Where locals go

Where residents actually go

Locals and regulars mostly avoid the Sunday tourist crush entirely and live in the town midweek, when it’s theirs again.

• The everyday market, not just the weekend tianguis. The daily market in and around the municipal building is where people buy produce and eat cheap, honest comida — barbacoa tacos in the morning, menudo on weekends, quesadillas made to order.
• Itacates from the street stands, not the tourist-facing stalls. These thick triangular corn cakes split and filled with cheese, beans and salsa are the true local snack. Follow the line of Mexican families, not the English-language sign.
• Neighborhood mezcalerías and cantinas off the main drag, where the mezcal is poured for regulars rather than performed for Instagram. A block or two off the zócalo the prices drop and the crowd changes.
• The barrios and their chapels. Tepoztlán is divided into eight traditional barrios, each with its own chapel and saint’s-day fiesta. If you happen to hit one, that’s the real town — music, food stalls and processions with almost no tourists.

What a local would tell you: come Tuesday or Wednesday, eat at the daily market, and you’ll meet the Tepoztlán that Sunday visitors never see.