Once off the plane you’ll be in the main arrival and departure gate terminal. You’ll need to go down stairs to a lower level to Immigration (“Migración”) and Customs (“Aduana”). You may get off at a gate that is at a bit of a distance from the Immigration and Customs area. There is only one entrance and staircase/escalator that goes down to Migración. Just follow the crowd and if you are having trouble locating where to go, ask an airport information person wearing a “Información” jacket / vest or security person. There are also scattered information kiosks throughout the airport. Don’t worry, the airport is not very big. Once downstairs and in the immigration area, find the line for foreigners (“extranjeros”).

At immigration, you’ll need to provide your passport (They are phasing out the paper immigration and customs forms). Once through immigration, you’ll continue on to the baggage claim area (“equipaje”). Take your bags and head to customs located at one of the exits. You’ll have to pick up your bags and run them through an x-ray machine that will check for any items not permitted in Mexico and items that you should pay a duty tax. All personal items that you plan to take out of Mexico with you are fine. Items that you plan to sell or that have commercial value are the ones they are looking for. You may also have to push a button for a random inspection. If a green light comes up, you’re free to pass. If a red light comes up, you must place your bags on a table for inspection. They’ll open your bags and move things around for a physical inspection. The red lights don’t come up very often. At the exit of customs are automatic frosted sliding glass doors.

Once you come out of the frosted sliding glass doors of customs, start looking for two things. 1) A change house, to change money into pesos if you need pesos. Or look for an ATM (if it asks you if you want to accept the exchange rate, decline. The ATMs rates are always worse than the international rate that your bank or VIS/MC will give you.) You may need some to start off with because once you get to Puebla, the dollar is not widely accepted. Mexico is a highly cash based country, especially in small stores. I would recommend having around US$100 dollars worth to start, depending on your length of stay. If you have a credit card or debit card, you’ll be able to purchase a bus ticket with it, but have cash as a backup. 

From the Customs exit you’ll have to go upstairs to the next level in the airport to buy a bus ticket. There is a food section upstairs in a hallway; all fast food places. Look for and head down a corridor between 7-Eleven and Krispy Kreme. In front of the kiosk (or to one side, depending on your point of view) there is a long corridor with glass windows to one side that look out onto the airport tarmac and airplanes below. Go to the end of the corridor to the bus ticket counters. The bus company that you will be riding with is called, “Estrella Roja” ADO also runs service to Puebla if the timing is better, take ADO. These companies run luxury buses that are nearly, if not brand new, and are safe and comfortable. Look for the place at the ticket counter that says, “ PUEBLA ” and buy a ticket to a bus station called “PASEO DESTINO”. You’ll have two options, PASEO DESTINO and CAPU. CAPU is the big bus station in Puebla and you DON’T want this one. PASEO DESTINO is a private bus station only served by buses coming and going to and from the airport. It’s nicer, calmer and closer, so get one to PASEO DESTINO. A one-way ticket has a cost of around $500 pesos. You can pay with cash and usually credit/debit cards. Buy a one-way ticket (boleto sencillo). You can buy a round trip ticket (boleto redondo) now, but you don’t save any money and you have to hold onto and present the ticket stub in order to redeem it for a ticket upon your return. At the ticket counters, give your luggage for them to put the bags under the bus and then wait for a luggage voucher for each piece of luggae. From the ticket counters head to the right and down some escalators. If you prefer, there is a ramp past the escalators that you can take down to the next level. Here look for the Estrella Roja (or ADO) bus and show your ticket to one of the workers in front of the bus. They’ll either tell you to hold on for the next bus or to go ahead and board that one. They board usually around 5 – 10 minutes before departure. You’ll show the luggage ticket when you arrive to Puebla and they’ll compare it to make sure you don’t have someone else’s luggage by mistake and to make sure no one gets your luggage. This bus will depart Terminal 1 and stop at Terminal 2 for a few minutes to load other passengers before proceeding to Puebla , so don’t get off just yet. At the “Paseo Destino” bus station in Puebla you’ll be able to take a taxi or a Uber to your final destination in Puebla. The station is around 15 minutes from the center of Puebla.

Send us any questions before you leave, info (at) livitspanish.com or check the Whatsapp numbers in the emails we’ve sent you.