Teotihuacan Tour - Day Trip from Mexico City - Context Tours

Tour Details

About the Tour

Category: History, Excursions
Duration: 8 hours
Location: Mexico City

Photos & Highlights

Uncover the secrets and embrace the history of this former metropolis as you explore three majestic pyramids
Led by an archaeology or history expert
Teotihuacan Pyramids and Acolman Monastery

Tour Description

On this day excursion from Mexico City, we will visit the Teotihuacan pyramids with an expert archaeologist or historian and absorb this UNESCO World Heritage site. An hour from Mexico City, this former metropolis is home to important pyramids, palaces and murals dating back to 100 B.C. In the first half of the day, our expert guide will discuss the importance of this site in the pre-Columbian history of the Americas. We’ll have a local Mexican lunch afterward then head to a second nearby location, Acolman, to see a 16th-century convent that was instrumental during the Spanish conquest in the conversion of indigenous populations to Catholicism.

This one was a wow! Very knowledgeable guide who showed us sites and shared unique and interesting facts and stories. Terrific personality - consistently asked for input. Took us to a market for a truly local lunch. Driver was also excellent.

Teotihuacan Pyramids Tour

Starting out in a private vehicle at your accommodation, we’ll leave Mexico City early to beat the city traffic and crowds at the pyramids. Our route around the site will include an in-depth examination into the predominant trio of Teotihuacan structures: the Moon, Sun and Feathered Serpent pyramids. Our expert archeologist or historian leading the tour, who may be a Teotihuacan local themself, will dig deep into the histories, traditions, and sacred rights stemming back to the Classical Mesoamerican era. We’ll have the option of climbing the steep steps of a pyramid, where our guide will be able to point out the geographic influence of Teotihuacan in neighbouring regions. Our path will also take us to a number of important compounds with murals predating the Maya and Aztecs, and we’ll learn about these palace layouts and the artistic style that permeated not just ancient Teotihuacan society but many Mesoamerican civilizations for millennia.

At a point convenient for your group, we’ll pause our tour of the archeological site for a delicious Mexican lunch at a sit-down restaurant.

Want to learn more about pre-Columbian civilization? Try our Mexico Museum of Anthropology Tour with an anthropologist.

Acolman Monastery

On our way back to Mexico City we’ll stop at Acolman Monastery, a 16th-century complex with murals that represent the doctrinal points that Augustinian missionaries emphasized in their attempts to evangelize the indigenous peoples of central Mexico. Acolman serves as an important location in linking the pre-Columbian and Spanish eras and provides a historic location for which to conclude our tour. Your driver will then return you to your accommodation in Mexico City.

Take Aways

At the end of our Teotihuacan day excursion, we will have experienced the magnificence of this revered archaeological UNESCO World Heritage Site. We’ll emerge with an enhanced historic understanding of this former worldly city and a better mastery of the relevance of its pyramids, murals, and nearby monastery and shrines.

For an overview of Mexico City history from ancient times to today, try our Introduction to Mexico City Tour.

FAQ

Does this tour include transportation to and from Teotihuacan? Yes! There is a private car service included in the price of the tour, as are the entrance fees to the site and the guide’s time. Lunch is not included, though we will budget time for a delicious Mexican meal near the pyramids. The van will stay at the site all day in order to collect you from another location and drive back to Mexico City via the town of Acolman, where you’ll stop at the conclusion of the tour.

Where will we meet our guide? Your expert guide will meet you either at your accommodation or at Teotihuacan. This is because several of our experts are true Teotihuacan locals (as well as professional archeologists) who live in the area. In any case our driver will meet you at your accommodations and take you directly to the pyramids.

Can we climb the pyramids? Yes, if you are so inclined, please advise your guide who will accompany you up the pyramids.

How long is the journey to Teotihuacan?

The tour is 8 hours to allow for 1.5 hrs each way for traffic, though it could be just 1 hour if we are lucky. We leave early in the morning so as to avoid traffic. You should be back at your hotel (or another location if you advise us in advance—additional fees may apply) by the end of the 8 hour tour.

Where You'll Start

Tour Experts

Cecilia Maria

Cecilia was born in Denmark, to a Danish mother and a Chilean father, and grew up in Nicaragua, Tanzania, and Denmark. Understanding cultures and historical memory have always been primus motor in Cecilia’s interests, which led to her obtaining a Master´s Degree in American Indian Cultures and Languages from the University of Copenhagen, in which she specialized in how human mobility and cultural interaction functioned in Mesoamerica. In 2008, she got her archaeological feet wet in Tiwanaku, Bolivia, and became interested in how human remains, and the cultural handling of the dead reflect the living society. She worked in the National Museum of Denmark as a guide and student intern in the Ethnographic Collection. Since arriving in Mexico in 2011, Cecilia has studied many different aspects of cultural formation in Central Mexico, mainly Teotihuacan, where she lives. Cecilia has presented papers at international symposia in Museo del Templo Mayor (INAH) and the University of Copenhagen, guest-lectured at the Escuela Nacional de Antropología e Historia (ENAH), and has authored and co-authored several publications (2013, 2014 and 2017). She is also an IB MYP history examiner and a freelance translator, speaking (and giving tours) in English, Spanish and Danish. Besides her research interests, Cecilia is passionate about environmental issues, the zero-waste movement and sustainability in modern society.