For most visitors to Mexico buses are the primary means of transport both within and between cities. Almost every small town will be served by some bus service while the larger urban areas will be served by many bus lines and also offer first/executive class service. ADO is the  dominant (basically a monopoly) player in the first/executive bus market in Yucatan and southern Mexico. The buses are generally modern (Volvo usually, with a few Mercedes), comfortable with a/c and safe. Most bus stations are located close to the centre of towns which is handy but also means they often get stuck in clogged traffic. Prices (at least for foreigners) are pretty reasonable and they are the best option usually when going from city to city with travel times under eight hours. For longer travel times a flight may be an option but that depends on whether there are local airports with convenient flights.

Mérida’s central bus terminal (Centro Historico) is located a few blocks south of the central plaza. It’s pretty new but the location is awful as the buses have to squeeze along many blocks of narrow streets  to get into and out of the city. ADO also has some departures from Paseo 60 and Altabrisa  which may be convenient depending on which part of the city you are located. ADO has a useful phone app which is quite handy for booking and avoiding long lineups at the terminal. One final note when booking a bus – please note ‘local’ means that the bus starts at that location. The term ‘de paso’ means that the bus is en route from another location. The takeaway from this is that ‘de paso’ buses are often late (some very late) whereas the ‘local’ buses tend to leave on time since that is the start of their journey.

Bon voyage! ……..or maybe Buen Viaje!