Mexico City Day Trips in 2 Days on a Budget Two days from a Mexico City hotel covers the two best bus day trips within reach of the capital: Teotihuacan, about an hour north, and Puebla with Cholula, about two hours ten minutes southeast. Skip Taxco and Tepoztlan on this short trip; both need 2.5 hours or more each way and don’t fit around a 2-day base. Riding second-class intercity buses instead of a guided van saves roughly two-thirds of the cost on each day, at the price of finding your own terminal counter.

Mexico City Day Trips in 4 Days on a Budget Four days from a Mexico City hotel is enough to run the region’s four classic bus day trips: Teotihuacan (about 1 hour), Puebla and Cholula together (about 2 hours 10 min), Tepoztlan and Cuernavaca together (about 1 to 1.5 hours), and Taxco (2.5 to 3 hours, its own day). This extends the 2-day version with the same first two days, then adds two more.

Mexico City Day Trips in 5 Days on a Budget Five days from a Mexico City base runs the same three day trips as the 4-day plan , Teotihuacan, Puebla with Cholula, Tepoztlan with Cuernavaca, then upgrades Taxco from a rushed round trip into an overnight. The 2.5 to 3 hour drive each way makes a same-day Taxco trip a lot of bus for not much town time; splitting it across two days fixes that without adding a fifth destination.

Mexico City Day Trips in 6 Days on a Budget Six days from a Mexico City base covers the same four destinations as the 4-day plan, Teotihuacan, Puebla, Cholula, Tepoztlan, Cuernavaca, and Taxco, but splits the two paired trips into six separate days instead of rushing Puebla and Cholula, or Tepoztlan and Cuernavaca, into single long days. If you’d rather compress this into fewer, longer days, or extend Taxco into an overnight, see the 5-day version .

3 Days in Mexico City on a Budget Three days covers the historic center, Chapultepec, and Coyoacan, the core of the Mexico City guide , for roughly 400 to 900 MXN ($23-51) a day depending on what you add. If you have more time, extend into the 4-day , 5-day , or 6-day version of this same plan, which adds a Roma/Condesa market day, Polanco’s free museums, and the Basilica de Guadalupe in that order.

4 Days in Mexico City on a Budget Four days covers the historic center, Chapultepec, and Coyoacan from the 3-day plan , the core of the Mexico City guide , plus a fourth day in Roma and Condesa for 350 to 900 MXN ($20-51) a day depending on what you add. Have more time? Extend into the 5-day or 6-day version of this same plan, which adds Polanco’s free museums and the Basilica de Guadalupe in that order.

5 Days in Mexico City on a Budget Five days builds on the 4-day plan , the historic center, Chapultepec, Coyoacan, and a Roma market day from the Mexico City guide , then adds a fifth day of Polanco’s free museums, for 350 to 900 MXN ($20-51) a day depending on what you add. Only have three or four days? Drop back to the 3-day or 4-day version. Have a sixth day?

6 Days in Mexico City on a Budget Six days is the full version of this plan: the historic center, Chapultepec, Coyoacan, a Roma market day, and Polanco’s free museums from the 5-day plan , the core of the Mexico City guide , plus a sixth day at the Basilica de Guadalupe, for 350 to 900 MXN ($20-51) a day depending on what you add. Shorter on time? Drop back to the 3-day , 4-day , or 5-day version of the same route.

Mexico City Runs Cheap If You Time the Free Sundays Right Mexico City is one of the least expensive big capitals to visit, once you build the trip around its cost quirks. The Metro is a flat 5 MXN a ride, street tacos run 12 to 25 MXN each, and Sunday brings free entry to several INAH museums, but only for Mexican nationals and foreign residents with ID. Foreign tourists pay full price at those same sites every day, Sunday included, and Casa Azul, the Frida Kahlo museum, has no walk-up ticket at any price, any day.

Teotihuacan on a Budget: Entry Price and Bus Fare Teotihuacan is the best-value day trip anywhere near Mexico City. Entry runs 210 MXN for foreign visitors, 105 MXN for nationals and resident foreigners, and the second-class bus from Terminal Central del Norte costs roughly 60 to 70 MXN each way, about an hour each direction. Total round-trip cost, bus plus entry, lands well under 400 MXN per person, a fraction of what a guided tour from a Mexico City hotel charges for the same ruins.