Currency: MXN (Mexican Peso, M$)
If you are an individual traveler and you want to stay cheap you need cash. For accommodation, gas, food. I withdrawed money only from ATSM of international known banks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
motorcycle<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n km – odometer at border crossing: 38,647 average fuel costs per liter: 0.77 EUR total costs for fuel, around: 103 EUR<\/p>\n\n\n\n accommodation<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I traveled in the off season. It was no problem to find accommodation. Often there were only a few guests in the hotels or hostels. There are often far more hotels or hostels than you can find on pages like booking.com or trivago.com. Look for local booking pages on the internet. I had no problem parking my motorcycle. Either there was a garage or I could park it in the hostel. I even parked it on the street sometimes. When the owners of the hostel told me that it is safe outside. You can often see from the neighbourhood if an area is safe, for example, what kind of cars park outside, are the houses and streets maintained, … .<\/p>\n\n\n\n liability insurance<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n There are different opinions. On most sites I’ve read, they say that a liability insurance is mandatory. Others write, it is not mandatory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nevertheless, I would like to stay on the safe side and buy a liability insurance. What turned out to be very simple. I found the link http:\/\/www.mexins.com\/ on some blogs. There you can select different options online, like, different types of vehicles, amount of coverage, pure liability or damage to your own vehicle. Since I plan to travel again through Mexico, I choose a third party liability for one year. That costs only 15USD more than 6 months. I take any damage on my motorcycle at my own risk. After filling out the forms, you receive an e-mail with a phone number. You have to call this phone number. I talked to an agent for a couple of minutes. I gave them my credit card information and within 5 minutes I got the insurance policy by e-mail. The procedure did not take more than 10 to 15 minutes. The price for the policy was $ 100.<\/p>\n\n\n\n border crossing<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I went across the border in McAllen \/ Reynosa. Why? The travelbook said it is smaller quiet border station. And so it was. I was there aorund 10am.<\/p>\n\n\n\n * Step 1: Drop off the green visa card. * Step 2: Border Crossing * Step 3: Temporary import of the vehicle Duration: around 2 1\/2 hours.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Currency: MXN (Mexican Peso, M$)If you are an individual traveler and you want to stay cheap you need cash. For accommodation, gas, food. I withdrawed money only from ATSM of international known banks. motorcycle km – odometer at border crossing: 38,647km – driven: 3,973 average fuel costs per liter: 0.77 EURfuel used in liter, around: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2257","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/j-bauer.at\/wp_america2013\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/j-bauer.at\/wp_america2013\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/j-bauer.at\/wp_america2013\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/j-bauer.at\/wp_america2013\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/j-bauer.at\/wp_america2013\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2257"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/j-bauer.at\/wp_america2013\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2257\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4858,"href":"https:\/\/j-bauer.at\/wp_america2013\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2257\/revisions\/4858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/j-bauer.at\/wp_america2013\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
km – driven: 3,973<\/p>\n\n\n\n
fuel used in liter, around: 135<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Online Booking might work with more expensive hotels. I had bad experiences with two cheaper ones and gave it up, it did not work as expected. Also the walk in rates were much cheaper than I paid for on the online booking pages. It’s better to write an e-mail or call or just show up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On several blogs I’ve read that the travelers crossed the border and had to turn around again, because they did not know where to leave the green visa card. So before I drove over the bridge I stopped at border officials and asked where I had to drop off the card. They said, I should keep it for re-entry. I said, I will probably come back in half a year. They discussed. Finally, they told me I can leave it at the toll booths. Mexico and the U.S. are separated by the Rio Bravo. You have to pay 3$ to pass. So, when I paid the toll at the booth I asked again, if I can leave the visa card there. He said, Yes, so I gave it to him. I hope it worked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I had to stop at a bar. It opened and you are in Mexico. Within a zone of about 30 km you don’t need a visa or something else and you can move almost free.
But I had to register my motorcycle for temporary import. If you leave the border station in Reynosa, just drive left. Here are the GPS coordinates: 26.089886, -98.268383<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Passport, driving license, registration certificate, national insurance card, international driving license, international registration certificate .. prepare everything.
First I had to fill out the immigration card. Then I had to copy all the documents. Costs $ 1USD. Then I had to go to customs. Again I had to fill out some papers. Then I had to go to the bank. It is a back and forth. All documents are viewed precisely. But everyone was very friendly. The border officials wanted to know where I go, how long, …?
At one point it got complicated. The bank employee, where I had to pay the fees, made „problems“, because our car registration has no expiration date and the veicle serialnumber is not in the national insurance card. A young Texan with Mexican roots was very helpful translating for me. Finally one of the border officials wrote a document that the temporary import is okay. I paid 295M$ for the tourist visa, about 660M$ for the import papers and had to deposit around 308 USD, which will be paid back when leaving the country. Everyone was interested in my trip. Finally, border officials finished my visa and passport, wished me all the best and I was done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n