Nevado de Toluca, the 4th highest peak in Mexico.. don't worry if you don't have a car, here is your budget guide for hiking this 14,000 ft+ mountain, with public transport, as a daytrip from Mexico City.
Nevado de Toluca is a volcanic crater located just outside the city of Toluca in the state of Mexico, which is just outside Mexico City. This trip has been in the works for a while and I was just trying to figure out where we would base ourselves. Although I'm sure there is plenty to see in Toluca as it is a big city, there wasn't a single hostel in the city which was a sign that it's not a very touristic place. I would recommend you either go all out and decide to camp by the mountain OR the easier alternative which is swing a day trip from CDMX!
If you have a longer stay in Mexico City or are based in a key backpacker hostel, definitely ask around for an existing Nevado tour! My friends and I were short on time so decided to figure out our own public transport, but I think if you are a solo traveler, your best and maybe cheapest option will to be to find a tour van. More below on the total costs of the travel...
Here's what our day looked like going to the Nevado, hiking, and coming back...
5:30 AM: Woke up and made our way to Observatorio terminal, the main bus station on the eastern side of Mexico City. Although you could also leave from Mexico Norte station, this ride will be much faster and cheaper from Observatorio.
6:30 AM: Bought a 1 hour, 80 peso ($5 USD) ticket to Toluca station. Ride was beautiful going through the mountainous pine forests on the outskirt of the city!
Getting to Toluca station and starting the trail. I liked the axolotl vending machine hehe.
7:30 AM: Arrived at Toluca station and unfortunately, we did NOT find any of the transit options we had hoped for according to various travel blogs. We looked for a route within the bus station with no luck, and we also tried to leave the station to cross the main boulevard and wait for a local bus that would supposedly arrive. Again no luck, and the locals insisted that route didn't exist either. We swallowed our defeat and negotiated for a taxi for $250 pesos ($13 USD) to Raices, about a 30 minute ride. (Of course, the taxi ride didn't end up as we expected either, and at the end we paid a total of 350 for the driver to take us all the way to the base camp of Nevado de Toluca. A veces, así son las cosas. You have been warned!)
9:00 AM: Now at the base camp, you have the option to take on a moderate hike up the crater, or do the more common thing which is pay for a squished 50 peso colectivo that takes a good 30 minutes to arrive right at the crater entrance. (More on that later on our way out)
We decided to hike up the crater! We had a really good start time despite a few hiccups, as we thought it would take at least three hours to get to the trail head from the city. The beginning of the hike was absolutely beautiful and we were already very high up so it was an alpine forest. (We were super lucky to feel in really good shape despite the altitude, very little sleep, and drinking at Lucha Libre the night before lol, you should be hydrating and resting before!)
Nevertheless, the weather was really comfortable and we shed most of our layers quick! As always, download as many maps as you can find on AllTrails and Wikiloc*** despite us having multiple maps and an idea of where we were going, we still veered off the main trail and relied on the few fellow hikers around us at points. Approaching the crater rim, we lost the other groups of hikers and saw what looked like a nice, though very steep ascent up the crater. We decided to go for it and definitely did a bit of trail blazing, but always kept our eyes on the main road. This part was really hard, with slippery shale making every step difficult. Finally, after just 2.5 hours of walking and a huge elevation gain, we surfaced the crater rim and were struck by the beautiful blue lagoon below.
You might not be able to tell, but pic on the left is one of the steepest inclines I've hiked, very scrambly.
12:00 PM: So we sat and enjoyed the view, which was still a bright blue before the afternoon clouds (or storms!) would take over. The name in Nahautl means 'naked man,' which was super evident because there was very little vegetation up here and most the stark colors came from the beautiful geological formations. I think we just missed any glimpse of snow, which has practically all melted by the end of March. The rainy season starts more in May-September, so we wanted to get this trip in April before bad weather!
I was definitely happy we made good timing and we finished off on an obvious crater rim trail, though admittedly we kinda forged our own path to get there... at this point we were at about 14,800 feet and we assessed if we would be able to continue onwards to the highest point, Pico de Fraile at 15,354 ft (4680 m). It was clearly on our maps but the route just seemed pretty technical and you would have to boulder some parts, if not use ropes. We could see large groups of people across the way at the peak and more on the way, but it seemed out of our reach and the clouds were being threatening, so we decided to work our way down instead of up.
Again since we took a less conventional path up, we were kinda dropped off in the middle of the rim and we had to decide on the best way down to the lagoon. The trail gave us a little vertigo because it was very narrow, but we got to the main crater entrance in no time where we were greeted by hoards of tourists that had driven all the way up (yeah, we felt cool cause we hiked it!) We stopped for lunch and the lagoon slowly clouded over and everything got a little colder. With our exhaustion, the altitude, and lack of any real food we finally started to feel kinda woozy.
2:00 PM: With the little energy we had left, we wanted to hike a little ways down to go touch Laguna del Sol, the larger of the two lagoons in the crater. The other, Laguna de la Luna, is a slightly darker blue color. The hike down to the lagoon was a fast 10 minutes, and the water was of course, freezing. If you drive all the way up to the crater entrance, you probably have the energy to walk around both lagoons in the base of the crater. We did NOT have it in us. In my opinion, the views of the lagoon are ultimately the views from above!
3:30 PM: Heading out. We trudged about 15 minutes on a relatively flat trail to get to the main entrance/exit, where all the tourists who arrived on transport were coming and going. At this point we learned we had figured a life hack! Entering the crater would've cost us 150 pesos ($8 USD, a good amount) but we avoided that from walking up the side of the crater lol. Though exhausted, we were stoked for such an adventure and we hopped into a colectivo for 50 pesos which would take us back to base camp. I couldn't believe how much they charged us because the truck bed was way over crammed with tired hikers and it was a long 40ish minute journey. I would highly recommend hiking up and taking the transport down like we did, because there is plenty time to fit this hike in a day.
At this point, we did everything in reverse. There weren't Toluca taxis waiting for us at base camp per se, though we got a driver to take us to another spot to catch a taxi and did the whole trip back to CDMX in reverse. It was a long, tiring day and once finally arrived in CDMX by 6:30 PM, we finished off with a Little Caesars pizza because we didn't even have the energy to scope a good restaurant. We were POOPED!
With the boys!
In total, the public transport roundtrip between Nevado de Toluca and CDMX, including my share of the taxis we split between 3 people, was about 450 pesos ($25 USD). With the current prices for transport in Mexico, I think this is actually pretty good and I'm happy with it! Had we also paid the entrance fee, the whole day would have been slightly costlier. All in all, this adventure was such a worthwhile trip and I always love being surprised by new destinations which change my impression of Mexico. Though we think of beaches or desert in Mexico, I'm finally starting to get to know the mountains and this is just the first of many I have planned... I was stoked to share this trip with my friends this time, sometimes solo travel isn't the only way! Happy senderismo!
Plushy Baby has now been on Kilimanjaro, Mount Teide, Pico (Azores), Cotopaxi, Nevado de Toluca, Iztaccihuatl. what's next!?
