Crossing Mexico to Belize border has never been the most straightforward one, with well known ‘scams’ in place on the Mexican side with officials asking travellers to pay an ‘entrance fee’ which you have actually already paid when you entered the country. But, more on this later.

Nowadays with the C-word looming over all of us, entering Belize has become even more difficult. The sleepy little country, just south of Mexico is, currently, one of the hardest to get into due to its covid regulations.

So, in November 2021 how did we find crossing the border between Mexico to Belize?

Well, in 1 word; Expensive!

We decided to cross via the land border between Subteniente Lopez (Chetumal), Mexico and Santa Elena (Corozal), Belize after attempting to cross via sea and finding the port shut. (There is no information to say this online at all, so we thought it might be worth a try).

Once we reached Chetumal we paid 300 pesos (£11) for a taxi from the bus station to the border, we might have been able to find a collectivo (the local buses used across Central America) for less but, we knew the whole journey was going to take us quite a while so just sucked it up and paid it. Our taxi driver was very friendly and helpful and translated some tips about crossing the border for us into English, he then drove us through the Mexican side of the border and into no man’s land towards Belize.

During this, our bags were checked and passports checked over and we were asked a few straightforward questions by some friendly Mexican border control. There was also no mention of paying the well known Mexican entry/ exit fee tax. I think since Covid this scam has died down and doesn’t seem to be happening as much, but that is just our opinion.

How the scam works:

Entering Mexico:

When you first enter Mexico, you have to pay the Mexican Tourist Tax (DNI).

If you fly in, this will be included in your flight ticket (which can be found on your airline receipt). If you enter by land, you have to pay this and the receipt will be stapled to your FMM immigration card.

However, if you stay for 7 or fewer days and leave at the same point as when you enter, this does not have to be paid.

Exiting Mexico:

When exiting, there is no departure or exit tax. But, a well-known tourist scam is tourists being asked to pay this one by the “Mexican officials”. But, like we said this is happening less and less these days in our opinion.

Leaving Mexico

Next, we were asked to fill out some forms including where we were staying. We had read that in order to enter Belize you had to have booked your first 3 nights in a Gold Standard Accommodation, we thought instead of doing this we would chance it at the border and see if they really did ask… spoiler they did.

It was the first question we were asked by the Belizian officials, we eagerly said yes and then promptly said our WIFI wasn’t working so couldn’t show them the proof. If you also want to chance it, although after this we wouldn’t see much point, they do have WIFI at the border meaning we could quickly book the cheapest accommodation and show them this. They then photograph the forms you have filled out along with your proof of accommodation.

Next, after a few more checkpoints and your Mexican passport stamp, your Mexican driver then has to leave you to physically walk the last little bit into, I suppose ‘official Belize’.

Entering Belize

The next stop is where it gets expensive. Much like the Gold Standard Accommodation, we had also read about Gold Standard Transportation which had to take you to your accommodation from the border. Now, originally we had planned on staying one night in Corozal and then getting the 7 am ferry to San Pedro, but, due to Covid we weren’t allowed to stay one night and due to there not being much to see in Corozal and accommodation being expensive, we instead opted to head straight to our first destination of San Pedro on Ambergris Caye. Belize’s largest island.

At the border, we were told the only way to do this is to get into a ‘Gold standard taxi’ which would take us to Belize city and cost us 180USD! Now, the journey takes around 2hours so this price in England wouldn’t actually be ridiculous but for us humble backpackers this was about 1 week worth of spending money. But, with no other choice we hopped into the beaten up, old taxi – we’re talking smashed window screen and no working seatbelts, real ‘gold standard.

Next on our trip of ‘take the backpackers money’ we stopped for our Antigen test. Another requirement to get into Belize currently. This set us back 50 USD each and took around 20 minutes, during which time our new taxi driver waited for us. After what we assume were negative results, and one more quick stop to get our stamp into Belize, we were then through the border and our ‘luxury’ drive could properly begin.

After a couple of hours, a lot of fast driving and a few stops later we arrived for the 4:30 pm ferry from Belize City to San Pedro. With a return ferry setting us back 80 USD or £60.

All in all, the process was fairly straightforward as long as you had all of your documents in order and complied with their requirements, it was just pricey. If you are short on time or just don’t want to spend any time in a place with not much to do then we would recommend the route we did. However, if you are after a bit of downtime then spending 3 nights in Corozal wouldn’t be the worse thing in the world and would save you the $180 taxi fare.

When staying your first 3 nights in your gold standard you are completely free to do what you want, although you are supposed to stay in Gold Standard Accommodation at all times, there is nothing to check this and the same goes for transport. After that first taxi drive, you’re free to do what you want.

Total cost: £280

This was for 2 of us from Chetumal, Mexico to San Pedro, Belize.