Hiking Nevado de Toluca

Nevado de Toluca Facts.

Elevation: 4691 m / 15390 ft
Distance: 7.4 kms
Elevation Gain: 491 m / 1610 ft
Climbing Difficulty: Class 3, some scrambling and steep scree descent.
Hiking Time: 6-8 hours. This depends on your route. This is. the standard route.
When to Climb: Conditions are best from November to March. We climbed in August though.

Hiking Nevado de Toluca was not something we really set out to do when arriving in Mexico. To be perfectly honest we really only found out about it while scrolling some Mexican Instagram pages. It looked super cool and it was close to Mexico City which was obviously already on our list. We did a little research and quickly realized that is is so much more than just a quick Insta opportunity for people living in Mexico City.

What we found here though was an incredibly beautiful mountain that is also challenging, especially if you’re not acclimatized. The views are like something out of a movie. The aqua blue water from the lakes in the crater contrasting against the browns of this long-extinct volcano made for a mind-blowing backdrop to what ended up being an incredibly fun hike.

Our main goals as far as mountains in Mexico were climbing Pico de Orizaba and climbing Iztacchiutal if you might be interested in those hikes you can check out our posts about them in the links.

Getting to Nevado de Toluca

Getting there by car

The drive to Nevado de Toluca takes about three hours and unlike most of the other major volcanos it sits to the west of Mexico City. You basically just need to take the number 15 west out of the city towards Toluca. If you can head to the south when you get close to the city to try and bypass as much traffic as possible. You will need to get onto the 134 in the south of the city and from here there are signs to Nevado de Toluca. I have pinned the location just below so you can just follow it there also.

Getting to Nevado de Toluca by Bus

Getting there by bus from Meixco is also fairly easy. Flecha Roja offers frequent bus service to Toluca from Mexico City’s Observatorio and Central del Norte bus stations. Getting to Toluca by bus takes a bit over an hour and the price is about 80 pesos ($4 USD). From Toluca, you can grab a taxi or get a driver to take you up the mountain. You will not need the driver to wait for you as there seemed to always be taxis waiting in the car park for hikers coming down.
Buses also run ($40 MXN) to the base camp where the walk to the main parking lot is about 4 hours. But from here you can also take a camioneta ($50 MXN) or catch a ride up with some other hikers.

Climbing Nevado de Toluca

Once you arrive in the parking lot it is only a short 10-minute hike up to the rim of the crater. We were already huffing and puffing and we started to doubt our ability to do this. It was only our second hike in Mexico and was the highest so far, so the altitude was getting to us a little bit. Our second winds kicked in though and things became a little easier.

Once you arrive at the crater rim you catch your first views on the crater lakes. This is where a lot of people stop, and if they do proceed further they only really hike down to the lakes. Due to the fact that Toluca is so close to two cities, it gets very crowded, especially on weekends and holidays. If you head past the lakes you can expect to leave almost all of the crowd behind though.

Nevado de Tolucas’ last eruption was about 25,000 years ago but it was one of life changing proportions for the volcano leaving a crater a mile wide. Geologists believe that Nevado de Toluca may have been the biggest volcano in Mexico before this.

We headed up to the right first to take a few photos and then headed down into the crater. After you pass between the lakes you begin to ascend again. This section is steep. You are still on a well-worn trail and if you have a clear day and look to your left you will have an incredible view over a few other volcanos.

Once you reach the ridge the scramble starts. There are a few sections here that are a little steep and there is a little basic climbing but nothing is too crazy. This continues for a while over a few peaks that you will think are the summit, but they are not.

Once you’re standing on Pico de Fraile(the actual summit name) you will be fairly exposed to the elements. It is also a little more pointy than it looks so umm yeah there is that. We expected a little more room up there but movements were slow.

We descended the same way we went up. But there are several ways down. We also read it was possible to do a full circuit of the crater rim but it looked a lot further than the way we just came haha.

Things to know about hiking Nevado de Toluca

So there are a few other things to know about hiking Nevado de Toluca.

One is that it is cold. It snows up there at certain times of the year we were there. So take warm clothes. I will put a packing list below for a little more guidance.
You will also need to take food. There are some small shops right at the start of the trail but they sell candy and soft drink. Nothing really worth eating on a full day hike though.

There are toilets here which is nice and not that common, they cost 5 pesos a hit. Don’t hold it and poop in the old building in the crater, like some people seem to have(completely disgusting and unacceptable) there is not a toilet in there!!

At no extra cost to you, some of the links in this article are affiliate links and by using them Sara and I receive a small commission. This goes towards helping us continue to explore and write articles like this. 😁

Where to stay in Toluca

There are actually a few options to camp up near the volcano. You will need all your own gear and you will want to make sure it is warm gear.

There are four main options and they are as follows.

1) This is what we did as we wanted to go up for sunrise. We stayed in the main car park in our van. We checked with security first and they said it was completely fine and asked us to let them know if we needed anything. If you’re going to do this though make sure you talk to them though because rules and regulations change and maybe a point in time will come when they are no longer open to this. They let us camp for free.

2) The National Park Hut at the Crater Gate is the next closest option to the crater. I think it’s about 6 or 7kms from the main car park. The hut is super basic and sleeps 5 to 10 people(not sure of exact number). It costs $30 MXN ($1.50 USD) per person per night. I don’t think there is any booking process.

Remember this hut sits at 4050 meters so if you’re not used to this altitude you will probably have a terrible nights sleep. We did at 4200 m anyway.

3) Albergue Alpino is a few kilometers further down the road. It can sleep 64 people and costs $2-3 USD. I think you need your own sleeping bag also.You may camp here. But like I said, have warm gear!

4) Family Lodge is a lodge located where you pay the small entrance fee to the park. They have 14 rooms for a few dollars each. It is only open on weekends though and personally if I had a choice I would avoid a trip to Nevado de Toluca on the weekend. Weekdays are far less crowded. Again camping is permitted here also.

Hotels in Toluca

Budget – Peña de Carlo

Midrange – Quinta del Rey Express

Luxury – Crowne Plaza

Where to stay in Mexico City

Budget – Casa Pepe – breakfast included

Midrange – City Express Junior CDMX Sullivan

Luxury – Hotel Zocalo Central

If you’re looking for other hiking day trips from Mexico City that are a little more relaxed then check out these six.

Packing list for Hiking Nevado de Toluca

• Good hiking boots Boots are highly personal but we have had these in everything from minus 35C to plus 30 and they have been perfect for everything. I wouldn’t attempt Everest in them though haha.
• Good socks lifetime warranty merino wool socks
• Thermal top – Thermals are like the number one best hiking companion. They roll up so tiny and add so much warmth. We never leave home without them anymore.
• Thermal Bottom – same as top but for the bottom
• Sun cream – environmentally friendly sun cream
• Sunglasses, it gets soooo bright and the sun is harsh.
• Jacket – these also roll down really small and add so much warmth. Also Patagonia has a lifetime warranty on all products.
• Gortex Shell – the wind is super harsh up there almost year round.
• Gloves – nothing ruins your day faster than cold hands.
• Camera – for memories duh, this is what we use for most of our photos
• Lens – this is also our primary lens.
• GoPro – the new one has really good image stabilization which makes everything look super crispy.
• Warm pants
• Backpack – our packs are a few years old now but this pack came up in the top three of almost every best backpack guide for 2019 list.