Chihuahua City

Villa's Quinta Luz, Quinta Gameros and the cathedral in two days

Two days in Chihuahua City cover the colonial centre, the Revolution sites and the mansion district. Start at the Plaza de Armas with the cathedral, whose carved stone front is the finest Baroque work in northern Mexico, and go down into the Museo de Arte Sacro below the Capilla del Rosario for colonial religious painting.

The museum opens on weekdays only and closes for a break at midday. Then cross to the Palacio de Gobierno, where murals cover the courtyard walls and a shrine marks the place of Hidalgo's execution.

Afternoon. Walk south along Paseo Bolívar to Quinta Gameros, an Art Nouveau house built for a mining family, with stained glass and carved furniture throughout. Continue to the Quinta Luz on Calle 10a, the Museum of the Revolution, where Villa's widow lived for decades and his Dodge sits in the courtyard. In the evening, have a craft beer by Parque Lerdo.

Second day. Head out early to the Grutas de Nombre de Dios on the north-east edge of the city, a cave system with paved paths and handrails. Fit walkers can then climb Cerro Colorado, about 300 metres up a steep path from near the cave exit; take plenty of water, good shoes and sun protection. Back in town, spend the late afternoon at Casa Redonda, the contemporary art museum in the old railway roundhouse, and walk Avenida Zarco to see the grandest of the pre-Revolution houses.

Fiery chiles rellenos, Mennonite cheese and Parque Lerdo craft beer

Chihuahua eats like northern ranch country, on beef and wheat. Flour tortillas come with nearly everything, and the local chile relleno is served on one with the chilli's seeds left in, so the heat hits hard; order with care if you are not used to it. Grilled beef, from carne asada to thick steaks, marks a celebration.

The state's best-known product is queso menonita, a mild, melting cheese made by the Mennonite communities around Cuauhtémoc to the west. It turns up in quesadillas and baked dishes all over town, and stores sell whole wheels. For a formal dinner, La Casona on Calle Aldama occupies an old downtown mansion with a polished international menu, while the north side's Distrito Uno has newer restaurants such as Mochomos, which cooks with a Sonoran accent.

Drinking has changed in the past decade. Chihuahua now has a growing crop of small craft breweries, and Casa Cervecera Bolívar, facing Parque Lerdo on Paseo Bolívar, is the obvious place to taste local beers. Sotol, the regional spirit distilled from a desert plant, is worth asking for at bars that stock it; it is drier and more herbal than mezcal.

Onward to Creel by bus, past Cuauhtémoc's Mennonite farms

Most travellers pass through Chihuahua City for the Chepe railway across the Sierra Madre Occidental to Los Mochis. The tourist Chepe Express now starts and ends in Creel, three and a half to four hours west by bus, while the slower Chepe Regional still leaves from Chihuahua's station on Calle Méndez on fewer days.

Check the timetable well before you go and buy tickets at the station office or by phone.

On the way west, the highway passes Cuauhtémoc, about an hour and a half from the capital, the centre of a large Mennonite community that settled the area in the 1920s. Orchards, dairy farms and cheese shops line the road outside town, and a museum explains how the community lives. It makes a good half-day stop, or a full day trip by car.

Weather shapes all of this. Creel, at high altitude, is cold in winter and can see snow, and the canyon bottoms are hot in late spring. October and early November usually give the clearest conditions for both the city and the sierra, and March to May is the next best window before the summer storms.