Breakfast generally consists of fruits, cereals, beans and eggs.

For meals not included, budget around 255-340 Mexican pesos (US$15-US$20) for lunch and 255-510 pesos (US$15-US$30) for dinner. A beer costs about 70 pesos (US$4).

There is a lot more to Mexican cuisine than tacos and tortillas and we can discover the wealth of dishes on offer.

In Oaxaca, we attend a cooking class, the exact dishes we learn to cook can vary but generally include tortillas, salsas, mole (chocolate-based savoury dishes) and guacamole. We also learn about Mexican drinks, visiting a mezcal distillery.

Note: Drinking water is provided on the bus from large containers to minimise the amount of single-use plastic bottles used; please bring a refillable bottle with you.

Walk the fortified bastions of UNESCO-listed Campeche, where ramparts and sea-facing batteries once guarded trade routes. Stroll pastel-painted streets framed by iron balconies and leafy squares.

Hear tales of pirate raids in the Gulf and explore how European defenses merged with local materials and styles. This concise orientation helps you navigate museums, seafood eateries, and sunset viewpoints along the malecón.

Explore Mérida’s main square and surrounding streets, where the cathedral’s stone blocks were repurposed from nearby Maya sites. Grand facades and shaded arcades reveal the city’s prosperity and evolving identity.

Learn about henequen fortunes, mestizo traditions, and musical evenings that animate elegant boulevards. Your walk equips you with context and suggestions for further discovery in Yucatán’s cultural capital.

Beat the crowds and arrive early to explore El Castillo (Temple of Kukulcán), the Great Ball Court, and ceremonial complexes of Chichén Itzá. Your guide deciphers alignments, acoustics, and power symbols across the site.

Hear how Toltec influences, processional avenues, and water-centred ritual shaped this once-dominant city. Subtle echoes and serpent-shadow lore bring mathematics, myth, and empire into focus.

Step inside Chapultepec Castle, seat of emperors and presidents, to explore the Museo Nacional de Historia and its sweeping views over the city. Continue to the National Museum of Anthropology to encounter Aztec and Maya masterpieces that frame the civilizations you’ll meet across Mexico.

From imperial salons to iconic artifacts like colossal stone heads and ritual objects, this curated visit reveals how landscape, power, and belief shaped Mesoamerica and the modern nation alike.

Tour a traditional palenque in Santiago Matatlán, heartland of mezcal. See roasted agave crushed by stone, fermented in open vats, and distilled—often in copper stills—before you sample artisanal mezcal guided by local experts.

Discover agave varieties, terroir, and sustainable practices that shape aroma and flavor, from smoky and herbal to floral and fruity. Responsible tasting etiquette is emphasized throughout the visit.

Taste cochinita and pollo pibil at a family-run spot in Muna, savoring achiote-marinated meats slow-cooked in earth ovens and served in banana-leaf parcels. Sides bring bright salsas and fragrant tortillas.

Hosts share techniques and stories behind this celebratory preparation, rooted in Maya practice and citrus-spice marinades introduced in colonial times. It’s a flavorful counterpoint to the morning’s ruins.

Swim in a jungle cenote at Yokdzonot, descending to cool, crystalline waters beneath cliffs draped with roots and vines. The natural pool invites a refreshing float in a dramatic limestone sinkhole.

Managed by a local cooperative, Yokdzonot balances visitor access with conservation. Listen to birdsong echo off liana-draped walls as you relax between archaeological highlights on the peninsula.

Savor the capital’s flavors as you sample regional delicacies at the storied Mercado de San Juan—from seasonal fruits and cheeses to chilies and fresh tortillas—guided by your Tour Leader. Continue to Mercado de la Ciudadela to browse textiles, ceramics, and woodwork that reflect Mexico’s rich artisanal traditions.

Learn how market culture anchors daily life in the city and provides a showcase for techniques passed down through generations, from natural-dye weaving to intricate clay work and hand-carved pieces.

Drift through UNESCO-listed wetlands as you cruise the canals of Xochimilco aboard a colorful trajinera. Glide past working fields and flower beds on floating chinampas while enjoying a light snack and lively waterside scenery.

Hear how these ingenious agricultural islands sustained Aztec Tenochtitlán and still support urban farming today. This gentle trip captures the canal’s festive spirit and the resilience of traditional techniques shaped by the Valley of Mexico’s lakes.

Wander Coyoacán, a leafy district of cobbles, courtyards, and cafés long favored by artists and intellectuals. When tickets permit, enter the Casa Azul, the cobalt home where Frida Kahlo lived and painted with Diego Rivera, preserved with personal mementos and studio spaces.

Absorb the neighborhood’s slower rhythm and discover how Coyoacán’s colonial churches and market squares set the tone for Kahlo’s deeply rooted, modern Mexican aesthetic. Admission is timed and limited; the visit is planned but not guaranteed.

Settle into the journey and sit down to a curated welcome dinner at Azulísimo, where seasonal ingredients and classic recipes are reimagined with finesse. Expect balanced flavors—smoky chilies, bright herbs, and market-fresh produce—paired with warm hospitality.

Guided by the restaurant’s culinary team, this menu highlights the capital’s breadth of cuisine, from street-stall inspirations to elegant plating. It’s a tasteful introduction to Mexico’s culinary heritage and the stories behind each dish.

Travel back millennia as you walk the Avenue of the Dead through monumental Teotihuacán, pausing before the Pyramid of the Sun and the Pyramid of the Moon. Your guide deciphers urban planning, murals, and the mysteries of Teotihuacán, once among the world’s largest cities.

Hear theories of power, trade, and cosmology while observing the site’s precise alignments. The scale of plazas and platforms reveals a society organized around celestial cycles and civic ceremony.

Stroll Puebla’s UNESCO-listed centre, where elegant arcades and baroque facades glow with signature Talavera tiles. Step into the Biblioteca Palafoxiana (1646), often considered the oldest public library in the Americas, lined with carved shelves and ancient volumes.

Founded on a strategic colonial route, Puebla blends scholarly legacy with culinary and architectural distinction. Your visit reveals the city’s role in education, trade, and the diffusion of craft traditions across New Spain.

Explore a desert botanical garden set within the Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Biosphere Reserve, a cradle of agave and cactus diversity. Walk among towering columnar cacti and observe endemic species adapted to semi-arid life.

Guides explain how ancient agricultural practices and water management shaped this valley, where human ingenuity and biodiversity have coexisted for millennia. The sculptural plants and big skies make striking photographs and vivid field lessons.

Stand atop a sacred mountain city as you explore Monte Albán, the highland capital engineered by the Zapotec civilization. Plazas, terraces, and ball courts crown the ridge with panoramic valleys unfolding on every side.

Learn how builders leveled the summit and channeled water through hidden systems, creating a ceremonial center whose carved stones and tombs preserve centuries of belief, governance, and artistic exchange.

Walk Oaxaca’s colonial streets lined with polished green cantera stone and shaded plazas. Visit the Templo de Santo Domingo complex and its Museum of Cultures, where artifacts trace Zapotec and Mixtec legacies into the colonial era.

From gilded chapels to ethnographic treasures, the museum reveals a crossroads of languages, trade routes, and agricultural traditions that continue to animate workshops and markets across the valleys.

Join a hands-on cooking class led by a Zapotec cook, selecting fresh ingredients before learning to prepare tortillas, salsas, and mole sauces. Understand nixtamalized corn and the balance of chilies, herbs, and seeds central to Oaxacan cuisine.

Gather for a shared lunch to taste the dishes you’ve created, with cultural context around family kitchens, market rhythms, and the craft of mezcal that pairs so naturally with regional flavors.

Visit the Tule Tree, an ancient ahuehuete famed for its vast girth and sculptural bark. Continue to Mitla, a ceremonial center distinguished by geometric stone mosaics that cloak palace walls with intricate fretwork.

Hear how Zapotec and Mixtec artisans mastered dry-stone patterns that appear almost woven in stone. The contrast of living monument and precise masonry underscores the region’s layered sacred landscape.

Cruise the Grijalva River beneath sheer limestone walls as you enter Sumidero Canyon, a dramatic gorge carved over millions of years. The boat threads past waterfalls, caves, and forested banks.

Guides share insights into geology and local wildlife—keep an eye out for herons, kingfishers, and basking crocodiles. The interplay of light and cliff faces offers striking photo opportunities from the waterline.

Browse highland markets in San Cristóbal de las Casas, where Tzotzil and Tzeltal artisans display embroidered blouses, shawls, and woolens. Cafés pour aromatic Chiapas coffee while stalls brim with fruit, honey, and spices.

Learn how textile traditions encode identity and ceremony through color, weave, and symbol. This cultural walk connects you with the rhythms of a city that balances colonial charm and living indigenous heritage.

Witness Day of the Dead traditions as families prepare altars with candles, pan de muerto, and marigolds, and share stories that bridge past and present. In the Chamulan village of Romerillo cemetery, fields of blue wooden crosses bloom with chrysanthemums.

Guided with sensitivity, you observe rituals, taste seasonal bakery specialties, and learn how offerings, incense, and song honor loved ones. Photography is time-and-place dependent and always subject to community guidance.

Explore Palenque’s temples emerging from rainforest, where finely carved Maya reliefs and hieroglyphs still speak. Visit complexes around the Palace and the Temple of the Inscriptions, set amid jungle-wrapped ruins and birdsong.

Your guide decodes royal lineages, sacred caves, and water management that sustained this Classic-era city. The setting’s humidity, cicadas, and filtered light add atmosphere to the exquisite stonework.

Admire the Pyramid of the Magician and the Nunnery Quadrangle at Uxmal, where Puuc-style friezes of masks and latticework exemplify Late Classic Maya artistry. The open, manicured grounds contrast Palenque’s jungle ambiance.

Guides unpack cosmology, royal propaganda, and the rain-god Chaac woven into stone mosaics. Precision masonry and elegant proportions make Uxmal a highlight of Yucatán architecture.

Wander the yellow-washed streets of Izamal, a Pueblo Mágico where colonial and pre-Hispanic layers meet. Climb the broad atrium of the Convento de San Antonio de Padua, raised atop a vast Maya platform.

Hear how pilgrimage, monastic life, and ancient sacred geography intersect in this luminous town. Market stalls and horse-drawn carriages add to the timeless atmosphere of courtyards and arcades.

Enter San Juan Chamula church where pine needles carpet the floor, candles flicker, and copal incense scents the air—an intense blend of Catholic imagery and Maya ritual. Continue to a Zinacantán weaving family to see backstrap looms and vibrant textiles.

This cultural visit offers rare insight into living tradition and is at additional cost, bookable on tour. Respect for local customs and guidance on photography are essential parts of the experience.

Meet woodcarvers in San Antonio Arrazola to learn how alebrijes—fantastical creatures—are hand-shaped from copal and painted with vivid pigments. Watch sanding, detailing, and stories emerge from each hand-carved figure.

Discover symbolism, sustainable sourcing, and the workshop economy that sustains this Oaxacan art form. This experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour; purchases directly support local artisans.

Hike to turquoise cascades at the Roberto Barrios waterfalls, a string of limestone pools nestled in Chiapas jungle. Listen to rushing water and birds as you move between natural terraces and shaded lookouts.

Swimming opportunities depend on weather and conditions. This nature outing is at additional cost and bookable on tour, offering a serene counterpoint to the region’s archaeological wonders.

Explore Mexico City’s heart on foot and join a guided walking tour from the vast Zócalo to the Metropolitan Cathedral, rising above layers of history where the Templo Mayor ruins still surface. Continue to the opulent Palacio de Bellas Artes, a beacon of art nouveau and art deco elegance.

Hear how Tenochtitlán’s ceremonial core evolved into a modern metropolis as you trace grand avenues and lively plazas. Expect stories of conquest, faith, and creativity woven into the city’s architecture and public art during your time in the capital.