Hello,

Me again! This time it's not about the cartels, you'll be thrilled to know .

My planned itinerary for my trip to Mexico seems to involve quite a lot of in between travel and I wondered if I was overdoing it, as I don't want to spend all my time on buses or planes. I wondered if I could get some input: am I doing too much?

CDMX: 12-18 December
San Miguel de Allende: 18-21 December
San Luis Potosi: 21-24 December
Aguascalientes: 24-27 December
Guanajuato: 27 December - 1 January
CDMX: 1 January - 3 January

If you think I am doing too much, what would you leave out?

Many thanks

I've only been to two of the places on your list so not a huge help - but none of the bus rides seem outrageously long. Only you can decide if its too much travel - there are several Mexico experts on here that can provide more info.

But my first thought is you have less time in places than it may seem -- you are counting the same days in two different locations. Even if a bus ride is just 4 or 5 hours - it would still eat up most of that day what with packing, getting to the bus station, traveling to the next stop, finding your accommodations, checking in and unpacking.

What you really have is more like:

CDMX: 12-18 December
San Miguel de Allende: 19-21 December
San Luis Potosi: 22-24 December
Aguascalientes: 25-27 December
Guanajuato: 28 December - 1 January
CDMX: 2 January (assuming Jan 3 is your departure day)

Thanks for the response. That is a very good point, and something I have been thinking of. Perhaps I need to reduce the number of places to give myself more time in each. I'd like to prioritise places with more history, perhaps the silver mines, and of course good food !

I believe that Guanajuato is not to be missed, not sure on the others. I would love to hear what others advise.

Thanks again

My only advice is that would be WAY too much hoping around for me. 2 and 3 day stays spread out all over would be a nightmare trip for me. But per your other thread I see you are a world-traveler so you know better than I do what might work for you. I'm in Mexico now and only can say things do move at a different speed... slower! I'd cut half the places and sort out what is your priority for visiting each.

Our biggest regrets were back- tracking to starting points. No matter how you cut it, it's mostly a day wasted per stop when you consider check out and check in times. JMO, you have way too many stops.

I'll express our current feelings about cities we visited, which you can pull out what you want. Of the cities listed we have only been to CDMX, SMA and Guanajuato. We love to walk and set out on personal adventures. That didn't make Guanajuato a particulary great place for us. Three full days was plenty. Be ccareful of the white van tours which start out promising but mostly we felt was a scam. Places we didn't care to see on that tour and for us turned out to be a sketchy day. If you don't like walking much it's perfect as everything is condensed. There were armed guards around at night. Not a cozy feeling.

We were thinking it would be a toss-up between Guanajuato and SMA, but for us, not even close. I would add an extra day to your SMA trip and try to squeeze in the art district.

We loved learning the history of Mexico. For that, you can hardly beat CDMX, AND Queretaro, which was Capital of Mexico 6 times. QRO'S Centro was much more fun than CDMX but for historical value the two go hand in hand.

SMA and Guanajuato have fewer green areas if that's important. QRO and of course CDMX are full of them. Much of Mexico's revolution is centered around QRO and you also have the aquaduct which is nice to see both day and night. If you haven't been to QRO, my personal feelings are you're missing out. Not trying to change your destination just adding things to think about.

Thanks bear900, on our holidays we enjoy seeing good cultural sights such as ruins, museums, etc, and we love to enjoy great gourmet food when we travel. Those would be our main priorities. We have been to Querataro on one of our previous holidays and we did it very thoroughly, so probably wouldn't want to revisit it. We have been advised that Aguascalientes is probably worth skipping, so we could add a couple of extra days to San Miguel de Allende and San Luis Potosi and remove Aguascalientes to make it:
CDMX: 12-18 December
San Miguel de Allende: 18-23 December
San Luis Potosi: 23-27 December
Guanajuato: 27 December - 1 January
CDMX: 1 January - 3 January

You say our time in Guanajuato is too long, but given that we don't want to go back to Queretaro again, anywhere else you would advise we could go instead, and then we could reduce our time there? We have done a fair bit of Mexico City on past trips, and will be spending a decent amount of time there now too. Our international flights are booked so, regardless, we would be flying in and out of CDMX.

Also, thanks for your input, suze. Haha, this is a holiday for a limited time whereas my Africa etc trip was backpacking for months in my youth and so, yes, I think you are right, it's too many destinations.

Perfect!

What do people think of Aeromexico vs Viva and other airlines? I'm thinking of flights between Mexico City and San Luis Potosi, and then Guanajuato to Mexico City

I've been to all of those cities. I think your itinerary makes perfect sense in that the bus rides are pretty short, and essentially you'd be leaving one city around checkout time (11-12) and getting to the next about check in time (3-4 pm), so I tend to disagree with #2. All of the bus stations are close to the historic centers, (except cdmx, and even their it's not that far) so not much time wasted to/from the bus station. Most airlines advise being at the airport 2 hours in advance for domestic flights, and slp & BJX are a good 30 minutes from their respective city centers, so you're not really saving much time but, spending more money. And flights may not be convenient for your check out/check in, only you can figure that out. Viva is a discount carrier and has somewhat of a reputation for canceling or delays. But if you do check flights, be sure to not use NLU in Mexico City, it's the 'new' airport in the middle of nowhere. A bus from SLP to Guanajuato changes I believe in León, so keep that in mind. But you could easily do a day trip there from Guanajuato if not spend a night or 2. The bus station is in the middle of the leather district so good shopping for purses boots, shoes, jackets etc. Leon is very untouristed by foreigners as is slp.

Thanks Baldone, a lot of comments have suggested we skip Aguascalientes - do you agree?
Also, we have thought perhaps (to alleviate some of the long bus travel) to initially fly ex CDMX to SLP and then at the finish, to fly from Guanajuato to CDMX, to alleviate some of the long bus trips. Thoughts?

It’s doable, but you’re moving a lot. Each transfer eats half a day. If you want the trip to feel more relaxed, I’d cut either Aguascalientes or San Luis Potosí and give that time to San Miguel or Guanajuato instead.

So seeing as it wouldn't be ideal to fly ex-Guanajuato for the reasons stipulated on here, and as we have been advised to not allocate a full 5 days to it, and we shall probably abandon staying in Aguascalientes (and taking into account advice about spending a day in Leon) is there any place we could spend maybe 2-3 nights between Guanajuato and Mexico City to avoid a 5 hour stint on a bus (it would be more pleasant to break up the journey)?
Thanks

Aguascalientes has a very clean historic center but lacking in impressive colonial architecture compared to other cities on your itinerary. The restaurant, lodging & shopping scene is limited as well. Some people enjoy the museum of death, I'm not among them. Outside of Centro, the nearby fairgrounds area, when the fair isn't going on, looks pretty trashy & abandoned.
Flying from CDMX to SLP isn't the worst idea if it's in your budget. The bus trip between the 2 cities is not scenic (except the section near the guanajuato/slp state borders) and can be subject to delays due to accidents, construction or protests. If you were to fly to SLP, you then could avoid the longish bus ride from guanajuato back to CDMX, making San Miguel a stop between guanajuato & cdmx to break up that trip. Although it's still 4 hours from sma to CDMX barring any delays.

At first I was thinking that you were going to SMDA and not hitting Guanajuato next, which is actually very close, but I mapped it out and I see you are doing a big circle. I have only been to three of the places you are going, Guanajuato, SMDA and CDMX. I agree somewhat with janisj, you are going to eat up 5 days with bus travel. Maybe trim it to 4 cities and add a day each. IMO you can't miss Guanajuato. San Miguel is kind of sterile, pretty, but not as rewarding as Guanajuato. I can't talk about San Luis Potosi or Aguascalientes, but maybe take a long bus drive and start in Guanjuato and then end in San Miguel, skipping San Luis Potosi. I bet you have your reasons for going to all of these cities, but I say, slow down, take a breath and less cities and another day in each of the city you are visiting.

I'm sorry for my post, I've been a little out of it and now I realize you are already on this trip and only have a few days left! I hope you had a great time and please report back.