In shortLa Gloria Tolantongo is a separate park in the upper Tolantongo canyon, operated by the La Mesa ejido rather than the Grutas Tolantongo cooperative. Its own gate collects MXN 180 from adults, dropping to MXN 150 for anyone who walks in over the Puente de Tolantongo, and the ticket gets you through between 7:00 and 19:00. Its thermal water emerges at 38 °C.
MXN 180La Gloria adult admission
MXN 150if you arrive on foot
7:00–19:00La Gloria access hours
38 °Cwater at source
Where La Gloria Tolantongo is, and why it charges separately
Everything sits inside the same gorge. The resort people picture when they say Tolantongo is on the canyon floor at 1,280 metres, under limestone walls that rise as much as 500 metres; the Barranca de Tolantongo starts around 2,300 metres north-west of Cardonal and falls to roughly 1,150 metres near Itztacapa. La Gloria is the stretch upstream of the main bathing areas, higher up the same watercourse.
Two ejidos hold the land. Grutas Tolantongo belongs to San Cristóbal, La Gloria is worked by neighbouring La Mesa, and each gate collects its own money and keeps its own hours. If you want both in one day you buy two tickets. The figures below come from the two operators' own price pages, so confirm them at the window on the day you travel.
| Detail | Grutas Tolantongo | La Gloria Tolantongo |
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| Who runs it | Sociedad Cooperativa Ejidal 'Grutas Tolantongo', San Cristóbal ejido | La Mesa ejido |
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| Adult admission | MXN 230 a head, re-billed for every day you turn up | MXN 180, or MXN 150 arriving on foot via the Puente de Tolantongo |
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| Full rate from | Age 5; no charge under 5 | Age 6 |
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| Hours | Ticket valid 7 am to 8 pm on the day of purchase only; caves, tunnel, waterfalls and swimming pools 8:00–17:00 | Access 7:00 to 19:00 |
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| Parking | MXN 50 per vehicle per day for the space, with no custody provided | MXN 20 per vehicle with no time limit, included with admission from 17 July 2026 |
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| Internal shuttle | Five stops only, La Gruta, La Cadena, La Huerta, Rancho and Paraíso, at MXN 15–20 a head | Not one of the stops on that list |
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Both parks in one day
The Exclusive Full-Day Tolantongo & La Gloria Hot Springs Adventure is the one tour departure built around both gates, 14 hours from $149 with private transport and a Cultural Ambassador guiding the day.
★ 5.0/5 · 31 reviews
Reaching the upper canyon on foot or by car
The clearest evidence that you can walk in is in La Gloria's own tariff: visitors arriving on foot across the Puente de Tolantongo pay MXN 150 instead of MXN 180. Neither operator publishes a route description, a distance or a walking time for that crossing, so treat it as the one genuinely physical part of a Tolantongo trip and ask at the gate how long people are taking on the day.
Expect the gradient to work against you in one direction. The bathing areas are down on the canyon floor and La Gloria is upstream and higher in the same barranca, inside walls of up to 500 metres, which means a sustained climb one way and a steep descent the other. This is Tolantongo hiking in the literal sense, and the park's own rules for the water attractions already ask for comfortable footwear.
Arriving by vehicle is the alternative, and it is a separate drive rather than a shuttle hop. La Gloria quotes 3 hours 20 minutes from Mexico City by way of Pachuca or the Arco Norte, and 4 hours from Puebla. The Grutas cooperative's internal shuttle covers La Gruta, La Cadena, La Huerta, Rancho and Paraíso, and La Gloria is not on that list, so there is no cheap ride up from inside the resort.
- Footwear: closed shoes with grip that you can also wear in water. Swimwear plus comfortable footwear is the official requirement for the grotto, tunnel and river on the Grutas side, and the same choice serves the climb.
- Water: carry your own. The restaurant and grocery store that run 8:00 to 22:00 are inside Grutas Tolantongo, down on the floor of the canyon.
- Cash: bring more than you think you need. Payments inside Grutas Tolantongo are cash only and the nearest ATM is in Ixmiquilpan, 42.9 km and about 1 hour 11 minutes away.
- Timing: La Gloria stops admitting visitors at 19:00, so do the walking while the light is still high.
The viewpoints over the box canyon
Tolantongo is a box canyon, a closed valley with no through route out of the bottom, which is why the views from up here work the way they do: you look along the gorge rather than out of it, with the resort floor at 1,280 metres and walls of up to 500 metres opposite. The rock is Upper Cretaceous limestone interbedded with shale, dipping steeply, with early Tertiary piedmont deposits above carrying limestone blocks up to 3 metres across.
La Gloria's two named waterfalls are what most people come up to photograph. Its own page puts the Baño del Licenciado at more than 30 metres, with a mini-grotto behind it, and the Cola de Caballo in this canyon is reported at 150 metres. Climbing the waterfalls is prohibited anywhere in Tolantongo, on either side of the gorge.
What you can bathe in at the La Gloria pools
La Gloria lists its attractions by name rather than by count: family thermal pools, the Cola de Caballo waterfall, the El Corazón de la Gloria spring, the Baño del Licenciado waterfall with its mini-grotto, and a thermal river. The water comes out at 38 °C, so the soaking is the same proposition as the terraces lower down, with far fewer people in it.
Depth is the thing to take seriously. El Corazón de la Gloria is reported at 7 metres, and the Grutas cooperative's own pools page warns that some pools here are deep enough to need real swimming ability and that children must be watched the whole time. Neither park advertises lifeguards, only security staff whose instructions you follow, so pick your pool to match the weakest swimmer in the group.
In the wet months, stay out of the river. The park identifies mid-June to mid-July as its rainy period, the wet season at Ixmiquilpan runs from 1 June to 12 October, and heavy mountain rain raises the water quickly and turns the turquoise brown. The precedent is July 2021, when tents had to be shifted uphill and access to the grottoes was closed off with cordons.
How much time to allow and when it is quietest
Give the upper canyon half a day of its own. Between the approach, the two waterfalls, a long soak and the walk or drive back, three to four hours disappears without anyone hurrying, and that is before you add anything on the Grutas side.
Be there when the gate opens at 7:00, midweek. Tuesday to Thursday is the obvious window: a park co-owner has put occupancy across Tolantongo at 20 to 30 per cent on ordinary weekends, around 75 per cent on long holiday weekends and 100 per cent on the main days of Semana Santa. The upper canyon starts quieter than the terraces at any hour, and at 7:00 on a Wednesday in November you may have a pool to yourselves.
La Gloria's closing time of 19:00 also gives you two hours that the headline attractions below do not have, since the caves, tunnel, waterfalls and swimming pools at Grutas Tolantongo all stop at 17:00. For season, the drier stretch from mid-October to the start of June is the one to aim for. Average highs at Ixmiquilpan sit at 23 °C in January and 28 °C in April and May, with overnight lows near 8 °C in January and December, and cold air over 38 °C water is the better combination.
One-day visit, or save it for an overnight stay?
If you have a single day and you are coming from the capital, do not try to divide it between the terraces, the grotto and the upper canyon. Something gets cut, and because the cave, tunnel, waterfalls and swimming pools shut at 17:00, what gets cut is usually the part you cannot see anywhere else. Either build the whole day around both parks with a private departure that is designed to cover them, or leave La Gloria out.
On an overnight it becomes easy. Give the first afternoon and evening to the thermal river, which runs until 21:00, then take the upper canyon from 7:00 the next morning while everyone else queues below. Budget for the way tickets work: a room inside Grutas Tolantongo does not include entry, so you pay MXN 230 per person again for the second day, and La Gloria's MXN 180 sits on top of that.
What a bed costs depends on the section you end up in: a simple king at Molanguito is the floor at MXN 650, a triple at Rancho the ceiling at MXN 2,800, and doubles mostly land somewhere between MXN 1,300 and MXN 2,400. If you want that second morning locked in before you leave home, the choice narrows to Rancho or Paraíso #2, the two sections that accept a WhatsApp booking on weekdays between 8:00 and 17:00; at Gruta, Huerta and Paraíso Escondido the keys go to whoever is standing at the desk. Check-in is nominally from 8:00 subject to availability, otherwise 15:30, with checkout at noon.
Questions people ask
Does the INAPAM senior discount apply at La Gloria?
The 50% discount for holders of a valid INAPAM credential appears on the Grutas Tolantongo price list, which is a different operator. La Gloria's published rates are MXN 180 for adults and MXN 150 for visitors arriving on foot over the Puente de Tolantongo, with the full rate charged from age 6. Ask at the La Gloria gate before you pay, and carry cash either way.
How does the water temperature compare with the main resort?
La Gloria gives 38 °C for the water as it emerges. On the Grutas side the official pools page gives 36 to 38 °C for the cave, tunnel and terrace pools, while the river is published as 34 to 36 °C in English and 36 to 38 °C in Spanish, a difference between the park's own language versions. Secondary reporting puts the water leaving the rock inside the mountain near 37 °C, with the warmth dropping away to tepid once cold river water dilutes it outside the grottoes.
Can I eat up at La Gloria?
Plan your meals around the Grutas side, where the restaurant and the grocery store are open 8:00 to 22:00. La Gloria publishes its natural attractions rather than a food service, so take water and something to eat with you, especially if you are walking in. All of it needs cash.
Is the upper canyon suitable with a pushchair or limited mobility?
No, and it is the hardest part of Tolantongo to attempt that way, because the route involves a serious change in height inside a canyon with walls of up to 500 metres. For reduced mobility or pushchairs the cooperative points visitors to Paraíso Escondido, which it describes as its only partly accessible section.
Can I bring my dog?
No dogs, and no pets of any other kind: the park's rules exclude them outright. Other standing rules worth knowing before you set off: firewood, gas canisters and alcoholic drinks cannot be brought in, charcoal and charcoal grills are permitted for campers, and music or disruptive noise is prohibited from 23:00, including on the campgrounds.
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