What April actually feels like, coast to capital
April is the tail end of Mexico's dry season, which means almost no rain across most of the country but rising heat wherever you are below about 1,500 metres. Mexico City sits around 2,240 metres and stays mild, roughly 12–26°C, with hazy afternoons and the first scattered showers only in the final week. The Pacific coast is another matter: Puerto Vallarta and Zihuatanejo regularly pass 32°C, and the Yucatán interior — Valladolid, Chichén Itzá — is humid and punishing by midday. If you want to walk rather than wilt, April favours the highlands.
The other half of the April picture is people. Easter week (Semana Santa) is the busiest domestic travel period of the year, and it moves with the calendar, so check the exact dates before you commit. Coastal resorts and colonial towns fill with Mexican families, motorway tolls get busy, and the Friday before Palm Sunday is one of the worst days to drive out of Mexico City. Book accommodation in beach towns or Pueblos Mágicos at least six to eight weeks ahead for that window, and expect minimum stays at some coastal properties. Outside it, the month is calmer than you would guess from the headlines.
The two cities that carry most hotel searches
Mexico City absorbs the largest share of hotel interest, and it earns it in April. Base yourself in Roma Norte or Condesa for walkable cafés, Parque México and easy Metro access via Insurgentes; Juárez and the Zona Rosa side suit first-timers wanting the Angel of Independence on the doorstep. Polanco is pricier and quieter, good for museum days at Chapultepec and the Anthropology Museum, roughly 20 minutes by taxi from the Centro Histórico when traffic behaves — and it frequently does not. The Centro itself, around the Zócalo and Bellas Artes, is atmospheric but noisy at night; I would book Roma Norte and take the Metro to the centre.
Cancún and the Riviera Maya remain the volume leaders for beach bookings, and April is a reasonable month for them: sea temperatures near 27°C, low rain risk until June, and sargassum usually lighter than in the May–August peak, though it varies year to year. Cancún's Hotel Zone is convenient and car-free but restaurant prices are high; Playa del Carmen, 45 minutes south on the ADO bus, is livelier and cheaper to eat in. For something quieter, look at Puerto Morelos, 20 minutes from Cancún airport, or Bacalar further south if you have the days. First week of April I would book Playa; Easter week, I would avoid the coast entirely.
Colonial towns, Oaxaca and the altitude question
Oaxaca de Juárez is the strongest April choice in the south. At about 1,550 metres it is warm but not brutal, and the city's cultural calendar keeps going without the crush of Day of the Dead. Stay in the Centro, within walking distance of the Zócalo and Santo Domingo, or in Jalatlaco just east for quieter streets and lower rates. San Cristóbal de Las Casas in Chiapas is cooler still at 2,200 metres — bring a jacket for evenings — while Guanajuato and San Miguel de Allende in the Bajío run hot and dry by afternoon but are pleasant in the mornings. If Oaxaca is on your list, book early: April inventory in the Centro is tight.
Guadalajara and the surrounding state of Jalisco deserve more attention than they get. The city sits at 1,566 metres with April highs around 30°C and almost no rain, and the neighbourhoods of Colonia Americana and Lafayette are full of hotels in converted townhouses. From there, Tequila is about an hour by road or on the Jose Cuervo Express, and the town of Ajijic on Lake Chapala is a 50-minute drive. I would pick Guadalajara over Mexico City if you want warmer evenings and a cheaper hotel base, and over the coast if you have no interest in lying on a beach in 33°C heat.
Monterrey, the north and what to skip
The north is the part of Mexico most travellers skip in April, and mostly they are right to — Monterrey hits the high 30s and its main attraction, the Parque Ecológico Chipinque and the mountain views from the Macroplaza, is better in October. But the dry interior around San Miguel de Allende, Querétaro and Zacatecas works well: Zacatecas sits at 2,440 metres, so days are warm and nights genuinely cold, and its centro histórico is quieter than Guanajuato's. Buses from Mexico City to Querétaro take about three hours on the new motorway; from there, San Miguel is another hour.
What I would skip in April: Cancún during Semana Santa unless you have already booked, the Yucatán ruins at midday (go at opening, 8am, and be back by noon), and any plan that involves driving into a beach town on the Thursday or Friday of Easter week. Also skip the temptation to cram Mexico City and Oaxaca into four days — the six-hour road trip or one-hour flight eats a day you will not get back. Three or four nights in one city beats two nights in each, and your hotel booking is the thing to lock in first while the good rooms are still available.