El Carmen–Talismán Border Crossing (Guatemala to Mexico): Hours & Buses [2026]

El Carmen, in the municipality of Malacatán, San Marcos, is the Guatemalan side of the Talismán crossing into Chiapas, Mexico, and the border that Tica Bus names for its Guatemala City to Tapachula Pullman. It is a different crossing from Tecún Umán, on the coast. Guatemala charges nothing to leave and Mexico charges nothing for a land stay of seven days or less. The hours below were read from the authorities’ own pages on 24 September 2026 and the bus timetable from Tica Bus on 25 September 2026.

Quick summary

• Where: Guatemalan customs sits at Km 290 of the CA-2 Occidente, Aldea El Carmen, municipality of Malacatán, San Marcos. The Mexican side is Ejido Talismán, municipality of Tuxtla Chico, Chiapas.
• Hours posted: Guatemala customs 08:00-20:00 daily; Mexico’s Talismán customs section Mon-Fri 09:00-19:00, Sat-Sun 09:00-14:00; INM’s Talismán office Mon-Fri 09:00-15:00.
• Fees: no Guatemalan exit fee; Mexico $0 for land stays of 7 days or less.
• Bus: Tica Bus, Guatemala City to Tapachula, US$27, daily at 07:30 and 14:30, border listed as El Carmen y Talismán.
• Drivers: SAT lists only goods clearance at El Carmen. Confirm the vehicle permit before you go.
• Warning: the UK Foreign Office advises against all but essential travel near this border on both sides.

Hours, side by side

How to read this. The windows overlap from 09:00 to 19:00 on weekdays and from 09:00 to 14:00 at weekends, when both customs posts are open. INM’s figure is the public-office schedule, not a published opening time for the migration filter itself. Nothing on either government’s pages says this crossing is open around the clock. Cross on a weekday, in daylight.

Compared with Tecún Umán. SAT’s customs window at El Carmen (08:00-20:00) closes two hours earlier than at Tecún Umán I, the traveller post on the coast (08:00-22:00).

The bus that uses this crossing

Tica Bus is the only operator we read that names El Carmen in its timetable. Its routes table, read on 25 September 2026:

Tica Bus says these fares are for online purchase only, and that arrival times are approximate and vary with the time taken at border crossings and road traffic.

The Guatemala City station is the Terminal y Hotel Santiago, Calzada Aguilar Batres 18-35, zona 12, open Monday to Friday 05:00-17:00 and Saturday and Sunday 05:00-14:00; telephone (502) 2473 3737, WhatsApp +502 5536 0593. The rest of the Tica Bus network, baggage rules and booking are on our Tica Bus page.

The other Tapachula buses do not say. Guatemala Transportation and AtitlanTour sell Pullmans to Tapachula from Guatemala City and Antigua without naming the crossing; their times and fares are on the Tecún Umán page.

On your own. Travellers’ reports of the colectivo chain from Xela through Coatepeque or San Marcos to El Carmen, and of the colectivo from Talismán to Tapachula, are collected, with their dates, on our border-run costs page. None of the operator pages we read (Tica Bus, Guatemala Transportation, AtitlanTour) gives those timetables or fares.

Documents and fees

• Fees: Guatemala charges no exit fee: none of the border-control lines in the migration tariff in force (Acuerdo IGM-029-2023 as reformed by IGM-039-2025, Art. 3, numeral 4.2) is one, and the only legitimate charge on the way out is the overstay fine. Mexico does not charge its visitor fee for land stays of seven days or less, according to an INM land-entry sheet that sits under a 2015 path on INM’s site; INM’s 2026 fee sheet for the southern border does not restate the seven-day rule. Amounts and caveats: border-run costs page.
• Tarjeta de Visitante Regional (TVR): free, valid 5 years, for nationals of Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador and Honduras and for foreigners who are permanent residents of those countries. It allows visits of up to seven days to Campeche, Chiapas, Tabasco, Quintana Roo and Yucatán, and is issued at the southern entry points on a passport, personal identity document or identity-and-travel document (original and copy), with biometrics and an interview. It does not allow paid work.
• Talismán is an INM-designated crossing. INM’s Chiapas directory lists Talismán among the places designated for the international transit of people by land.
• Rules for a visa run: the CA-4 border-run page covers how the 90-day clock works and what a trip to Mexico does to it.

Driving across

SAT’s directory lists only goods clearance (import, export and transit) among El Carmen’s services. Its entry for Tecún Umán II, by contrast, lists Permisos de Turista (tourist permits), without saying whether that means vehicles. If you are driving a foreign-plated car into Guatemala, confirm with SAT that a vehicle permit is issued at El Carmen before you plan on it; our foreign-plated vehicle guide covers the Guatemalan permit.

Safety

• UK Foreign Office (Guatemala): it advises against all but essential travel within 5 km of the Mexican border from the Pacific coast up to and including the Gracias a Dios crossing, citing gang-related violence along the border. El Carmen is inside that band.
• UK Foreign Office (Mexico): it advises against all but essential travel within 40 km of the Guatemalan border in Chiapas, from the Pacific coast up to and including the Gracias a Dios crossing. Talismán, on the border itself, is inside that band.

What is not published

• Guatemalan migration hours at El Carmen.
• Hours for INM’s migration filter as opposed to its weekday public office.
• Whether SAT issues a tourist vehicle permit at El Carmen.
• A walking distance between the two countries’ posts from any official source.
• A public-bus timetable or fare to El Carmen from Xela, San Marcos or Malacatán.

Related

• Tecún Umán border crossing: the coastal crossing to Ciudad Hidalgo and Tapachula
• La Mesilla border crossing: the Pan-American crossing for San Cristóbal de las Casas
• Bus Guatemala to Mexico and the peso to quetzal rate
• Border wait times: what the agencies publish about queues
• Border runs by nationality

Sources

• SAT, Ubicación y horario de Aduanas, read 24 September 2026
• ANAM, Aduana Ciudad Hidalgo (Sección Aduanera de Talismán), read 24 September 2026
• INM, Oficina de Representación en Chiapas land-entry fee sheet and TVR, read 24 September 2026
• IGM, Acuerdo IGM-029-2023 as reformed by IGM-039-2025 (tariff in force), Art. 3, numeral 4.2, from the text on file
• Tica Bus, routes, schedules and fares and Guatemala station, read 25 September 2026
• UK FCDO, Guatemala regional risks and Mexico regional risks, read 24 September 2026