Ali and I were excited at the news earlier this year that Aeromar would be opening up direct flights from Zihuatanejo to Puebla. As full-time residents we’re always looking for fun places to visit. Mexico may have the best bus system in the Western hemisphere, and while we’re fortunate to have a great international airport 15 minutes away, until 2022 the only direct flight within Mexico was to Mexico City. UPDATE: The direct flights between Zihuatanejo and Puebla are no more 🙁

We paid 3,578 pesos for two roundtrip tickets. There is one flight to Puebla and one return flight on Thursdays and Sundays, so we left on Thursday afternoon, and returned on Sunday afternoon. The tickets included carry-on only, so we paid 19 pesos each for the bus transportation from Plaza Kioto here in Zihua to the airport. Once we landed in Puebla we were able to take an Uber for 240 pesos to our Airbnb near the historic center of Puebla. Puebla is 7,000 feet high so the change in elevation is quite a difference in climate compared to Zihua. The flights worked out perfectly as we landed at our apartment at 2:30pm, and with a 12noon checkout on Sunday we paid 350 pesos for a taxi back to the airport for our 2:35pm flight back to Zihuatanejo. Although Puebla city has 1.7 million residents compared to around 100,000 in Zihua, the airport is only slightly larger. Houston appears to be the only US city the airport flies to, with about eight Mexico city destinations including ZIH. But the Mexico City airport is less than 90 minutes away.

Side note: The Puebla airport does have a lounge, with free food and drinks. If you have Priority Pass make sure to take advantage of this and arrive a little early to the airport. If you don’t have Priority Pass and travel a good amount, then I recommend the Chase Reserve Card. It has a $550 annual fee, but a $300 annual credit towards travel, access to 1,300+ airport lounges, free Global Entry, no foreign transaction fees, and much more. If you’re interested use my referral code and receive $900 in points credit when you sign up: APPLY HERE

Puebla may be my current favorite city after Zihua. We stayed in an Airbnb about a 10 minute walk from the Zocalo, the center of the historic Center. We took a walking tour our first day in the city, and saw the oldest public library in the Americas and the Serdan house, where the Mexican Revolution was started. We walked through The Parian, the market known for it’s handicrafts, including ceramics and sweets. We visited the almost 400 year old Puebla Cathedral. We walked through the Puebla tunnels, discovered in 2015 and thought to be up to 500 years old. The tunnels lead you to Fort Lareto, which along with Fort Guadalupe were the site of the Battle of Puebla, also known as the Cinco de Mayo Battle. I was surprised at how large the site was, as you could spend an entire day visiting this area of Puebla. We only saw a small portion of the city surrounding the historic Center, and didn’t have time to see much of the rest of Puebla.

We did make a day trip to Cholula, one of the 132 designated “magical towns” of Mexico. The town is the site of the largest pyramid in the world (by volume), which was constructed beginning about 2,300 years ago. In 1594 construction for a church began on the hill where the pyramid once stood. Once again, one afternoon is not nearly enough time in this lovely city. It was pretty cool seeing the Popocatepetl Volcano from Cholula as it billowed a plume of volcanic ash. The volcano is the second highest peak in Mexico at 17,802 feet.

Puebla is great. The town is clean, safe, the food was awesome, and the people were friendly. The weather was super, around 75 during the day and around 55 or 60 in the late evenings. We didn’t see another visitor from the United States over our three days. Our walking tour had people from Denmark, England, and Argentina. We will definitely be back!