Real de Catorce, Mexico.
An overview of Real de Catorce from the path leading to the ghost town above.
Tucked between mountains, this isolated former mining town will take your breath away.
Six minutes of dark, barely lit, narrow one-way tunnel. Six minutes that felt like an eternity, under uneven, rocky walls with water seeping from them onto the muddy floor. Six minutes spent behind a few other cars, at slow speed, until we saw light again.
The Ogarrio tunnel, which is pretty much the only link between Real de Catorce and the rest of the world, was much more impressive than its short 1.5-mile span let on. It’s hard to overstate how it helped make Real feel like an isolated town in the middle of nowhere. One second we were going up a narrow, curvy cobblestone road, up above the San Luis Potosí highlands, and the next we were in this dark, claustrophobic cave, carved in the rocks more than a hundred years ago, where there was no space for two cars to pass at the same time, and the few Virgin Mary statues on the side of the road reminded us that people might have perished in there at some point.
When daylight reappeared, we were on the other side of the mountain, and Real de Catorce was right here in front of us. There was a parking lot to the left of the tunnel exit where, unless a local, you could park your car, or get off the bus to walk among old colonial buildings.
I loved to think of the tunnel as some sort of purgatory between the real world and whatever Real de Catorce was - a splendid, isolated village in the middle of nowhere. A gorgeous testament to Spanish colonial architecture. A somewhat scary, half-abandoned mining town, testament of years past.
A cobblestone street in Real de Catorce.
Real de Catorce was every little bit of these things, and is for now, neglected by most western tourists. That’s why I had set my mind on visiting it a few months ago, when I started looking at the list of pueblos mágicos, or magical towns, the most beautiful and culturally relevant small towns in Mexico.
Regular readers of this blog know I have a fondness for these villages, that are set to embody all the culture, history and beauty Mexico can offer in small packages. There are currently 177 of them throughout the republic, but the overall consensus is that the earlier the town got that designation, the most likely it is to truly be a gem to be discovered.
I kept on thinking the Ogarrio tunnel had transported me into a different reality.
The program was launched in 2001 by the Mexican government, and Real de Catorce was one of the three towns designated as pueblo mágico back then (the other two were Huasca de Ocampo, Hidalgo and Tepoztlán, Morelos - I visited Tepoztlán in 2024). It felt like good enough credentialing for me, and I decided to head north at the end of July 2025 to check out the town, as well as nearby state capital San Luis Potosí.
Sunset over the Parroquia de la Purísima Concepción.
Getting to Real de Catorce isn’t easy, especially if relying on public transport (as always, the best ways to get into town are detailed in the Practical Information section at this end of the article). It took me about seven hours to reach Real from San Luis - a car drive should last about four hours.
To make this worse, or to really make me feel like the destination wasn’t meant to be easily accessible, the last hour of the trip, once our bus turned off federal highway 62, happened to be a cobblestone road where our driver couldn’t go fast, and the beauty of the surrounding landscape wasn’t enough to make any passenger forget how uncomfortable the ride was.
Getting to Real de Catorce involved going through the 1.5-mile Ogarrio tunnel, and it felt like these 1.5 miles brought us a few centuries back in time. The bus dropped us off right after the tunnel, on the main parking lot where day trippers park before venturing by foot into the narrow streets arranged on the mountain side, mostly on a grid.
Right away, I was taken aback by how time seemed to have stopped. The narrow, car-free streets, flanked by old, stone buildings, seemed to have come straight from the 18th century. I saw a few horses, ridden by what looked like local rancheros, strut by. I had no cell service.
The narrow valley leading to Estación Catorce from Real de Catorce.
Originally named Real de Minas de Nuestra Señora de la Limpia Concepción de Guadalupe de los Ásmo de Catorce, the town is now known as Real de Catorce. Several legends aim to explain the “Catorce” part (Catorce means Fourteen in Spanish): it could either have been about fourteen thieves that hid in town to escape their fate, or fourteen soldiers killed by the local population. The debate hasn’t been settled yet. As for the “Real” part, just like other minings towns, including Real del Monte or Real de Asientos, it comes from the Spanish “Real de Minas”, meaning Royal Mines, a way for the Spanish crown to assert ownership of the silver mines that created the town.
It would be fair to say that silver justified the colonization of all of northern Mexico by the Spanish army in the 16th century. While silver was first discovered in Taxco, Guerrero, about three hours south of Mexico, in 1534, the main silver mines in New Spain were all located in the Bajio highlands, north of the capital, from Guanajuato to Zacatecas to San Luis Potosí. These were the source of immense wealth for the Spanish crown, and although most of the wealth was exported to Europe, the incredible architectural beauty of some of these colonial towns attests to some of it staying in the hands of a few powerful locals (mostly, for the record, Spaniards or Spanish descendants).
It is hard to pinpoint exactly when the silver mines around Real de Catorce where discovered, but it is safe to say it occurred in the later part of the 18th century. The town was founded in 1779 and grew very fast. It quickly became a major extraction center. It is said to have been the second biggest silver mine in the world back in 1809.
While it counted with more than 15,000 inhabitants in its heyday, the town has about 1,000 permanent dwellers today. Most people left when the mines closed, at the beginning of the 20th century, when the price of silver collapsed, rendering the town obsolete.
A view on Real de Catorce from the west.
I had visited more than twenty magical towns at that point, but none really compared to Real de Catorce. Like some of my favorite pueblos, Real displayed a lot of beautiful colonial architecture, and felt preserved in time, as if the modern world hadn’t quite yet arrived there. What really did set the town apart was its natural setting.
Nestled in a narrow valley on the edge of the Sierra de Catorce, within the Sierra Madre Oriental, a big mountain chain spanning from the Rio Grande to Puebla, south of Mexico City, Real de Catorce is surrounded by steep peaks that seem to close down on the town, isolating it from the rest of the world. Nowhere else in Mexico had I seen such landscape - even if magical towns like Malinalco or Tepoztlán were also built in valleys, they aren’t as narrow as the ones where Real de Catorce was developed.
Enjoying Real de Catorce meant walking through its narrow streets. Beside the main one, calle Lanzagorta, they are pretty much yours, with very little foot traffic and almost no cars going by. It helped the village feel supremely disconnected from the modern world.
That’s not to say all of Real is a haven of quietude. Once I got off the bus, I had to go through the parking plaza, lined up with small shops selling various local souvenirs, from candies to hats to clothing. Calle Lanzagorta, which leads to the town’s main church, was also chock-a-block full of local vendors touting their wares. They seem to outnumber tourists by a lot, but even during the week, tourist traffic is highest between 11am and 3pm, and it was already past that time when I got in. I saw the difference the day after, which was a Thursday, but was told the town can get really busy on weekends.
Time seemed frozen in Real de Catorce.
The tourism infrastructure, although there and pretty much in my face on calle Lanzagorta, was really focused on Mexican tourists, which represent the vast majority of people coming into town. I felt the same was in Real del Monte, which I visited during a three-day weekend, and as a result, was full of visitors: no matter how busy the villages were, they still felt like local well-kept secrets.
For now, I enjoyed being one of the few non-Mexican tourists looking around in awe, thinking this town wasn’t real, and the Ogarrio tunnel had transported me into a different reality.
Real de Catorce is fairly small, and the village itself can be seen in a half day. My highlight, aside from aimlessly roaming the beautiful, cobblestone streets, was the Parish of Immaculate Conception. Standing on the slanted ground as if by miracle, this beautiful church was dedicated to St Francis of Assisi. Another favorite of mine was the view from the Real de Catorce letters, at the end of Constitution street, where I could admire the village in all of its glory (and it was even better just before sunset, with the sun behind me, bathing the village in a golden glow).
What also made Real interesting is how it hosted a sacred site for Huichol people. Huichol tribes were originally from the region around San Luis Potosí, and every year, many of them descend onto the state, and especially to Real de Catorce to ascend the Cerro Quemado, which is where they believe the sun rises from, making this peak the center of the universe.
On the way to Cerro Quemado, near Real de Catorce.
The Cerro Quemado hike is well known and has its own AllTrails page. On day two, I decided to give it a try. This wasn’t going to be my day. The hike started from the village and went up gradually along a small valley, which, in late July, was dotted with bright green bursts of vegetal life. About thirty minutes into the trail, however, I encountered a herd of cows, roaming freely into the open fields. Most of them looked harmless enough, but a couple of them, male, looked like they might not appreciate my incursion into their land and I didn’t feel like testing them (I am also paranoid about bears every time I hike into the American backcountry, so this checked out).
I turned around and went back down, hoping to come back to Real another time with friends to be able to confront my fears of the wild and get to the summit.
I was glad not to be alone - the ghost town might have felt a little creepy.
Nature wasn’t done with me, however. As I was walking down and getting to the outskirts of town, I stepped off the road to let a car pass, only to realize the dogs from the house nearby didn’t really appreciate that incursion into their land either. I got a bite on my leg out of it. I also got to practice the meanest Mexican slang I knew, which I can’t print here, but I am sure the dogs were impressed.
Don’t let these two encounters deter you from hiking the Cerro Quemado, which I understand offers beautiful panoramic views at the top.
Day three was dedicated to checking out the ghost towns above the village. Real de Catorce, at its apogee, was a much bigger town, and beyond the village nestled in the valley where I was staying, were other populated hamlets, which were now abandoned.
Real de Catorce's ghost town, above the village.
Going up to the ghost town afforded beautiful views of the village (which is why you might see a mention of a mirador panorámico on Google Maps, which isn’t an actual place, but you’ll get a great view of the town from the road, so it sort of counts). The road was quite steep but doable, and if you climb in the morning, the sun will be behind you as you look towards Real de Catorce, helping you get great shots.
There were a few ruins along the way, but the actual ghost town was located a little further. Getting inside was quite eerie. I was glad not to be alone - it might have felt a little creepy: a guided tour was there and a (friendly, this time) doggy kept me company for a while. It was a nice testament to how rich the town might have been, as although the buildings were mostly in ruins at that point, you could tell the stone work was intricate and sturdy.
In the afternoon, after another delicious meal of gorditas, I found my way to the car park by the tunnel, got on the colectivo towards Matehuala, got myself a bus ticket to San Luis Potosí, and ended up at a hotel near the airport, ready to get back to Mexico City.
Real de Catorce was a beautiful little village, a parenthesis of old traditions lost in the mountains, and however hard it was to get to it, it was well worth it.
Practical information (updated as of August 2025)
Getting to the Real de Catorce
Along the road between San Luis Potosí and Matehuala, Mexico.
How to get to Real de Catorce from the United States: San Luis Potosí’s small international airport (SLP) is the closest airport to the town, and is served by American and United airlines from the US. Mexican airlines Aeromexico and Volaris also fly internationally from there. As of publishing time, United links SLP with Houston (IAH) twice a day, American with Dallas Fort Worth (DFW) once a day, and Aeromexico with Atlanta (ATL) once a day as well. Volaris serves Dallas (DFW), Houston (IAH), San Antonio (SAT) with less than daily frequency. The Mexican low-cost airline also serves Tijuana airport (TIJ) several times a week, which can be a convenient flying point for Southern Californians, via the TJX terminal (the US-side terminal of Tijuana airport).
Once in SLP airport, you can rent a car, which is the easiest way to reach Real de Catorce. You’d drive via Matehuala and Cedral. While Google Maps promises a ride of a little over 3 hours, I have noticed this is very ambitious timing. The last hour of the trip happens on a cobblestone road where it is hard to drive past 30 mph (50 km/h) and it will most likely take you close to 4 hours to do the trip. Google Maps also lists going through Estación Catorce as an option but do not entertain it as the road between Estación and Real, although short, is extremely narrow and treacherous.
From San Luis, you can also reach Real de Catorce via public transport, which is what I did. It is feasible but it takes a long time. You first need to catch a bus from the Terminal Terrestre Potosina, on the southwest edge of town, towards Matehuala, a city 2h30 north of San Luis. Several companies run service between the two towns, but Senda offers more frequent rotations, most of them as Senda Diamante, their executive service (if you’re unsure about that executive level of service, see here). Once you get off at Matehuala’s main bus station, you can find a cab (they’ll be waiting right outside and the 8 mn ride shouldn’t cost more than MXN100) or walk about 30 minutes to the small Expreso Vanced terminal north of the zócalo. Expreso Vanced is a colectivo service, and one of their destinations is Real de Catorce. As of publishing date, they offered three services a day to Real (8am, 2pm, 5pm) and four in the other direction (10am, 1pm, 6pm, 7.30pm). These timings haven’t changed in the past five years, but it’s always good to double check with them (the easiest way to reach them is via Instagram messages through their page). You can’t book a ticket in advance, and the seats go on a first-come, first-serve basis. The trip lasts about 2 hours, the last one of which happened on a very uncomfortable cobblestone road. You have been warned.
The roomy front seats in an executive bus service by Senda Diamante, between San Luis Potosí and Matehuala.
The Expreso Vanced colectivo will go through the narrow, one-way tunnel leading to Real and drop you on the car park to the left of the tunnel exit, which is pretty much right into town. This is also where you’ll pick up the return bus. Bigger buses won’t fit in the tunnel, which is why no major bus company comes to Real, although there is demand.
Expreso Vanced services are few are far between, so if the thought of getting stuck in Real de Catorce or waiting hours to be the first to board the 15-seat minibus keeps you up at night, just know in days of high traffic, additional services are put in place (notably, a 4pm service from Real to Matehuala), and that also sometimes, a bigger bus waits on the other side of the tunnel, so that the minibus will shuttle passengers to it several times before that bigger bus gets full and leaves. This means you should plan for the service to be late, and, if you’re connecting to another bus in Matehuala, give yourself ample buffer time.
How to get to Real de Catorce from Mexico City: the fastest way to get to San Luis from the capital is to fly. Aeromexico has 4 flights a day between Mexico City’s main airport, MEX and SLP, most operated by its Aeromexico Connect subsidiary with comfortable Embraer 195 regional jets. Flight time is usually no more than 45 minutes. Once in SLP airport, pick up your rental car or follow the instructions above to get to the San Luis bus station, then on to Matehuala, and then to Real.
There is another way which takes a bit longer but could be more convenient: taking a bus from Mexico City directly into Matehuala, and then catching an Expreso Vanced colectivo. This saves you the connection between SLP airport and the San Luis bus station, and provides a one-stop itinerary.
Futura (and their sister brand Autobuses Anuhuac) as well as Senda serve the route as of publishing time. Futura has 6 trips a day, all of them executive service (called Primera Select), while Senda offers 4 trips, 2 of them first class and 2 of them executive class, marketed as Senda Diamante (to understand the difference, please see here, but I would always recommend springing for an executive bus for additional comfort and just a slightly higher fare). The fastest services (usually Senda), take about 8 hours to link the two cities, and all of them leave from Mexico City’s Northern Bus Station. The bus I took between San Luis and Metehuala was a Senda Diamante service, and I really enjoyed it. Directions from Matehuala onwards are above.
The tiny Espresso Vanced terminal in Matehuala.
When to go to Real de Catorce
Real de Catorce, like most Mexican highlands towns, benefits from a semi-arid climate with short, warm summers, short, cool winters, and a dry, partly cloudy environment year-round. Temperatures oscillate between 41°F to 83°F (5°C to 28°C).
In other words, there are no bad season to head to Real. I was there at the end of July and the beginning of August, and the weather was gorgeous, if a little chilly at night, but nothing a warm blanket couldn’t fix.
Crowds gather in the village around October 4th to celebrate the patron saint of its main church, San Francisco de Assisi, so it’s best to avoid this period if you don’t like crowds.
Real de Catorce is a fairly well-known town, and welcomes many Mexican tourists year round, most of them coming for the day. My recommendation would be to try and visit during the week, which is substantially quieter, and to stay at least a night, if not two, to enjoy all what the town has to offer, but to also take advantage of the times where streets feel deserted and you have them to yourself (before 10 am and after 5pm). Your experience will be vastly different, in the best way possible.
Safety in Real de Catorce
Just like neighboring Aguascalientes, the state of San Luis Potosí has been given a Level 2 advisory by the US State Department, which means “exercise increased caution” when traveling there. While other states in the northern part of Mexico are slapped with an ominous Level 4 warning (including close-by Zacatecas), San Luis Potosí is considered very safe. For perspective, a Level 2 advisory is similar to what you’d encounter in Mexico City, Hong Kong or Paris, cities that are not known to scare off wary travelers.
Beyond that blanket Level 2 warning, Real de Catorce, being a small, touristy town stuck between mountains and hard to access, isn’t the kind of town where you would expect organized crime to set up shop (organized crime being the #1 driver of insecurity in Mexico). As a result, the town is very safe, and the constant flow of tourists coming in and out through the one and only access road, the Ogarrio tunnel, whose access is manned by security managing traffic, makes for a strong deterrent.
A view of Real de Catorce.
The town is fairly small, and most streets in the center are heavily restricted to cars, meaning that the pace is slow, everyone is chill, and it’s hard to feel anything but serene strolling by.
Fair warning however, I was bitten by a dog on the outskirts of town, but that was an one-off event that’s unlikely to happen to anyone else (and I’ll live, in case you’re wondering).
Just keep an eye on the US Department of State travel advisory. Zacatecas state is closer than you think, and the situation there is very different, with a Level 4 “do not travel” advisory. There is no reason to think this could spill into San Luis Potosí, but it’s always better to check before confirming your plans.
In any case, I never felt unsafe during my stay in Real de Catorce (save for that perro loco), and would recommend it for people who are looking for an off-the-beaten path, chill experience.
Food & lodging in Real de Catorce
There aren’t that many hotels in Real, which seems to confirm most tourists come to town as day trippers. I chose to stay in an Airbnb, Casa Sulahue, which was reasonably priced, and afforded me the best view over the village’s magnificent church. It’s a little rustic but with plenty of charm, features a terrace overlooking the church, three lovely cats and only a few rooms so it’s quite tranquil. Just note it only offers one shared bathroom for everyone. I had also checked out The Hierro, another Airbnb, which did have private bathrooms, but I decided to go for the view. From my research, the Hierro was a solid alternative.
Food-wise, your options aren’t plentiful, but unless you’re planning to stay in town for two weeks, you’ll be fine:
El Cafe Azul is a nice (and pretty much the only) coffee place in town, with a cute, small terrace where you can have breakfast or a coffee break at any point during the day
Cafe Azul on Real’s Main Street.
Abastecedora El Rey is the town’s general store, and you can find all your essentials there, whether you’re trying to cook in your Airbnb or just want a minimalist, cheap lunch or dinner
Panaderia Avila is a small bakery with somewhat random opening times, but the pastries are pretty good.
On this side of plaza Hidalgo, you can find food stands. They’re all pretty good. I had gorditas to-go a few times for a song. They were absolutely delicious, and cooked right in front of me.
What to bring back
You will find everything you can possibly imagine and then some in the numerous stalls along calle Lanzagorta, the town’s narrow main street. Local sweets, straw baskets, blankets, typical pastries… However, what I enjoyed most were two small shops selling Huichol art:
Galeria de Arte Huichol. On Leandro Valle street, right behind the cultural center, this cute shop offers many takes on Huichol art made of beads, most of them gorgeous. The workshop sits in the back, so you can see the firmly working on the pieces as you browse. The selection is much better than anything on calle Lanzagorta.
Artesanias Waxa-Yuawi. On Constitution street, this unassuming store is an actual workshop where husband and wife create gorgeous Huichol pieces made of beads. The pieces are on the smaller side vs Galeria de Arte Huichol, which make them more affordable and easier to bring back.