Tecún Umán Border Crossing to Ciudad Hidalgo & Tapachula [2026]

Tecún Umán, in San Marcos, is Guatemala’s Pacific-coast crossing into Ciudad Hidalgo, Chiapas, the border town for Tapachula. It is two Guatemalan customs posts, not one, and the Mexican side has two crossings of its own. Guatemala charges nothing to leave and Mexico charges nothing for a land stay of seven days or less. Everything below was read from the authorities’ and sellers’ own pages on 24 September 2026.

Quick summary

• Two Guatemalan posts: Tecún Umán I handles travellers (08:00-22:00 daily); Tecún Umán II is the freight port, which also lists tourist permits (operative area 06:00-22:00).
• Mexican side: INM’s office sits at the Doctor Rodolfo Robles international bridge, Ciudad Hidalgo; Mexico designates two crossing points here, Suchiate I and Suchiate II.
• Fees: no Guatemalan exit fee; Mexico $0 for land stays of 7 days or less.
• Getting there: Pullman from Guatemala City to Tapachula USD$45 (07:00 and 14:00, 8 hours), from Antigua USD$64-70. The sellers do not name the crossing.
• Warning: the UK Foreign Office advises against all but essential travel near this border on both sides.

The two posts on the Guatemalan side

On foot or by bus, you want Tecún Umán I. Driving a foreign-plated car, SAT lists Permisos de Turista at Tecún Umán II; it does not say whether that means vehicle permits (only its El Ceibo entry says Vehículos de Turista), so confirm with SAT that this covers vehicles. Our foreign-plated vehicle guide covers the Guatemalan vehicle permit. Guatemala’s migration institute, IGM, publishes no hours for its posts here.

The Mexican side

How to read this. No authority on either side publishes 24-hour migration service. The widest hours any agency posts for the traveller crossing are Guatemala’s Tecún Umán I, 08:00-22:00. Cross by day. The Huixtla checkpoint is on Federal Highway 200 at Huixtla, so keep your passport and entry paperwork within reach if you travel on from Tapachula.

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, Art. 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 (published 31 December 2025) lists only the regional-card replacement and border-worker fees and 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.
• FMM online: INM’s portal lets foreigners entering by land fill in the FMM before the trip, but the form is released only after the fee is paid on INM’s services portal. If your stay is seven days or less and therefore fee-free, the online route is built for people who pay; deal with the form at the INM post instead, and ask there.

Getting to Tecún Umán and Tapachula

Neither Tapachula seller we read (Guatemala Transportation, AtitlanTour) names the border crossing its buses use. Tica Bus’s Guatemala City to Tapachula service crosses at El Carmen / Talismán, not here; its fares and times are on our bus Guatemala to Mexico page. If you need Tecún Umán specifically, ask the seller before you pay.

To the border town itself. The only domestic listing we found is a reseller, Marvelus: a 48-seat reclining-seat bus from Calzada Aguilar Batres, zona 12, at US$24, station to station, leaving 05:00, 06:30, 11:00 and 13:00 and taking 6 hours, with 25 kg of luggage plus a hand bag, non-refundable and not changeable. The operator’s name is unclear: the page header says Starbus, while its web address names Maya de Oro. We found no website for either operator, so treat everything here as the reseller’s listing.

Coming back. Guatemala Transportation lists Tapachula to Guatemala City at 07:00 (USD$45, 8 hours) and 21:00 (USD$45, 7 hours), and Tapachula to Antigua (USD$64) and Panajachel (USD$80) at 21:00 via the capital. AtitlanTour lists Tapachula to Guatemala City at 07:00 for USD$50.

Money

Know the live peso to quetzal rate before you change money at the border, so you can judge any rate you are offered.

Safety

• UK Foreign Office (Guatemala): 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. Tecún Umán is inside that band.
• UK Foreign Office (Mexico): advises against all but essential travel within 40 km of the Guatemalan border in southern Chiapas, between the Pacific and the Gracias a Dios crossing. By our reading of that description, Ciudad Hidalgo and Tapachula fall inside it. It describes the Chiapas-Guatemala border as dangerous because of organised crime groups fighting over trafficking routes, adding that gangs do not usually target tourists.

What is not published

• Guatemalan migration hours at Tecún Umán.
• Which crossing the Guatemala Transportation and AtitlanTour Tapachula buses use.
• An operator-published Guatemala City to Tecún Umán timetable (the times above are a reseller’s).
• A Ciudad Hidalgo to Tapachula colectivo timetable or fare from any official or operator source.

Related

• Guatemala City to Retalhuleu and the IRTRA parks
• La Mesilla border crossing: the highland crossing to San Cristóbal and Comitán
• Border wait times: the hours table for every Guatemalan customs post, from SAT
• CA-4 border runs and border runs by nationality

Sources

• SAT, Ubicación y horario de Aduanas, read 24 September 2026
• INM, Oficina de Representación en Chiapas, land-entry fee sheet, TVR and FMMe, read 24 September 2026
• ANAM, Aduana Ciudad Hidalgo, read 24 September 2026
• IGM, Acuerdo IGM-029-2023 (tariff in force), Art. 4.2, from the text on file
• UK FCDO, Guatemala regional risks and Mexico regional risks, read 24 September 2026
• Guatemala Transportation and AtitlanTour schedules; Marvelus, Guatemala City to Tecún Umán, read 24 September 2026