Hi there!
After buying a sweet van in Vancouver I’m now at a point getting ready to travel into Mexico after an awesome trip down the west coast!
I’m looking for any advice on protocol entering Mexico, i.e. Visa issues and vehicle insurance- I’m currently on British Columbia insurance and plates. Planning on staying there for a few months!
Many thanks vanlifers!!
Angus
Greetings & Welcome!
I’m not from BC, so can’t be of much help, but did want to welcome you.
Cheers!
In the US we can register with the state department. List where we routinely travel and they send out notices. Perhaps Canada does the same
From what I have heard it is safer to stay away from large towns Drive during the day. If you are considering Baja search for surfers that travel there and see what their experience/recommendations are. Don’t show any glitz. You are better off with a beater van than a nice one. Caravan if possible
Thanks for the advice. Although I’m not really sure what you mean by send out notices? Planning your drive down baja, is it really that dangerous? I will of course be cautious but I was planning to do some wild camping with the help of ioverlander app.
Send me your direct email address mine is bobsgt@mac.com. I will send you the recent US State Department Travel advisory that I just received. Traveling in Mexico can be as simple as you hope, but there are precautions you should consider.
Your ICBC insurance won’t allow you/cover you in Mexico (and I think inlynfor anshort while In the states).
There are a couple companies that allow you to purchase insurance coverage in Mexico and further south… but I can recall the names of who we used (it’s been 8yrs now).
To travel for long in Mexico and/or any other country further south you’ll actually have to import/export your vehicle at each border and often be required to buy that countries “insurance” as a part of import.
Would I trust any of it the way you trust you ICBC… absolutely not- but that all part of the adventure!! =]
Hi there, we started actually in Vancouver and we are driving from Canada to Argentina. Right now we’ve been in Mexico since Christmas. At the border we got a temporary import permit which lasts as long as your personal “visa”. We are Germans and are allowed to stay in Mexico for 6 months, so do our car.
There is no insurance company in Canada or the USA which will cover you in Mexico.
And because our van is pretty old (24 years) we had trouble to find any insurance company in Mexico (we googled) - you will only get liability. …so we decided to go without any car insurance.
I’ve been been driving accident free since 15 years…and as long as we don’t cause an accident everything will be fine. In case someone else will cause an accident and causes some damage to your car their insurance has to pay - if they do have any car insurance.
No risk, no fun.
Finally found it… pretty sire this is what we used.
We never needed it… and again, would I trust it the same as ICBC- not even close… but it made us feel good to have something for worst case scenario (though honestly, you’ll probably just have to figure it out anyway if something happens).
What kind of van are you driving?