Mexico City Day Trips: 6 Day Itinerary
Six days is exactly enough to stop treating Taxco as a single exhausting day and give it the overnight it actually deserves. Days 1 through 4 repeat the same five-day spine, Teotihuacan, Puebla and Cholula, Tepoztlan, then Cuernavaca, and days 5 and 6 turn Taxco into two half-days bracketing a night in the mountains instead of one long round trip. Prefer to keep Taxco a single day? The 5-day version does that. Have a full week? See the 7-day itinerary .
Book these before you go:
- The Teotihuacan sunrise balloon, here , booked well ahead since pre-dawn pickup is never a same-day call.
- A Tepoztlan day tour, here , if two separate Pullman de Morelos legs on back-to-back days sounds like one bus schedule too many.
- A room in Taxco itself, here , which needs booking earlier than a same-city hotel since the town has far fewer rooms than Mexico City.
- A Roma Norte or Condesa hotel for the first four nights, here .
| 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 |
| 5-6 | Taxco (overnight) | 170-180km, a genuine 2.5 to 3 hours each way |
Day 1: Teotihuacan
Autobuses Teotihuacan leaves 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 runs 210 pesos for foreign visitors and 105 for nationals and residents, an INAH rate in place since January 2026 that applies even on the misleadingly named free Sunday. Skip the packed Pyramid of the Sun stairs for the Pyramid of the Moon instead, a shorter climb with the better view down the Avenue of the Dead, over pyramids the Mexica found already ancient and simply named.
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, roughly two to two and a half hours each way. Puebla’s UNESCO-listed centre is the real home of mole poblano and Talavera pottery, and Cholula, 13km on, holds the Great Pyramid of Cholula, the largest by volume on earth, entry to its zone around 85 pesos. Spend part of the day on Cholula’s other churches too, working toward the Capilla Real’s cluster of small domes, rather than treating the hilltop view as the whole stop.
Day 3: Tepoztlan
A full day here means an unhurried El Tepozteco hike, the steep climb above town to a small temple, rather than a race back to catch a bus. Pullman de Morelos runs from Terminal Sur (Taxqueña), about 200 pesos and 1 to 1.5 hours each way. Time it for a Sunday if the calendar allows, since the tianguis market fills the plaza with mezcal, textiles, and food that does not show up midweek.
Day 4: Cuernavaca
Same terminal, a similarly short ride, this time to the City of Eternal Spring alone. The Diego Rivera murals in the Palacio de Cortes and the colonial gardens at Jardin Borda both reward slowing down rather than checking them off. Head back to Mexico City for one last night in Roma or Condesa before you leave the city again the next morning, this time for longer.
Day 5: Taxco, up into the mountains
Taxco sits 170 to 180km southwest, a genuine two and a half to three hours each way on the switchbacks of Highway 95D from Terminal Sur via Estrella de Oro or a comparable line, 300 to 450 pesos one way. Leave in the morning, check into a hotel in town, and spend the afternoon on Santa Prisca’s Baroque towers and a first look at the plaza before the evening crowd thins. Staying the night turns a brutal 5 to 6 hour round trip into a relaxed two-day visit, and it is the only overnight this entire day-trip itinerary asks for.
Day 6: Taxco’s silver workshops, then back to CDMX
Spend the morning in one of the town’s working silver workshops rather than the shops ringing the square; several talleres will show a piece going from sheet to finished ring if you ask, a different kind of souvenir story than a receipt. Catch an early afternoon bus back to Terminal Sur, since the mountain road is best driven in daylight, and you will land back in Mexico City with the evening free.
Is a Taxco overnight worth it, or is a day trip enough?
Worth it if you have the 6th day to spare, since Taxco is genuinely far enough that a single day means roughly 5 to 6 hours in transit for 3 to 4 hours in town. An overnight flips that ratio: you get a full afternoon, an evening in a much quieter plaza than the day-tripper crowd sees, and an unrushed morning in the silver workshops before the ride back.
Do you need a car for any of these six days?
No single day requires one. Every trip in this itinerary runs on a scheduled bus from one of three fixed terminals, Terminal Central del Norte, TAPO, or Terminal Sur, and a rental mostly adds Mexico City traffic and parking to days that do not currently have either problem.
Pack an overnight bag specifically for day 5 and 6 rather than hauling your full luggage to Taxco and back; a lighter bag matters more on switchback roads than it does on flat highway.