Discover Mexico

Welcome to Mexico City, one of the most exciting capitals in the world and known for its layers of Aztec, colonial, and modern history.

Today is all about settling into the hotel and city, as we have our welcome briefing tomorrow morning.

Want more time in Mexico City? Secure pre-tour hotel nights through your sales representative.

Accommodation: Hampton Inn & Suites by Hilton (or similar)

After breakfast, we gather as a group for the first time for our welcoming briefing, where we learn about the adventures ahead and you can ask any questions you may have.

Then, we set out to explore the bohemian side of Mexico City. We start by visiting quaint Coyoacán (meaning place of coyotes) with its pebbled streets, colonial churches, bustling little markets and quiet squares. This area was inhabited before the arrival of the Spanish and it is said conquistador Hernan Cortes made this the first capital of New Spain.

Next, we head to Casa Azul (visit subject to availability), where artist Frida Kahlo was born, grew up and, eventually, lived with her muralist husband, Diego Rivera, until she died in 1954 at the age of 47. Now a museum, the cobalt-blue colonial house, set around a luxuriant garden, showcases the collections and personal effects of the two great artists and provides a window into the life of affluent Mexican bohemians in the first half of the 20th century.

Finally, enjoy a ride on a pre-Hispanic boat along the Xochimilco canals. These scenic waterways were used by the Aztecs and today see us enjoying a journey past floating gardens and kitchens selling local food. Return to our hotel in the late afternoon.

Accommodation: Hampton Inn & Suites by Hilton (or similar)

• Meals included:Breakfast

Transfer (1hr 15min) to the ancient city of Teotihuacán, which peaked around 1,000 CE when it was the sixth-biggest city in the world with a population of about 125,000. Among the avenues and structures are the pyramids of the Sun and the Moon, the third and fourth largest pyramids in the world. We explore this impressive archaeological zone with an local guide.

Returning to Mexico City, we explore the historic centre on a walking tour. It starts in the main square, known as the Zócalo, but officially named the Plaza de la Constitución. It was an important gathering place for the Aztecs, and remains so in modern Mexico, often hosting book fairs and concerts. On the north side of the Zócalo is the Cathedral Metropolitana, the largest cathedral in the Americas. It was constructed over an Aztec temple, the Templo Mayor, as a sign the Spanish were now in power. Our tour finishes outside the Palacio de Bellas Artes. Construction of this massive neoclassical building began in 1904, on the remains of the Santa Isabel convent, under the Italian architect Adamo Boari. It has an art nouveau style and its facade is made of marble from Carrara.

Accommodation: Hampton Inn & Suites by Hilton (or similar)

• Meals included:Breakfast

Before leaving Mexico City, we visit the Museum of Anthropology, which has an impressive collection of artefacts from the many civilisations of Mexico.

We then transfer (about 2hr 30min) south to Puebla. In the late afternoon, we arrive in Puebla de los Angeles, the City of Angels, named after a legend in which angels came from heaven to place bells in the cathedral towers when builders were unable to do so.

After arriving, we visit the Palafoxiana Library in the historic core of the city. Founded in 1646, this is the oldest public library in the Americas and is now home to over 45,000 books and manuscripts.

Accommodation: Hotel Colonial Puebla (or similar)

• Meals included:Breakfast

Spend this morning exploring Puebla, which has been named a World Heritage site for its colonial architecture. We visit the Ex-Convent of Santa Rosa, which provides classic examples of how talavera tiles were incorporated into buildings, inside and out.

Then, if you’d like to watch artisans create talavera pieces, you can join an optional visit to a local factory (payable locally).

After, we drive (about 5hr 20min) to Oaxaca, another World Heritage city. With a colonial centre of shaded pedestrian streets, indigenous traditions and a creative atmosphere, Oaxaca has attracted and inspired artists and artisans alike.

The city has such sights as the beautiful zócalo (main square), the cathedral and the vast Convento de Santo Domingo, along with museums, fascinating markets and charming inns.

Accommodation: Casa Conzatti (or similar)

• Meals included:Breakfast

Our next exploration of Mexican history takes us to the Zapotecan site of Monte Albán. While the name dates to a 16th-century Spanish landowner, previous names came from the Mixtec word Sahandevul, meaning at the foot of the sky, or from the Zapotecan Danibaan, meaning sacred mountain.

In 500 BCE, the Zapotecans moved into the Oaxaca region and began the monumental task of levelling the top of a 5,250ft (1,600m) mountain that intersects and divides three valleys. Here, they built the city of Monte Albán with a maze of subterranean passageways, rooms, drainage and water-storage systems.

We then transfer (30 minutes) to the small village of San Antonio Arrazola, where the local population are known for creating fantastical creatures called alebrijes from wood or papier-mâché.

We later return to Oaxaca and explore the cobbled streets, vibrant squares and churches of the historic city. We also visit the Museum of Cultures Santo Domingo.

Accommodation: Casa Conzatti (or similar)

• Meals included:Breakfast

Oaxaca is possibly the most celebrated region in Mexico for its cuisine and we get more acquainted with an authentic cooking class.

At a rustic kitchen, we are taught to cook a full Mexican menu, including tortillas, a main, and dessert, from a Zapotec cook.

We begin in our host’s own produce store, picking up the ingredients we’ll need, before we take turns to prepare the dishes, sharing the stations and working together. After, we tuck into our delicious creations!

The afternoon is free to wander around Oaxaca on your own.

Accommodation: Casa Conzatti (or similar)

• Meals included:Breakfast, Lunch

A 40-minute drive from Oaxaca is Teotitlán del Valle, a village known for hand-woven rugs and our first stop today. From here, we continue (30 minutes) to a mezcal distillery in Santiago Matatlán to taste the agave-based spirit. Mezcal is produced from the heart of the agave plant and contains more than 40% alcohol! After the tasting, we drive (3hr 35min) to Tehuantepec, where we spend the night.

Accommodation: Misión San José (or similar)

• Meals included:Breakfast

Today we drive to San Cristóbal (about six hours plus stops), one of the most popular cities in Mexico for visitors. It is filled with cobbled alleyways of whitewashed buildings with red-tiled roofs that lead to plazas and picturesque arcades.

Arriving in the afternoon, we have a short orientation tour of the historic city before checking into our hotel.

Accommodation: Hotel Diego Mazariegos (or similar)

• Meals included:Breakfast

Today is a free day to explore San Cristóbal at your own pace. Wander the colonial streets, take in the lively cafes, or buy handicrafts produced by the local Tzotzil indigenous groups. It’s also possible to do an optional boat trip through the Sumidero Canyon with a visit to traditional Maya communities who live in the villages surrounding the city.

Accommodation: Hotel Diego Mazariegos (or similar)

• Meals included:Breakfast

We leave San Cristóbal around 5.30am – taking a box breakfast with us – and drive to Palenque.  The road carries us from the cool highlands into warmer lowland forests, where the Maya once built one of their most celebrated cities.

Around 1pm-1.30pm, we reach our hotel and have time for lunch and a relax. Later, those who wish, can visit the Roberto Barrios Waterfalls (around a 1hr 10min drive from our hotel).

This series of cascades sits within the sub-tropical jungle of Chiapas and is known for its tiered falls and forest setting — an atmospheric counterpoint to the archaeological wonders waiting nearby.

Accommodation: Hotel La Aldea del Halach Huinic (or similar)

• Meals included:Breakfast

Emerging from the jungles of Chiapas is one of the most impressive ruins in Mexico: the Maya site of Palenque. The temples, sanctuaries and pyramids, with sculptured walls and ceilings, are some of the best-preserved and finest examples of Maya buildings despite the city-state having peaked in the seventh century.

We explore this magnificent site before transferring (6hr 20min) to the Yucatán Peninsula and the Caribbean town of Campeche.

Yet another World Heritage site, the colonial town has impressive city walls built to protect it from the constant attacks by English and Dutch buccaneers and pirates during the 16^th and 17^th centuries. We have an orientation tour before dinner.

Accommodation: Hotel Castelmar/Hotel Lopez (or similar)

• Meals included:Breakfast

After a 2hr 35min drive from Campeche is our second Maya site: Uxmal. Quite open, it contrasts the jungle ruins of Palenque we visited yesterday. This site, which dates to the Late Classic era (500 CE to 800 CE), features the Pyramid of the Magician; the Nunnery Quadrangle, which has long, elaborately carved facades; and a ball court, where a traditional ball game was played, sometimes ending in human sacrifice.

Having worked up an appetite, we drive (20 minutes) to a Maya family restaurant in Muna. Here we eat pollo pibil and cochinita pibil (slowly cooked pork and chicken). The meat is roasted for about five hours with achiote paste and wrapped in banana leaves.

After lunch, it’s about a 1hr 20min drive to Mérida, where several colonial buildings, including the cathedral, were built using stones from nearby Maya ruins. Arriving mid-afternoon, we have a walking tour of Mérida, returning later to enjoy the main square, which is particularly delightful at night.

Accommodation: Hotel Caribe (or similar)

• Meals included:Breakfast, Lunch

Our first stop, after a 1hr 40min drive, is Izamal, a one-time Maya settlement now marked as a Pueblo Mágico (magic town) by the Mexican government. The town has yellow-and-white buildings and is known for the 16^th-century Franciscan monastery built on top of a huge Maya pyramid.

We then continue (1hr 10min) to Yokdzonot cenote, a natural swimming hole with vertical walls decorated with thick mangrove roots.

From here, we transfer (25 minutes) to Chichén Itzá, the best known and perhaps most impressive of all Maya sites (total drive time of about 3hr 30min plus stops).

Accommodation: Hotel Puerta Chichén (or similar)

• Meals included:Breakfast

Our final day starts with a visit to Chichén Itzá. Having spent the night near the site, we can get in early before the day-trippers arrive from the beach resorts.

Chichén Itzá served as the political and economic centre of the Maya civilisation and thrived from around 600 CE to 1200 CE. The pyramid of Kukulkan, the Temple of Chac Mool, the Hall of the Thousand Pillars and the Playing Field of the Prisoners can still be seen today and demonstrate an extraordinary commitment to architecture, space and composition. The pyramid itself was the last, and possibly greatest, of all Maya pyramids.

This afternoon, we drive about three hours to Cancún airport, where the tour ends.

Want more time in Cancun? Secure post-tour hotel nights through your sales representative.

Please note: The group transfer back to Cancún is scheduled to align with a chosen flight to London, UK; therefore, you should not book flights leaving before then. Please contact your sales representative for the timings of this flight.

• Meals included:Breakfast

Welcome to Mexico City, one of the most exciting capitals in the world and known for its layers of Aztec, colonial, and modern history.

Today is all about settling into the hotel and city, as we have our welcome briefing tomorrow morning.

Want more time in Mexico City? Secure pre-tour hotel nights through your sales representative.

Accommodation: Hampton Inn & Suites by Hilton (or similar)

Come together this morning for our welcome briefing, where your tour leader outlines the journey ahead and answers any questions.

We then visit two of Mexico City’s most important museums: the Museo Nacional de Historia, housed in Chapultepec Castle, and the National Museum of Anthropology, whose collections provide essential context for the civilisations we’ll encounter throughout the trip.

Turning to the city’s creative heart, we head south to Coyoacán, a district with deep pre-Hispanic roots and a long association with artists and intellectuals. Cobbled streets, shaded squares and colonial churches give it a distinctly different rhythm to the city centre.

Subject to availability, we visit Casa Azul, the former home of Frida Kahlo. Preserved much as it was during her lifetime, the house offers insight into Kahlo’s work, her political ideas and her relationship with artist Diego Rivera.

We round off the day with a welcome dinner at Azulísimo, where Chef Zurita has curated a menu based on traditional cuisine from the capital.

Accommodation: Hampton Inn & Suites by Hilton (or similar)

• Meals included:Breakfast, Dinner

Explore the historic centre of Mexico City on foot, beginning at the Zócalo, once the ceremonial heart of the Aztec city of Tenochtitlán and still the country’s main civic square. Nearby, we see the Metropolitan Cathedral, built directly over the ruins of the Templo Mayor, before finishing near the Palacio de Bellas Artes, a landmark of early-20th-century architecture.

Food and craft traditions come into focus as we visit Mercado de San Juan, enjoying a small food tasting, and Mercado de la Ciudadela for handicrafts.

Later, we travel south to Xochimilco, where we take a trajinera boat onto the canals – with a snack included. Cruising the waterways, we learn all about chinampas, ingenious floating gardens built by the Aztecs, some of which are still in use today.

Accommodation: Hampton Inn & Suites by Hilton (or similar)

• Meals included:Breakfast

Transfer (1hr 15min) to Teotihuacán, one of the most significant cities of ancient Mesoamerica. At its height, around 450 CE, it was among the largest urban centres in the world. With a local guide, we walk the Avenue of the Dead and explore the monumental Pyramids of the Sun and Moon, gaining insight into the city’s urban planning and enduring mysteries.

Lunch is at La Catrina Restaurant before we continue (2hr 30min) to Puebla. Founded in the 16th century, Puebla became a key colonial centre linking Mexico City with the port of Veracruz.

In the afternoon, we enjoy a guided city tour, including the Palafoxiana Library, founded in 1646 and widely regarded as the oldest public library in the Americas.

Accommodation: Hotel Colonial Puebla (or similar)

• Meals included:Breakfast, Lunch

Begin at the Zapotitlán Botanical Garden, set within a semi-arid biosphere reserve known for its extraordinary diversity of cacti and desert plants. Lunch is at Itandehui Restaurant, known for its pre-Hispanic menu.

We then drive (four hours) to Oaxaca, a UNESCO-listed city with a strong indigenous presence and a long tradition of craftsmanship. The historic centre is compact and walkable, with shaded streets, markets and important religious buildings clustered around the main square.

Accommodation: Casa Conzatti (or similar)

• Meals included:Breakfast, Lunch

Travel to Monte Albán, the former Zapotec capital, dramatically positioned on a flattened mountain ridge above the Oaxaca Valley. Founded around 500 BCE, the site reveals sophisticated urban planning, ceremonial plazas and carved stone monuments that record early writing and calendrical systems.

Returning to Oaxaca, we explore the historic centre and visit the Museum of Cultures of Santo Domingo, housed in a former Dominican convent.

Accommodation: Casa Conzatti (or similar)

• Meals included:Breakfast

Oaxaca’s reputation for regional cuisine takes centre stage today as we join a hands-on cooking class led by a Zapotec cook. After selecting ingredients from our host’s own produce store, we prepare a full meal together, learning techniques passed down through generations. We then sit down to enjoy the results.

The afternoon is free to spend at leisure, with the option to visit San Antonio Arrazola for an introduction to alebrijes – the brightly painted, hand-carved figures that blend real and imagined animals and have become a defining expression of Oaxacan folk art.

Accommodation: Casa Conzatti (or similar)

• Meals included:Breakfast, Lunch

We begin at Santa María del Tule, home to an enormous ahuehuete (Mexican bald cypress) tree believed to be more than 2,000 years old. Its vast trunk is marked by natural shapes that invite closer inspection.

We continue to Mitla, a Zapotec ceremonial centre distinguished by its intricate geometric stone mosaics, unlike anything else in pre-Columbian Mexico.

From here, we travel to Santiago Matatlán (30min) to visit a mezcal distillery and learn how this agave spirit is produced, followed by a tasting.

Later, we stop at a beach on the Pacific coast, where you can swim (weather permitting) or take a walk on the sands, before driving to Salina Cruz.

Accommodation: Misión San José (or similar)

• Meals included:Breakfast

We take a boat trip through the Sumidero Canyon, where steep limestone walls rise dramatically above the Grijalva River and wildlife is often spotted along the banks.

After, we drive to San Cristóbal de las Casas (about six hours plus stops), a highland city known for its colonial layout and strong indigenous identity.

Accommodation: Hotel Diego Mazariegos (or similar)

• Meals included:Breakfast

We explore San Cristóbal de las Casas, browsing markets and cafes that showcase local produce and crafts made by Tzotzil communities.

In the afternoon, there is an optional excursion to Chamula and Zinacantán. In Chamula, we visit the church where Catholic and Maya rituals coexist, creating a distinctive ceremonial atmosphere. In Zinacantán, we meet a family of weavers and learn about textile traditions that remain central to daily life.

Accommodation: Hotel Diego Mazariegos (or similar)

• Meals included:Breakfast

Leaving around 5.30am with a breakfast box, we drive (4hr 15min) to Villahermosa, stopping for lunch at El Edén Restaurant.

We arrive at our hotel early afternoon. Later, those who wish can visit the Roberto Barrios Waterfalls (around a 1hr 10min drive from our hotel).

This series of cascades sits within the subtropical jungle of Chiapas and is known for its tiered falls and forest setting − an atmospheric counterpoint to the archaeological wonders waiting nearby.

Accommodation: Hotel La Aldea del Halach Huinic (or similar)

• Meals included:Breakfast, Lunch

We explore the Maya city of Palenque, set within dense jungle and renowned for the quality of its stone carvings and inscriptions. At its peak in the seventh century, Palenque was a powerful city-state, and its architecture remains among the finest in the Maya world.

We then transfer to Campeche (6hr 20min), a fortified colonial city on the Gulf of Mexico. An orientation walk introduces the historic centre and its defensive walls, built to protect against pirate attacks.

Accommodation: Hotel Castelmar or Hotel Lopez (or similar)

• Meals included:Breakfast

After a 2hr 35min drive from Campeche is our second Maya site: Uxmal. Quite open, it contrasts the jungle ruins of Palenque we visited yesterday. This site, which dates to the Late Classic era (500 CE to 800 CE), features the Pyramid of the Magician; the Nunnery Quadrangle, which has long, elaborately carved facades; and a ball court, where a traditional ball game was played, sometimes ending in human sacrifice.

Having worked up an appetite, we drive (20 minutes) to a Maya family restaurant in Muna. Here we eat pollo pibil and cochinita pibil (slowly cooked pork and chicken). The meat is roasted for about five hours with achiote paste and wrapped in banana leaves.

After lunch, it’s about a 1hr 20min drive to Mérida, where several colonial buildings, including the cathedral, were built using stones from nearby Maya ruins. Arriving mid-afternoon, we have a walking tour of Mérida, returning later to enjoy the main square, which is particularly delightful at night.

Accommodation: Hotel Caribe (or similar)

• Meals included:Breakfast, Lunch

Our first stop, after a 1hr 40min drive, is Izamal, a one-time Maya settlement now marked as a Pueblo Mágico (magic town) by the Mexican government. The town has yellow-and-white buildings and is known for the 16^th-century Franciscan monastery built on top of a huge Maya pyramid.

We then continue (1hr 10min) to Yokdzonot cenote, a natural swimming hole with vertical walls decorated with thick mangrove roots.

From here, we transfer (25 minutes) to our hotel near Chichén Itzá, ready for our exploration tomorrow (total drive time: about 3hr 30min plus stops).

Accommodation: Hotel Puerta Chichén (or similar)

• Meals included:Breakfast

Our final day starts with a visit to Chichén Itzá. Having spent the night near the site, we can get in early before the day-trippers arrive from the beach resorts.

Chichén Itzá served as the political and economic centre of the Maya civilisation and thrived from around 600 CE to 1200 CE. The pyramid of Kukulkan, the Temple of Chac Mool, the Hall of the Thousand Pillars and the Great Ball Court can still be seen today and demonstrate an extraordinary commitment to architecture, space and composition. The pyramid itself was the last, and possibly greatest, of all Maya pyramids.

This afternoon, we drive about three hours to Cancún airport, where the tour ends.

Want more time in Cancun? Secure post-tour hotel nights through your sales representative.

Please note: The group transfer back to Cancún is scheduled to align with a chosen flight to London, UK; therefore, you should not book flights leaving before then. Please contact your sales representative for the timings of this flight.

• Meals included:Breakfast