You see, depending on where you live, you can easily navigate Mexico without having a car. It’s really about making a personal choice to use the abundance of public transportation that also happens to be very inexpensive compared to buying or renting a car, paying for gas and maintenance, insurance, inspections, repairs, parking, traffic, etc, and all the other things that's involved in having and owning a car here as someone from another country.
We use the ADO and Mayab Buses, Colectivos, Taxi service and
walking to get where we have to go. For example, we live in Puerto Aventuras (PA) and walk over to Chedraui to do our grocery shopping. It is about ¾ of a mile each way, and we use our rolling tote pull cart to bring our items home. If we need to buy bulk type items (paper towels, toilet paper, bottled water, etc), we take the Colectivo on Hwy 307, which is right outside the front gate of Puerto Aventuras, and it lets us off right at Sam’s club. Since we are buying a much larger amount of goods, we just take a short taxi ride back home to P.A.
And, when we go back and forth to the airport, if we just have our carry on tote bags (which is most of the time), we take the Colectivo from Puerto Aventuras to Playa del Carmen, make the very short walk to 5th Avenue where the ADO bus station is, then take the ADO to the airport in Cancun. Easy Breezy!
In terms of taking our day trips and going on excursions, we have taken the Colectivo and/or ADO to Tulum, Chichen Itza, Merida, Puerto Morelos, etc.
Other than the obvious benefits of not owning a car here (gas, insurance, maintenance, parking, etc), the other primary benefit is our health.
We love to stay active and engage in many activities that keep us moving (Zumba, dancing, walking, rolling-blading, bicycling, etc.) However, without having a car here, we have the extra benefit of being healthy from all the walking. And what’s really nice is we don’t even realize how much exercise we really are getting. In other words, we don’t have to work at it.
By the time we walk to the grocery store, shop, and walk back, then walk downtown to the open market or meet friends for a quick bite, or catch the Colectivo and walk to our favorite restaurant for brunch (Plank), or walk up and down 5th Avenue driving the vendors crazy because we won’t stop and buy anything, we have walked well above the recommended 10, 000 steps per day endorsed by the American Heart Association and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
It’s all about personal choice. If you choose not to have a car here, remember, NO CAR, NO PROBLEM.
See our photos below which include price charts for taxis.
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