Where to Celebrate Day of the Dead: 22 Places in Mexico and the US, and How to Choose

Choosing where to go for Día de Muertos is really choosing a kind of trip. A city with a parade, a village where families keep a night vigil, a park with a staged show and a weekend street festival in the United States are very different ways to spend a few days, and mixing them up is how plans go wrong.

Día de Muertos is a family remembrance of the dead, not Halloween. Choose activities that organizers identify as public. At family vigils and home altars, visitors are guests: ask first and accept that a family may say no.

A first visit: Oaxaca or Mexico City

Oaxaca is one option for a first visit, with public altars and comparsas. The state government presented a 2026 program of more than 100 activities, in the capital and in other municipalities, so the question is less what to do than what to choose.

In Oaxaca de Juárez, the state program announced 30 monumental altars in the Zócalo, representing the state's 16 Indigenous peoples and its Afro-Mexican people. It also includes the Gran Comparsa, the Verbena Xandú and a monumental tapete in Jalatlaco.

The comparsa is the loud, joyful public part, with brass bands, costumes and a crowd that follows along. The cemeteries in the villages around the city are another matter: they are family vigils, not shows. Choose public altars and parades first, keep your distance at graves and let families set the pace.

Mexico City is the other first-visit choice, but it is many events, not one. The tenth Gran Desfile de Día de Muertos is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 31, 2026, from the Diana Cazadora to the Zócalo.

That parade is a civic program. The family rituals in the city's original villages run on their own dates and rules, so plan the two separately.

“Que florezca el cempasúchil; que florezca la memoria; que florezca la vida” (Clara Brugada Molina, Mexico City head of government)

Community traditions: go prepared, and ask

These are places where the visitor is plainly a guest.

San Andrés Mixquic, in Mexico City's Tláhuac borough, holds the Alumbrada, when the cemetery lights go out and candles are lit on the graves. The city's 2026 tourism program identified the night of Nov. 2 as the culmination. The city's tourism guide calls the tombs sacred family spaces.

Huaquechula, in Puebla, is known for monumental altars three to six meters tall. For 2026, 34 were announced for homes and public spaces, four of them for people who died that year. The tradition includes families offering food to visitors after opening an altar to the public, so the departed are kept company. Follow the family's lead.

In the Huasteca Potosina, Xantolo is the tradition tied to All Saints and Día de Muertos. San Luis Potosí's government program Xantolo se Vive en tu Ciudad 2026 runs through Nov. 2, with the capital area on Oct. 23 to 25, then Huasteca municipalities from Oct. 30 to Nov. 2. The city programs showcase the tradition; the Huasteca is its home region.

In Campeche, Pomuch maintains a family tradition associated with Janal Pixán, the remembrance also known as Hanal Pixán. Mexico's culture ministry describes the cleaning of remains in the ossuaries and notes that the Pomuch tradition has become popular worldwide. It is a family ritual, not an attraction. Do not seek access without a community guide and the family's permission; accept a refusal.

The U.S. travel advisory designates Michoacán as Level 4, “Do Not Travel”. Do not plan a trip to Pátzcuaro, Janitzio or elsewhere in the state on the basis of festival announcements. Purépecha Noche de Ánimas on Lake Pátzcuaro is a living family tradition.

Art, food and a program you can read

Some places publish a long program in advance, which makes them easier to plan around. Each still has its own organizer, so read the details.

Mérida's Festival de las Ánimas is scheduled for Oct. 24 to Nov. 2, 2026, in the city and its outlying communities, with more than 30 activities. The Paseo de Ánimas is set for Friday, Oct. 30, from the Cementerio General to the San Juan neighborhood, and a Desfile de Catrinas for Saturday, Oct. 31, leaving the Plaza Grande. These are civic programs, separate from the family Hanal Pixán.

Puebla's 19th La Muerte es un Sueño program in 2026 includes tapetes, ofrendas, concerts, theater and legend walks in the capital and its outlying neighborhoods. Most activities are announced without cost, and one theater show lists 100 pesos.

Nearby Atlixco's Valle de Catrinas runs through Nov. 9, 2026, with 19 of its 27 figures installed in the town, according to the municipal government.

Aguascalientes' Festival Cultural de Calaveras is scheduled for Oct. 30 to Nov. 8, 2026. The Desfile de Calaveras is set for Friday, Oct. 30, at 7 p.m., alongside free concerts, themed pavilions and altar displays.

San Miguel de Allende's municipal program is listed for Oct. 31 to Nov. 2, 2026, with workshops, ofrenda displays, music and film screenings, and a Desfile de Muertos y Catrinas on Monday, Nov. 2, at 5 p.m.

Guanajuato's festival is scheduled for Oct. 28 to Nov. 2, 2026, in the capital, with catrinas, monumental altars and processions in its underground street, plazas and alleys. The organizing committee projects attendance of 250 mil people.

In Jalisco, San Pedro Tlaquepaque lists its festival for Oct. 23 to Nov. 2, 2026, with clay artisans at the center and altars in the courtyards of El Refugio. Many listed events are free, and some ask for advance registration.

Staged and ticketed: Xcaret

Xcaret announced the 20th edition of its Festival de Vida y Muerte with Guanajuato as the guest state. The staged park program includes theater, concerts, workshops and a gala concert.

Enjoy it as a festival and an evening of entertainment, not as a village tradition. Check the park's own page for dates and tickets.

US weekends

U.S. events are community and civic programs with their own histories, not copies of Mexican family rituals.

San Antonio's Day of the Dead River Parade is scheduled for Friday, Oct. 23, 2026, starting at 7 p.m. near Lexington Avenue, with decorated barges. Seating spans about 2.5 miles of the River Walk, so a ticket assigns you a gate and a section.

Chicago's National Museum of Mexican Art lists Día de los Muertos Xicágo for Saturday, Oct. 24, 2026, with community ofrendas, live music and an illuminated ofrenda projected on the building. The museum lists 4 p.m. as the exhibition's final admission time; joining the line then does not guarantee gallery access.

In Los Angeles, Olvera Street's merchants describe a nine-day festival with a nightly procession and community altars. Hollywood Forever's 27th annual event lists tickets as required for ages 5 and up.

Old Town San Diego State Historic Park's announced celebration runs from Oct. 31 through Nov. 2, 2026, with daily hours of 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The program offers historic-museum altars and a community altar. A sugar skull workshop has a $10 materials fee, and the park notes a parking fee, with a transit center next door.

San Francisco's Mission District procession is scheduled for Monday, Nov. 2, 2026, at 7 p.m., with street closures and Muni reroutes. Oakland's Fruitvale festival is listed for Sunday, Nov. 1, 2026, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in Fruitvale Village.

Albuquerque's South Valley celebration and Marigold Parade is run by a small committee and volunteers. They ask visitors to respect the holiday's cultural, spiritual and religious significance and to pick up their own waste.

Tucson's All Souls Procession is a related tradition with its own character, not Mexican Día de Muertos. Organizers announced the 37th procession for Sunday, Nov. 8, 2026, with assembly on Grande Avenue at 4 p.m. and departure at 6 p.m. Organizers ask people to remember that it is a funeral, not a political event.

Before you go

Ask before you photograph a person, a grave or an altar, keep the flash off and stay off graves and tombs. Look for parades, civic altars, museum shows and markets that organizers identify as public; cemetery vigils and home altars belong to families, who may say no.

Check each organizer's own program page in the fall, because start times, routes and costs change and different organizers run different events. For Old Town San Diego, the park identified a neighboring transit center and warned of event parking fees. For San Antonio's river parade, arrival planning depends on the gate and section printed on the ticket. Leave Michoacán off travel plans: the U.S. advisory there is Level 4, “Do Not Travel”.