How to Take a Vegan Tour of Mexico City: Everything You Need to Know

The Full Itinerary

Day 1: The Adventure Begins

Our team will pick you up at Benito Juarez International Airport (MEX) in Mexico City. After some rest and relaxation, we will walk over to a traditional Mexican vegan restaurant to have a welcome dinner, get to know the amazing people that will be on this journey with you and explore the neighborhood for those who aren’t incredibly jet-lagged. Meals included: dinner

Day 2: Frida Kahlo, Cobblestones and Cafes

After orientation, we will walk over to Casa Azul, Frida Kahlo’s home and sanctuary in the quiet and quaint area of South CDMX. Feeling inspired by her life and art, we will make our way over to a vegan lunch of ceviche and bean sopa.

In the afternoon, we will meander to one of the most quaint and hidden neighborhoods with brick stones, colorful houses and a beautiful sculpture of Diego Rivera. We’ll pop in and out of art galleries and gorgeous shops as we get the lay of the land of where Frida and Diego lived. Meals included: breakfast, lunch and dinner

Day 3: The Pyramids of Teotihuacan

We leave the city to go on an archeological adventure to an ancient Mesoamerican city, which was settled in 400 B.C. We will visit the ruins of the city that hold temples, town squares, and pyramids for the moon and the sun.

For lunch, we will eat at a restaurant that specializes in pre-Hispanic culinary heritage with fresh tortillas and delicious salsa machas. Eating edible cactus and local plants like goosefoot (it’s vegan!) will help us appreciate the vast diversity of vegan food in the world.

After lunch, we will head over to one of the holiest sites for locals, Our Lady of Guadalupe to understand modern-day Mexican spirituality and religion. Tonight dinner will be ordered in from one of our team’s favorite vegan dumpling spot. Meals included: breakfast, lunch and dinner

Day 4: Mexico’s Enduring Indigenous Spirit

After a homey breakfast together, we’ll head over to Chapultapec and step back in time to the Anthropology Museum, a treasure trove of pre-Columbian artifacts, showcasing the rich tapestry of Mexico’s ancient civilizations.

Its awe-inspiring architecture complements the stunning exhibits, creating an immersive experience that transports visitors back in time. Beyond the artifacts, the museum offers a profound understanding of Mexico’s cultural heritage and the enduring spirit of its indigenous peoples.

We’ll then take a stroll through the gorgeous Chapultapec park and discover it’s beauty through lakeside bookstores and admire the jacaranda trees of the city’s springtime. You have the evening free for dinner. Meals included: breakfast, lunch

Day 5: Colorful Downtown, Food and Dances of Historic Centro

We go into the historic downtown and heart of the city full of local food stands, hidden hole in the walls and a vintage churros and hot chocolate dessert shop. Over the course of almost 6 hours, we will walk through the fascinating layers of history and modern day downtown Mexico City, while supporting small vegan businesses, admiring architecture and beautiful city views.

In the evening, we’ll treat ourselves to the majestic Palacio de Bellas Artes for a folk dance performance. Dinner will be a gorgeous balcony terrace restaurant overlooking the town center. Meals included: breakfast, lunch, dinner

Day 6: Free Day

After breakfast, you have a free morning and afternoon to do your own thing like explore the Chapultapec castle, break off into smaller groups to explore a new neighborhood, visit the floating gardens of Xochimilco or get in a massage or simply take a book to a local coffee shop so that you can soak in the adventure.

Our team can help put together any activities for you or organize drivers so that you can spend this time exploring the city in your own way. Some travelers love going to see more Diego murals while others like to make it a museum day. Meals included: breakfast

Day 7: Eco Workshop and Neighborhood Strolls

We start the day with a workshop from a local vegan brand that is moving the needle on producing leather from cactus, apples and pineapple. We will learn about the challenges Mexico faces from environmental to social issues from a female-owned startup.

Afterwards, we’ll go on a walking tour through some of our favorite neighborhoods, hopping in and out of vegan food trucks, art-filled cafes, rooftop terraces and vegan supermarkets. We meander through the prettiest parts of town where we appreciate and soak in the murals, top-notch coffee and flower-filled boutiques. Today you will start to feel like a local. Meals included: breakfast, lunch, dinner

Day 8: Rejuvenation and Farewell

On our last day of the trip, you have the afternoon free to get in last minute shopping, visit a museum that you didn’t get a chance to, go back to your favorite cafe or take it easy.

Later tonight, we have our final goodbye dinner at a beautiful all vegan restaurant. Tonight is for celebrating friendship, travel and Mexico. Meals included: breakfast, lunch, dinner

Airport drop-offs follow on day 9, depending on when you depart from Mexico City.

Vegan in Mexico City and More About Escape To…

Escape To… offers vegan retreats and vegan tours to India, Sri Lanka, Mexico and Switzerland. Prachi Jain, the co-owner of Escape To… shares some insights about her small group tour company and Mexico City. This little interview provides more insight and will also help answer some questions you might have.

What made you want to start a travel company focused on vegan and sustainable travel?

Prachi: I started our company back in 2010. We started hosting international volunteers and interns who wanted to live in India and do meaningful work on a long-term basis.

My goal is to make other travelers fall in love with travel and other cultures, find a sense of community on a global scale, as well as travel while learning from amazing initiatives by local Mexicans.

Mexico just codified animal rights into its constitution, so as vegans, I think it’s a great way to support the country.  Also, for those who aren’t vegan, I want to make this tour a delicious entry-point into the lifestyle.

What makes your trips different from other tourism companies in Mexico?

I think other companies may focus a lot and solely on the tourism and food aspect of the country.  I try to do that as well as add in educational workshops that highlight some of the ways that locals are trying to make an impact on Mexican environmental issues, animal welfare and other social justice oriented projects. 

One of my favorite workshops we did while we had a tour group, was around femicide in Mexico, and it happened to fall during International Women’s Day.  It was so historic to be in the presence of powerful women both present who were at the March as well as walk in the footsteps of revolutionaries like Frida Kahlo.

We are a tour company with a mission to highlight issues and bring forth solutions to issues that we are all connected to.

How are your tours ideal for the first time traveler to Mexico City (and the repeat visitor)?

I think our itinerary for Mexico City is so unique that not many people are doing it.  It’s very slow (8 days) and we don’t move around too much outside of the city. 

We really want people to understand the culture of different neighborhoods and almost feel like they live there.  So for the first time traveler, it will be a really nice pace because you are not changing hotels.

It’s also great for repeat visitors because it shows you the city through a totally different lens.  In fact, I would say 20% of our tour participants have been to Mexico City before but just find our itinerary to be unique as well as being able to go to restaurants, neighborhoods and certain off the beaten track places to be a reason to repeat coming here.

It’s also very small scale – we have no more than 10 participants.  This makes us become like a little family by the end of the week!

How is the vegan movement growing in Mexico City?

From my time living in Mexico City as a vegan, one of the key reasons that I believe veganism is growing there at a rapid pace is due to the pre-Hispanic food traditions that Mexicans already had, where a lot of their recipes are plant-based or can easily be plant-based. 

The spirit of Mexico City has always had an undercurrent of counter-culture, activism, and rock music.  You’ll see that a lot of the vegan restaurants are actually owned and operated by chefs who embrace veganism which is a resistance movement in itself. 

The city has an abundance of fresh produce due to its location and exports to other countries.  So you can find really incredible ingredients in abundance at local markets. 

Lastly, the vegan food is just delicious and very flavorful (even compared to other parts of Mexico). Think tacos that slap, salsas that you can’t replicate on your own, vegan substitutes like chicharron that are available only in the country. 

This coupled with the fact that a lot of vegans don’t believe in vegan elitism and make tacos and other street food really affordable all create the conditions for a rich vegan food ecosystem.

What are some challenges a vegan traveler might face in Mexico City?

It’s interesting how the city and vegan options are laid out.  Of course there are the two neighborhoods that every influencer and American traveler end up staying in which are Roma and Condesa. These places are like bubbles and don’t encapsulate the full experience of the city. 

I do think that once you leave these two neighborhoods, it can be a little bit more challenging to find 100% vegan only places, but there are many places that can veganize food for you. When in doubt, you can always have a tortilla with nopales (cactus) and check if the beans are meat-free (usually they are). 

The street food culture is so tempting, but a vegan traveler would have a hard time finding vegan food stands.  If you are okay to have something vegan prepared on the same surface, you will be okay. 

Once you get out of the city and go to some of the smaller towns around like Xochimilco or Malinalco, you’ll be a little out of luck and have to really be OK with very simple food. The contrast between having very delicious food in the heart of the city to potentially lowering your expectations of what you will find in the smaller towns can be a little disappointing. 

When we do our tours and we are going out of town, I always make sure we get takeaway for the group from a really good spot and that we can have little picnics. Also, of course some travelers get stomach issues so it’s not super advisable to have salads or fresh fruit from the street which is also of course a challenge.

What kinds of food will we eat on our vegan tour to Mexico City?

I’m really excited to have the group try out pre-Hispanic Mexican food that is often not available in North America or other parts of the world. We’ll try something called a tlacoyo which are corn masa pancakes stuffed with beans or quelites (wild greens). 

I love that the vegan cheese in Mexico City uses corn and potato as ingredients – it has a totally different flavor in a kind of “nacho cheese” way and often used on pizzas and tacos.

Previous group tour travelers have told me how much the breakfast blows them away on our tour – all homemade by our favorite cook, Sara.  It will feel like having your very talented aunt cook food for you that’s not available in the restaurants.

More Vegan Guides to Mexico

I’ve visited Mexico on several occasions and I’m always seeking the best plant-based meals. Here are some more vegan guides for destinations in Mexico.

• Best Vegan Restaurants in Puerto Vallarta
• Best Vegan Restaurants in Playa del Carmen
• Vegan Guide for the Grand Palladium Riviera Maya
• 70 Vegan Mexican Recipes You’ll Love