Do You Need an ESTA to Transit the USA? How to Fly to Latin America Without One

Yes. To change planes anywhere in the United States you need an ESTA or a visa, and you clear US immigration with your bags even if you are only there for two hours. The good news for anyone heading to Latin America is that you can skip the USA entirely: direct flights from the UK, the European hubs, and Panama City, which turns a connection into a couple of days somewhere new.

This is what we tell customers who ask about it, in the order they usually ask.

Do you need an ESTA to transit the USA?

You do. The United States has no airside transit, so every international arrival, including people connecting straight on to another flight, goes through immigration. That means:

• An ESTA before you fly, applied for online at the official US government site, about 40 US dollars, valid for two years. Apply at least 72 hours ahead. Most approvals come back quickly, but not all, and the airline will not board you without one.

• Immigration and customs on arrival, the same queue as everyone arriving to stay.

• Your checked bags, which you collect, carry through customs and hand back in, even on a single ticket.

• Security again before your onward flight.

None of that is a disaster. It is a couple of hours and a bit of shuffling, and for some routes it is still the quickest way. But it is a real border, not a corridor, and a tight US connection is the one we steer people away from.

Who cannot get an ESTA at all?

The group that catches people out: anyone who has been to Cuba on or after 12 January 2021. The US no longer issues an ESTA to travellers who have visited Cuba since that date, and the alternative is a full visitor visa with an embassy appointment, which in London can mean a long wait. If you have been to Havana with us, or with anyone, in the last few years, a route through Miami is not a quick option.

The other common cases are people with a past visa refusal, dual nationals of certain countries, and anyone who simply does not want to hand over the paperwork for a country they are not visiting. All reasonable. Happily, none of it matters if you never land there.

Which Latin American countries have direct flights from the UK?

More than most people think. From London you can fly non-stop to:

• Mexico: Mexico City with British Airways and Aeroméxico from Heathrow, Cancún from Gatwick with British Airways, plus Virgin Atlantic and TUI to Cancún.

• Costa Rica: British Airways to San José, currently in the winter season only. From October 2026 the flight moves from Gatwick to Heathrow. Our flights to Costa Rica page has the detail.

• Colombia: Avianca from Heathrow to Bogotá.

• Brazil: British Airways and LATAM to São Paulo, British Airways to Rio de Janeiro.

• Argentina and Chile: British Airways to Buenos Aires and Santiago.

• Dominican Republic: British Airways and TUI to Punta Cana.

That list covers a lot of our trips on its own. What it does not cover is Peru, Ecuador and the Galápagos, Guatemala, Cuba, Panama, and Costa Rica in the summer. For those, the USA looks tempting on a flight search. It is not the only way.

How do you reach the rest without going through the USA?

Two ways, and they work well together.

Through a European hub. Iberia and Air Europa from Madrid, KLM from Amsterdam and Air France from Paris between them fly non-stop to almost every capital in Latin America, including Lima, Quito and Guayaquil for the Galápagos, Havana, Bogotá, San José and Panama City. From London that is a short hop, a European connection where you stay airside, and one long flight. No ESTA, and no bags to collect halfway.

Through Panama City. Tocumen airport is Copa Airlines' hub, and Copa flies from there to around 80 cities across the Americas. Four European carriers fly non-stop into Panama City, so a UK traveller can reach Panama through Madrid, Amsterdam or Paris and then step onto a short Copa flight to Costa Rica, Guatemala, Ecuador, Peru, Colombia, Cuba or the Caribbean. Panama City to San José is about an hour and twenty minutes.

The second option is the one worth knowing about, because Panama is a much better place to stop than a US terminal.

Why Panama City is the stopover to choose

A connection in Panama is a connection in a country that wants you to stop. British passport holders need no visa, the currency is the US dollar, the airport is 30 minutes from the old town, and Copa now lets passengers on its own network break their journey in Panama for up to 15 days at no extra fare. From the UK you will usually be on a European airline into Panama City and Copa onwards, so we build the stop into the booking ourselves, which comes to the same thing.

Two or three nights is the right number. The Panama Canal is half an hour from the city, and you can watch ships rise through the Miraflores locks from a viewing terrace or take a small boat through the locks yourself. Casco Viejo, the 350 year old quarter, is a morning on foot and an evening on a rooftop. Soberanía National Park, forty minutes out, has howler monkeys and more than 500 bird species on record. We have written up what is worth doing in our Panama Canal guide, and how the city feels day to day in is Panama safe.

If you want more than a stop, Panama pairs naturally with Costa Rica on one trip, and our tailor-made Panama holidays show what a week or more looks like.

Three examples of how this works

London to Costa Rica in July. The British Airways non-stop is a winter flight, so a summer trip needs a connection. We would fly you through Madrid or Amsterdam to San José, or through Panama City with two nights there first, and home the same way or on an open-jaw ticket out of Panama. Our Coast to Coast journey starts and ends in San José, and the Panama nights simply go on the front.

London to the Galápagos. Quito and Guayaquil both have non-stop flights from Madrid, and Copa flies to both from Panama City. Either way you avoid the US, and either way you can stop in Panama on the way out and fly straight home from Ecuador at the end.

London to Cuba, for someone who has been before. A past Cuba trip rules out the ESTA, so the US is out. Madrid is the straightforward answer, with Iberia and Air Europa flying non-stop to Havana, and Copa from Panama City is the alternative if you want to see the canal on the way.

The practical bits for a Panama stopover

• Entry. British passport holders can visit Panama for up to three months without a visa. Your passport needs six months' validity beyond your departure date. Have your onward ticket handy and proof of about 1,000 US dollars in funds, which a credit card covers. There is a 40 dollar departure tax, normally built into your fare.

• Money. US dollars, with Panamanian coins. No exchange needed.

• Time. Panama is five hours behind the UK in British winter and six in British summer.

• The airport. Tocumen is the international airport, on the east side of the city. Bocas del Toro and David flights from Panama City use Albrook, the small domestic airport in town, so a Panama-only side trip means a change of airport, which we arrange.

• Tickets. Where we can, we put the whole journey on one ticket so a delayed first leg is the airline's problem rather than yours. Where two tickets work out better, we leave a proper gap between them. Either way the flights sit inside your ATOL-protected booking.

The full entry rules are on the FCDO Panama page, and the US transit rules on the FCDO USA page.

Putting it together

If the USA works for you, we will happily use it. If it does not, because of a past trip to Cuba or plain preference, nearly all of Latin America is still open from the UK without it: non-stop where it exists, through Madrid, Amsterdam or Paris where it does not, and through Panama City when you would like the connection to be part of the holiday.

Tell us where you want to end up and we will find the route that fits.