About 80 miles outside of Mexico City is where you’ll find Grutas Tolantongo hot springs. It’s a beautiful spot surrounded by mountains where pools have been built fed by the natural warm mineral water.
The trip from CDMX took about 3 hours to get there when we left town at 5am. The drive back is slower because of traffic.
A friend suggested that we go check them out as something kind of unique to explore. When she asked how we felt about swimming I was a bit surprised because I’d not seen a lot of swimming pools here and I assume that it’s because it always gets so cool at night, but when she showed me a picture of Grutas Tolantongo I knew that I needed to see it.
The drive from Mexico City actually leaves the state and crosses into the neighboring state of Hidalgo. You pass through a number of small towns on the way and you also get to see how the CDMX suburbs end and transition to other communities.
Something that I found of note. The number of barbacoa places along the way, and especially ones that served Lana (lamb) had my attention, but unfortunately that wasn’t in the works for us. Our mission was to make it to the hot springs.
Our trip was a guided tour with pickup and drop off at our airbnb in Polanco. I booked it through GetYourGuide.com which went very smoothly. Our guide and driver, Diego messaged me via WhatsApp to confirm our address and the 5am meeting time. Diego was great. We very much appreciated his time, and his knowledge about the area.
We were a bit unsure about how to dress and decided to just wear shorts and short sleeves. It was quite a cool and overcast morning and on the way to Hidalgo most people we saw on the streets were bundled up with not only long sleeves, but coats! It was probably 15 degrees C ( about 60 F). Not coat-cold, but it was chilly and with the overcast sky, I was starting to question this activity.
By the time we arrived at the pools it was about twenty till 9 and the skies had cleared perfectly. The air was cool and dry, maybe 65 degrees, but the warm water of the hot springs which feed the pools were nice and warm.
After spending a couple of hours in the pools we took a break for lunch. We drove to a different location where there was a restaurant but also where you can check out some caves and a gorgeous waterfall.
There are two main caves in the area, but the larger one under the big waterfall was closed due to heavier than usual flow because of the rains of the previous night. But the smaller one was open. You walk through the waterfall (and its icy cold water ) to enter the cave but immediately past that cold shower, the steam from the hot spring fed water covering the floor of the cave takes over making it immediately comfortable. I will say that being in the cave for a while waiting for others to go in, make it to the end and turn around took a white and the longer we were in the steamy cave the more I questioned the reasonableness of being there. It’s not for the claustrophobic, but also the steam combined with the uneven water covered floor was wearing me down.
After checking out the cave and waterfall we took a walk down to the river which is usually where our guild would take folks to swim next but because of the rains the normally turquoise river was a muddy, raging river. So instead of swimming there we headed back up to the pools.
I don’t know how warm the water in the pools was but it was pointed out that the higher pools were warmer than the lower ones. We spent time in maybe 3 different ones and the temp difference wasn’t terribly noticeable. The biggest difference to me was the water depth and how easy you had access to put your stuff on the edge.
The area is beautiful and it was very nice to get out of the city and see some nature for a day. It’s a long drive, and makes for a very long day but I was glad that we were able to fit it in during our last week. There are hotels in the area which would probably be nice to stay and make it an overnight trip, but then you’d need to coordinate your ride to and from CDMX. If you’re bold enough to drive in Mexico City’s traffic, it might be worth just renting a car. But I’m sure that there are buses that would get you there and back too.
