San Luis, Arizona and San Luis Río Colorado: what to know
Two towns, one name, one border, and a surprising amount of confusion for people who have not been.
They are two different places
San Luis, Arizona sits in Yuma County, at the southern end of the state. San Luis Río Colorado is in the Mexican state of Sonora, directly across the line. The port of entry between them is called San Luis, which is where most of the confusion starts.
The Mexican town is substantially the larger of the two. If you are searching for anything and getting results that do not look right, adding "Sonora" or "Río Colorado" will usually sort it out.
The crossing itself
The San Luis port of entry connects the two directly. It handles both vehicles and pedestrians, and the two queues are reported separately and behave very differently. U.S. Customs and Border Protection publishes the current wait for each.
We record those published figures every hour and republish them, with the pattern by time of day, on our border wait times page. It is the same data, just presented so you can actually decide when to go.
The time zone quirk that catches people out
Most of Mexico and most of the United States change their clocks at some point in the year. Sonora and Arizona both do not. That means the two sides of this particular crossing stay in step all year round, with no hour to add in summer or subtract in winter.
It is one of the few places on the border where you never have to think about it. If you have crossed at Nogales or Tijuana and got used to checking, the habit is unnecessary here.
Why people cross
Traffic goes both ways and for ordinary reasons. Family, work, shopping, and for a good number of people on the Arizona side, medical and dental appointments, where the same treatment can cost substantially less a few minutes south of the line.
Yuma is roughly half an hour north of the crossing, which puts a large population within a short drive of the border.
If you are coming for an appointment
Two practical pieces, both of which have their own page here. Check the queue before you leave rather than after, because the difference between walking and driving across is often an hour or more. And look at the directions and the photograph of the building beforehand, because street names are easier to follow when you are not already driving.
We are on Avenida Álvaro Obregón 1407, a few minutes from the crossing, and both English and Spanish are spoken.
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What a first dental consultation actually involves, what it costs here, and what you should walk out with. Useful if you are travelling for treatment.
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Read →Not sure what you need?
A consultation is 50 USD and includes X-rays. You leave with a plan, and how many visits it will take.