Celaya is an industrial and agricultural city in Guanajuato state, sitting in the heart of Mexico's Bajio corridor, a manufacturing and logistics belt that connects several mid-sized cities across central Mexico, and a rental car is the practical way to move between them for business or onward travel. Celaya Airport (CYW) is a smaller regional facility with limited scheduled service, so many visitors instead fly into Queretaro Intercontinental Airport or Guanajuato International Airport (BJX), both roughly an hour to ninety minutes from Celaya by road, and pick up a rental there before driving in.
From Celaya, the Bajio's well-developed highway network connects quickly to nearby cities: Queretaro lies about an hour east, Guanajuato city and Leon are roughly ninety minutes to two hours northwest, and Irapuato sits closer still, a straightforward thirty-to-forty-five-minute drive along the main corridor. These routes are largely modern, well-maintained highways built to serve the region's manufacturing traffic, making Celaya a convenient base for anyone working across several Bajio cities in a single trip.
Driving is on the right throughout Mexico, and the Bajio's main highways are generally in good condition, though some stretches carry tolls (cuotas) as an alternative to slower free (libre) roads running parallel. Topes, or speed bumps, are common on secondary roads and around smaller towns, often without much warning, so moderate in-town speeds are worth keeping even on otherwise open-feeling routes. Fuel stations are plentiful along the main corridor connecting Celaya to Queretaro, Leon and Guanajuato, though they thin out on smaller rural roads branching off into the surrounding countryside. For business travelers or anyone touring the Bajio's colonial cities, a rental car picked up at either Celaya, Queretaro or Guanajuato airport makes covering this compact, well-connected region considerably easier and more efficient, especially when a single trip needs to touch several of the corridor's manufacturing and colonial-city stops in a short window.