The agave is the whole trip. Here is where to drink it.
Which Tequila Route day out of Guadalajara is worth the coach. What a palenque tasting in the Oaxaca valley costs. Whether the Cancún combos pour anything you would order twice. Reviews of every tequila and mezcal tour you can book in Mexico.
Three to book first
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Full Day Tour to Tequila and Amatitán with Fun and Culture
★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · from $47
The Tequila Route, done properly
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Hierve el Agua, Tule Tree, Mitla and Mezcal Distillery Tour
★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · from $55
The Oaxaca valley and a working palenque
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Food & Mixology Tour:Tequila,Tacos, Mezcal and Agave Cocktails
★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · from $98
Tacos, mezcal and agave cocktails in Vallarta
A field in Jalisco, a palenque in Oaxaca, a cenote, a ringside seat.
The four days that carry more travellers than anything else here. What each one costs a head, and what the people who took it say afterwards.
01The big oneChichen Itza, Cenote & Valladolid Tour with Tequila and LunchChichén Itzá, a swim in a cenote and a tasting in Valladolid on the way back. Nothing else on the site is booked as often.
02The Guadalajara dayPremium Tequila Tour with Tastings and PairingsA premium tasting out in the agave fields. Blanco, reposado and añejo poured in the order that finally makes the difference obvious.
03The Oaxaca runHierve el Agua, Tule Tree, Mitla and Mezcal Distillery TourHierve el Agua, the Tule tree and Mitla, then a palenque where the agave still goes under a stone wheel.
04The night outLucha Libre Tickets & Tacos & Beer & Mezcal – BEST NIGHT EVER!A lucha libre card in Mexico City with tacos, beer and mezcal between the bouts.
Six Mexican cities, and the agave day each one does best.
The fields and the town of Tequila sit an hour from Guadalajara. The village palenques are east of Oaxaca. On the coasts the pour comes at the end of a dirt road or a cenote swim. Pick the base and the day follows.
Guadalajara sits an hour from the field the whole drink comes out of.
Four ways to spend that hour: the Tequila Route by coach, a distillery with a working still, a small-group flight of older expressions, or a car and a guide of your own. Prices are per head.
★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · Full Day Tour to Tequila and Amatitán with Fun and Culture
The Tequila RouteAmatitán, the agave rows, and the town itself.
A working distilleryOven, mill, still, barrel room, then the pour.
A premium flightSmall group, older bottles, someone who can explain them.
Your own carChoose the distilleries, set the hour, skip the coach.
All 67 days out of Guadalajara →
Mezcal is made in village yards, not factories.
East of Oaxaca City the palenques are family ground: agave roasted for days in a rock-lined pit, crushed under a stone wheel a horse drags in circles, fermented in open wood, distilled in clay. That is where the smoke comes from. Most days pair one with Hierve el Agua or the Sunday market at Tlacolula.
The agave days more travellers book than any other in Mexico.
All of it, reviewed →Where each one goes, what it pours at the end, and what it costs to get on it.
1
Chichen Itza, Cenote & Valladolid Tour with Tequila and Lunch
Travel from Cancun, Riviera Maya, or Playa del Carmen to Chichen Itza with a bilingual guide such as Beto, Kevin, or Manuel. Explore El Castillo, the Temple of the Warriors, and the ball court, then swim at Cenote Chichikan, eat a Mexican buffet, taste tequila, and stop in Valladolid. Choose carefully between standard, all-inclusive, VIP, and private options.
From · $34
Read our review →
2
Cabo Beach Camel Ride, Mexican Buffet and Tequila Tasting
from $99
3
Early morning Chichen Itza Tour: Cenote and Tequila Tasting
from $26
4
4×4 ATV Adventure with Tequila Tasting and Mexican Buffet Lunch
from $75
5
Cancun ATV Jungle Adventure, Ziplines, Cenote and Tequila Tasting
from $49
6
Puerto Vallarta Best Zipline Canopy + Tequila and Speed Boat Ride
from $120
7
ATV Tour, Camel Ride, Tequila Tasting and Mexican Buffet Lunch
from $149
8
Cabo Migrino Beach and Desert ATV Tour plus Tequila Tasting
from $75
On the Caribbean side the tasting comes after the cenote.
Cancún and Playa sell the agave as the last stop of a long day: the ruins at Chichén Itzá, a swim in cold fresh water, lunch, then a small pour of something trucked over from Jalisco. Good value for the day. Rarely the reason you flew.
Every Cancún day out →
Cabo and Puerto Vallarta pour theirs at the end of a dirt road.
A buggy through the Sierra desert, a horse along the sand at Migriño, a zipline over the jungle above Vallarta. The tasting is what waits at the ranch afterwards, and the same handful of families run most of them.
- 1Cabo Beach Camel Ride, Mexican Buffet and Tequila Tastingfrom $99
- 2ATV Tour, Camel Ride, Tequila Tasting and Mexican Buffet Lunchfrom $149
- 3Cabo Migrino Beach and Desert ATV Tour plus Tequila Tastingfrom $75
What an agave day in Mexico actually costs.
Every tour here, grouped by the price of one seat. The cheapest decent tasting comes in under a round in a Cancún hotel bar.
City mezcalerías, museum flights, and the Tequila Route by coach.
Full days: the Oaxaca valley run, the Yucatán combos, the ranch tracks that end in a tasting room.
Private drivers, older bottles poured slowly, and days built around four of you.
Three things that only happen where the agave grows.
Distilleries exist everywhere. A town that took the drink’s name, a horse turning a stone wheel through roasted agave, and a mezcal passed down the row at the lucha do not.
The town called Tequila
An hour and a half northwest of Guadalajara the road runs through blue agave to a town that either took the drink’s name or gave it. Cuervo has distilled on the plaza since 1795 and the fields around it are a protected landscape. Most days add Amatitán, where the older haciendas sit, and come back on the cantaritos bus.
- 1Full Day Tour to Tequila and Amatitán with Fun and Culture★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 681 reviews
- 2Tequila Town and Cantaritos El Guero★★★★★★★★★★ 4.0 · 211 reviews
- 3Premium Tequila Route with professional tasting★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 139 reviews
A palenque, not a plant
In the villages east of Oaxaca City the agave is roasted for days in a rock-lined pit, crushed under a stone wheel a horse pulls in circles, fermented in open wood and run through clay. Taste it beside a Jalisco blanco and the smoke stops being a flavour note and becomes a method. The same day usually takes in the mineral terraces at Hierve el Agua and the weavers at Teotitlán.
- 1Hierve el Agua, Tule Tree, Mitla and Mezcal Distillery Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,094 reviews
- 2Explore Hierve el Agua, Mitla, Tule, Textile and Mezcal for a day★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,043 reviews
- 3Hierve el Agua and Mezcal Distillery★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 615 reviews
Mezcal at the lucha
Arena México on a Friday: masks, folding seats, six bouts on the card and a cup going down the row between them. The tours put tacos and mezcal either side of the fight and get you close enough to hear the canvas. Nothing about the evening is quiet, and nobody there is pretending otherwise.
- 1Lucha Libre Tickets & Tacos & Beer & Mezcal – BEST NIGHT EVER!★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,077 reviews
- 2Lucha Libre Tour and Mezcal Tasting in Mexico City★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 519 reviews
- 3Xochimilco: Tequila tasting (unlimited) and cultural party on a boat★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 259 reviews
What an agave day asks of you before you turn up.
A distillery needs a working day: most palenques and haciendas run Monday to Saturday and the still is cold on Sunday. Every tasting is eighteen-plus and they do ask. Nobody drives themselves home from the fields, which is why the coach or the private car is the product rather than an upsell. And a half day out of Guadalajara is three hours of it on the road.
Blanco, reposado, añejo: the tastings that make the difference land.
From a museum flight in Mexico City to a table on a Jalisco ranch. The good ones pour in order, hand you orange and sal de gusano instead of lime and salt, and let you sit with the glass a while.
By place — coast, capital and highland
Guadalajara, Tequila, Mexico City, Oaxaca: the loop people come back for.
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