Travel, See Bus Travel Border Crossing, Nogales, Tips


Oaxaca Guelaguetza Parade July youtube video

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

    

Border Crossing, Nogales to Oaxaca Mexico by Bus:

Border Crossing, Tucson to Oaxaca by Bus

Update Dec. 2013 

The cross border buses run by Tufesa Bus from Phoenix and Tucson make it easier to take a bus trip from the USA through Mexico.  Tufesa runs first class buses from Salt Lake City, Las Vegas and several cities in California through Mazatlan and on to Guadalajara..

• Tucson to Oaxaca

If you travel from Tucson, Arizona to Oaxaca, Mexico, you can reach Oaxaca in about two days.
 Of course there is much to see along the way and the various buses in Mexico's extensive first class system will make it easy to visit the colonial towns and cities of Mexico.   A good event to plan for in Oaxaca is the Day of the Dead celebration, a spectacle of candle-lit cemeteries  and sand paintings that takes place during the afternoon of October 31 and the following two evenings.  The cemeteries are magic places during the evening vigils.

 See the sand painting process 

    Leave

• Mazatlan, Pacific Coast

Leave Tucson AZ in the early afternoon aboard Tufesa Bus and reach Mazatlan by dawn the following day (14-16 hour trip)

The luxury Tufesa buses are  high tech rolling hotels made for sleeping. Once darkness descends (7:00 PM) you can sleep as the miles speed by.

Farmland reaches all the way south from Hermasillo for 600 miles but at Mazatlan the mountains below Durango start to pinch in and the farms turn to citrus and tropical fruit. At Mazatlan you cross the Tropic of Cancer and enter the true tropics.

A good side trip here is the ruin site of Alta Vista  (link) on the Tropic of Cancer.  For the ruin site, go to Zacatecas either from Durango City or from Zacatecas City. Alta Vista is near Sombrerete in the small town of Chalchuhuites. It is a little-known site except for those that follow the solstice and the Zenith days.
Zacatecas is a great colonial city well worth a visit.
  April 2013 bus Fare: Nogales to Guadalajara, 1404 Pesos, $115 USD.

• Estimate Miles and Time Between Bus Terminal 

Plan a long bus trip through Mexico by using the maps offered by Guia Roji, a book of 42 maps that fits in the daypack. It is important on a long bus trip to estimate your miles between cities and bus stations, more importantly, your time between stops. Plan on doing 50 miles an hour and plan your departure so that you arrive in your destination terminal early in the morning.  This will give you daylight to explore the city, beach, or ruin site.

An example is the trip from Tucson to Mazatlan; it is 800 miles between Tucson and Mazatlan.  This computes to a 16-hour trip from Tucson. Therefore, it is best to leave Tucson around noon or early afternoon so that you arrive in Mazatlan at 6-7 am and have daylight to explore the beaches or search for a hotel.

Day of the Dead cemetery visits in Mexico

Mountain travel will be much slower than 50 mph. A trip from Oaxaca City to the Pacific Coast beaches of Puerto Escondido or Zipolite for example will cover only 125 miles but take 7-8 hours. You can ask the ticket sellers at the station the trip duration.


If you do head inland to Durango from Mazatlan, pick up some motion sickness medication. The old mountain road to Durango is as steep and twisting as any you will ever see and bound to make you queasy.  A new road is in the works and will open in 2013.  It has the highest bridge in Mexico, a cable-stay bridge that offers spectacular scenery.

     Bus travel will allow you to move at your own pace and to visit various cities and beach towns.  Bus travel (Link to Mexico Bus Travel Info) will offer comfort, sightseeing, adventure, flexibility, and a boots on the ground tour through the city, ruin site, or village. You are free to detour, stop, speed through, or lounge for a few days.

• Primera Plus

Primera Plus Bus also serves Mazatlan and their luxury buses make afternoon and evening trips to Mexico City with morning and mid day trips to Guadalajara..

• Guadalajara

Tufesa Bus continues southeast from Mazatlan and ends its bus route in Guadalajara.
In Guadalajara there are many bus options including Primera Plus Bus which offers a luxury ride to Mexico City.

• Coastal Route 200

 It is also possible to continue south on coastal Route 200 to Puerta Vallarta, Zihuatanejo, (link) Acapulco and Puerto Escondido.  First class buses such as Estrella Blanca cover the Pacific coast as far south as Oaxaca State.

• Oaxaca Coast 

In Oaxaca State, ADO buses cover the coastal bus routes all the way to Tapachula Chiapas and the border of Guatemala.
Reach Oaxaca City from Puerto Escondido via ADO  (OCC) bus through the resort town of Huatulco.  If your trip is through Mexico City , reach Oaxaca City via ADO Bus from bus Terminal Norte or Terminal Tapo.
Oaxaca City is 300 miles (6 hours) south of Mexico City.

• Oaxaca City

Oaxaca is a great colonial city with many ruin sites within reach and some great indigenous festivals including the Day of the Dead.