Hello everyone,
My family of five (including three teenagers) is planning our first trip to Mexico city in March 2025 for 12 nights
We were planning on staying in CDMX for 4-5 nights, then seeing another town ? San Miguel de Allende or Guanajuato and then doing beach time at Cabo. We were not planning on renting a car. However I see that to get to Cabo, we would have to drive from SMA to Queretaro and then fly.
Questions :
1. Would you recommend skipping SMA / Guanajuato and instead doing just CDMX and then CABO ?
2. Are there alternative cool towns near CDMX that we could perhaps visit that would be closer or easier to access than SMA?
3. How many nights would you recommend in CDMX ?
I am sure I will have plenty more questions as the trip planning continues !

Thanks so much!

If you do go to San Miguel, renting a car to get to QRO may not be an option. I'd suggest a shared van with Bajiogo, although at $30 USD p/p, that's not cheap for 5 people. Afaik, Bajiogo is also the only car rental option in San Miguel so you could inquire about one way rental drop off fees. If they did offer a one way, you could also visit Bernal or Tequisquiapan which are both close to QRO.
If you did do sma/Gto, you could check airfare to Cabo out of BJX (Leon) as well.
Closer to CDMX are the 3 small Pueblo Mágicos of Huasca De Ocampo, Real del monte & mineral del Chico. Mining towns and nice outdoorsy type stuff in Chico, Mexico's 1st national park. But maybe not easier to get to than San Miguel, since I believe you'd have to take a bus to Pachuca then a colectivo or taxi to Real Del Monte. Bus to San Miguel is pretty straight forward.
If you decide to spend the entire portion of your trip in cdmx, a long day trip to the hot springs of Tolantongo might work as well.
4-5 days in cdmx would give you a good feel for the city. Some people would stay longer, but the city is pretty hectic, so with 5 people it might be kind of tiring if you'd stay a lot longer.
Another popular option is Puebla.

If a beach town is the reason you are thinking of Cabo, Puerto Vallarta is closer and driveable from Mexico City.

Do you realize it's over 500 miles from CDMX to PV? Plus over $2000 mxn in tolls. So that's a 2 day drive, and that means a hotel & meals along the way. Gas in Mexico is about $6 USD/gallon. And with 5 people & luggage, probably need an SUV which is probably $80 usd/day. Then the drive back unless you're able to find and afford the one-way drop off fee. So I suppose in theory it'd be driveable, but certainly not practical nor economical. Nor relaxing.

They can fly to PV. They are considering Cabo which is a lot further. It was just a suggestion.

Is there a particular reason that you chose Cabo?

I did like Puebla which is easy to reach from Mexico City by bus.

Thank you everyone for the advice - much appreciated!
I did not look at Puebla . I only picked Cabo on the advice of Canadian friends.
So very happy for the suggestions to check out something different and will definitely look at Puebla.

Do you think its worth it doing a trip to SMA ?
I think I can book a bus trip .

If you want a beach location, see if you can find an airport that you can fly home from. I know that Mazatlan is another traditional "snowbird" city. Much nicer beaches than Puerto Vallarta and superb seafood, generally you get more for the Canadian dollar there.

So you could fly in to CDMX and out of MZT, as an example.

There is actually a bus station at the CDMX airport with regular busses to Puebla. What I did was to go first to Puebla when I arrived at the airport. There may be better ways for you to return to Mexico City direct to your hotel with a car service. You could ask at your hotels, I guess. Or it may be just as easy to bus back to the airport and then Uber to your hotel.

BTW Uber is better than taxi in Mexico City. It is also available in Puebla.

San Miguel will be more of a contrast to CDMX than Puebla is in a big city/small city sort of way. More English spoken in San Miguel, if that makes a difference. But even in Puebla, you can get around just fine with limited Spanish. Teens might enjoy one of the nearby hot springs in San Miguel. Parents too. Either city is fine, they're just quite different. Similar to what mlgb said, the beach area you may choose I think may also be influenced by which aitport offers the 'best' flights, not only by price, but arrival/departure choices and proximity. The closest beach to Mexico City is Acapulco, which can be reached by bus, I think in about 5 hours.
In choosing an airport in cdmx, be aware that the NLU airport is a long way from the city center with limited transportation options. MEX is a better choice.
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CDMX is huge! Spend as many nights as you can there.

I only picked Cabo on the advice of Canadian friends.

Nothing wrong with Cabo San Lucas. I've been there and enjoyed it. Rather it just doesn't fit with the rest of your trip. Since there are many other beach destinations just as nice.

I don't know how they arrive (by bus, car, or plane) but there's a lot of money and visitors from both Mexico City and Guadalajara in Puerto Vallarta.

There are a whole string of resorts around the tip of Southern Baja California. Cabo San Lucas itself is kind of party central with all of the bars and cruise ships in town (Medano Beach and the public beach near the cruise pier).

The one thing it has going for it is that is not as hot and humid as the Mexican Riviera. Though in March you may want that!!

"CDMX is huge! Spend as many nights as you can there."

I agree. Spent nine nights in CDMX and yearn to return.

As far as all this, just pull up a map of Mexico Kind of easy to see why Cabo is a bit out of the way but a flight there from Mexico City is certainly available. But I wouldn't go there just because one friend liked it

I did not find Cabo to be "party central". Certainly that is available but not necessary if it's not your thing. I stayed in a downtown hotel (sadly closed a few years ago) but could walk to Medano. My "problem" with the Baja idea for this question... is it doesn't fit geographically from the other places they/you want to go.

There's plenty of nice beaches within the Bay of Banderas (where Puerto Vallarta is located) but you'd probably need to research and/or stay awhile to know about them. PV wouldn't impress most people if they only saw it on a cruiseship stop.

@BaldOne / mlgb / suze / maitaitom / blakewebster :

Thank you ALL for the very useful input.
I think I am hearing that CABO may be out of the way. I will look into extending time around CDMX and look to see what flights are best to return direct to TORONTO from Mazatlan vs Puerto Vallarta.
Also appreciate the tip about choosing airport in CDMX as MEX
Thank you for all your help

I think I am hearing that CABO may be out of the way.

Just look at a map of the country Easy to see where things layout. Even at a glance you can see where Mexico City, San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato are located in relation to the Baja Peninsula or the Pacific coastal beach towns.

None are out of the way if you want to add another flight or two to get there.

Flights to Cabo vs PV are only about 40 minutes longer. The time zone difference mitigate that to a degree.
And if proximity to CDMX is a factor, you could also look at Ixtapa/Zihuatanejo & Troncones. Which are closer than PV. And nowhere near as touristy. Plus cheaper.

Just as I did not find Cabo "party central" I don't find Puerto Vallarta too "touristy" or at least no more "touristy" than Cabo San Lucas.

"Puerto Vallarta set unprecedented records in key tourism metrics in 2023, according to data from the Tourist Information System of the State of Jalisco. The city welcomed a record-breaking 6.04 million visitors in 2023"
Link:
https://banderasnews.com/puerto-vall...surge-in-2023/

Guess someone must like it there.