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How to get to Teotihucan from Mexico City via bus

February 27, 2010

Posted in: Uncategorized

I recently visited Teotihucan when I was taking a short break in Mexico city. I had read a lot about the available tours online, and saw a lot of complaints about how much time the tours spent at the archeological site vs. how much time they spend at gift shops, etc. I tried to find a tour that would give me some options regarding the time, but couldn’t find any. Private drivers seemed quite expensive, but I was able to find some articles on the bus that runs between Mexico city. I decided this was the best option for me. Everything worked out perfectly, but the guides online were a little confusing for me, so I thought I’d write some additional information that people might find helpful.

The first step to taking the bus is to get to the north bus station “Terminal Autobuses del Norte”. I took a cab from my hotel on Paseo de Reforma and it was 150 pesos. If you haven’t read up about taking cabs in Mexico City then please do some research and don’t hail cabs from the street. Only use authorized sitio taxis which can be arranged through your hotel. I would recommend going as early as possible to avoid the crowds. I had planned on going earlier in the day, but was running late and caught the 9AM bus. The park was very quiet for about an hour when I got there, but loads of tour buses started showing up around 11:30. I would recommend taking the bus around 7:30 or 8:00 if possible.

Once arriving at Terminal Autobuses del Norte, go inside and then go all the way to your left if you are facing the ticket counters. You will be looking for a stand that says “Autobuses Teotihucan” and has the following sign above it:

Teotihucan Bus Company

You will then need to buy a ticket which is 34 pesos ($2.30 at the time of this post) for a one way journey. Make sure you buy a ticket to “Zona Arqueologica Teotihucan” and not the town of Teotihucan itself. Your ticket will look like this:

Please note a few items on the ticket. The buses leave every fifteen minutes, so my ticket was for 9:00. The gate (Asiento) number for my ticket was gate #9, which is to the left of the ticket booth. When you go through the gate there will be a lot of buses lined up between numbered columns. My bus that day was leaving from the column (Anden) between #6 and #7. If you see a bunch of tourist types getting on your bus then you have likely found the right one, but it doesn’t hurt to ask.

The bus trip took about 90 minutes this day and we had around three stops on the way. Make sure you are getting off at the right stop. How will you know? You will see giant ancient pyramids out the bus window. If you don’t see the pyramids then it isn’t your stop.

Once you get off the bus, you will need to walk about 100m to the entry desk and then buy your entry ticket which I believe was around 50 pesos per person. Then enjoy the park… (There are many resources on what to see inside the park, so I won’t duplicate those here)

Exiting the park can be a little confusing, so hopefully this will help. When you go through the exit, keep walking along the road until you see the security hut. Across the street you will see this sign:

There is no bus stop, but the bus stops at this sign. The buses continue to run every 15 minutes or so until 19:00, but I wouldn’t take a chance on getting the last bus. Just wait by the sign until the bus comes along and then ask the driver if it is going to “Terminal Autobuses del Norte” just to be sure. The fare is 34 pesos for the return and the driver doesn’t have much change, so try to have small bills with you.

Terminal Autobuses del Norte is the last stop on the way back, so you can’t miss it. One item to note is that when I took the return bus back, a military or police officer got on at the first stop and asked everyone to exit. He then checked the bus, and used a metal detector want to scan everyone prior to entering the bus again. I don’t know if this happens all the time, but it is something to be aware of and obviously a way the local police force is deterring crime on the bus systems.