Mexico: Mexico City and San Miguel de Allende

Arrive in Mexico City

Mexico City International Airport to your hotel, then the Centro Histórico on foot

• Repas du soir
• Nuit : Mexico City
• Environ 45 min de route

Soir

We finish with a welcome dinner nearby and a short briefing on the five days ahead. If you land late, skip the walk and join us at dinner.

Compris

• Pick-up at Mexico City International Airport (MEX)
• Centro Histórico orientation walk: the Zócalo, the Metropolitan Cathedral, the Templo Mayor from the street, Madero and the Palacio de Bellas Artes
• Welcome dinner and briefing

Teotihuacan at opening, a street-food evening

Mexico City to Teotihuacan and back

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Mexico City
• Environ 2 h de route

Après-midi

We leave the hotel at about 7:30 am and drive about 50 km north-east, an hour or a little more in morning traffic, to reach Teotihuacan at opening, while the air is cool and before the tour coaches and the midday sun. The city was built centuries before the Aztecs, who found it already in ruins and gave it the name it still carries; UNESCO listed it in 1987. With a licensed local site guide we walk the Avenue of the Dead from the Ciudadela and the Temple of the Feathered Serpent, past the Pyramid of the Sun to the Plaza of the Moon, about 4 km on uneven stone with little shade. Climbing rules change, so we confirm before you travel what is open. Lunch is a sit-down meal near the site, and we are back at the hotel by about 3 pm for a free afternoon. At about 7 pm your guide leads a street-food walk: tacos al pastor from the spit, tlacoyos, quesadillas and something sweet, eaten standing at the stalls where locals eat.

Compris

• Teotihuacan at opening with a local site guide: the Ciudadela, the Temple of the Feathered Serpent, the Avenue of the Dead, the Pyramid of the Sun and the Plaza of the Moon
• Sit-down lunch near the site
• Evening street-food walk with your guide (dinner)

Activités en option

• A sunrise hot-air balloon flight over Teotihuacan, weather permitting, with an earlier pick-up (price shown when you book)

The Anthropology Museum, then Coyoacán and Frida

Chapultepec to Coyoacán and back

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Mexico City
• Environ 1.5 h de route

Après-midi

We drive about 10 km south to Coyoacán, 30 to 45 minutes, for lunch in the Mercado de Coyoacán: tostadas, quesadillas or pozole at the counters. In the early afternoon we enter the Museo Frida Kahlo, the Casa Azul where she was born and died, on timed tickets we book weeks ahead, because they sell out. Afterwards we walk Coyoacán's centre: the Jardín Centenario, the Plaza Hidalgo and the church of San Juan Bautista, with time for a churro and hot chocolate.

Soir

We are back at the hotel by about 5 pm, and the evening is free.

Compris

• National Museum of Anthropology at 9 am opening with your guide
• Lunch at the Mercado de Coyoacán
• Museo Frida Kahlo (the Casa Azul), timed entry
• Coyoacán walk: the Jardín Centenario, the Plaza Hidalgo and San Juan Bautista

Activités en option

• A Ballet Folklórico performance at the Palacio de Bellas Artes on the nights it runs (price shown when you book)

Querétaro, then San Miguel de Allende

Mexico City to Querétaro, then San Miguel de Allende

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : San Miguel de Allende
• Environ 4 h de route

Après-midi

Lunch is a sit-down meal in the centre; enchiladas queretanas are the local dish. In the afternoon it is about an hour and 65 km on to San Miguel de Allende, so the whole day is about 280 km and under four hours of driving, broken in the middle by Querétaro. We arrive by about 4 pm, check in to our central hotel and walk to the Jardín Principal and the pink stone Parroquia de San Miguel Arcángel.

Soir

At sunset your guide takes the group up to a rooftop terrace above the centre to watch the light go off the Parroquia's towers.

Compris

• Querétaro historic centre walk: the Plaza de Armas, the Templo de San Francisco and the aqueduct viewpoint
• Sit-down lunch in Querétaro
• San Miguel de Allende orientation walk: the Jardín Principal and the Parroquia de San Miguel Arcángel
• Sunset from a rooftop terrace (drinks at your own cost)

Atotonilco and a cooking class

San Miguel de Allende to Atotonilco and back

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : San Miguel de Allende
• Environ 45 min de route

Matin

After breakfast we drive about 14 km north, 25 minutes, to the Sanctuary of Jesús Nazareno de Atotonilco, listed by UNESCO with San Miguel in 2008. Its vaults and walls are covered in 18th-century murals by Antonio Martínez de Pocasangre, and it is still a working church and a place of retreat, so we visit quietly and with covered shoulders.

Après-midi

We are back in town by late morning for the cooking class with a local cook: you grind salsa in a molcajete, press tortillas, and cook two or three dishes from the Bajío, the farm country around San Miguel, then sit down to eat them for lunch, with the recipes to take home.

Soir

The afternoon and evening are free. Your guide can point you to the Fábrica La Aurora art and design centre in an old textile mill, El Charco del Ingenio botanical garden on the edge of town, or the galleries and craft shops of the centre. Dinner is on your own.

Compris

• Sanctuary of Jesús Nazareno de Atotonilco with your guide
• Cooking class with a local cook, with the lunch you cook

Activités en option

• An afternoon soak at a hot-springs park on the Dolores Hidalgo road (price shown when you book)

San Miguel to Querétaro airport

San Miguel de Allende to Querétaro International Airport, or back to Mexico City

• Petit-déjeuner
• Environ 1.5 h de route

Matin

The morning is yours until the airport run: an early coffee in the Jardín Principal before the town fills up, or a last walk through the Mercado de Artesanías. We drive you about 75 km, around an hour and a quarter, to Querétaro International Airport (QRO), which has flights to Mexico City and some United States hubs; plan a flight after about 1 pm. Your guide checks your flight before saying goodbye. If you fly home from Mexico City instead, tell us when you book: we drive you back to Mexico City International Airport (MEX), about 280 km and four to four and a half hours with a stop on the way, leaving after breakfast, so book a flight after about 5 pm. That is the one drive on this trip over four hours, and you can avoid it by flying from Querétaro or staying on in San Miguel. For a longer trip, our Guadalajara, Guanajuato and San Miguel and our Mexico City, Puebla and Oaxaca trips continue from here.

Compris

• Drop-off at Querétaro International Airport (QRO), or at Mexico City International Airport (MEX) on request