Visiting Teotihuacan Without an Organized Tour

When we were in Mexico City last month we wanted to visit the pyramids at Teotihuacan, but we didn’t want to take an organized tour, mostly because we were staying far away from the city centre, in San Ángel, and we didn’t want to face the transit and/or traffic challenges of getting to a central rendezvous point for an early departure. 

So we got ourselves there and back. Here’s how, with hopes that others in the same situation will be emboldened to try the same.

Getting There

We used the DiDi app to arrange for a driver to take us by car to Teotihuacan. It took a few minutes to connect us with a driver, but the app found us José, with a fee of $593 MXN (about $45 Canadian).

José picked us up at 8:55 a.m., and the drive there took just over 90 minutes, through relatively mild traffic by Mexico City standards.

Arranging a Ride Back

During the drive out, Lisa (who speaks journeyman Spanish) and José negotiated an off-app return journey: $100 MXN an hour for waiting and $500 MXN for the return trip, to be paid in cash at the end of the trip home.

This was  helpful: we didn’t need to stress about getting a ride home, and paying José for the waiting meant we didn’t need to rush back for a scheduled return trip.

One thing to note: it seems generally accepted (and reasonable) that passengers cover the cost of road tolls there and back, about $100 MXN each way.

Arriving

José dropped us at Puerta 1 at Teotihuacan at 10:35 a.m. We choose the drop-off location simply because, well, it was the first entrance; it made sense. We paid the parking fee ($60 MXN). The entrance wasn’t busy at all, and there were small shops selling souvenirs and sundries, and clean, spacious washrooms.

Finding a Guide

The single best thing we did is finding a guide to give us an hour-long tour of the site. 

Lisa found Lorenzo inside the entrance gate, and they negotiated a price of $50 CDN. Lorenzo proved a knowledgeable, engaging guide, and he gave us just the right amount of information about the site, its history, its “rediscovery” in modern times, and he sent us off toward the Pirámide del Sol and Pirámide de la Luna on our own.

Food and Water

While many of the organized bus tours include a meal at one of the tourist-focused restaurants that ring the site, just outside the gates, we were on our own.

We were organized enough to have packed a lunch and snacks, and we sat down to eat before we headed out on the tour. Nipping possible grumpiness in the bud really served us well.

The Big Error

The one big logistical error we made is in not arranging for José to meet us at Puerta 3, where we ended up our tour of the site. If we’d thought ahead to get his mobile number we could have asked him to pick us up there, but we forgot to do that. This left us with a 30 minute walk back to where we’d left him.

We opted to walk outside the site proper, on the ring-road Circuito Pirámides, which had well-maintained sidewalks and let us avoid the more challenging ground of retracing our steps inside.

The Ride Home

José was waiting for us back at Puerta 1 when we arrived back.

Traffic on the ride home wasn’t horrible, but it was certainly busier than on the way home. We left Teotihuacan about 2:00 p.m. and we were home before 4:00 p.m.

Final Notes

If you’re in Mexico City, Teotihuacan is definitely worth a visit, especially if, like me, you’ve never had any exposure to pre-Colonial architecture and culture.

We have no regrets about taking a DiDi there and back: it was easy, inexpensive, seamless, especially compared to what we imagine would have been an early morning dash to get to the centre of Mexico City to join an organized tour.

The Edificios Superpuestos, which we likely would have skipped over without Lorenzo our guide, were the most interesting part of the visit: we were able to walk down inside ruins of the housing that was part of the site.

Climbing up the Pirámide de la Luna—you can get about halfway up—is worth the effort: you get a good overview of the entire site, and a visceral sense of the true massiveness of everything.

Bring more water than you think you’ll need.