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Teotihuacan
Teotihuacan Group Tour
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Teotihuacan is number 1 by far, and it's where me and my team take our groups every day. My Teotihuacan guide covers the whole site, and if you're planning your trip, the Plan Your Visit page has the hours, tickets and how to get there.
The other 6 are good too, but they're smaller or farther away, so they make more sense once you've seen Teotihuacan or if you have extra days in Mexico City.
Here are all 7 in one table, so you can see how far each one is, what the ticket costs and when it's open. Watch the days, because most of them close on Monday and Cholula also closes on Tuesday.
| Pyramid | Where | From Mexico City | Ticket (foreigners) | Open | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Teotihuacan | State of Mexico | About 50 km, 1 hr | $210 MXN | Every day, 8 AM to 5 PM | The biggest pyramids you can see |
| 2. Templo Mayor | Centro Histórico, CDMX | In the city | $210 MXN | Tue to Sun, 9 AM to 5 PM | Aztec history without leaving the city |
| 3. Cholula | Puebla | About 122 km, 2 hr | $210 MXN | Wed to Sun, 9 AM to 5 PM | A day in Puebla and Cholula |
| 4. Tula | Hidalgo | About 87 km, 1.5 hr | $210 MXN | Usually Tue to Sun | The Toltec stone warriors |
| 5. Xochicalco | Morelos | About 122 km, 1 hr 40 min | $210 MXN | Every day, 9 AM to 6 PM | Combining with Cuernavaca |
| 6. Cuicuilco | Tlalpan, CDMX | In the city (south) | Free | Tue to Sun, 9 AM to 5 PM | A quick free stop |
| 7. Tenayuca | Tlalnepantla, State of Mexico | About 10 km from the center | $145 MXN | Tue to Sun, 10 AM to 5 PM | The serpent wall |
Ticket prices are the 2026 INAH prices if you're not Mexican or a resident. Mexicans and residents pay less. Distances are by road and drive times are without traffic.
Because it has the two biggest pyramids you can see near the city, and it's only about 50 km (30 miles) northeast of Mexico City, about 1 hour by car. The Pyramid of the Sun is about 66 meters (216 ft) tall and the Pyramid of the Moon is about 43 meters (140 ft), and they're connected by the Avenue of the Dead, the main road of the old city.
The city started around 100 BCE, so it's more than 2,000 years old, and at its peak between 125,000 and 200,000 people lived there. It's a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1987, and 1,785,275 people went there in 2025, which makes it the second most visited archaeological site in Mexico after Chichén Itzá. You can read the whole story on my Teotihuacan history page.
Plus there's the Temple of the Feathered Serpent at the south end of the avenue, so you need about 3 to 4 hours to see the main parts, and my how much time you need at Teotihuacan post breaks that down.
It's open every day from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM, last entry 4:30 PM, and the ticket is $210 MXN (about $12 USD) if you're not Mexican or a resident. So bring a hat, sunscreen and water, because there's NO shade, and I recommend to get there early before the big tour buses show up.
These are the other 6, in the order I recommend them. Two are inside Mexico City, one is at the north edge of the city, and three are day trips to Puebla, Hidalgo and Morelos.
Templo Mayor was the main temple of the Aztecs in Tenochtitlan, the city that's under Mexico City today. It's right next to the Zócalo and the Cathedral, so if you're staying in Roma, Condesa or the Centro you can get there by metro or Uber in a few minutes.
The Aztecs rebuilt the temple on top of itself 7 times, starting after 1325, and the Spanish destroyed it in 1521. So what you see today are the layers inside, and you walk on platforms above them. Nobody knew exactly where it was until 1978, when electric company workers found a giant carved stone of the goddess Coyolxauhqui.
It's open Tuesday to Sunday from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM and the ticket is $210 MXN (about $12 USD), with the museum included. Also, it's a great way to see the difference between the Aztecs and Teotihuacan, because Teotihuacan was already in ruins for hundreds of years when the Aztecs got here.
Cholula is the biggest pyramid in the world by volume, more than 4.45 million cubic meters, almost double the Great Pyramid of Giza. The base is about 300 by 315 meters. But when you get there it looks like a hill, because it's covered in earth and grass, and the Spanish built the church of Nuestra Señora de los Remedios on top of it in 1594.
You walk up the hill to the church, and from the top you can see the town and, on a clear day, the Popocatépetl volcano. Archaeologists dug about 8 km of tunnels inside the pyramid, and part of them has been open to the public, but ask at the ticket office if they're open the day you go.
It's about 122 km from Mexico City, about 2 hours by car, and buses to Puebla leave from the TAPO terminal. It's open Wednesday to Sunday from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM and the ticket is $210 MXN (about $12 USD). I recommend to make it a full day and see Puebla too, because Puebla city is only about 6 km away.
Tula was the capital of the Toltecs, and it was at its peak between 900 and 1150 CE, after Teotihuacan fell and before the Aztecs. The reason people go is the Atlantes, four giant stone warriors on top of Pyramid B, each one about 4.6 meters tall.
It's in Tula de Allende, Hidalgo, about 87 km north of Mexico City, which is about 1 hour 20 minutes to 1 hour 45 minutes by car. By bus it's about 2 hours from the Terminal del Norte to Tula, plus a short taxi to the site.
The ticket is $210 MXN (about $12 USD) and last entry is around 4:30 PM. The site is smaller than Teotihuacan, so 1 to 2 hours is enough, and I recommend to go early because it gets hot and there's not a lot of shade.
Xochicalco is a hilltop city in Morelos, about 38 km southwest of Cuernavaca and about 122 km from Mexico City, which is about 1 hour 40 minutes by car. It grew into a big city after Teotihuacan fell, mostly between 700 and 900 CE, and it's a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1999.
The best part is the Temple of the Feathered Serpent, which is covered in carvings of serpents and people, and it's really beautiful. There's also a cave observatory with an 8.7 meter chimney, and from April 30 to August 15 the sun shines down into it.
It's open every day from 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM, last entry 5:00 PM, and the ticket is $210 MXN (about $12 USD). So if you're spending a weekend in Cuernavaca or Tepoztlán, it's an easy add.
Cuicuilco is a round pyramid, which is very different from the square ones at Teotihuacan, and it's one of the oldest in the Valley of Mexico. The main structure was built around 800 to 600 BCE, and about 1,700 years ago lava from the Xitle volcano covered the whole area, so you can still see the black volcanic rock around it.
It's inside the city, at Insurgentes Sur and Periférico in Tlalpan, right by the Perisur mall. And it's FREE, open Tuesday to Sunday from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM. It's small, so 1 hour is enough, and it's a good stop if you're already in the south of the city for Coyoacán or Xochimilco.
Tenayuca is in Tlalnepantla, in the State of Mexico, about 10 km northwest of the Centro Histórico. It's a double pyramid with two temples on top, the same style the Aztecs used later at Templo Mayor, and it was made bigger 5 times, so it has 6 layers in total.
Around the base there are 138 stone serpents, and that's the thing to see. It's open Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM and the ticket is $145 MXN (about $8 USD). It's small and it's in a busy neighborhood, so I'd only go if you really love pyramids and you've already seen the others.
It depends on how you measure it. The Great Pyramid of Cholula is the biggest by volume, more than 4.45 million cubic meters, and it's the biggest pyramid in the world by that measure.
But the Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacan is the one that looks the biggest when you're standing in front of it, about 66 meters (216 ft) tall with a base of about 220 by 230 meters. Cholula is wider, but it's covered in earth and grass, so it looks like a hill with a church on top.
So if you want to SEE a giant pyramid, go to Teotihuacan. And if you want to say you've been on the biggest pyramid in the world, go to Cholula :) I put all the Teotihuacan numbers, with the source for each one, on my Teotihuacan facts and statistics page.
Yes, if you pick two that are close to each other. The easiest combo is Teotihuacan in the morning and Templo Mayor in the afternoon. On our EXPRESS Tour you're back in the city around 12:00 PM, and Templo Mayor is open until 5:00 PM, so you have time for lunch in the Centro and the temple after.
Cuicuilco works the same way if you're going to Coyoacán or Xochimilco, because it's in the south of the city. Cholula fits with Puebla city, and Xochicalco fits with Cuernavaca, but I wouldn't try to do Teotihuacan and Cholula on the same day because they're in opposite directions and you'd spend 5 or 6 hours in the car.
For a full plan of the day, read my Teotihuacan day trip from Mexico City guide, and if you're going around March 20 or 21, read my spring equinox guide first because Teotihuacan gets VERY crowded.
This is the mistake I see the most. Teotihuacan is open every day and so is Xochicalco, but Templo Mayor, Cuicuilco and Tenayuca are closed on Mondays, and Cholula is closed on Mondays AND Tuesdays. Tula usually opens Tuesday to Sunday too. So if Monday is your free day, go to Teotihuacan, and save the others for later in the week.
At Teotihuacan you can climb the Pyramid of the Moon, but only the first section, and from there you can see the whole Avenue of the Dead and the Pyramid of the Sun. The Pyramid of the Sun is closed to climbing right now.
At Cholula you walk up the hill to the church on top, so in a way you ARE climbing a pyramid, just on a path. At Templo Mayor you walk on platforms above the ruins, and you don't go up the temple.
The rules change sometimes, so I keep the Teotihuacan ones updated in my can you climb the Teotihuacan pyramids post. And if you want to see the pyramids from above, you can take a sunrise hot air balloon over Teotihuacan. You fly over the Sun and the Moon for about 45 minutes.
You can go by bus from the Terminal del Norte, by Uber, or with a tour, and I explain each one in my how to get to Teotihuacan guide. For every price in one place, see how much it costs to go to Teotihuacan, the opening hours post has the schedule, and the Teotihuacan map shows where everything is.
Our tours are all in English, we pick you up and drop you off at your hotel or Airbnb, your tickets are included, and we never stop at tourist trap shops. Groups are 15 people max and we start in the morning, before the crowds.
Every tour has our 100% "Love It or Your Money Back" guarantee, and you can cancel or reschedule for FREE up to 24 hours before.
If you want a Teotihuacan tour or a sunrise hot air balloon above the pyramids... that's what me and my team do. You can compare every tour side by side and pick the one that fits you :)
