Your Guide to a Weekend in Taxco, Mexico
Taxco, Mexico is the fairytale town of your dreams...
Friday:
Friday morning we took the Estrella de Oro (or Gold Star) bus from Mexico City to Taxco. I have taken a lot of bus rides in my day around various countries in the world and Estrella de Oro was one of the most comfortable ones I have ever been on. Coming from Costa Rica where there was no AC in a bus full of people during an 85 degree day to AC, reclining seats AND fold-out leg rests plus FREE snacks and drinks, let's just say the 20 dollars was well worth it.
The leg rest turned your seat into a recliner and our snacks were super nice!
We arrived around 11 a.m. and headed straight to our hostel to drop our bags off and change.
As soon as we stepped off the bus, it was as if we had left behind our own reality and straight into a scene from a fairytale. White buildings with stucco roof tops, lined the cobblestone streets where vendors were selling everything from fruits to hand-painted hats to genuine silver. Google maps failed us just a bit when we were led through a market that was supposed to be a road. Then, we spent an extra ten minutes lost in a maze of vendors and shoppers alike that were not very happy when we kept bumping into them with our giant backpacks. Alas, we finally made it to Amate Hostal, situated in the heart of the town.
The front of our hostel. The inside was recently renovated and very clean.
Exploring the City
We changed our outfits and followed the call of our stomachs to find something for lunch. I'll admit, I wasn't a fan of the food I had this weekend. Multiple factors could play into this though, I am a ~slightly~ picky eater, most of the restaurants seemed to be right in the heart of the city, so they were overpriced and we tried avoiding them, and/or a lot of the food seem to come from locals selling a plethora of food items from their make-shift stands and I am terrified of food poisoning after a pretty terrible stint in 2017 that knocked me out for over a week. Whatever the case, we had some subpar burgers and then went on a search for coffee. This led us to one of my favorite picture spots of the weekend. See below:
The VW cars are everywhere in the city and almost all of the taxis are a white model as well. I kept waiting for a taxi to drive by then I would run into the street and have my picture taken! I love that I was able to capture El Cristo Panoramico in the background
(the Jesus statue at the top).
The best way to find this street for a picture is to search the coffee shop we stopped at,
Cafe Cacao.
Taxco Cableway
After lunch, we decided to visit the Taxco Cableway to take in some panoramic views of the city. It is about a 20 minute walk (with killer views) from the city "zocalo" or city center. For a roundtrip ticket, it cost around $8-9 USD and it is TOTALLY worth it. The view along the ride is spectacular and once you reach the top, I suggest that you head directly to MonteTaxco Hotel where you can buy a drink at the bar (or lie like we did, oops) and take in the views of the entire town of Taxco. After we took pictures and enjoyed the view, we headed back down the mountain since there wasn't much else to do at the top.
The entrance to the cableway. We got a few chuckles from the locals as we somehow missed the giant "entry" sign and proceeded to walk into the maintenance office, thinking it was the entrance. Sorry confused maintenance man!
The view on the ride up, not a lot of air circulation but it is a short ride.
Here are some of the views from the top but if you want to see more, check out my TikTok. I couldn't quite capture the beauty from just a photo.
Rosa Amaranto Restaurante
For dinner that evening we headed to Pueblo Lindo Boutique Hotel for one of the best views in the entire city. Yes, I say that a lot but this time I really mean it! Look!
Sunset views
We went about an hour before sunset thinking we would have to fight for a table but I think due to COVID the restaurant was pretty desolate. Lucky for us we got the best seat in the house to enjoy a couple of delicious glasses of wine and some average-tasting food. Regardless of the food, it was still a great evening watching the sun set behind the mountains while looking at the Santa Prisca de Taxco church.
We were too tired to try the nightlife scene on Friday so we went back to our hostel for a relatively early night.
Saturday:
Pozas Azules de Atzala
Saturday morning we woke up early to catch a local van to the Pozas Azules de Atzala. Located about a 40 minute drive into the mountains from Taxco, the beautiful natural pools offer cold waters and unnaturally blue colors. Getting there was... interesting... to say the least. The only information we found on how to get there was to head to "Coppel Plateros" and that there would be vans waiting out front of the store with Poza Azules written in the window for about $2 USD one way. Once the van is full, and I mean FULL, the driver hops in and starts his ascent up the mountain. I wish I had taken pictures of the van but let's just say it was one bump away from falling apart on the side of the mountain. I was on a chair that folded out of the main seat and the door was being held together by sheer will at some points during our adventure. These are the moments I register in my brain as "don't tell mom moments" and just wait until I have safely made it back to write anything about them. With that being said, you can also hire a private taxi to take you to the pools if you prefer.
- Side note: this sounds very self-explanatory but as we don't speak enough Spanish to understand instructions, we, unfortunately, stiffed our driver on the way there. There was a big speech that was made before being let off and what we caught was that we had to be back by a certain time catch a ride back. I asked the man in broken Spanish about paying but when he didn't respond with a number, we assumed that it was a roundtrip thing and that we would pay him when he came back for us. That was incorrect.. so we ended up not paying for half of the trip. Sorry!!!
The entry to get in was roughly $10 and there are multiple pools to swim in. The farther up you hike, the colder the water gets. Once you reach a certain point, you can pay a guide to show you the rest of the pools but we decided to enjoy the ones below. We even watched some local kids go cliff diving. They were free climbing up the side of the rocks and jumping into the very small pool below. I think I'm getting old because I was panicking for them the whole time.
Here is one of the multiple pools you can stop at. It is best to go early to miss the crowds!
Silver Market *Only on Saturday*
We were able to make friends with some of the others in our van and with our broken Spanish and their self-proclaimed "bad English" we found out that they live in Taxco. They helped us back to the town and when we mentioned we wanted to go to the Silver Market that happens on Saturdays, they led us straight to their family's booth of jewelry. They also explained how to tell the difference between fake and real silver so that we were not ripped off. What Taxco lacks in food, they make up for in hospitality. We met so many amazing people during the weekend that went above and beyond the call of generosity for us visiting Americans.
The market was hectic and the options were endless.
Nightlife
Sunday
Visit Posada d La Mision and take the Silver Mine Tour
We had to catch our bus on Sunday but the earliest one left at 5 p.m. so we basically had another full day to explore. I had read about a silver mine located underneath a hotel in the city and was very intrigued! Posada d La Mision is a very historic hotel just a 15 minute walk from the city center. They offer a guided tour to the caverns below and the entrance is in the middle of the lobby. How cool! We paid $7.50 USD for a tour and at the end, you received a free cocktail if you made it out alive... just kidding.. kind of.. but it was a tad creepy down there. Luckily we were able to get a guide that spoke English enough to translate the general idea of the caves. We learned about the history, saw the tunnels that were excavated many years prior and I was surprised to find out that they even host events in the cave such as birthday parties. I personally would not host my party in a deep dark cave, several meters below the earth's surface but to each their own!
Our tour group was small and our guide let us explore a little more than I think they normally do. A very creepy but totally cool experience.
Once you finish the tour, you are lead straight to the pool area to grab a drink. We were told we could even swim if we wanted to, so bring a bathing suit. I also highly recommend walking through the bar and sitting on the balcony overlooking the city. It was the perfect place to enjoy our free cocktail.
I don't think there is a direction that you can look where you can't find a good view, to be honest.
We finished the day with the best meal we had all weekend, tacos al pastor, and headed back to Mexico City. Thank you Taqueria Danyel's & Tacos Rafa!
The weekend was more than I could have hoped for and I definitely recommend this town to anyone trying to escape the city. Looking forward to seeing more of this beautiful country soon!
Make sure to follow along on my page, KaseyMeetsWorld, for more pictures and videos! TikTok & Instagram
Where we Stayed:
We found Amate Hostel on Airbnb for 14 USD per night. We could not have picked a better location than this! Very central and close to everything we wanted to do (within a 20 minute walk). The staff was friendly enough and the beds were adequate for two nights but it is not a very social hostel and the bathrooms did smell quite a bit since you can't flush toilet paper here. However, it served its purpose and we were able to meet one guy that actually invited us to drink with him and his local friends on Saturday evening so it was a win in my book!
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