Hidalgo

Hidalgo is the state closest to Mexico City that preserves truly wild nature: the Grutas de Tolantongo—with its turquoise thermal pools nestled in a limestone canyon—is the most impressive weekend destination just hours from the capital, and increasingly known internationally. The Valle del Mezquital, with its semi-arid landscape and Otomí communities, is another world just 90 minutes from Mexico City.

Pachuca, the capital and Mexico's oldest city according to some records, was the heart of the silver mining industry during the Colonial period. Real del Monte, where English miners worked in the 19th century and left behind pastes—empanadas filled with potato, meat and chile—is today a Pueblo Mágico with an English atmosphere in the heart of the Mexican Altiplano.

Huasca de Ocampo, surrounded by basaltic prisms up to 40 meters high—unique hexagonal volcanic rock formations found nowhere else in Mexico—and Mineral del Chico, with its National Park of forests and waterfalls, showcase the green and fresh face of a state that surprises those who discover it. Tula, the Toltec capital, with its 4.6-meter tall atlante warriors standing atop the pyramid, is essential for understanding prehispanic Mexico.

Hidalgo's gastronomy holds unique treasures: barbacoa de borrego cooked in an earth oven reaches its purest expression here, and fresh pulque made from maguey—an ancestral beverage experiencing a renaissance in recent years—has its true homeland in the Valle del Mezquital.