Hidalgo is a state in Central Mexico.

Waterfall over the Basaltic Prisms of Santa María Regla, Huasca de Ocampo

Regions

• La Huasteca
• Sierra Alta
• Sierra Baja
• Sierra Gorda
• Valle del Mezquital
• Valle de Tulancingo
• Comarca Minera
• Sierra de Tenango
• Altiplanicie Pulquera
• Cuenca de Mexico

Cities

• 1 Pachuca - state capital
• 2 Actopan
• 3 Huasca de Ocampo
• 4 Ixmiquilpan
• 5 Mineral del Monte (also known as Real del Monte)
• 6 Omitlán de Juárez
• 7 Tlahuelilpan
• 8 Tulancingo de Bravo - second largest city

Other destinations

• 1 Tula de Allende - ruins

Talk

Spanish is the most widely spoken language. Other indigenous languages can be heard but Spanish is the language to get you by. English is spoken on random circles of people specially with younger educated individuals and in touristic places.

Get in

By bus

There is several buses that serve the state of Hidalgo from major cities in Mexico, The bus system is very big and will get you everywhere is Mexico's central region. Buses running from Mexico city's central bus station. Buses run often, throughout the day and night and they offer from very economical to first class accommodations. Prices are affordable.

By car

There is several toll roads and public roads that run from all surrounding states. Mexico-Pachuca and Mexico-Tulancingo are main roads that go through the state capital and main cities.

Get around

Buses run throughout the state, fairly often. at reliable schedules. within cities or towns you will find "combis" or "micros" "ichiban" or taxis that serve the local population to get around. Make sure to ask around about a way to get to your destination since the local buses don't have an online ticketing version. Fares at local buses vary, around five pesos or less. Taxis are widely available. Car rentals are offered in the major cities.

See

The state has a wide variety of scenic natural scenes to offer. The landscape varies, from deserts with beautiful cacti to humid dense forests. Being in the boundaries of Mexico's arid north and the Tropical south the state has a unique contrast of natural wonders.

• Grutas de tolantongo are a communal run complex with caves, warm springs, and several campsites, pools and restaurants complex.
• Santa Maria Amajac is another warm springs pools and saunas complex in the middle of beautiful wilderness.
• Los prismas basalticos are a rock formation of prisms and waterfalls.
• The forest of real del monte in the north of Pachuca with a Cornish heritage.

There is a wide variety of colonial treasures and whole cities to be found as well as precolonial vestiges of the Toltec and Aztec people, including the town of Huasca de Ocampo, the Toltec warrior statues, and the ruins of Huapalcalco

• The Aqueduct of Padre Tembleque Hydraulic System, a UNESCO World Heritage site (partially located in Mexico State)

Eat

One can find different kind of dishes served in the state, most which shares with the rest of central Mexico, Like Tamales, Tacos, Tortas. There is some ingredients that can make regional dishes atypical, even for other Mexicans, You can find mainstream Mexican dishes made of plants like mesquite beans, nopal and other cactus and various cactus fruit such as “tuna” and “xoconostle.”

Another of the rarities that you must try while visiting Hidalgo are dishes that are made of a variety of edible insects, many of which are considered delicacies such as escamoles (ant eggs) and maguey larvae as well as others such as larvae found on nopal plants, “chacas ” (beetles) and “chicharras” (cicadas).

Other local animals still, but rarely used for food include tadpoles (called atepocates), salamanders and their larvae, squirrels and rabbits. You can also find a variety of moles and a specialty of central Mexico, mixiote.

Another common central Mexican dish popular in the state and through central Mexico is Hidalgo's barbacoa. This dish has its origins in the pre-Hispanic period, when it was meat cooked in an underground pit. Today, it is most often cooked in pots in more conventional ovens, but the meat, today mostly pork, is still smothered in the alcoholic beverage pulque and wrapped in maguey leaves for flavor. This preparation of barbacoa is considered to be the state dish.