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That's an easy trip, and like you say it's mostly all divided highways - toll roads, expensive but fast and easy.
It was a leap of courage for us the first time - if you're prepared it should go well. Mexico is becoming more and more like the US or Canada.
If you get tired or run out of daylight it's safe to park at a busy Pemex station or by the toll booths on the highway.
Like everything else, thinking about doing something is always harder than just doing it.
This forum is helpful too, as you'll see.

I am going to try to map you using the route we would take to the places you mention. I cannot help with any caravan or buddy advice. We have been roaming around Mexico for years and have never done any kind of group thing. If you are prepared you will do fine. Be sure the read the STICKY stuff at the top of this forum to learn about all the paperwork and permits etc. you will need to get. Also learn about insurance and check with your current insurance in the US – we have Progressive and they do cover our motorhome for comprehensive in Mexico but they do not cover our car. We buy Mexican comp for the car and Mexican liability for both vehicles. Opinions vary on insurance but we think have more is better. You must have Mexican liability. If you get in an accident in Mexico without Mexican liability you could be detained until any disputes are settled even if the accident was clearly not your fault.

To start with – we do cross at Laredo but we use what is known as the Columbia Crossing which avoids both Laredo and Nuevo Laredo traffic etc. We have stayed at the Texas Welcome Center north of Laredo just off I-35 by Botines quite a few times. We get an early start from here and beat the border rush. We have also stayed here on our return to the states. There is a big rig parking area and trucks stay here at night. I include GPS Lat Lon on my maps.


If we get through the Laredo crossing early enough and get to Monterrey early enough we continue to a Pemex truck stop in the middle of the highway called San Pedro. This makes for about a 300 mile day which is more than enough in Mexico miles.


From there it is about another 300 miles to San Miguel de Allende. They recently upgraded a road we started taking last year. It takes you near San Diego de la Union. Your map or GPS may not show this as a big road but it is now. Widened and paved a couple years ago. And it gets you off 15D just over the border into the state of Guanajuato where the road suddenly gets very rough. This takes you over near Dolores Hidalgo and then down to San Miguel. We stay and San Ramon.


We have become very fond of the city of Guanajuato in recent years. A very interesting place to visit. But the place is very confusing due to hills all around. The city also has a network of tunnels running in all directions under the city. This is not a town for motorhomes. Do not attempt to take an RV into or through Guanajuato unless you know exactly what you are doing. The easiest way to get from San Miguel to Guanajuato is through the old train station in San Miguel. This takes you to a relatively new back road over to Guanajuato. You might check it out in a car before taking the RV.


Here is the rest of the route showing the RV park near Guanajuato…..


From Guanajuato we take some back roads to Chapala. These roads have all been widened and repaved in recent years. There are also new bypass loop roads around these towns so it is much easier to take this route than it used to be. We use Open Street Maps . . . . https://www.openstreetmap.org . . . for maps to see the newest changes in roads. Many other mapping websites use maps from Open Street Maps. We download maps from the Microsoft Website – MSN maps I think – maps you can download to use in your computer when you cannot get on the internet – which will happen often in Mexico.

Irapuato bypass


The rest of the back road route – La Piedad – Yurecuaro…….


Open Street Maps new La Piedad bypass


Open Street Maps new Yurecuaro Libramiento…


Ocotlan – be sure to take 15D to the MX12 exit to avoid most of Ocotlan

The only real RV park in the Chapala area is Roca Azul and the far west end of the lake…DO NOT let your GPS or whatever tell you to go through town to get to Roca Azul – take the new Libramiento Bypass north of Jocotepec over to 15 and then down to the road into Roca Azul. The Roca Azul road is cobblestone and very bumpy but you will eventually get to the resort. It is a resort with swimming pools and other stuff.


Here is the newer Open Street Maps showing the new Libramiento around Jocotepec…


That is the basics of how we would do this trip. We have driven all these roads quite a few times. Mexico does take some getting used to but if you hang out on this forum and ask questions you will be prepared. Be sure to read the STICKY stuff and know all about permits and insurance. You can do this. Lots of people do.

Sorry - I should have made these maps clickable to a larger size. This will give you an overview but if you cannot see exactly where the route is I can do it again with clickable maps.

Do people from the west Coast take that route or do they take Hwy.15???

Moisheh

We live in San Antonio Tlayacapan, which is next door to Chapala, in our coach and We will be going north this summer for a grandsons wedding and returning and crossing at Columbia the latter part of October. We will probably be coming straight back back home here rather then touring along the way. If that should work for you ,keep us in mind, we don't drive hard and fast and will take 2 days from the border.
Also there is another park getting under way here and is very central to every thing, we have been helping them with how things should be for RVS.
There are currently 4 sites under way for people that have signed on and will be here permanently. We are hoping that they will take our suggestion and develop some lots for people that come and go. Some thing to keep in mind. There will be a total of 13 sites when completed.

Do people from the west Coast take that route or do they take Hwy.15???

They said they planned to cross at Laredo so I showed how we go if we cross there.

We used to cross at Nogales and may again someday but we are not fond of that route and the condition of the road in recent years has been one reason. Since the sort of reversal in fuel prices it is cheaper for us to put on miles in the US than in Mexico so it is closer to the central mountain areas we enjoy to head over to Laredo and down that way. It depends on where you want to go and where you are coming from and any number of other factors. If we were going directly to Chapala or any west coast beach area we would probably take 15.

More details - we are in East Texas now, but will be headed to Wa state next month, staying until August. Then a visit to Iowa. Open after that. We said Laredo crossing as we see that recommended and it shortens the Mexico part of the drive to Chapala.

Have been reading the Chapala forum, seems several people make shopping runs to US, most seem to cross at Pharr. They report traveling on Sundays, in a car, routinely make the drive in 11 to 12 hours. We have their trip logs.

If we end up coming down the West coast, guess we would cross at Nogales, come down 15. For a first trip, would be longer on Mexican highways, not as appealing as the East coast. (My anxiety is showing.)

We like BrianSue's route, but it's a longer drive time. Would suit us better as the return route to the border, let us explore a little. Includes San Miguel de Allende which we are also considering. For our first trip we will be able to use the bypass they show around Jocotopec as we hope to stay at Roca Azul.

We also appreciate the offer of the Columbia crossing and a two day trip. Will pm.

Thanks to all. Additional comments are welcome and appreciated.

Mike and Molly

moisheh wrote:
Do people from the west Coast take that route or do they take Hwy.15???

Moisheh

We do, south bound. We HATE the 1-5 and try very hard to avoid doing it twice in one season! We turn east as soon as possible and head to Utah and Texas. We love Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, and have friends in Albuqureque and San Antonio to visit; I 84 from Portland IF the weather/road reports for the high areas (Pendleton etc) are promising, OR East from Salem, again depending on reports, OR east from Mt Shasta and through Susanville, OR at last resort keep heading south (again, the southern part of the I 5 is not one of our favourite routes).

We like BrianSue's route, but it's a longer drive time

I put in the route including San Miguel de Allende (SMA) because the original post mentioned that as one of the places of interest. There are other possible routes depending on what you want to see and do.

No way should you even consider driving an RV with a toad straight through - we think 300 miles is the max we want to do in Mexico - we try to plan our route to stay closer to about 200 mile days. We do not want to be exhausted when we arrive at our stop and we do not want to have to setup for the night after dark. Never drive at night in Mexico - in the dark. There are many things on the road in Mexico - cows - horses - goats - pigs - and they have speed bumps called "topes" (tow - pays) everywhere - as well as dips in the road called "vados" (vah - dows) - you won't see at night until you hit them. People who drive to/from Chapala in a car have a very different driving experience than RVers.

I did a quick computer mapping from Jocotepec (Roca Azul) to Pharr and got 737 miles - to Laredo 715 miles. A stop in SMA would obviously add more but it gives you at least an overnight stopping place - with another stop along that route. Places to stay can be problematic in Mexico. From Nogales to Jocotepec is 1052 miles by my computer. Again - it all depends on where you start and where you want to go along the way.

Here is another very good but somewhat dated website . . . http://www.ontheroadin.com/ . . . where you can find lots of info and they sell invaluable road logs which are well worth the price. We first downloaded their logs maybe 10 years ago and have purchased updated logs. We printed them out and have a binder notebook we keep open as we travel. Co-pilot (navigator) makes notes on these logs as we go so we have additional info.

On the Church Book website . . . http://www.rollinghomes.com/ . . . they also have some road logs as well as a section where there are updates to their book. Updates can be useful as things do change in Mexico.

Here's another Jocotepec map. It shows two routes. You do not want to take the one through town with an RV but you can take it with a car. It takes you on a rough cobblestone road (they all are) that has some serious dips and can be very muddy - also low overhanging tree branches. Take the libramiento around town with an RV and then to/from the Chapala area with a car on the back road.

This is from the Microsoft map download. You can download maps from all over the world as you need them. They get their maps from Open Street Maps and you can update them often. You can put in a starting point and a destination point and the program will offer two or three optional routes from which to choose. This gives you maps to use when you cannot get online as they are all loaded in your computer. I am still learning to use this program. I think there could be a way to create maps and routes and then save them for future reference as I have been able to do with the old Microsoft Streets & Trips.


https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/p/windows-maps/9wzdncrdtbvb


I have tried to make this clickable to larger size.

@briansue
It would be a great big favor if you were to adapt to Google Maps - it's possible to make the map trip available in a VERY useful shared way. It is a short learning curve, can be shared and exported to a KML file for downloading to Garmin (and others) GPS units:
Example: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1y0hJFV70UyPpDC3wzZw2HzuuMfk&usp=sharing