“Mexico is a mosaic of different realities and beauties.” – Enrique Pena Nieto
Mexico City has been high on my travel bucket list for years now. Having heard high praises of this diverse and cultured city, I knew it was time to pay it a visit. Surprisingly enough, at just 3.5 hours away from Los Angeles by plane, Mexico City is even closer than the Midwest.
Mexico City is a mix of both the familiar and unfamiliar- A fusion of Latin America and Europe with a sprinkling of common American brands like Home Depot and Sears. It’s exciting with crowded streets and nightlife that lasts well into the morning. Seeing that it is the largest city in North America by both size and population, surpassing even NYC, Mexico City has a lot to offer.
I only had 5 nights in Mexico City (abbreviated: CDMX). In most cases, I would’ve felt like that was plenty, but I would recommend at least 7 nights to take in all the sights. My schedule, as usual, was so jam-packed that I was functioning on 2-4 hours of sleep a night and rushing through museums and attractions where I wish I could have taken things a bit slower. I also didn’t make it to half the restaurants on my life and a handful of sights. The longer you can stay in CDMX, the better. It’s bigger than you could possibly imagine.
Table of Contents
Transportation
I recommend that you plan your days carefully so that you are not running from one part of town to another. Traffic is horrendous here and often times we found that walking for 30 minutes was quicker than to go by Uber. To avoid wasting time commuting, try to stick to one neighborhood or two neighborhoods per day.
Uber or the local rideshare app “Didi” are the best ways to get around since rides are tracked and prices are predetermined. The public transportation is surprisingly nice, though it does get crowded. 5 million people take the metro each day in CDMX! We took the bus on one occasion for a short ride in search of a taco stand and it was a pleasant, safe experience. Overall, I still recommend rideshare apps for ease of use and safety.
In total, we spent roughly $170 ($85 per person) in Uber rides. This included rides from the airport, some long distant rides (55km), and a few mistake rides to places we later decided we didn’t want to stay (more on that later). If you plan better, you should expect to spend roughly $140 or less in Uber rides for 6 days in Mexico city.
Safety
It seems that Mexico doesn’t have the best reputation as far as safety goes. Fortunately, we did not have any issues and felt relatively safe by sticking to neighborhoods like La Condesa, Roma Norte, Coyoacán, and Centro Historico. Keep an eye on your belongings, especially in crowds, and you should be fine. The usual travel safety tips apply here, like with everywhere else.
Restaurants
Food in CDMX is one of the main attractions. So much so, that I dedicated an entire separate article about it *here*. You can read all about where we ate and how I rate them, as well as other info and tips.
Where to Stay
I loved our accommodation at the brand new Hotel Dama so much, that I wrote an entire post about it *here*. One of the best hotel stays in my life and definitely worth the little extra splurge for comfort and location.
Nightlife
Mexico City is known for its nightlife scene. As one of the major metropolitan cities in the world with a population greater than New York City, CDMX has a flourishing nightlife with bars, cantinas, speakeasies, and clubs that are open until the wee hours of the morning, often times until 5am on the weekends! It’s good to know that many of these clubs don’t even open until 11pm and don’t really start to fill up until after midnight.
Remember when I mentioned earlier that we had a few “mistake” Uber rides. Well, the story behind that was when we tried to find a club to go to on Saturday night and everywhere we went appeared dead as a doorknob. We were the only ones in the club and kept leaving to find different, more lively clubs, resulting in many unnecessary Ubers.
I texted a friend that I made the night before how we went to the famous “Kennedy Social Room” in Polanco and was disappointed because it was a ghost town there. He laughed and asked what time did we go because no one goes before midnight. Being from Los Angeles, we thought by 10pm the club should have been popping, but we got there well before the party even started.
Luckily, by the time we spent Ubering all around CDMX, it was late enough that clubs and dance halls were finally in full force and we found ourselves as Mama Rumba.
Mama Rumba
This salsa venue is a two story club with a live band and packed with enthusiastic dancers of all levels. If salsa dancing is your thing, then you must add Mama Rumba to your list. Unlike La Havana (the salsa club in Cartagena I visited earlier this year), Mama Rumba had space to dance and cut loose. Even though it was fairly crowded, the layout of the space made it so much easier to cut a rug, as the saying goes.
Whereas people seemed to have come with dance partners and stuck with their groups of friends in La Havana in Cartagena, men constantly approached me for dances in Mama Rumba and I was able to socialize and practice salsa with so many different dancers. Best salsa dancing I’ve experienced so far.
Departamento
My favorite bar in all of Mexico City has to be Departamento. It’s one of the top rated nightlife spots in Mexico City for a reason. This multilevel, bar-club hybrid is well worth the high cover charge and pricey drinks. With relaxed electronic beats from a live DJ on the rooftop and a chill library-esque bar on the first floor, Departamento has something for everyone. I love places like this where you can go between the different levels depending on your mood throughout the night. It’s like switching up clubs/bars without having to leave.
When I entered Departamento, the very first thing I noticed is that everyone, and I mean everyone, is ridiculously attractive. It’s like all of CDMX’s most beautiful people go out to Departamento on a Friday night. I have to admit, I was originally upset about the high cover charge and the drink prices, but it’s well worth the atmosphere, the music, the cocktail quality, and the people. A 10/10 experience. If you only have one night to go out in CDMX, make sure you check out Departamento.
Casa Franca
Unintentionally, I have been ending up in jazz bars during my Latin American travels, and to be honest, I’m so happy that it’s become sort of a new travel tradition to find a jazz bar wherever I go now. Casa Franca is another cool, multilevel bar with a live jazz band on the first floor. Divided into different rooms, appearing almost like a converted apartment building, Casa Franca has an eclectic vibe. There is no room for boredom as you can wander between the rooms and the different floors throughout the night. It’s one of those places that, if I lived in CDMX, would be my go-to “spot”.
Sunday Sunday
As you might be able to infer by the name, Sunday Sunday, is a rooftop club that is only open on Sundays. This afternoon to night party starts at 5pm and continues until midnight. It has speakeasy vibes as the entrance is located in a sketchy alley and through what looks like a mom and pop store. Not the most inviting entry as it feels like the start to the movie Taken.
Once you go up the elevator, you’ll arrive at check-in where you pay the cover charge. Not only do you have your bags checked, but also your phone camera covered up with smiley face stickers since photos and videos are not allowed inside, which is quiet unfortunate as the view from Sunday Sunday is stunning. To buy drinks you have to purchase a card and load it up with funds like at a music festival. It really was a lot of hassle that I didn’t care for. I don’t like it when things are unnecessarily more complicated than they need to be.
The music was electro-house mix and the DJ was killing it. At the time, we didn’t realize that Sunday Sunday was a day party as well, and most of the people there clearly arrived way earlier as they were very much so buzzed and in their own little worlds. I think it’s a fun place, we were just not mentally prepared for it that day and didn’t enjoy it as much as we expected.
What to Do in Mexico City
There is never enough time in Mexico City. With so much to do, I guarantee you won’t be bored. Exhausted, yes, but bored no. Here are some of the absolute must-see attractions in CDMX:
Frida Kahlo Museum
No trip to Mexico City would be complete without a visit to the Frida Kahlo Museum. Frida Kahlo needs no introduction, but if you happen to have been living under a rock for the past century, she is one of the most famous surrealist painters of the 20th century, as well as a feminist icon, known for her fearless and feisty personality. Instantly recognizable by her unibrow and traditional Tehuana dress that she wore to cover up her disabilities following polio as a child and a tragic trolley accident as a young woman, Frida Kahlo is one of the most celebrated Mexican artists, along with her husband Diego Rivera.
You can purchase tickets to her family home in Coyoacan known as Casa Azul, or what many refer to as the Frida Kahlo Museum. You’ll have to be sure to secure tickets weeks if not months in advance since they sell out quickly. Try to pick one of the first time slots of the day so that you are not battling crowds while in her home, and can enjoy the art displays more peacefully.
Depending on your pace, Casa Azul takes roughly 2 hours. The surrounding neighborhood, Coyoacan, is full of bohemian flare with colonial buildings and cobble stone streets lined with art galleries and cafes. Plan on spending the entire morning in the area exploring.
Templo Mayor
Located in the centro historico by Zocalo and the Metropolitan Cathedral, Templo Mayor is one of the must-see sights of CDMX. The Templo Mayor was the main temple of the Mexica people in their capital city of Tenochtitlan, now known as Mexico City. Construction began sometime around 1325, and it was rebuilt six times over the course of the following two centuries. In 1521, the Spanish destroyed the temple and built the Metropolitan Cathedral in its place. You can now visit the ruins of the temple right next to the Cathedral, an interesting juxtaposition of Mexico City’s both Aztec and Catholic influences.
The ruins can be seen from a walkway next to it, but to access the full ruins and museum, you’ll have to buy a ticket for 95 pesos (roughly $5) and find the hidden entrance. I say hidden because I searched for it for nearly half an hour before finally asking someone for directions. It’s definitely worth asking someone because it’s very easy to miss.
There is a little area with some models at the beginning before you enter the ruins of the Templo Mayor. Enjoy them for a while before heading into the museum at the other end of the ruins. I didn’t realize just how extensive the museum is so I might have spent too much time admiring the ruins. The museum has multiple levels of collections of Aztec relics from the area and, in my opinion, was even better than the Anthropology Museum. Plan on spending a couple of hours to fully enjoy the museum and ruins before exploring the rest of Centro Historico.
Metropolitan Cathedral
This magnificent cathedral built in sections from 1573 to 1813 on top of the former Aztec Templo Mayor is a must-see site in Mexico City. It’s free to go inside and check out this architecturally unique cathedral. I say architecturally unique because since it took nearly 250 years to complete, you can find several architectural styles including Gothic, Baroque, Churrigueresque, Neoclassical.
You can also admire it from one of the rooftop bars across the street. My favorite view is from Terraza Catedral, which also happens to be one of my favorite views from a rooftop bar anywhere in the world.
Zócalo
The Centro Historico is worth dedicating an entire day to since there is so much to do here from the Metropolitan Cathedral to the Templo Mayor to the numerous museums in the area, as well as one of Mexico City’s most iconic areas—Zócalo.
You’ve probably seen it in countless movies about Mexico without even knowing its name. The Zócalo, formally known as the Plaza de la Constitución, is the main square of Mexico City since the Aztec times, roughly 700 years. Festivals are held here as well as artistic and cultural events and protests. There area is teeming with life and it gets very crowded, so be aware of your belongings and surroundings.
Xochimilco Boats
If you ask anyone who has been to Mexico City what their favorite part was, you’ll most likely hear “the boats” as one of the top 3 answers. The Xochimilco Boats cannot be missed. This isn’t a tourist trap, despite its appearance. Xochimilco is actually a UNESCO World Heritage Site and part of pre-Spanish history, with the Aztecs building a system of canals to help with agriculture and transportation. These canals stretch over 100 square miles with colorful boats, or trajineras, lining the waterways. These brightly colored trajineras each have a unique name, and it’s a fun game to see if you can spot your’s (which I did!).
Nowadays, the Xochimilco boats are a popular activity for both locals and tourists alike as you can either book a tour or haggle to rent one of the trajineras for as short as an hour all the way up to an entire day. Vendors and mariachi bands float through the canals on boats and there are shops and cafes along the banks of the canals as well. People bring snacks and beverages and listen to music on the boats. It’s a fun, relaxing activity that you can tailor to your wants and needs.
Although it’s nearly an hour south of the heart of Mexico City, the drive is worth it to experience a fun afternoon in Xochimilco. I ended up taking an Uber and going alone since my godsister, despite everyone telling her how amazing Xochimilco is, did not want to go. I was able to get on an unlimited drink, 2-hour tour and ended up having a blast and made some new friends too, including a four-legged one who jumped from another boat onto ours!
Time passes by too quickly when you are having fun, so I recommend doing at least a 2-4 hour tour. Although you can haggle for a boat at the docks, if you are traveling alone or a couple and want to meet people, do one of the tours instead. It’s a great social activity and being with others on a boat, day-drinking is always a good time.
Don’t worry about restrooms too. Even though there aren’t any on the boats, there are cafes along the banks where the boats can make pit stops and you can pay to use the restrooms there.
Castillo de Chapultepec
First let me say, my heart was broken that I did Castillo de Chapultepec right before heading to the airport on the last day. Running out of time, I did rush through it more than I would have liked. Heed my advice and don’t save it for your last day if you are a history buff like me.
Castillo de Chapultepec has a rich history as a military academy, imperial residence, presidential residence, observatory, and now the National Museum of History. One of only two palaces in all of North America to house monarchs, Castillo de Chapultepec’s timeline dates back all the way to 1785 when it was built on top of Chapultepec hill, a sacred Aztec site. From Castillo de Chapultepec, you have breathtaking views of the city that make the walk up the hill from Chapultepec Park worth it.
The National Museum of History, which now takes up residency in the palace since 1939, houses countless works of art and historical artifacts. I was running from room to room, knowing I had only an hour before we had to start heading to the airport. You really need at least 2 hours for the Castillo de Chapultepec and to fully enjoy the palace, the surrounding park, and the views, I’d carve out 4-5 hours of your day. If you really want a deep dive into the history, you can even book a guide tour, which for my fellow history buffs out there, I really recommend.
Fun Fact: Bosque de Chapultepec (Chapultepec Forest) is the largest park in Mexico City at 1,700 acres and is considered to be Mexico City’s “lungs”.
Museo Nacional de Antropologia
Also located in Bosque de Chapultepec near Castillo de Chapultepec is the Museo Nacional de Antropologia, or the Anthropology Museum. This beast of a museum will take hours for you to explore. It’s the largest and most visited of Mexico City’s 150 museums, housing over 600,000 artifacts from all eras and regions of Mexico.
I never thought I’d say this, but it’s almost too much museum. As a tourist with only so much time and so many things to see and do, I’d cap my time here at 2 hours max, though there is enough stuff to see here to last over 4 hours. Definitely one of the museums you have to check out in CDMX, but if you start off reading every single plaque on every single artifact like I did, you are going to burn out quickly.
The Anthropology Museum is a great rainy afternoon activity, which is exactly how we found ourselves there. Although it is in the same area as Castillo de Chaultepec, I wouldn’t recommend doing it the same day, since that would be too much museum for a single day, and this is coming from someone who adores museums. I
f you are super crunched for time during your Mexico City trip and had to choose between Templo Mayor and the Museo Nacional de Antropologia, I’d honestly go with Templo Mayor since all of its artifacts pertain to Mexico City, rather than all of Mexico. Don’t get me wrong, the Museo Nacional de Antropologia is one of the most impressive museums I’ve seen and if you have the time well worth the visit to learn about the history of all the native populations of Mexico.
Day Trips
Mexico City is a great hub for day trips to surrounding areas! There are so many to choose from but given time constraints we were only able to squeeze in one full day trip and one half day trip.
Teotihuacan Pyramids
Only 40km outside of CDMX, are the Teotihuacan Pyramids. Teotihuacan is the site of many of the most architecturally significant Mesoamerican pyramids, predating the Aztec Empire, and was the largest city in the Americas during its peak (between 1AD and 500AD) with 125,000 inhabitants and the 6th largest city in the world during that time. Today, it is a UNESCO World Heritage site and the most visited archeological site in Mexico, with over 4 million visitors coming each year to visit the Pyramid of the Sun and the Pyramid of the Moon.
There are many tours you can choose from, but we decided to go all out and do a sunrise hot air balloon ride with time to explore the pyramids up close on foot afterwards. I highly recommend doing the hot air balloon tour. It was my first time in a hot air balloon and I couldn’t have asked for a cooler place to have my first ride. Magical, stunning, breathtaking, awe-inspiring, etc. All of the positive adjectives you can think of, are what a hot air balloon ride over the pyramids is.
Fair warning– The wake up time is brutal since pick up from your hotel begins at 4am, but you can nap in the van for an hour before arriving to check in for your flight. You can watch all the hot air balloons inflate outside while you grab coffee or a snack. They go over some safety rules and then you are split into groups for your ride. Each basket holds about 6 people with each person in their own little compartment for weight distribution. It’s a lot smaller than some baskets I’ve seen online in other places, which I enjoyed making the experience a lot more intimate and chill.
For me personally, it was a surreal experience because it does not feel like you are off the ground, hundreds of feet in the air. It was just peaceful and calm. I recommend wearing layers since although it may start off cold, the constant blasts of fire to keep the balloon afloat makes it feel like you are right by a campfire making smores. It gets very toasty. Also, don’t forget your sunglasses. The sun is super bright and you want to be able to enjoy the view without squinting the entire time.
We stayed in the air for a little over an hour before landing gently in a field and getting a traditional champagne toast. We were then loaded into a van where we got breakfast back at where we started before being transported to the pyramids, where you can either explore on your own or take a tour.
We explored on our own and finished well before the vans were going to pick us up, so we just Ubered back into CDMX in order to have more time for other activities. I’d recommend doing one of the tours, though, to get all the information and history of the pyramids. I watched a documentary when I got back home about Teotihuacan and deeply regretted not doing the tour.
Grutas de Tolantongo
The furthest possible day trip from Mexico City is Grutas de Tolantongo. At nearly 4 hours away, it’s an all day activity that can be as adventurous or relaxing as you want. You’ve probably seen these famous hot springs on Instagram once or twice.
You can book a tour or rent a car to visit the hot springs, but I personally advise taking a tour unless you want to spend the night in the area. It’s a lot to see in such little time, so it’s nice to have someone else guide you through the different areas and take you to and from Mexico City.
Plus there are rules of what you can and cannot bring into the hot springs, so it was nice to have the tour company make little backpacks with reusable water bottles, towels, headlamps for the tunnel and cave, and waterproof phone cases. My over-prepared self packed everything, not realizing they would take care of everything for us. Everything you can’t bring or don’t need stays safely in the van.
You have the hot spring pools which are carved out of limestone into the side of the mountain, the thermal river, the thermal cave, the tunnel, and the waterfalls. Since it’s a resort, you also have other activities like zip lining.
There are so many hot spring pools that you rarely have to share one with other groups of people. Plus the further away from the entrance, the less people there are. The water temperature is just right, not too hot. I wish we had more time, but then again there is just so much to do there.
Although the hot springs are the main attractive, my favorite part of Grutas de Tolantongo is the thermal tunnel. This unique experience is like nothing I’ve seen before. Behind one of the waterfalls is a 40 meter long tunnel with warm water seeping from all around. It’s dark so be sure to wear a headlamp and it’s slippery so wear water shoes with good grip. You’ll be walking in knee-deep and waist-deep water as you make your way through this narrow tunnel that feels like a Turkish bath. Even with water shoes, I did slip and fell once, so be very careful in the tunnel.
It does get hard to breath due to the head and humidity and if you have any issues with claustrophobia, then you might not enjoy the tunnel as much as I did. For people like me, it is almost a meditative experience as you admire the stalagmites and stalactites in this sauna-like setting. When you get to the end, you can crawl into a little cavern if you choose and check out the cool cave features. I sat here for so long that my group, aside from my godsister, actually left me and the tunnel for the next activity.
Unfortunately, due to recent heavy rain, we were unable to do the thermal river and cave due to safety risks, which was a bummer. However, plan B was to visit the neighboring Grutas de Gloria. Just across a bridge, there is another hot springs resort that is far less commercial with hot spring pools scattered off off of a path leading up to a waterfall with several natural pools and a mini waterfall cave.
This part quickly became everyone’s favorite part of the day since it was more secluded and more in touch with nature. There were little fish into the natural thermal ponds and you could jump off into in the pools. It was a 15 hike to get to them, but well worth it. If I had two days in the area, I would spend an entire day chilling at Grutas de Gloria.
At the end of the tour, you are loaded up in the van and head back to CDMX. There are pit stops along the way to stretch and use the restroom, since heading back usually takes longer due to traffic. It does go by quickly if you are able to sleep in the van, which after a long day playing in nature shouldn’t be too hard.
Mexico City is truly one of the most exciting cities in the Americas. With so much to do, there is no way to squeeze everything into one trip. Fortunately, that means you’ll have plenty of reasons to return over and over again.
