What to Do in Tequisquiapan: Wineries, Cheese and a Two-Day Plan from the Town

By midmorning, the arches around the Plaza Miguel Hidalgo still hold their shade and the pink facade of the parish church of Santa María de la Asunción already has the sun on it. Twig baskets hang along Calle Ezequiel Montes, and a few minutes from the center, on the highway that comes from Querétaro, the vine rows begin. This guide answers what to do in Tequisquiapan when the trip centers on wine and cheese: what to see in town, which wineries are close and what each one offers, where to taste cheese, where to sleep and how to split two days without spending half of each on the road.

We published the first version in 2023 and in October 2026 we redid it entirely, with what the profile of each winery and each hotel says. As of that date, the municipality of Tequisquiapan has ten wineries with profiles on this site, from a vineyard inside town to a winery that makes only sparkling wine. Cities and Wines of Mexico does not take reservations. You request each appointment from the house itself, using the details in its profile.

Here the town is the base. The state's route, municipality by municipality, is in our guide to vineyards in Querétaro, and if you are torn between a same-day round trip from the capital and staying over, our guide to vineyards near Mexico City compares times and options without a car.

01Why stay in Tequisquiapan to tour the cheese and wine route?

Because of the distance and the night. Six of the municipality's wineries are spread along three roads that leave town: state highway 200, the one that comes from Querétaro, with a group of houses in Fuentezuelas, the road to San José La Laja, toward the Peña de Bernal, and the highway to Huichapan. With your base in the center, each outing is short, and at night you eat near the plaza without driving in the dark among the plains and hills.

Tequisquiapan has been a Pueblo Mágico (a designation for towns of special tourist appeal) since 2012, and its center can be walked: the plaza, the parish church, the markets and Parque La Pila are a few blocks from one another. Bernal is about 22 miles (35 km) away and Querétaro city about 37 miles (60 km). If you want to add a stop outside the municipality, the Querétaro wineries page has every house in the state with a profile.

02What is there to do in downtown Tequisquiapan?

Almost everything is close to the plaza and can be done on foot:

• The Plaza Miguel Hidalgo and the parish church. Quarry-stone arches, a fountain and, facing it, the neoclassical parish church of Santa María de la Asunción, with its bell tower and dome.
• The craft markets. Along Calle Ezequiel Montes are the basketry stalls, the craft most associated with the town: baskets, hampers, hats and objects of twig and wicker.
• Parque La Pila. A few steps from the center, this tree-lined park takes its name from the old basin that stored the town's water. It is the main venue of the cheese and wine festival.
• The monument to the geographic center. It recalls that in 1916 Venustiano Carranza declared Tequisquiapan the geographic center of the country.
• The hot springs. The area has hot springs, and the surroundings have spas and water parks, such as Termas del Rey: a plan for the family or a morning without tastings.
• The opal mines of La Trinidad. In that community, a few minutes from town, mines such as La Carbonera are visited on guided tours that explain how opal is extracted and worked. Confirm before you go that the tour is operating.
• A balloon flight. Agencies in the center sell them, such as Viajes y Enoturismo, which also organizes tours of the cheese and wine route.

And in the center itself, on Calle Fray Junípero Serra, there is a vineyard inside the town. It is the first stop on the list that follows.

03Which wineries are near Tequisquiapan and what does each offer?

There are ten houses with profiles, grouped by the road you take from the center. Hours appear only when the profile includes them.

In town

Viña Tx is the option for not getting in the car: a family vineyard on Calle Fray Junípero Serra, right in the center, that makes its wine on a small scale and by hand. The visit combines a guided tour of the process, a tasting with regional cheeses and a restaurant with a grill. At harvest time it holds grape stomping and live music. Its profile gives no hours, so confirm them before going.

On highway 200, in Fuentezuelas

Heading out toward Querétaro, between km 50 and 53, three wineries and a cheese dairy sit a few minutes from one another:

• Viñedo La Revuelta is a long lunch in the country. The Revuelta family's project started in 2015, with Tempranillo and Merlot, and serves multicourse menus of country cooking, with Spanish and Mexican roots, paired with its reds, a Merlot rosé and a sparkling wine. On weekends, reserve.
• Norte B makes wine and beer on the same estate and serves them on terraces built from shipping containers. From its vineyard, of about 10 acres (4 hectares), came Mantis, a white of Xarel-lo, and its sparkling Libélula rests, according to the house, 24 to 30 months. There is food, pairings with regional cheeses and a beer tasting, so it works well if not everyone in the group drinks wine.
• Viña Magal, at km 53, tells a story about the land. The family's grandfather worked the plot as a sharecropper, one of the parsioneros whom hacienda owners paid with land, and that is where the name of its wine, Parsionero, comes from. Today his descendants farm a little over 10 acres (4 hectares), and the visit combines a tour, a tasting and a talk about how it is made, with regional cheeses and cold cuts.

Toward San José La Laja and the Peña de Bernal

• San Juanito Vitivinícola (in Spanish) looks straight at the Peña de Bernal from the old road to San Juan. The winery opened in 2009 and has 37 acres (15 hectares) planted at about 6,330 ft (1,930 m), mostly Malbec, Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon. It also makes a rosé sparkling wine of Malbec by the traditional method. The tour passes through the vineyard, winery and cellar, with a tasting of three or six labels, and there is a terrace with a wood-fired oven.
• CR Vinos MX, at km 3.2 of the Tejocote to San José La Laja road, describes itself as a young micro-lot project and has three lines: DBC, Hermelinda and Recuento. Its tastings of three or five wines are led by a sommelier, with regional cheeses or cold cuts, and in the same vineyard is Cartinto House, its country-cooking restaurant.

Toward Huichapan, in Tierra Blanca

Vinícola San Patricio presents itself as the first winery in Tequisquiapan. The Rodríguez family founded it in 1999 in Ezequiel Montes and moved it to its current site, on the highway to Huichapan, in 2001. It bottles everything under the Santiago Apóstol brand, from a red with new French oak barrels to a port-style wine and a traditional fortified wine. Its visit is simple and educational: a teaching vineyard, crushing, winery and tasting, with variants that pair with cheeses or do a blind tasting. Tours depart every hour from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., and it is best to reserve three days ahead.

The ones open every day

• Viñedos Los Rosales planted its vineyard in 1970, sold grapes for forty years and has bottled since 2011. Its signature is the Salvador, a red-fleshed teinturier grape. It is open every day from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The walking tour of the vineyard and winery lasts about forty minutes and ends at the bar, and there are tram rides and guided tastings.
• Vinícola Tequisquiapan is the project of the Ochoa family, which, according to the house, brought a winemaking tradition of more than a century from Navarre and formalized it here in 2010. It is open every day from noon to 5 p.m. Its basic tasting pours three glasses with a board of cheeses and cold cuts. There is also a pairing tasting with charcoal-fired pizzas and breakfasts, and tastings are booked online.

For anyone looking for bubbles, Bodegas Jacques & Cie makes only traditional-method sparkling wines in the Tequisquiapan valley, with the second fermentation in the bottle inside an underground cellar, and its range runs from the Brut Nature to the Néctar. We did not find an official booking channel. Before going, get its contact from the profile and ask whether it receives visitors.

04Where can you taste cheese in Tequisquiapan?

Cheese is the other half of the trip, and here you taste it in three ways: at the dairy, at the wineries' tastings and on tours that combine the two.

• In the cellar. In Fuentezuelas, on the same highway 200, Cava Bocanegra ages its cheeses in an underground cellar. Its producers started with fresh cheeses, under the Néole brand, and built the cellar for aged ones. Today they open it for guided tours with a tasting.
• In town. La Biquette makes goat's milk cheeses by hand in the French style, fresh and aged.
• At the wineries. More than half the houses in this guide serve cheese with the wine: Viña Tx, Viña Magal and CR Vinos MX in their tastings, Norte B in its pairings, Vinícola Tequisquiapan on its board and San Patricio on a tour with cheese pairings.
• On a tour. The main Viajes y Enoturismo tour combines a pairing tasting of artisanal cheeses with a visit to two wineries on the route, and leaves daily from its office in the center.

05How do you split two days in Tequisquiapan?

The times are approximate. Confirm each appointment when you book. The rule: no more than three stops a day, one of them with a meal, and the rest on foot in town.

Saturday: the town and Fuentezuelas

• 10 a.m., center. Plaza Miguel Hidalgo, the parish church and the markets on Calle Ezequiel Montes, with time to choose a piece of basketry.
• 12:30 p.m., Fuentezuelas. Tour of the underground cellar at Cava Bocanegra.
• 2 p.m., Viñedo La Revuelta. A walk through the vineyard and lunch with a paired menu, with the table reserved beforehand.
• 5:30 p.m., back to the center. A stroll through Parque La Pila and dinner on foot, with no driving.

If the group prefers something looser than a long menu, swap La Revuelta for Norte B, at the same km 50: wine and beer on the terraces, with food to go with them. And if you arrive on Friday with daylight left, Viña Tx, in the center, or the tasting at Vinícola Tequisquiapan, which stays open until 5 p.m., round out the weekend.

Sunday: toward the Peña

• 10 a.m., Viñedos Los Rosales. A walking tour of about forty minutes that ends at its bar. It opens at 10 a.m.
• Noon, San José La Laja. Tour of the vineyard, winery and cellar at San Juanito, with the Peña de Bernal in front.
• 2 p.m., the same area. Sommelier tasting and lunch at Cartinto House, the restaurant of CR Vinos MX.
• 4:30 p.m. Return to Mexico City or Querétaro, or an afternoon in Bernal, about 22 miles (35 km) from the center of Tequisquiapan.

San Patricio, which is best reserved three days ahead, fits into either morning if you change the first stop. And if you decide to stay in Bernal, our guide to Peña de Bernal covers the afternoon and the next morning.

06Where should you sleep in Tequisquiapan?

Sleeping in the center leaves dinner on foot and the tours at your door. Four options with profiles, depending on the type of trip:

• Facing the plaza. The Hotel La Plaza de Tequisquiapan is across from the main garden, on Avenida Benito Juárez: a central base for setting out on the route's tours.
• With wine as the theme. The Hotel Casa de Vino, on Calle Moctezuma, a three-minute walk from the center, offers vineyard tours, tastings, balloon flights and packages with a tasting.
• With a pool and pets. La Casona Tequisquiapan Hotel & Spa, near Parque La Pila, has a pool, a temazcal (a traditional steam bath) and a spa, accepts pets and organizes vineyard excursions.
• Among the vines. La Casona de San Juanito, the original home of one of the winery's partners, has five rooms inside the vineyard, and the stay includes a tour and a tasting. It is outside town, with the Peña in view.

Do not confuse the two casonas. One is a hotel with a spa in town and the other is the winery's lodging.

07How do you get to Tequisquiapan from Mexico City and from Querétaro?

• From Mexico City, by car. It is about 110 miles (176 km), around two hours without traffic, on the Mexico City-Querétaro highway. At San Juan del Río you leave the highway and continue on the road to Tequisquiapan.
• From Mexico City, by bus. Direct buses to the town leave from the Terminal Central de Autobuses del Norte. According to the route finder Rome2rio, the trip takes about three hours, and ETN, among other lines, covers the route. Confirm schedules with each one.
• From Querétaro city. It is about 37 miles (60 km), around an hour, on state highway 200. The Fuentezuelas houses are on your way, before you enter town.
• Without a car. In town, the route's tours handle the transfer between wineries. The other formats, from the designated driver to the private tour, and what to ask when hiring them, are in our guide to touring the wine route without driving.

08When is the Tequisquiapan cheese and wine fair?

It is held every year in May. The old Feria Nacional del Queso y el Vino (National Cheese and Wine Fair) is now called the Festival Internacional del Arte, Queso y Vino (International Art, Cheese and Wine Festival), and in 2026 it turned 50 with an edition from May 7 to 24, with free admission and venues spread across the center, from Parque La Pila to the Jardín del Arte. It brings together wineries and cheese makers of the region with music and art activities.

As of October 2026, the 2027 dates have not been announced yet. When the organizer publishes them, we will add them to the wine events calendar. In those weeks the town fills up, so book your hotel early.

The other season is the harvest. In Querétaro, the 2026 season runs from June 6 to October 18, and in the municipality Los Rosales holds its own each summer, in late July. In 2025 it reached its twelfth edition. Viña Tx, for its part, holds grape stomping when it harvests. Outside those dates, the bars are quieter.

09What should you reserve before leaving?

In order, according to what each place's profile says:

• The hotel, first, especially in May and on long weekends.
• Lunch at La Revuelta, if you travel on a weekend.
• San Patricio, three days ahead.
• Tastings where a reservation is recommended: San Juanito, CR Vinos MX, Norte B and Viña Magal. Vinícola Tequisquiapan books its own online.
• What to confirm: the hours at Viña Tx, which its profile does not give, whether Bodegas Jacques receives visitors, and that the opal mine tour is operating.
• The most flexible: Los Rosales, which is open every day from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• Transportation or the tour, if nobody in the group is going to skip tasting.

Open the La Revuelta and San Juanito profiles today, ask for a date for Saturday's lunch and Sunday's tasting, and book the hotel in the center afterward. With those two appointments fixed, everything else in Tequisquiapan is settled on foot.