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Information about Monterrey, Mexico

Monterrey is well known as the prosperous and industrious city of the north of Mexico. Monterrey is the capital of the state of Nuevo Leon, located on the northeast part of Mexico, just two hours from the state of Texas and an hour and 15 minute flight to Mexico City. Monterrey is a city of major importance in Mexico and is known for being a great option for entertainment and cultural events. With great hotel infrastructure that offers from International hotel chains to regional, but no less great hotels...more

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Mexico Highway Road Log and Driving Guide - NEW!

From Cd Juarez (El Paso Texas) to Zacatecas Mexico

From the CD Juarez Border to Zacatecas...a complete up to date road log.  A downloadable printer friendly PDF file that gives detailed road information on everything from speed bumps (topes) to Pemex gas stations to types of highways and much more! Whether you are just driving

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Zacatecas  Driving Directions

I hope this might be of help now that the intersection of Mexico Highways 54 and 45 outside of Zacatecas has been constructed and completely signed. The Hacienda del Bosque sits right next to this new interchange so there are four different approaches depending on where you are coming from. This is the intersection where Mex 54 from Guadalajara joins 45, splits from 45, or joins it depending on how you want to look at it and the direction you are coming from. Mex 54 and 45 meet northwest of Zacatecas as 54 comes from Saltillo and 45 from Juarez. For about perhaps 10K they run together as one highway. The new intersection is very well signed both for the Hacienda and wherever else you are going.
1. From San Luis Potosi and Aguascalientes, and through the city. If you choose to drive directly through Zacatecas city, it is a six lane boulevard, with buses usually gumming up the far right lanes in either direction. Three new overpasses within the city have eased congestion, and if you don't mind traffic, and don't have a rig of excessive size it is an entertaining drive. You will get your eyes full of contemporary Zacatecas as the historic Zacatecas is about two blocks to the north. Don't get any ideas about finding parking as you do not want to leave this wide boulevard unless you are in a van. It is all uphill as you will cross the Continental Divide at the top. You will pass the turn off to the Hotel del Bosque, already mapped in the guide. Keep heading basically west on this six lane as the city thins out. You will approach an intersection indicating choices for Aguascalientes or Durango-Guadalajara. To reach the Hacienda del Bosque, you want Aguascalientes. Keep in the far left lane, drive up onto the overpass, and the exit will curve off and bring you onto the Pesado / Libramiento, or the truck route. The Hacienda is on the left. Once the concrete divider ends, turn left into parking lot across three lanes of traffic while you wait in the fast lane in the direction you are going. Use your four-ways? Traffic will usually allow very frequent opportunities to make this left, so do not panic at the idea.

2. From San Luis Potosi and Aguascalientes via the truck route to the Hacienda del Bosque (also note the alternatives under bypasses around Zacatecas city). As you approach Zacatecas city on Mex 49, which combines with 45, and west towards Zacatecas from the junction of 49 with the cuota highway from Aguascalientes, Mex 45D, you will see signs at an overpass intersection for the Libramiento/Durango/Centro SCT (highway department). Bear right with many trucks and busses, and loop back up and over Mex 49. This bears basically south for perhaps a mile and then at a "Y" gently curves to the right. Sometimes, obviously this route is choked with trucks, and other times oddly devoid of them. Nice vistas of the city from above. This route is curvy and has hills, so there can be double trailer trucks crawling along. About halfway around the city you will come to an overpass intersection indicating a turn to Guadalajara city and a street called Cinco Senores. If you have no plans on staying in Zacatecas this night, and you are going to Guadalajara, to can go this way. It is an alternative extension of the Pesado/Libramiento and joins Mex 54 about five miles south of Zacatecas city. You can also wait and turn towards Guadalajara on Mex 54 in another few miles. You eventually reach the intersection in number 1 above, as indicated by signs and turns for other major cities, with the Hacienda an easy right immediately before reaching this intersection.

3. From Guadalajara to the Hacienda del Bosque. As you approach Zacatecas city from the south, there will be a Modelo/Corona beer distributorship on the left. Get into the right lane as signs for "Ruta Pesado/Libramiento/Aguascalientes" indicate you should be. This is the intersection mentioned in 1 and 2 above. Do not go straight over the overpass. Bear right onto the pesado/libramiento towards Aguascalientes, then get into left lane as Hacienda is coming up fast. You will see it to left, and turn immediately after concrete divider ends. Again, you are in the fast lane, making a left across three lanes of traffic.

4. From Juarez and Fresnillo, Mex 49/54 southbound, to the Hacienda del Bosque. You will again approach this same interchange on the combination of Mex 54 & 49. You will know you are there as there will be sign for a right turn towards Guadalajara on Mex 54. Do not turn towards Guadalajara. Continue straight on the Pesado/Libramiento/Aguascalientes route and in a very short distance, just after you go UNDER the overpass you will see the Hacienda on the left. Again you are in the fast lane making a left across three lanes of traffic.

Remember that there a lots of taxis and busses to get you to the Cento part of Zacatecas from the Hacienda which is out in the "sticks", and you will find a lovely city with incredible street life, a vibrant cultural calendar of almost multiple nightly events available at the Turismo Office on Hidalgo, friendly and helpful people, several incredible museums, parks to rest in, good eating, etc., etc. We live here and while we drive through the cental city, we taxi, walk, or bus in for shopping and other events. As you can see, we like this place. Altitude is high so evenings are cool and afternoons hot, cool and hot being defined by whatever the seasons are. February can be chilly, meaning lows in the high 30s, low 40s F. and highs in the low to mid 60s F around 2:00 PM. All year the high altitude sun is hot. Palm trees grow here in the parks so this is not the Arctic.

Now, other routes either new or ones that are discovered from living in a city for seven years. Better signage has also helped the process. There has been a great emphasis on highway construction over the past six years in particular, both brand new roads and renovation.

There are ways to get to the Hotel del Bosque, not to be confused with the Hacienda del Bosque, without going through the city. We like the Hotel del Bosque because it does not have a busy highway and busy railroad tracks right next to it as the Hacienda does. The downside is no sewer hookup, although there is water and electricity. You can negotiate with them as to where they might let you park, as there is a disco, usually open Friday and Saturday evenings. If you like to dance you are in luck. They would allow us to pretty much park where we wanted, and run a cord through a window into a nearby room. The Hotel del Bosque has undergone serious renovation in the past eighteen months, and is a serious uptown place, so the rules might have changed. The real plus of this place is the usual quiet and it is a five minute walk to the city center.

1a. To the Hotel del Bosque from Juarez. Northwest of Zacatecas turn left or north towards Saltillo on Mex 54. This part of 54 from this corner to the Villa de Cos junction is now four lane, and will be four lane to Saltillo within five years. You drive almost immediately past the edge of a small town, but keep going north up a long but not particularly tedious hill. Just over the top of this hill there is a right hand turn for Veta Grande. Take this right and start up a long uphill grade that will take you through some hilly terrain. You will actually be a thousand feet higher than Zacatecas, or 9300' at the top. The views are amazing, or we think they are, and there are actually pull-offs for rigs the size of a bus. You cross the toll/cuota mentioned below. Don't get on it unless you are heading immediately to Aguascalientes or San Luis Potosi. At a junction further on do not turn into Panuco or Veta Grande. You can see dozens of mines along this route. Eventually you reach the top and a gradual decent towards Zacatecas which you will be looking down on. You reach a major intersection. Straight ahead is signed Bufa which has parking lots large enough to land a 747. If you have the time do this for many reasons including a view of the city that will take your breath away, do it even if you are flying through. To left is signed Solidaridad, but do not go left. Turn right. Keep going straight, avoiding all the streets branching off at every conceivable angle. You may see signs indicating Fresnillo, and an airport symbol. Past this corner to right you will see a funky pink castle like building. This is Bracho, site of the Morismas the very end of August (imagine a reenactment of the battle where Cervantes lost his hand with thousands of players) and below the castle a large metal canopy which is where the Pope held mass a decade ago. It is said there were a million people here. So you keep straight ahead on what in reality is the north Libramiento, which has no trucks, and within about two or three miles of the above junction you will arrive at the Hotel del Bosque on the left. Big sign announcing this. Transcontinental buses drive down the driveway into the hotel so no need to be timid. You have arrived without having to contend with any city traffic.

2a. To the Hotel del Bosque from Saltillo on Mex 54. After passing through the very small village of Poso de Gamboa, an important junction covered later with a new overpass under construction, continue on 54 approximately five miles and you will see the Veta Grande junction mentioned in 1a above. Follow those directions.

3a. To the Hotel del Bosque from San Luis Potosi or Aguascalientes. There are several ways to do this. Below I describe two ways to totally escape Zacatecas city. I include there alternative ways to the Hotel del Bosque and Hacienda del Bosque. Here I describe how to get from Mex 49 and 45 onto the north libramiento. The Pesado/Libramiento/Centro Sct turn explained in 2 above is the south libramiento. So, yes, there is a circle around the city and the guides usually never mention the north section for many reasons which have been remedied in the last year. Coming into Zacatecas you pass UNDER the overpass and turn to the south libramiento/Centro Sct mentioned in 2 above. Keep straight ahead on the six lane. Little traffic out here. You go OVER another overpass in about a mile. Keep going straight on the six lane and there is another overpass. Look sharp! You have three alternative turns here. The obvious is straight ahead or to the right a wide ramp/street heading up a fairly steep hill. You want neither. Between the two is an exit sandwiched into almost a narrow slit. It is signed Retorno/Guadalupe Centro. Take this and get into the right lane. At the light, turn right onto a four lane boulevard. This looks like a residential area, and it is, but it is also the north libramiento which will become self-evident in about a quarter mile. Some nice topes the first quarter mile, which then breaks into an obvious bypass/libramiento. Keep straight until you approach a light and a sign that indicates right to Bufa/Veta Grande/Saltillo. Take this right, up a slight grade, down through a valley, and up a steeper grade to an obviously major intersection. You are at the intersection described in 1a above. Bufa to the left, Veta Grande and Saltillo to the right. You want to go straight, which is unnerving as the continuing highway on the other side of intersection dips enough so that you are not sure there is any road there. Go straight, ignoring all the streets branching off at all angles, and within a two or three miles the Hotel del Bosque is on the left. Again, there is a sign announcing this.

4a. To Hotel del Bosque from Guadalajara. As you approach the junction as in 3 above, follow those directions as if going to the Hacienda, but about the time you see the Hacienda on the left there will be an exit for Zacatecas curving off to right. Follow this and you end up on a six lane boulevard towards Zacatecas. In perhaps two miles you go UNDER an overpass. Look sharp! Take the next right hand exit before this second overpass up a small hill. Usually traffic coming from left then. Get into this traffic stream and immediately to left. Continue left across the curving overpass. Once off this overpass get to right lane. Ignore street to right as you come off overpass. Ignore second right, signed with lots of arrows to different hotels and street named Quedalibra, but the next immediate right you take. The thirty foot high bronze of Benito Juarez should be on your left. To right big sign about Hotel del Bosque. In two or so miles, right turn to Hotel del Bosque with good sign announcing this.

Want to escape Zacatecas entirely? You will weep to know that for years there was and still is a way around. North of the junction of Mex 54 from Saltillo and 45 from Juarez, on 54 is the very small pueblo of Pozo de Gamboa, and a junction of an good asphalt highway heading south which I believe is Zacatecas 155. A new overpass is currently under construction at this junction. If you take this road south around Tacoaleche and through Zoquite, it joins Mex 49 to San Luis Potosi at Santa Monica. Santa Monica is where the "cones" are, actually point up cone shaped former grain silos. At Santa Monica there is an overpass over Mex 49, and all is well signed for Tacoaleche at that end if coming from south. This is about two miles east of where the new toll road route to and from Aguascalientes joins Mex 49. The only topes are through Zoquite which is another small pueblo. There are a few tractor-trailer trucks that know of this route, and they pass without difficulty so you can too. Always just continue straight, ignoring other signed roads branching off.

Another surprise is that the new toll road to/from Aguascalientes use to end on its northern end at Mex 49. Now in the final stages of construction is another connecting toll/quota which takes one from this point of Mex 49 east of Zacatecas to near the junction of Mex 49 and 54 northwest of Zacatecas city next to the Servicio Morelos Trailer Park. They are working fast and furious on this and it will be open sometime this Fall. On this new quota, there is an exit in either direction for Veta Grande. If you get off at this junction, go north and one meets Mex 54 to Saltillo. One can, of course, continue straight on the quota to where 49 and 54 meet at Servicio Morelos, too. At the Veta Grande interchange, if one heads south they are on the road described previously in 1a, you are heading for the Hotel del Bosque. I know that some resent toll roads here in Mexico, and granted they can be expensive. Concerning the new toll from Zacatecas towards Aguascalientes. This bypasses a string of small towns on the free road which include Ojo Caliente. This particular stretch of road is choked with trucks and has at least a half zillion topes. The cuota around this costs twenty seven pesos for two axles.

Another observation is the previously mentioned parking lot up on Bufa, the one for landing 747s. I suspect that one could dry camp there without any officialdom complaining. It is a pleasant downhill, very downhill walk into the city and there are always a wealth of taxis to ferry one into this beautiful city and back.

Lots of combinations of roads here, and whatever you need to do I hope that it makes your travels just that much more of a pleasure. This is a tribute to all the people who have helped us figure out not only where we were, but how to get where we were going. Forgive me if I have scrambled something.

Mark Dunn
Zacatecas, Mexico
 

Map Features:

North to South

RV Parks

Hotel Villa Jardin Closed

Imperial del Norte

Bahia Escondida

Campo Mexico

Las Palmas

Motel Oasis

Casa De Esperanza

Victoria Trailer Park

Morelos Trailer Park

Motel de Bosque

Hacienda del Bosque

Hotel Mante

Peter and Susan's

El Mesquite

Quinta San Jorge

Hotel Valles

Ejidal Ojocaliente

Medrano Hotel

MAPS

Aguascalientes Mexico Map - Mapa

Zacatecas Photography

San Luis Potosi Photography

Santiago Photography