Easter in Mexico termed as Semana Santa, or Holy Week, is one of Mexico’s ‘big three’ holidays, alongside Christmas and Día de los Muertos.
Families often take time away together at Easter packing beach destinations and some popular colonial cities. Flights and accommodations can be hard to find if not booked in advance, bus stations become remarkably crowded and interstate buses travel full. Delays can be expected when driving on Mexico’s highways, especially near and around major towns and cities.
Easter Sunday is observed on the first Sunday after the Paschal Full Moon—that is the first Sunday following the Full Moon that occurs on or after the spring equinox in March.
- March 27: Holy Wednesday.
- March 28: Holy Thursday.
- March 29: Good Friday or crucifixion.
- March 30: Holy Saturday or Glory Saturday
Easter Week holidays in Mexico traditionally begin the week before Good Friday and extend to the end of the weekend after Easter Sunday.
Mexico’s roads and airports during Easter
Holy Thursday and Good Friday are national holidays in Mexico, and congestion is almost guaranteed on main arterial routes in and out of large cities—especially Mexico City.
Additional care is needed when driving, as traffic snarls can appear around any bend, and there’s a tendency for some drivers to speed on highways expecting them to be quite clear.
Schools across Mexico break for Easter, and many offices and factories close, creating a space for families to take a pause and rest. As with Christmas and New Year, this mass-holiday creates a heavy demand for travel and leisure services within a concentrated period, pushing prices for transport and accommodations much higher than they typically are at other times of the year, with service often of a lower quality, too.
Avoiding the Easter crowds in Mexico
Those with flexible lifestyles and work schedules perhaps ought to consider avoiding travel during the Easter period and elect to take their leisure breaks during the low seasons when crowds are thin and prices lower.
For many, this isn’t possible and is particularly difficult for those whose offices close those weeks; or who have school-age children tied to scholastic calendars. People with flexible lifestyles who want to visit their families with young children and/or less flexible work arrangements may also become corralled into the crush of the Easter holiday period.
Much is made of international tourism —and rightly so, as Mexico is the world’s 7th-ranked destination for number of international tourists and 17th in foreign tourism receipts— but domestic customers make up a larger portion of Mexico’s overall tourist economy, and this is particularly noticeable during Easter. (Tourism accounts for about 8.5% of the country’s gross domestic product, and three quarters of the value of tourism services is driven by domestic vacationers.)
