Airport customs

Sorry to hear about the shakedown.

Yet another reason to come visit San Diego for a day or two, then fly directly to Zihua from Tijuana.

They keep looking at my wife’s silver jewelry which we bought in Mexico. I have been polite, stood my ground and been lucky so far. One nice necklace is even in a Ruby’s Jewelry box, how can you charge importation tax on something bought there? Next trip the wife will put on the necklace before we exit the plane and limit what else she brings. Waiting for them to start changing tax on wedding rings. January I will be bringing in a few household goods as gifts that are well under the limit. We will see how that goes.

Nothing smarter than driving tourists away when your economy depends on tourism. It appears that Zihuatanejo only wants national tourists to visit their Pueblo Mágico. Certainly not going to add on an extra flight to avoid Zihuatanejo customs, plenty of other places to go out and discover. With all the searching Cabo can clear 20 planes before Zihua can clear 1. It would be much nicer if Zihua would just make up some phony tax like Cancun is attempting. At least it wouldn’t take over an hour to clear 1 plane. Somehow I am sure this is all due to poor U. S. policies.

My wife and I have been owners here since 2005. We just came back through ZIH today and my wife brought some of her jewelry, which she normally puts in our safe here. We were told that the maximum allowable for personal goods is $500 per person. The customs man 'gave us a deal' and put the value at $2,000. We paid 19% or $190 on the value of $1,000 that was over our $1,000 allowed.

We've been through this airport countless times. Is this what to expect from the federalization of airport customs?

My wife and I will no longer fly into Ixtapa during the low season, we go through Mexico City.
Only from late December on through the high season. It is a complete rip-off what they are doing.

I’ve been coming to Zihuatanejo since the early 1980s. I flew into ZIH for over 30 years.

I started coming through MEX a few years ago after several experiences of what I thought were unreasonable duty charges at ZIH. Although the flights/connections are less convenient, I appreciate the customs experience at MEX much more. It is pretty unpleasant starting a stay in Mexico feeling like one has been taken advantage of.

My previous experience was endorsed in October 2022 when a friend arrived at ZIH and had a similar experience to mine.

Really, is picking up an extra $50 in duty worth alienating a person from returning to Zihuatanejo-Ixtapa?