Puebla 2 1/2 day itinerary comments?
 

Hi there - our draft plan is below. Any comments or suggestions would be much appreciated - are we doing too much in a given day? Are there days or period of the day where sites are closed, or worse/better to visit?

As background, we won't have a car, we're staying near the Zocalo, and we love architecture, history, art, culture, music and food & drink. One of our group is a great amateur photographer.

Day 1 (Thursday)
- Arrive by bus from Mexico City at 12:30 and check into our hotel
- Get a guided 2-4 hr walking tour of the Zocalo and surrounding area in mid/late afternoon or early evening (should we take an earlier bus so we can start the tour earlier in the day?)
- Wander the streets around the Zocalo through the evening

Day 2 (Friday)
- Get tour of Cholula pyramid + Santuario de Nuestra Señora de los Remedios church on top, Templo de Santa María Tonantzintla, and Church of San Francisco Acatepec; Estimate 6 hrs
??? Should we go with a tour company or just book taxis or a driver and engage a random guide when we get there? We do NOT want to be escorted to a store to buy stuff or be part of a large group tour - we would book a private tour)
- Evening = dinner and more wandering the streets around the zocalo

Day 3 (Saturday)
- Walk to visit specific sites in Puebla - Biblioteca Plafoxiana, Catedral de Puebla, Church of Santo Domingo (Rosary Chapel and Gold Chapel), Museo Amparo, Museo Jose Luis Bello, Barrio del Artista
- Possibly take a taxi to Museo Internacional del Barroco
- Evening = dinner and more wandering the streets around the Zocalo

Day 4 (Sunday)
- Browse markets (Los Sampos/Mercados de Sabores, and ???)
- Evening = dinner and more wandering the streets around the Zocalo

Day 5 (Monday)
- Bus to Oaxaca

Any comments, tips or recommendations will be more than welcome!

TIA - R.

We set out for Mexico (via a couple of days in Madrid) on Friday. If all goes to plan we should arrive in Puebla on Sunday evening. My intention is to either post a trip report here or on our blog . either way I will try and remember to check back with my opinions.It will be our second visit an I am sure we visited some or all of those places but I cant recall many of them with the exception of Cholula. We got a bus tour there from the zocalo (just turned up and bought tickets. I dont recall then taking us on any shopping diversions but a number of the sites we were supposed to visit were closed for some reason so we just did a drive by. I do recall not being especially impressed by Cholula

We've visited Cholula I think 3 times now and spent a night there. We spent a night because I often wondered what we were missing as it does get a lot of hype. I don't think we missed out on much. The pyramid is essentially a pile of dirt with a church on top. On one side the pyramid was partially exposed. A guide wanted to walk us through little tunnel and got indignant when we said gracias, no. The tunnel/steps were dug by excavators not by the indigenous builders. We drove once and taxied from Puebla the other times.