Mexico City Day Trips: 5 Day Itinerary
Five days is enough to give all five gateway day trips their own day, no pairing required. Teotihuacan, Puebla and Cholula, Tepoztlan, Cuernavaca, and Taxco each get a full day rather than being squeezed alongside a neighbor. If four is closer to what you have, the 4-day version pairs Tepoztlan with Cuernavaca instead. Want a Taxco overnight added on? Jump to 6 days .
Book these before you go:
- The Teotihuacan sunrise balloon, here , booked days out since pre-dawn pickup is not a same-day decision.
- A Tepoztlan or Cuernavaca day tour, here , if you would rather not manage two separate Pullman de Morelos schedules on foot.
- A Taxco day trip, here , which removes the longest transit day of the five from your own planning.
- A Roma Norte or Condesa hotel, here , central to all three terminals this itinerary uses.
| Day | Focus | Distance and travel time from CDMX |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Teotihuacan | 50km, about 1 hour each way |
| 2 | Puebla and Cholula | 130km, about 2 to 2.5 hours each way |
| 3 | Tepoztlan | 82km, about 1 to 1.5 hours each way |
| 4 | Cuernavaca | 85km, about 1 to 1.5 hours each way |
| 5 | Taxco | 170-180km, a genuine 2.5 to 3 hours each way |
Day 1: Teotihuacan
Autobuses Teotihuacan departs Terminal Central del Norte (Metro Line 5 to Autobuses del Norte, Gate 8, marked Piramides) every 15 to 30 minutes, 55 to 105 pesos one way. Entry costs 210 pesos for foreign visitors and 105 for nationals and residents, an INAH rate standing since January 2026 that still applies on the misleadingly named free Sunday. The Mexica found these pyramids already a thousand years old and simply named them. Climb the Pyramid of the Moon instead of fighting the crowd on the Sun pyramid’s stairs; it is shorter and the view down the Avenue of the Dead is the better one.
Day 2: Puebla and Cholula
Estrella Roja and ADO run TAPO to Puebla’s CAPU terminal every 15 to 20 minutes, 200 to 320 pesos, about two to two and a half hours each way. Puebla’s UNESCO-listed centre is the true birthplace of mole poblano and Talavera pottery. Cholula, 13km further, holds the Great Pyramid of Cholula, the largest by volume anywhere and capped with a colonial church; entry to the zone runs about 85 pesos. Spend an hour on Cholula’s other churches too, particularly the Capilla Real’s cluster of small domes, rather than treating the hilltop view as the whole visit.
Day 3: Tepoztlan, on its own
With a full day instead of a shared one, Pullman de Morelos from Terminal Sur (Taxqueña) gets you to Tepoztlan in 1 to 1.5 hours for about 200 pesos, and you can actually take your time on the El Tepozteco hike rather than watching a return-bus clock. If it lands on a Sunday, build in extra time for the tianguis market, when mezcal, textiles, and food stalls fill the plaza in a way that does not happen midweek. This is the day trip where an extra day pays off most: rushed, it is a steep climb and a quick look; unhurried, it is a proper hike followed by a genuinely good market.
Day 4: Cuernavaca, on its own
Same route, same terminal, a similarly short ride, this time to the City of Eternal Spring on its own schedule. Diego Rivera’s murals inside the Palacio de Cortes are worth a slow hour, and the colonial gardens at Jardin Borda reward sitting rather than walking through. Splitting Cuernavaca from Tepoztlan, once you have the days for it, is the better call: on a shorter trip pairing them is the sensible compromise, but the two towns feel different enough in pace that combining them on a rushed schedule shortchanges both.
Day 5: Taxco, the silver town
Taxco sits 170 to 180km southwest, a genuine two and a half to three hours each way on Highway 95D’s switchbacks from Terminal Sur via Estrella de Oro or a comparable line, 300 to 450 pesos one way. Santa Prisca anchors the plaza, but the better afternoon is one of the working silver workshops off the square, where several talleres will walk you through a piece being made rather than just sell you a finished one, a different souvenir story than a receipt from a shop window.
Is it better to pair Tepoztlan and Cuernavaca or split them?
It depends entirely on how many days you have. Pair them on a 3 or 4-day trip, since 17km apart makes one combined day genuinely workable. Split them once you have 5 or more, because the extra day buys real time at the Sunday market or in Jardin Borda instead of a rushed handoff between the two.
Which of the five day trips has the best food?
Puebla, without much competition. Mole poblano exists because of this city, and the historic centre has multiple long-running kitchens serving it alongside chiles en nogada and cemitas, a torta specific to the region. Teotihuacan and Taxco both have decent but unremarkable food near the main sites; Tepoztlan’s Sunday market stalls come closest to challenging Puebla, but only one day a week.
Five days out of the city is a real trip on its own, not a footnote to a city stay. Budget one recovery morning at the end before you fly, since five straight days of buses and pyramid climbs adds up.