Two churches in Mexico City. Basilica of Guadalupe has 16 tickets and tours to book; Mexico City Cathedral has no online ticket listed. The table and the two notes below put them side by side; the full pages have what to see, the ticket and the timing for each.
Entry is free to everything on the hill: the modern basilica, the old baroque one, the chapels up the slope and the gardens. There is no ticket to buy and no queue except on feast days, so the only spending decision is transport and guiding. The site is in the north of Mexico City, reachable by metro to La Villa-Basilica and a short walk, which costs almost nothing. Guided tours from the centre are usually sold as part of a combination with Teotihuacan, since the pyramids lie in the same direction, and that pairing is the standard full-day trip;
The cathedral occupies the northern side of the Zocalo and is free to enter, so the planning question is what to add. Two paid options exist and both are worth it: the bell tower, climbed with a guide in small groups from a door in the west front, and the crypt of the archbishops below the floor. Tower groups leave at intervals through the day, take about half an hour and are limited in size, so ask early rather than at four in the afternoon.
