The Caye Caulker to Mexico Ferry

When planning my trip around Central America, I knew I wanted to include Caye Caulker. After, I was going to make my way from Caye Caulker to Mexico by ferry, but I couldn’t find much information about it online. Most of the information was focused on getting the ferry from Mexico, but not many focused on the route in reverse. I chose to get the direct ferry because I felt like it was both the simplest option, and also it meant that I would arrive quite early into Mexico.

Which Caye Caulker to Mexico Ferry should you take?

Photo of a dock with two boats tied up on the right hand side. They are both white on the bottom with yellow fading into green on the top. The front one has the words "San Pedro Belize Express Water Taxi" on it, with a link to the website underneath. The ship is called 3 Stars Voyager. The ferry in front of it is the Caye Caulker to Mexico one and it is smaller but same colours. On the left you can make out a building with part of the roof visible. — The little boat at the front is the Caye Caulker to Mexico ferry.

There are actually two ferries from Caye Caulker to Mexico, and they run on alternate days. The San Pedro Belize Express was the one I took. It departs from Caye Caulker at 7am every Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday.

The other operator is International Islanders which departs at 12:45pm on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.

The cost is very similar between the two. There is a slight extra charge for booking the San Pedro Belize online, so if you go in person it’s cheaper. As they alternate days, I would recommend simply picking the option that works best with your schedule. One very important thing to bear in mind, though, is that the San Pedro Belize Express does not arrive at 10am. Chetumal is one hour ahead, and so if it’s on time then it would arrive at 11am: however, we were very late leaving San Pedro, so it was almost noon by the time we arrived. The International Islanders shows the journey as taking 4 hours and 15 minutes, which is much more accurate than the three hours San Pedro Belize express say. However, again it’s not clear whether the arrival time of 5pm is Chetumal time or Belize time.

After checking reviews online, I was aware that the 10am arrival time was one hour behind, so I made sure not to book my bus leaving Chetumal in advance. I’d already checked online and seen buses leaving every hour to Cancun, so I knew I had plenty of options.

Checking in for the Caye Caulker to Mexico ferry

Photo of a small building with a big sign on the top that says "Welcome. Ride with the best". Below are two windows. Behind it is a pier with boats in the distance. You can make out one person behind the building, but aside from that it is completely empty. Behind the building you can see the sun has only just started to rise. — I was one of the first to arrive, which also meant I could enjoy this lovely sunrise.

As it is an international ferry, you do need to arrive quite early to check in. The process for this sounds a lot more complicated at San Pedro. For Caye Caulker, all I had to do was show up with my passport and show my booking. At the desk I was given my ticket. I was also given an entry form to fill out for Mexico. When I entered Belize, I kept the exit form safe, but if you lost it they also have ones available.

It took quite a while to get my ticket as they needed to check my passport and look up my booking in a physical book. This meant that the line moved rather slowly. They recommended being there one hour before departure, however, I turned up even earlier just to be safe. This was a very good decision as there is a ferry to Belize City at 6:30am. The queue got very large with people arriving for that one. There is a separate waiting area for the Mexico ferry, but there is not a separate queue to check in.

The Journey

Photo taken from the inside of the ferry. You can see seats on either side of a door with steps leading to it. Outside of the door you can see lots of trees and docks with a lot of sargassum in the water. — I made sure to sit near the door to enjoy the views on the ferry.

Although the ferry is from Caye Caulker to Mexico, it also includes a stop in San Pedro. This is both to take on additional passengers, and where you go through passport control to officially exit Belize.

They didn’t actually explain that we were waiting for the passport officer, though: they simply sent us outside to wait. It is very hot in Belize, and a lot of the seating was not in the shade. We also weren’t aware of how long we’d need to wait. I used my data to check reviews online and saw that often you have to wait for quite a while. Eventually the passport control officer arrived, so we then had to go back inside to line up to get officially stamped out of Belize. This was quite a quick process, but as there was only one officer it did take a while for him to move through the entire group.

Passport Control

On arrival, we all had to disembark the ferry and make our way to the desks to check in again. This was quite a fast process, and just involved checking I had the correct ticket and had filled out my forms. After that, they sent me inside to a counter where I was to pay the exit fee for Belize. This is $20 USD, and can be paid either in USD or in Belize dollars. I had leftover USD from El Salvador, so I chose to use that. I was given a receipt and then sent outside to wait until the passport officer arrived.

Photo showing multiple passengers walking towards a large building that says Welcome to San Pedro. There is another sign that is blurry but says it is the San Pedro Port of Entry. — Arriving at the San Pedro Immigration Control.

After getting our passports stamped, it was back to waiting again. This time, they explained that we were now waiting on Mexico immigration giving us permission to sail. Once we had our permission, it was time to board the boat again. By this point, we had been waiting for quite a long time. I don’t know exactly how long, but we spent at least an hour at San Pedro.

The journey itself was quite smooth, and I made sure to get a seat so that I could see the views outside. The ferry wasn’t that busy, so I was able to have plenty of space to myself which was also good, as the ferry to Caye Caulker had been very crowded.

Arriving in Mexico

One of the main things I struggled to find about online was information about the arrival process in Mexico. I knew that there was the potential of having to pay. However, as I was staying for less than 7 days, I wasn’t sure if the fee would apply to me. However, the free entry only applies if you are arriving by land. As I was arriving by a private boat, I needed to pay the fee of 861 pesos. This was paid on arrival via card directly to the immigration officer.

Once I had paid, I got my passport stamped and was able to leave the ferry building. One thing I noticed is that my first arrival in Mexico gave me 180 days. This is the full amount that I can get as a tourist from the UK. Immigration in Chetumal gave me until the day after I had told them I was leaving. I was leaving on the 13th, so they allowed me to stay until the 14th. This is definitely something to pay close attention to as it means you won’t be able to easily change plans to stay longer in Mexico.

Chetumal Bus Station

Photo of a stone featuring a colourful Mayan carving of a deity. The carving is painted using lots of bright red and blue colours. The figure is down on one knee. — Xaman Ek – The Mayan god of travellers.

I did not plan on staying in Chetumal very long, so needed to make my way to the ADO bus station. This is located quite far from the ferry terminal, so I don’t recommend walking.

There are a lot of taxis waiting at the ferry terminal, and if you look on Uber it will say it is not available in the area. However, it is only unavailable at the ferry port. It is available in Chetumal, and so you simply need to walk a short distance away to be able to order one. I don’t trust taxis, especially when I’m not fluent in the language, so I chose to walk five minutes away and call an Uber.

The walk along the pier is actually really nice, with lots of statues of Mayan deities. Once you reach the road, I just walked one block away. I got an Uber almost instantly and it got me to the ADO station in plenty of time.

At the ADO station, I queued up to buy a ticket to Cancun. The queue is not very fast, so if you are tight on time then I recommend buying a ticket online. However, as the ferry arrived so late, I arrived in plenty of time. The buses are very regular, so unless you’re going to a less popular destination then you should be fine.

Why take the Caye Caulker to Mexico Ferry?

Photo of the Caye Caulker to Mexico ferry. It is yellow on the right fading to green on the left. It is docked with a large empty concrete space. In the back on the other side of the water are lots of trees. — Photo of the ferry while waiting in San Pedro.

After all the hassle of having to pay an entry fee and wait around in San Pedro for ages, you might be wondering whether the ferry is really worth it. The other option is to get a ferry back to Belize City and make your way by land. ADO do run a bus between Belize City and Chetumal, but it doesn’t seem to be bookable online. I only know it exists as I saw it on the screen while booking my bus to Cancun. It seems to only run in the evenings though, so if I’d chosen that option then I wouldn’t have been able to get to Cancun on the same day.

The Land Option

You can take local transport up to the border and then cross using a taxi. The issue with this option, though, is that it simply required too many changes for me. I would have to first get a ferry back to Belize City. Then I would have to make my way to the bus station to get a bus to Coruzal. Then get a taxi to the border. After that, a second taxi into Chetumal.

I read online that this is definitely the cheapest option (and also avoids paying the entry fee in Mexico if you won’t be staying over 7 days). However, it requires taking taxis, which I don’t like to do. It also means I wouldn’t know the price upfront and involves multiple changes of transport. I simply wanted the fastest, most efficient way. I didn’t mind paying more to avoid all that.

If you have a lot more time than me, or aren’t by yourself (and can therefore split taxi costs) then the land option might be better for you. This would also be a good choice if you were staying closer to the border in Mexico. However, I needed to get back to Cancun. I wanted the earliest option possible to avoid needing to use two travel days.

My thoughts

Photo of a sign that says Chetumal. There is a statue of a lizard on the top of the sign. Each letter is decorated with lots of Mayan designs. Behind the sign are some trees and the sea. — The Chetumal Sign at the entrance to the ferry terminal.

In my opinion, the extra cost and waiting time in San Pedro was worth it to know that I would get back to Cancun that same day, and to know that all I had to do was turn up at the ferry terminal and they would take care of everything else. I can get quite anxious about travel, and this gets worse the more changes I have to make and the less I know about them. If this isn’t something that bothers you, though, then you might want to save your money and go overland.

Still, the views on the ferry were lovely and I really enjoy travelling on the water, so if I go back, I’d happily take the ferry from Caye Caulker to Chetumal again!

Have you travelled from Caye Caulker to Chetumal? Did you take the ferry or did you go by land? Which would you recommend?