Getting there
Dec 30th, 2007 by Stian
Unless you are really concerned about reducing your carbon offset and don’t mind spending a month on a freighter ship, you’ll probably have to fly to get to Mexico. For most of the information on this page I’ve used the excellent flight search engine Kayak.co.uk to look up potential flights. I highly recommend playing around in Kayak (which prices links out to both travel agencies and the airline companies) before trying directly with a specific company (which again might find you a cheaper option Kayak has missed to index).
One word of advice, if you want to pick-and-choose between different companies for different parts of your journey, you’ll risk having to check in your luggage again midway, which would add delays and could make you miss your connecting flight. Since you would be flying on two different tickets the airline companies would not be very helpful in finding you an alternative flight. To avoid these problems, buy such tickets either by code-sharing (for instance, a flight operated by AeroMexico sold under Delta code) or from a travel agency, either a real shop or online, such as Orbitz.
Coach from Mexico City to Puebla
Although there is an international airport in Puebla (PBC), you’ll probably find more and cheaper options if you fly to Mexico City (MEX) and take the Estrella Roja coach directly from the airport to Puebla, which should take about 2 hours in quite modern and comfortable tourist style air-conditioned buses. You might want to visit Mexico City before or after the wedding, Estrella Roja also has coaches between Mexico City and Puebla, which also takes about 2 hours.
The service of Estrella Roja works almost like an air plane, you book in advance or buy a ticket at the desk, get a reserved seat, and you even have to go through a security check point before entering the bus. They might give you a little bag with biscuits and water on board.
From Mexico city’s airport to Puebla there are two possible destinations; 4 Poniente and CAPU. The first one, is a coach terminal which is located closer to Puebla’s city centre; this is your best choice since it will be closer to the hotels in town. The second choice, CAPU, is the main coach station in Puebla, which is a bit further away (15 minutes more) and where coaches to several towns and cities in the east and south of Mexico depart. If your plane is late, don’t worry, there are services to Puebla every 30 minutes the 24 hours. Please note that you will need to pay in cash for the tickets, as far as I remember last time that Stian and I were there we couldn’t pay with credit card! . You can withdraw money from the ATM machines which are available as you pass the custom’s section. A one way ticket costs around $200 MXN = 10GBP.
If you are staying some days in Mexico city then the best way to get to Puebla is, again, by coach. But this time you don’t need to go to the airport to take the coach; instead you need to go to the TAPO. Once there you can find the Estrella Roja or ADO stands. They will take you to the CAPU. Make sure to take a direct service, “servicio directo”, otherwise the coach may be stopping now and then to let people in and out. To make sure and to travel comfortably, it is better to take the Pullman Primera Clase from Estrella Roja Plus or ADO GL from ADO.
For other information on the topic and tourist info about Puebla you can see the Wikitravel page on Puebla.
Flying to Puebla
Most of these flights to Puebla goes through US, which means you would need a modern electronic passport and possibly a visa. This would probably also mean that the CIA will be sent a full copy of your secondary school grade book.
Continental has flights from Houston (IAH) directly to Puebla. However, getting to Houston from Europe will normally require 2 stops, such as flying Lufthansa via Frankfurt (FRA), or Delta through Paris Charles de Gaulle (CDG). KLM to Houston via Amsterdam is also an option, but as far as I can see it easily costs twice as much as Frankfurt or Paris.
Aero Mexico has a red-eye flight directly to Puebla from New York (JFK) on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and getting to New York should be easy from most cities. For actors living on the east cost of US, Aero Mexico’s flights from Los Angeles (LAX) to Puebla leave on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
Flying to Mexico City
As mentioned above, you can easily catch the coach from Mexico City to Puebla, and flying to the second largest city in the world gives you a wide range of options of airline companies and flights.
KLM has a direct flight from Amsterdam to Mexico City. KLM also flies to Amsterdam from major European cities. Prices from £420 / 4,900 NOK makes this a very interesting option.
Continental has flights from New York (EWR), and incoming flights from bigger cities such as Oslo and Manchester. In my Kayak search I found flights from Oslo for £470 / 5500 NOK.
British Airways can take you from London Heathrow (LHR) to Mexico City for £470 / 5500 NOK, but don’t forget to add the connection and a higher risk to loose your luggage at infamous Heathrow. From Oslo, BA can get you to Mexico City for £518 / 6000 NOK.
Air France has a similar flight from Paris Charles de Gaulle (CDG), which means you can fly from Oslo for £520 / 6100 NOK, or from Stavanger for £557 / 6500 NOK.
American Airlines can take you from New York (JFK), and with incoming flights on codeshare via Brussels or Heathrow, you can fly from Oslo for £600 / 7000 NOK.
Other options to Mexico City are available, most of them involving code sharing, but this could be a good option if they give you the connecting flight in Europe.