Reply to What is the best way to get from Cancun to Merida via public transportation?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]This is the OP reporting back.

I took the ADO public bus from Cancun to Merida for $40, a “luxury” coach. To get to downtown Cancun and the bus station from the resort area in Cancun, I took the R1 city bus for 12 pesos. Both felt very safe and it was comfortable.

I travelled during the day however. I would not hang around downtown Cancun at night but it was fine walking around during the day.

There is also the Mayan train but this has been operational for only about a year and I heard that it was not completely reliable yet. 
I don’t know how true that is, I later heard that Mexicans opposed its development because it’s meant for tourists and was costly to build, many opposed it since the country remains poor.

Other things I learned on this trip - the “narcos” or drug cartels are mostly in the north, and they are also feared by locals in Mexico. 
Tourists do not need be afraid of violence everywhere in Mexico.
Merida in particular felt very safe, and I’m a very cautious traveller.

Also, Miami airport layover is kind of a nightmare!  2.5 hour layover became less than 2 hours because plane takeoff was delayed by one hour. You have to take the sky train to next terminal to exit and enter customs, grab your luggage and re enter security, and then walk to the gate (which in our case meant going back to the terminal we started). We arrived at the gate 15 min before boarding started, but that was because we didn’t have any checked luggage to pick up.

At customs there is an “express connection” line but it didn’t seem any faster than other lines because it was longer than lines for visitors and visa holders.

Lastly, my son who was born in DC while I was a research fellow at NIH (returned to Canada when he was 18 months old), was asked why he wasn’t carrying his US passport and only had his Canadian passport — even though we were only entering the US on a layover in Miami back to Toronto.  I said he has resided in Canada since he was a toddler and he hasn’t lived in the US since, and my son chimed in earnestly that he doesn’t know what his SSN is anymore (I misplaced it) so he can’t apply….there was a beat and then the officer decided we weren’t drug cartels or trying to illegally enter the US so our final destination was Toronto and not El Salvador.

Next time I think we’ll just take the bus back to Cancun and fly direct to Toronto because there a lots of Toronto-Cancun flights and that layover in Miami is a PITA.

[/quote]

Thanks for sharing your experience.  I have a friend who lives near Merida and have thought of visiting.  Good call on avoiding Miami.  I've transferred there dozens of times and the security lines have indeed made me miss my flight more than once.[/quote]

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