Toluca Travel Guide

Toluca, the capital city of the State of Mexico, is often omitted from the travel trek. However, with a lovely zolaco and truely unique botanical garden, Toluca is worth a short detour. Before your visit, keep in mind that Toluca is not a tourist town and you will find few English speakers at shops and restaurants. This aside (and contrary to other websites that report otherwise), local people are warm and inviting, especially if you make an attempt to speak Spanish.
From Mexico City, buses run nearly every 10 minutes to Toluca. It's a 45-minute trip to the station, from which you should quickly flee. Take a taxi to Los Portales. From there you can walk to most tourist sites. Most vistors go straight to the Cosmovitral, an indoor botanical garden housed in stained glass designed by the artist Leopolodo Flores. The stained glass depicts the human struggle between good and evil and is said by some to the the largest stained glass mural in the world. Whether this is true or not, it's amazing and worth every centavo for admission (10 pesos, roughly 1 USD).