Private driver, bus or rental car: how to get out of Mexico City

To get from Mexico City to another town there are three realistic options: bus, rental car or private driver. All three work; the right one depends on your group, your budget and how much you want to improvise along the way.

Bus. First-class intercity lines are comfortable, punctual and affordable, and they leave Mexico City's terminals for almost any destination in central Mexico. The catch is that they run terminal to terminal on fixed schedules: you can't stop at a lookout, a village halfway there or ruins off the route, and you have to get between your hotel and the terminal on your own.

Rental car. It gives you total freedom, but it means driving in city traffic, paying tolls, dodging speed bumps (topes) and finding parking in historic centers with narrow streets. Check the insurance carefully too: Mexico requires Mexican liability insurance, and usually neither your home policy nor your credit card covers it.

Private driver. We pick you up at your hotel, drive straight to the destination and stop wherever you like. No routes, tolls or parking to worry about, and with a bilingual guide the drive becomes part of the trip. It costs more than the bus, but the price is per car, not per person: split among three or four travelers, the gap narrows a lot.

Our take: if you're traveling solo and going city to city with no stops, the bus is hard to beat. If you're a group, want to combine places in one day (like Puebla and Cholula) or would rather not drive, a private driver is worth it. You can see drive times and a suggested route for each of our destinations.