How to travel from Mexico to Costa Rica by ferry?

Hi there,

I’m looking for a ferry or Ro-Ro passage for my vehicle and two passengers from Mexico to Costa Rica. I haven’t found anything online. If you know of any regular routes, I’d love to hear about them!

Hi, in my opinion, you’ll get there faster by car... and it’ll probably be less complicated.

Thanks for the tip—good idea to avoid crossing countries that are really unsafe.

There are also bus routes that work really well.

there are bus lines that work very well too.

I think he’d want to take his vehicle... but the playground will be limited to Costa Rica and Panama, not sure the idea is cost-effective.

No ferry or Ro-Ro service, but in practice you can ship a vehicle in a container or on an open flatbed between pretty much any ports—it’s just a matter of money and time. We did it between Puerto Limón in Costa Rica and Tampa, Florida, but it should be possible between Veracruz in Mexico and Puerto Limón too.

That said, the administrative steps for such transport are even worse than the customs procedures you’d face driving from Mexico to Costa Rica (nothing truly complicated each time if you’ve researched the steps beforehand, but invariably long and draining). We traveled Mexico > Belize > Guatemala > Honduras > Nicaragua > Costa Rica, and the only security-related issues we had were in Mexico. I won’t downplay it, though—a bit of common sense is key, and we had a child with us. On a few occasions, that actually helped us avoid trouble, especially with the not-so-honest police in those countries...