Ciudad Acuña

Ciudad Acuña is a city of 216,000 people (2019) in Coahuila, on the Rio Grande (locally known as the Río Bravo), which marks the U.S.-Mexico border. It attracts cross-border tourism from the U.S. with handicraft shops, hotels, typical restaurants and international cuisine.

Understand

Presidencia Municipal (town hall)

Old Mexico hands consider this to be one of the more pleasant and easier border crossing points along the entire Rio Grande. Has a couple really pleasant Tex-Mex restaurants.

There are two border crossings from the neighboring city of Del Rio in the U.S. state of Texas:

• via Lake Amistad Dam International Crossing, and
• Del Río-Ciudad Acuña International Bridge.

Movie goers may recall Ciudad Acuña as the quintessential border town in the Robert Rodriguez film, El Mariachi. It is also seen in No Country for Old Men.

Climate

The climate of Ciudad Acuña is one of the most extreme in the country, similar to that of the great plains of the southern United States. It has short and cold winters, very hot summer and mild spring-autumn. In late spring and early summer, extreme events such as tornadoes of strong intensity caused by the last cold fronts of the season can occur. Frosts are common every winter and there are many cold days (maximum temperature below 10ºC) in this season.

Get in

There are no scheduled flights to Ciudad Acuña International Airport ACN ^IATA.

Del Rio International Airport DRT ^IATA is the closest airport. It has scheduled flights from Dallas/Fort Worth.

See

Santa María de Guadalupe parish

• A total solar eclipse on Monday 8 April 2024, starting at 13:28 local time and lasting 3 min. Chances of a clear sky are 50%. The eclipse tracks northeast from Mazatlan to Ciudad Acuña then across Texas.
• Cuartel Militar Antiguo, C. Pino Suárez 1, 28 de Junio. Old military barracks. Offers good vantage point of city and USA.

Do

• 1 Los Novillos National Park — Family friendly river park, nice place for a nature walk or a picnic

Drink

Calle Hidalgo

• 1 Corona Club, Hidalgo 200 (2 blocks south of International Bridge Number 1). Air-conditioned indoor-outdoor bar with live music near the border. (updated May 2017)
• "Boys' Town" is an entertainment district in an area south of Ciudad Acuña and contains a few after-hours bars and brothels.

Sleep

• 1 Hotel San Antonio, Hidalgo 110 (corner of Hidalgo and Lerdo), ☏ +52 877 772 5108. (updated May 2017)

Connect

As of Dec 2021, Ciudad Acuña has 4G from Telcel, and if you're lucky from AT&T / Unefon. You might also get a signal from the US carriers. 5G has not reached this area.

Go next

Routes through Ciudad Acuña

END ←	NW  SE	→ Jiménez → Piedras Negras
END ←	N  S	→ Zaragoza → Allende
END ←	SW  NE	→ → Del Rio