Town Coyoacán, Ciudad de México Municipality of Coyoacán Valley of Mexico
Cortés's first seat of New Spain, later home to Frida Kahlo and Trotsky: twin plazas, a 16th-century parish, a market and cobbled streets.
From Mexico City: 15 min by car (12 km by road) How to get there ↓
Near here
Plan your visit to Coyoacán
Where to stay near Coyoacán
Compare hotels, posadas and guest houses in Coyoacán.
Tours to Coyoacán
Day trips around Tepoztlán sometimes stop in Coyoacán; a tour is the easy way to see it without a car.
Xochimilco, Coyoacan and Frida Kahlo with Optional Lunch
★ 4.5 (8,395) · From US$40
How to get to Coyoacán
- From Mexico City: about 15 min by road (~12 km)
- Nearest airport: Mexico City (MEX), 1 h 25 min by car to Tepoztlán
Links open a partner site. We may earn a commission if you book, at no cost to you.
Popular tours to Coyoacán
Tours, prices and ratings from Viator, checked weekly. We may earn a commission if you book.
About Coyoacán
Coyoacán was a town long before it was part of Mexico City. Its name comes from the Nahuatl Coyōhuahcān, usually read as the place of those who have coyotes, and it began as a Tepanec town on the southern shore of Lake Texcoco that the Mexica conquered between 1429 and 1431. After the fall of Tenochtitlan in 1521, Hernán Cortés set up his base here, and for about two years, until 1523, Coyoacán was the first seat of the government of New Spain. It joined the Federal District in 1857 and became a borough in 1928, but the old Villa Coyoacán kept its plazas, churches and village scale, and in 2011 the city named it a Barrio Mágico.
The heart of the barrio is a pair of squares that run into each other. Jardín Hidalgo has an early 20th-century bandstand and, on its north side, the 18th-century building known as the Casa de Cortés, which has housed the local government since the 1850s and has a mural of pre-Hispanic Coyoacán in its council hall; it stands on the site of Cortés's later offices, not his home. Jardín Centenario next door is known for its fountain with two bronze coyotes. Between them rises the parish of San Juan Bautista, built by the Franciscans and finished in 1552, one of the three oldest parish churches in the city. A short walk away are the small chapel of La Conchita and, at Higuera 55, the house traditionally linked to La Malinche, seen only from outside.
From the 1920s the barrio drew painters, writers and film stars, among them Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, Octavio Paz and Dolores del Río, and that bohemian air still hangs over its cafés. Frida's Casa Azul is a few blocks north, and Leon Trotsky's house, where he was murdered in 1940, is now a museum too. The covered Mercado de Coyoacán, built in 1956 to a design by Pedro Ramírez Vázquez, is full of produce and food stalls, and the 39-hectare Viveros de Coyoacán, the country's oldest tree nursery, is now a park with trails and squirrels. Weekdays are calm; on weekends craft stalls fill the squares and the borough reckons some 70,000 people pass through.
How to get to Coyoacán
Drive from Mexico City: 15 min, 12 km
Metro Line 3 to Coyoacán station, then allow at least 20 minutes on foot south to Plaza Hidalgo, or catch one of the green-and-grey microbuses outside the station marked Plaza Hidalgo. From Metro General Anaya on Line 2 it is about a 20-minute walk to the Frida Kahlo and Trotsky museums. Taxi stands sit near Plaza Hidalgo and the Coyoacán Metro, and the Taxqueña long-distance bus terminal (Central del Sur) is 10 to 15 minutes away by taxi. The Turibus and the tourist tram also stop in the centre.
Directions to Coyoacán on Google Maps
Distances are in a straight line; the road is usually longer.
Links open a partner site. We may earn a commission if you book, at no cost to you.
From the nearest cities to Coyoacán
- Mexico City · 12 km by road, 15 min
- Toluca · 61 km by road, 1 h 10 min
- Cuernavaca · 68 km by road, 1 h 10 min
Drive times by road from OpenStreetMap, without traffic or stops. Times marked ~ are estimated from the straight-line distance.
What to see in Coyoacán 5
Sights with their own page, closest to the centre first.
Landmarks and museums
-
Museo Frida Kahlo · Landmark · 1 km from the centre
Frida Kahlo's cobalt-blue Casa Azul in Coyoacán, where she was born and died: her studio, kitchen and garden. Tickets online only, by time slot. -
Ciudad Universitaria · Landmark · 3 km from the centre
UNAM's 1950s campus on a lava field, a UNESCO site since 2007: O'Gorman's mosaic library, Siqueiros on the Rectoría, the Olympic stadium and MUAC. -
Museo Anahuacalli · Landmark · 3 km from the centre
Diego Rivera's dark volcanic-stone temple-museum in Coyoacán, packed with pre-Hispanic pieces, stone mosaics and a rooftop view of the Pedregal. -
Casa Estudio Diego Rivera y Frida Kahlo · Landmark · 4 km from the centre
Juan O'Gorman's 1931 twin houses in San Ángel, a red one for Diego and a blue one for Frida, joined by a rooftop bridge behind a fence of cactus.
Archaeological sites
-
Copilco · Archaeological site · 3 km from the centre
A Preclassic village buried under Xitle's lava, tunnelled into by Manuel Gamio in 1917; its site museum closed to the public in the early 1980s.
Map of Coyoacán
Neighbourhoods and villages of Coyoacán
Part of Coyoacán or just outside it, closest first.
-
San Ángel · Town · 3 km from the centre
Cobbled lanes, a Carmelite convent with tiled domes and mummies, the Saturday art bazaar on Plaza San Jacinto, and Rivera and Kahlo's twin studios. -
Mixcoac · Town · 4 km from the centre
A former town swallowed by the city in 1928: a kiosk plaza, a Dominican convent, Gómez Farías's house and an Aztec pyramid beside the Periférico.
Day trips and tours from Coyoacán
The closest Pueblos Mágicos and places to visit, with the drive from Coyoacán and tours that leave from it.
Times marked ~ are estimated from the distance. Links open a partner site. We may earn a commission if you book, at no cost to you.
Before you go: getting to and around Coyoacán
- The nearest airport is Mexico City (MEX).
- The best months to go are January, February, March, and December.
- 2 of the places on this page are more than 3 km from the centre: take a taxi, a ride-hailing app or a local bus.
- For day trips a rental car gives the most freedom; the tours above leave from Coyoacán.
Before you go to Coyoacán: hours, prices and tips
- Hours
- The Mercado de Coyoacán is open every day from 7 am to 5 pm; open-air craft markets set up in the squares on Saturdays and Sundays. Wikivoyage · checked Oct 2026
- Best time of day
- Come on a weekday for quiet plazas; on weekends and holidays the centre is packed, with an estimated 70,000 visitors each weekend. Wikipedia · checked Oct 2026
Hours and prices change, especially around holidays. Each fact links to where we checked it.
Visiting Coyoacán: what to see and do
Sit by the two bronze coyotes of the fountain in Jardín Centenario.
Step into the parish of San Juan Bautista, finished by the Franciscans in 1552.
See the Casa de Cortés on Jardín Hidalgo and the mural of pre-Hispanic Coyoacán in its council hall.
Eat at the food stalls of the Mercado de Coyoacán, open daily from 7 am to 5 pm.
Visit Frida Kahlo's Casa Azul and Leon Trotsky's house museum a few blocks north.
Look for the chapel of La Conchita and the house of La Malinche at Higuera 55.
Walk under the trees of the Viveros de Coyoacán, a 39-hectare nursery park.
Browse the weekend craft stalls around the plazas.
Plan your trip
Places to stay in Coyoacán
Compare hotels, posadas, and rentals in and around Coyoacán.
Tours & activities
Day trips around Tepoztlán sometimes stop in Coyoacán; a tour is the easy way to see it without a car.
Rental cars
Pick up a car at MEX (Mexico City): about 1 h 25 min by road to Tepoztlán, then 41 km more to Coyoacán, on your own schedule.
Flights
The nearest airport with scheduled flights is Mexico City (MEX), about 1 h 25 min by road from Tepoztlán, the base for Coyoacán.
Mobile data
Signal can drop away from Tepoztlán: download a map of the way to Coyoacán before you set out, or carry an eSIM with data.
Links open a partner site. We may earn a commission if you book, at no cost to you.
When to go to Coyoacán mild
Coyoacán shares the climate of Tepoztlán, 41 km away. The best months to visit are January, February, March, and December.
See the month-by-month climate of Tepoztlán
Weather in Coyoacán now and the next 7 days
Live forecast from Open-Meteo. Chance of rain is the day's highest.
The closest Pueblo Mágico: Tepoztlán
Tepoztlán is the Pueblo Mágico closest to Coyoacán, with places to stay, food, and more to see.
Also close to
- Tepotzotlán · Estado de México · 41 km away
- Metepec · Estado de México · 47 km away
- Tlayacapan · Morelos · 48 km away
- Teotihuacán · Estado de México · 51 km away
- Villa del Carbón · Estado de México · 53 km away
Near Coyoacán
Drive times by road from OpenStreetMap, without traffic. Times marked ~ are estimated from the straight-line distance.
Location from OpenStreetMap. Written by Puebloteca.