Bernal is a town of about 4,000 in the state of Queretaro, and it exists in the shadow of a single object: THE PENA DE BERNAL, a monolith of volcanic rock rising about 350 metres from the valley floor, among the largest in the world and often cited as third after Gibraltar and Sugarloaf.
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. If you buy through them, Roman Trail earns a small commission at no extra cost to you.
What Is Here
THE CLIMB GOES HALFWAY AND NO FURTHER WITHOUT ROPES, WHICH IS THE THING TO KNOW. A stepped and then rocky path climbs to a chapel and a viewpoint at roughly the midpoint, taking 45 minutes to an hour. Above that the rock becomes technical and requires climbing equipment and a guide. The great majority of visitors do the walk to the halfway point, and that is the intended experience rather than a failure.
The town below is a single compact grid of cobbled streets, painted houses, a small 18th century church and a main square that fills at weekends with visitors from Queretaro and Mexico City.
The streets are the second image, and they are the other half of a day here: this is a place to walk slowly, eat gorditas and buy wool.
BERNAL IS A WOOL TOWN and the shops around the plaza sell blankets, sarapes and rugs woven locally, which is a genuinely good thing to buy rather than a tourist product.
THE SPRING EQUINOX FILLS THE PLACE. Thousands of people come dressed in white on 21 March to receive the rock's energy, which is a modern tradition rather than an ancient one and is an extraordinary sight regardless. Accommodation books out.
The Sierra Gorda and the Queretaro wine country are nearby, with Tequisquiapan 40 minutes away and the Freixenet caves and vineyards between them.
When to Go
October to May. The climb is best early in the day in any season.
WEEKDAYS ARE A DIFFERENT TOWN FROM WEEKENDS. Saturday and Sunday bring day-trippers in large numbers for a town of 4,000; Tuesday is almost empty.
April and May are hot and dry, and the rock radiates heat.
June to September brings afternoon storms, and the upper path is closed or inadvisable in wet weather.
At 2,000 metres the nights are cold all year and rooms are often unheated.
Getting There
By road from Queretaro, about 45 minutes; from Mexico City, roughly three hours.
By bus, services from Queretaro's terminal to Ezequiel Montes and then a short taxi or colectivo, about an hour and a half in total.
By air, Queretaro Intercontinental is about an hour away and Mexico City International three.
Most people come for the day from Queretaro or San Miguel de Allende. Staying a night gets you the rock at dawn and the town without the crowd.
Is Bernal Safe for Women?
Bernal is a small, prosperous, weekend-tourism town and is among the safest places in central Mexico. The FCDO does publish advised-against areas for Mexico, and being precise about them matters more here than almost anywhere, because the country is large and the restrictions are specific rather than general. It advises against all but essential travel to the cities of Tijuana and Tecate in Baja California, to the areas of Guanajuato south-west of road 45D, to most of the state of Michoacan with named exceptions for Morelia and Patzcuaro reached by toll road, to the parts of Jalisco south and south-west of Lake Chapala and eleven northern municipalities, to the state of Colima except Manzanillo reached by air or sea, to the state of Guerrero except Zihuatanejo and Ixtapa reached by air, to a 40km strip of the Guatemalan border in Chiapas, to one stretch of Federal Highway 199, and to the city of Acapulco. That last one appears on the safety and security subpage rather than in the landing page list, which is exactly why you should read both. None of those areas includes this destination. Read the current advice yourself before you travel, because the list is revised regularly.
QUERETARO STATE IS NAMED NOWHERE IN THE FCDO'S REGIONAL WARNINGS FOR MEXICO. The advised-against areas are Chihuahua, Sinaloa, Zacatecas, Guerrero, most of Michoacan, Tamaulipas, Colima, parts of Jalisco and Guanajuato, Tijuana and Tecate, and the Chiapas border strip. Note that GUANAJUATO, which borders Queretaro, does carry a partial warning for the areas south west of road 45D, and Bernal is well clear of it.
THE UPPER ROCK KILLS PEOPLE AND THE LOWER PATH DOES NOT. Above the halfway chapel the Pena is a technical climb on bare rock, and visitors who continue without equipment are the ones who get into trouble. There is a marked limit. Respect it.
The lower path is loose rock and smooth stone in places, steep enough that the descent is harder than the ascent, and it is fully exposed to the sun.
At 2,000 metres the sun is strong and the air is dry, and the rock reflects heat back at you.
The Bernal Packing List
High desert: fierce sun, thin air, cold nights, and an hour of climbing.
Our merino base layers are 100% Australian merino at 17.5 micron, and a long sleeve merino wool base layer for women is the right first layer because the climb concentrates every problem this place has into one hour: you go up in full sun at 2,000 metres, sweat, and then stand still at the viewpoint in wind. Wool covers your arms against the UV, keeps working while damp, and is the layer you keep on for a night that falls to single figures. Add a heavyweight merino base layer from November to February.
A Columbia Fast Trek II fleece for the evening in the plaza, which is colder than visitors expect.
Salomon X Ultra 4 GTX hiking shoes with Darn Tough merino socks. The path is loose rock and polished stone and the descent is the dangerous half; sandals and smooth-soled trainers are the usual mistake.
A wide brim sun hat and a RAYMYLO insulated water bottle filled in the town, because there is nothing on the climb.
Not linked and worth packing: SUNGLASSES and high-factor sun protection; A SCARF for the wind at the viewpoint; CASH for the wool shops and the food stalls, which are cash businesses; and A PLASTIC BAG for a wool blanket if you buy one, since the afternoon storms are sudden in summer. Cards work in restaurants.
Recommended Tours and Experiences
Essential Resources for Women in Bernal
Emergency numbers: 911 for police, ambulance and fire, the single national number, free from any phone. English-speaking operators are available in the tourist states but are not guaranteed everywhere.
The path goes to a chapel and viewpoint at roughly the halfway point and stops there for a reason: above it the Pena is a technical climb on bare rock requiring equipment and a guide, and the visitors who get into trouble are the ones who continue past the marked limit. THE LOWER PATH IS LOOSE ROCK AND POLISHED STONE, steep, fully exposed, and harder coming down than going up. THERE IS NO WATER ON THE CLIMB: fill a bottle in the town. QUERETARO STATE IS NAMED NOWHERE in the FCDO's Mexican regional warnings, though neighbouring Guanajuato carries a partial warning for areas south west of road 45D, well clear of here. THE SPRING EQUINOX ON 21 MARCH brings thousands and books out every room in the area. WEEKENDS ARE a different town from weekdays.
US State Department travel advisory: the Mexico advisory. Read the current level there directly rather than relying on a figure printed in any guide.
UK FCDO travel advice: gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/mexico, and read the safety and security page rather than only the landing page, because that is where the substance sits.
Main hospital: Bernal has a small clinic. The nearest hospitals are at Ezequiel Montes and Tequisquiapan, twenty to forty minutes away, with the full facilities of Queretaro city at 45 minutes. Dial 911 for an ambulance. Private hospitals in the large Mexican cities are good and expect payment or a direct insurance guarantee up front, so carry your policy number where you can reach it rather than in the bottom of a bag. Public clinics will treat an emergency. Tap water is not drinkable anywhere in the country: drink bottled or purified water, which every hotel and restaurant supplies as a matter of course, and take the same care with ice and raw salad that you would with the water itself.
Official health authority: the Secretaria de Salud, Mexico's federal health ministry. the federal health ministry; the Queretaro state service runs the local clinic
US Embassy: the United States Embassy in Mexico City.
Official tourism authority: the Secretaria de Turismo, Mexico's federal tourism ministry. publishes the Pena climbing arrangements and the registered guides for the upper rock, plus the equinox and festival dates
Takeaways
The path stops halfway on purpose. Above it you need ropes and a guide.
Climb early. The rock is unshaded and reflects heat.
Come on a weekday for the town, a weekend for the atmosphere.
Buy the wool. It is woven here.
Solo women safety assessment: Bernal is about as easy as Mexico gets for a woman on her own. It is a town of four thousand whose entire economy is weekend visitors from Queretaro and Mexico City, so the streets are full of families, couples and groups of friends rather than anything else; the plaza is lit and busy in the evening, the climb is done by a steady stream of people in both directions all morning, and a woman walking up alone is simply one of them. The usual Mexican practice is more than enough: authorised taxis or a ride app rather than a street cab for the trip in and out, bag closed, and nothing unlit at the edge of town after dark. 911 IS THE NATIONAL EMERGENCY NUMBER, free from any phone. QUERETARO STATE APPEARS NOWHERE IN THE FCDO'S REGIONAL WARNINGS FOR MEXICO, which is worth saying positively rather than leaving to inference, and the one nearby qualification is that neighbouring Guanajuato carries a partial warning for the areas south west of road 45D, which is a different part of a different state. THE RISK HERE IS THE ROCK AND IT HAS A CLEAR BOUNDARY. The maintained path climbs to a chapel and viewpoint at roughly the midpoint of the Pena, takes under an hour, and is within the capability of anyone reasonably fit. ABOVE THAT POINT IT IS A TECHNICAL CLIMB on bare volcanic rock that requires equipment and a guide, and the people who are hurt or killed on this monolith are the ones who treat the marked limit as a suggestion. Do not. THE LOWER PATH STILL DESERVES RESPECT: loose rock, polished stone where thousands of feet have worn it, no shade at all, and a descent that is harder than the ascent, which is where ankles go. Shoes with grip, a hat, and a full bottle carried up from the town, because there is nothing to drink on the way. And at 2,000 metres the nights are cold in every month, in rooms that are rarely heated.
Reading On
Bernal is Queretaro and the Bajio is around it. The Queretaro packing list covers the state capital 45 minutes away and the San Miguel de Allende packing list the colonial town west, with the Guanajuato packing list for the silver city beyond it. South, the Mexico City packing list and the pyramids of Teotihuacan beyond it cover the capital and its pyramids, with the Tepoztlan packing list and Cuernavaca packing list in Morelos. East, the Puebla packing list, Cholula packing list and Atlixco packing list cover Puebla state. West, the Morelia packing list covers Michoacan's capital. For the country the Mexico travel guide for women and the Mexico packing list carry the transport, the regional advisories and the practical material in full. For why wool suits a climb that ends in standing still in wind, read the guide to merino wool base layers for women. Every destination we cover is indexed at the travel packing guide for women, and the base layers are at the Roman Trail collection.
If the outer journey is calling you, the inner one usually is too. Explore SoulMap at romantrail.com/blogs/soulmap.
