FAQ’s

A: As soon you have your plans set for the canyons, which should be at least 3 months in advance if you are prudent, then you should go ahead and book your stand alone day tours or rentals with The 3 Amigos. 95% of all our business is done via online and advance reservations with walk-in clients making up only 5% of our client base. For this reason, you should book well in advance to be sure we have the vehicles, guides or rental equipment that you want ready and waiting for you on your specific dates. We do fill up very quickly since we are the only registered rental outfitter and day tour company in the world with offices inside the Copper Canyon.

For best possible Copper Canyon touring experience, we highly recommend you book your entire trip through our parent company, Amigo Trails. Amigo Trails specializes in customized and logistically optimized trip packages through the Copper Canyon that include all hotels, train tickets, tours and transfers with best logistics built in so you are not wasting a moment of your precious vacation time.

A: Yes, all day tours and rentals that are reserved in advance require full payment at time of booking. This allows us to guarantee that your guide and vehicle, in case of day tour reservations, will be ready and waiting on you at your scheduled departure time.

In the case of bikes, motorcycles, or scooter rentals, it will guarantee that your rental is in perfect working condition, gassed up, and clean and ready at your scheduled pickup time.

A: We accept your full payment at time of booking via credit card on our booking portal on the website, or by wire transfers to our Mexico bank if you prefer not to use credit cards. Please just get in touch with us if you prefer to book your day tour or rental through our email reservations system and pay by wire transfer.

A: Yes, it is the full responsibility of all day tour or rental participants to purchase and provide his/her own trip insurance at a level that makes him/her feel comfortable. The 3 Amigos does not include Travel Insurance on any of its day tours or rentals and assumes no financial responsibility for personal injury, emergency evacuation, trip cancellation or equipment that has been lost, damaged or stolen. We strongly suggest you purchase trip cancellation insurance to cover your vacation investment.

A: Yes, during your booking process with The 3 Amigos, you’ll be sent an online liability waiver release form that is easy to fill out and submit electronically. This is required in order to go on any day tour or to rent a bike, motorcycle, or scooter. This waiver allows us to formally go over our responsibility to you as a service provider, and your own responsibility and assumption of risk by your making the choice to book a tour or rental through The 3 Amigos.

A: While traveling in another country it is easy to become complacent, especially if the country in question has taken your currency from another country willingly in the past. However, do keep in mind that you will save money in the long run and look less like an insensitive tourist if you don’t run along forcing your dollars upon unsuspecting Mexican nationals. The Peso is the national currency here and should be the only form of money that you use while visiting Mexico.

The peso fluctuates daily and can be at a completely different rate in the evening than where you found it in the morning. I’ve found that it is best to buy pesos once you are inside Mexico as the Mexican banks keep up with the fluctuation better than the international ones such as in your home town. Even from bank to bank in Mexico, you’ll find a several points difference at times as they struggle to keep current. So, long and short of it is, if you MUST purchase some pesos before you leave home in order to feel more comfortable, do so at your bank but don’t convert a ton of money. Convert maybe $50USD or so to tide you over until you can hit an interior bank in Mexico. You’ll find ATM’s almost everywhere, except the most rural towns and those ATM’s  will give you pesos when you use your foreign cards in them. I’ve also found that is a good idea to keep about $5,000 pesos in cash at any time just in case you come to a town where the ATM machine is out of order, or is nowhere to be found. Some travelers will prefer to have more on them in case they wish to add in a flight over the canyon or some other premium optional activity along the way.

A:  In January 2020, the Chepe train underwent yet another drastic change in its scheduling. Due to the constant changes to the Chepe, we’ve found it better to stop trying to update our site to keep track of it, and rather recommend you visit their own site for more information about the Chepe schedules. Chepe.com.mx is where you’ll find the source.

As far as the trains go, at this writing, January 2020, there are now 2 trains with a total of 4 classes. Here it is in brief: The Express train has a 1st, business and economy class. The train sports a two tiered dining car, lovely bar car and a terrace car on the back of the train with floor to ceiling windows, hardwood floors, lovely design and luxury appointments. Be sure to read up on the Chepe site though about what parts of the train the different classes can access. The Regional train is very basic and has a dining car.

Our recommendation at this time is to skip the train ride entirely as it is almost impossible to not waste your time here in the Copper Canyon if you try to take one of the trains that fit your schedule, and taking it twice in two directions not only makes you lose time backtracking, but it also makes it really hard to not miss out on amazing canyon viewing while trying to deal with the crazy schedules.

FYI: The train line runs through a very small section of the Copper Canyon so if you do not get off the train line, you’ll miss 95% of the canyon system.

For tight schedules, it is best to just fly in and out of Chihuahua now so you are not wasting time waiting for the train lines to line up with your limited schedule. Book our full day tours to Urique, Batopilas, Candameña and Sinforosa Canyons in order to get the most canyon viewing time to take advantage of the time you have. Please get in touch with us if you have any questions about which tours to take and how to maximize your time while here, or just peruse this website thoroughly as everything you need to know to plan your time best is already here.

The Creel International Airport has been slated to open sometime in the year 2023. It’s been advertised to have the same flights as Chihuahua City Airport, but that has not been confirmed at this writing.

Until the Creel Airport opens, you can fly into and out of Chihuahua City Airport. We offer private transfers from Chihuahua to Creel for your convenience.

To reserve a flight to Creel, check out these options.

A: Yes, we find the AccuWeather is a great source for weather updates for your upcoming trip. Just follow the link to see the forecast in Creel for your dates. Click on the Month tab to see the forecast for the entire month during your travel dates.

A:  This will depend on where your chosen day tour is taking you exactly and what time of year it is. As general rule, if you are visiting both the Upper Sierra and the Lower Canyon Bottoms on any day tour (such as the Copper Canyon Tour, 4 Canyons & More tour, or any of the Batopilas Tours), then you should pack a variety of clothing and dress in layers as it will be hot in the lower canyon bottoms at close to sea level, but cooler in the upper sierra at roughly 7,500 feet.

For example if you are starting your day in Creel in the upper sierra, but are heading for Batopilas at the bottom of Batopilas Canyon; put on a comfortable cotton t-shirt underneath, a lightweight linen shirt over that with perhaps a nice fleece pullover on top of that. This will get you through cool morning weather but allow you to take off layers throughout the day as it warms up or as you pass into another climate zone. If you are traveling during winter (Dec. through Feb.) you can also include a heavy coat on top of it all and even gloves and scarf to keep you warm on an overcast or snowy day in the upper sierra.

We find a panama hat or ball cap is excellent at keeping the hot sun off your face and neck, and do always wear sunblock.

A:  Obviously The 3 Amigos cannot be held responsible for any delays or cancellations that our completely out of our control such as delays caused by; inclement weather, pubic road conditions, river water levels where river crossings are needed, government problems, public transportation issues (Chepe train, buses, taxi’s, etc..), strikes, or acts of God, etc….We HIGHLY suggest you purchase Trip Insurance on your own to be sure you are covered for any unexpected eventuality and emergency medical care.

We will of course always do everything within our power to move you forward should you encounter anything out of the ordinary on your day tour or rental, but if changes in your tour itinerary are necessary due to any unforeseen circumstances such as those mentioned above, then you will need to cover these expenses personally, though we will do everything we can to be sure you receive timely information about any changes needed and that you are given all options available at the time for your consideration so you can make the most informed choices. Please review our Booking Conditions for all day tour & rental bookings.

A:  This is an excellent question as many hotels that include day tours with their room reservations do have the right to cancel the day tour you may have included with your room rate while you were looking for a discount rate.  Do not be fooled though as the day tour included with the room rate will be of the lowest possible to quality and generally speaking, a waste of your time. It is only included to entice you into booking with that hotel to get an ‘extra’ service but it will be very disappointing to you once you see the very short, 2 hour tour that the hotel includes, compared to the long and in-depth full day tours you could have experienced with your entire day via The 3 Amigos.

The 3 Amigos will never cancel your reserved day tour because all our day tours are private and will include only you and your family or traveling companions. We do not deal with ‘set’ departure dates or count on dozens of strangers to fill up our day tours, so we are not at the mercy of the numbers game that so many other tour operators and/or hotels  must play with in order to earn enough money to be profitable. With The 3 Amigos all day tours are always private and always guaranteed unless there is some sort of government or natural disaster that would preclude us from operating at all.

For more information, please review our Booking Conditions.

A:  Yes, we are happy to work with travel agents and other tour operators at The 3 Amigos. However, we cannot at this time offer any discounts or commissions to tour operators or travel agents that book only our The 3 Amigos stand alone day tours and rentals due to lack of sufficient margin on these stand alone products. You can add in the commission or markup of your choice on your end though when you are packaging your client’s entire trip through your own company.

We do however offer tour operators and travel agents a built in 10% commission via our other company, Amigo Trails, that does customized and private vacation packages through the Copper Canyon that include all train tickets, tours, hotels, transfers and of course best logistics from our Copper Canyon design experts. For more information about complete packaged trips, please visit tour Amigo Trails website.

A:  The Copper Canyon is located in the south west portion of Chihuahua State, in the northern part of the country of Mexico, and is about 4 times larger than the Grand Canyon in the USA. It covers over 25,000 square miles making it the largest canyon in North America and one of the deepest in the world. One can drive here from El Paso, TX, USA in only 8 hours as Chihuahua State borders Texas.

A:  Electricity in Mexico is 110, just like in the United States and Canada so if you are coming from the USA then you’ll have no problem with any of the electrical outlets. Should you be traveling from Europe, or other parts of the world such as Africa or South America, you will need an adapter.

A:  We believe that tipping is a personal matter that should surpass country boundaries, employment positions and public opinion. Tipping is a way for you to get involved personally and to have a say about the service you received.

If you are pleased with your service and service provider, then you should give what you feel is an appropriate amount to express your satisfaction, based on your own personal perspective, whether it be $100USD (or pesos equivalent) or $1USD or nothing at all. This is a personal decision that you must make based on your own beliefs and how you see the world, yourself, and others in it.

Do keep in mind that Mexico is still considered a third-world country and that half of the country lives below the poverty line. Giving tips to service personnel can make all the difference in the world to that person and his family as the minimum wage in Mexico is extremely low.