If you’re lucky enough to find yourself in Chiapas, you must, must, must, visit San Cristobal de las Casas.
The city has become a popular traveller’s destination due to its beautiful and colourful historic centre. But there's also so much more worth exploring. Keep reading for 6 ideas of what to do during your stay in Cristobal de las Casas.
Many visitors will come for a day trip, but I urge you to give it more time. We stayed in a hotel in the historic centre for 4 nights and found it to be an ideal amount of time to enjoy the city itself and explore Chiapas.
Many tour companies and trips leave from the Cristobal de las Casas. it seems like there is no need to have to stay or go to Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapa's modern capital, to visit the top attractions around Chiapas.
For more info on how to visit Chiapas, click here.
About San Cristobal de las Casas
San Cristobal de las Casas is a city set in a valley surrounded by pine forest.
The historic town was founded in 1528, and still breathes the air of the ancient, with cobbled streets, traditional markets and hispanic architecture. However, there is certainly a modern element to it nowadays, with young backpackers sitting at trendy cafes, and bars offering jazz nights.
I would recommend at least a day visit to San Cristóbal de las Casas. However, we stayed for 4 nights and found it to be an ideal amount of time to soak in the city, as well as explore the surrounding attractions in Chiapas.
Additionally, we found the historic centre of San Cristobal to be safe and accommodating for tourists.
Indigenous heritage
Chiapas has one of the largest indigenous populations in the country: a quarter of all inhabitants identify with one of 12 recognised groups. Fewer in number than the state's largest indigenous groups — the Tzotzil and the Tzeltal. It's common to see the locals dress in traditional attires and speak their ancestral languages, however in modern day their traditions mix the ancient with the new, with most practising catholicism.
Getting to San Cristobal de las Casas
There are a few options to get to San Cristobal de las Casas, depending on where you are coming from. However, probably the easiest way to get there is to fly to Chiapas' capital city, Tuxtla Gutiérrez airport.
We used Skyscanner to find the flights and then booked them on the airlines' websites, such as Volaris. The airport is modern and easy to navigate. I was actually surprised to see that it was way more modern than Mexico City's airport!
From the airport you can take buses or taxis from the airport to San Cristobal de las Casas. The most affordable way - and a very easy and comfortable option - is to take a "colectivo" from just outside the airport exit. These are mini-buses and run the journey from the airport directly to San Cristobal de las Casas.
Colectivos are much cheaper than taking a taxi. The journey is about an hour and a half. They charged us around 300 Mexican pesos each, but a taxi costs around 1200 Mexican pesos each.
4-day itinerary
Originally, we had thought about dedicating a day to a tour of Palenque, but due to the tour being over 14 hours long, we decided to spend more of our time experiencing San Cristóbal de las Casas and take shorter day trips. In the end, this is how we spent our 4 days:
- Soaking up the historic centre of San Cristóbal de las Casas, such as walking its cobbled streets, visiting its many markets, and trying the local cuisine
- Taking a day trip to the epic Canyon del Sumidero and the town of Chiapa de Corzo - see here
- Visiting indigenous communities outside San Cristobal de las Casas - see here
- Exploring the outside areas of San Cristóbal de las Casas, such as hidden mountain caves, horse riding and seeing the city from a viewing point
6 ideas for what to do in and from San Cristóbal de las Casas
1. Soak up the historic centre
The historic centre is probably the big attraction of San Cristobal de las Casas. The centre is made of colourful cobbled streets with many old churches, big markets which spread out to the streets, restaurants, bars, shops, people selling souvenirs on every corner and a big indigenous influence. It's vibrant, buzzing, and extremely unique.
2. Visit indigenous communities outside San Cristobal
San Juan Chamula: I highly recommend taking a guided excursion to the indigenous communities and especially a visit to the Iglesia de San Juan de Bautista in San Juan Chamula. It is a once-in-a-lifetime experience to step into the modern world of the Tzotzil and Tzeltal Mayan people.
3. Visit the Canyon del Sumidero
If you are in Chiapas you must make the expedition to the Canyon del Sumidero, and the river Grijalva. It is as epic as a jungle canyon can get. Visiting the Canyon was one of our top highlights of the whole trip, and a day I will remember forever.
4. Eat your way around San Cris
Gourmet
Eat at Tierra y Cielo, a restaurant in the historic centre of San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas. It offers a gourmet fine dining experience in an old colonial-style house and uses local ingredients, taking inspiration from ancient Mayan recipes.
The restaurant is part of the gastronomic hotel that bears the same name. Its goal is to rescue Chiapas food through its Regional and Author Cuisine, in this case, the renowned chef Marta Zepeda.
They serve typical dishes of the area but with the gourmet touch that makes for an unforgettable experience.
My favourite dishes from the night were the handmade tacos, which mixed black corn with white corn, to get black and white streaks, then filled with sausage.
Other highlights were the 12 hours of slow-cooked pork - extremely rich - and the fish ceviche, it was delicate and refreshing.
The cocktails using smoky Mezcal and Mexican wine were excellent too.
For our meal, we paid around 50£ each. We were happy as we could never have got such an amazing and high-quality meal with many cocktails and drinks each in London for that price!
Eat like the locals
And if you want to eat like the locals, escape the tourist traps by heading down the side streets away from the tourist areas and asking the locals where they recommend eating.
It's good to know Chiapas and San Cristobal de las Casas is very affordable to eat out, especially when we went to where the locals hang out.
We found a popular local taco joint serving up 6 different taco options, among them: eyeball, brain, cheek, tongue and “head”. Each taco was about £0.20. We were too squeamish to eat eye or brain, but went for "head" - no idea what this means, and to be honest I don't want to know! It was pretty good though.
They had no alcohol license but allowed us to bring beers in from the shop - we def needed a beer or two to rinse down these special tacos!
In Chiapas we also noticed different ingredients being used. Have you ever seen black tortillas before? They are made with back corn and taste pretty much the same as normal yellow corn!
The meal in the photos below was a memorable one, we stopped at a restaurant to get a beer and a snack. We both ordered a “Small” soup. But in Mexico, it’s very normal to bring you chips and dips courtesy of the house. They also brought out nuts, and then rice, beans and tortillas for side dishes of the soup. Wow, a lot of food for just ordering a starter!
In the end, I paid £4 and got a big beer and an Aztec soup (but it was a whole meal!)! And it was also such a beautiful spot, in an old colonial courtyard. Chiapas overall is very cheap and generous, not unlike other parts of Mexico like Tulum where prices increase (a lot!)
5. Step into nature right outside the city at Rancho Nuevo
Recommended by our hotel waiter, Rancho Nuevo is a fun local park in the mountains, with caves, horse-riding and different activities. It's a quick drive from town, we got a taxi to take us there.
6. Take in the views at La Iglesia de San Cristobalito
Head up to La Iglesia de San Cristobalito and see the views down to the city. There's a fun zig-zag walk that leads back to the historic centre
Travel details
Accommodation Recommendation - San Cristobal📍
We stayed in the hotel Casa Santa Lucia in the historic centre. The building is a beautiful colonial-style house. We had a lovely and large ensuite, with the biggest and most comfortable bed we had ever slept in! We felt like Aztec royalty sleeping there.
Breakfast was included in the price, and the options to choose from were vast and generous. It was hands down the best hotel breakfast we had in Mexico, and perhaps even on our travels. The staff we also so kind and accommodating, chatting with us and always offering help and assistance.
I do recommend the hotel, and it's in heart centre of the old town - a great and safe location!
Total price for 4 nights for 2 people: MXN 6,860.52. Approx £296.
Address: Avenida Josefa Ortiz de Dominguez # 13, Barrio Santa Lucia, 29250 San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Mexico
Our Mexico Trip Itinerary
We travelled around Mexico for nearly 3 weeks. We divided the trip into 4 parts, with 4 nights in each location, to explore the different sides of the country:
- Mexico City (Central Zone)
- Puerto Escondido (Pacific coast)
- Chiapas - San Cristobal de las Casas (Central South)
- Tulum (Caribbean coast)
