A Guide to Mexico City from Someone Who Didn’t Love It
Diego and I left Mexico City yesterday. Not for good—we’ll be back for New Year’s Eve—but we left our bright-red one-bedroom apartment directly across the street from Bosques de Chapultepec with its extremely beautiful window views and its extremely bothersome street noise and its earthquake-proof foundation. And I won’t miss much of it.
I almost wrote “I won’t miss any of it,” but that’s not quite true.
Mexico City hasn’t been the forever home I was hoping to find. And there certainly were some low moments.
But the city has also been home to important moments for us. To moments of growth. Of learning how to accept things we didn’t love—about ourselves and our circumstances—and find the fortitude to change them.
And the art, the food, and the cultural richness? That’s definitely worth visiting for.
So if you find yourself in Mexico City, here are my tried-and-true recommendations on what’s worth it, what’s not, and how to keep yourself from getting asthma. (Unfortunately not kidding about that last thing.)
I don’t do many guide / recommendation posts (there are so many better bloggers out there for that! i.e. External Expat or Northern Lauren for Mexico, or Along Dusty Roads for South America!), so forgive my awkwardness with the form, but “Hey I / my best friend / my sister’s ex-boyfriend / this coworker I kind of hate is going to be in Mexico City for a weekend, I know you lived there for a bit, what should I / she / he / they do?” is a question I’ve gotten a lot in just the last few weeks, so I figured I should write down all my answers.
Altitude, Asthma, Access to Basics
Let’s cover the general things first. The things that you probably don’t think about if you, like me, usually live in a relatively well-functioning modern city close to sea level. May I hit you with some facts?
Mexico City is 7,350 feet / 2,240 meters above sea level.
If you can go skiing in Vail without getting wheezy or have tackled higher cities like Quito or La Paz without problem, skip this section! Your organs can handle working harder!
But if you haven’t or they can’t, you will land and get breathless. (I’d gone to the hospital in Cusco for altitude sickness [plus salmonella, yay!] and to the doctor in Bogota for altitude issues, so I knew I was sensitive ahead of time, and it still shocked me, as it always does, how weak I felt my first three or four days.)
If you have altitude medicine from your doctor, start taking it a day before you arrive, otherwise go with non-medical coping mechanisms: drink tons of water (like, two liters a day), eat foods that are simple to digest (simple, non-processed carbs and fruits and veggies are better options than junk food or dairy), don’t drink, and don’t push yourself too hard. We did 20k steps our second day in the city on a walking tour and I almost fainted. Not ideal.
Classic altitude sickness symptoms can include tingly or cold hands and feet, headache, difficulty sleeping, and nausea. If your symptoms last for more than a few days, think about a) getting some supplemental oxygen from a medical clinic or b) going down in elevation.
Mexico City is dirty.
Not Beijing-dirty or New Delhi-dirty, but it’s up there, and if you’re used to having good air quality, the air in CDMX might feel palpably gross. I didn’t realize how privileged I’d been to live in places with clean air until I felt what living with smog-y, dirty air was like.
Mexico City is famous for its terrible air quality (which is actually better than it was in the 80s and 90s before regulations forced factories out…I truly can’t imagine how it felt to breathe back then).
Over 77% of days in Mexico City see pollution levels above the World Health Organization’s maximum recommendations. A 2016 study found that Mexico City sees over 1,800 premature deaths a year due to respiratory and cardiovascular issues caused by air pollution.
When we lived there, I could taste the smog in my mouth. It clung to my skin. If I didn’t wash my face immediately after getting home, blackheads would cluster like flies on my cheeks and forehead. The dirty air would clog my nostrils and force me to constantly travel with a long t-shirt or poncho to cover my mouth with. (I didn’t go buy the blue surgical masks that many locals wear every day, but I probably should’ve.)
I suffered two throat infections, a cold that lasted a week, and several coughing fits, all in about two months’ time. Not ideal.
If you have allergies (like me!) or asthma, you’ll probably feel a marked difference in your breathing ability. If you use inhalers, bring extra. Try not to be outside much on days the pollution is particularly bad, and check this site to figure out which those are.
Life is harder re: having utilities like water and gas.
You can’t drink the tap water, which is inconvenient but relatable; in lots of places you have to be careful (my home state certainly isn’t immune to water issues). Buying 10L bottles of water twice a week is inconvenient and wasteful, and investing $200-500 to install a filter in your apartment is expensive. But those are your only real options, unless you decide to subside on a diet of Coca-Cola and agua de frutas you buy from street stands, which is a diabetes-ensuring solution but clearly a delicious one. If you’re just visiting, buy a big bottle of water and try to recycle it when you’re done.
But regular water is tough, too. Most apartment buildings in expat-heavy neighborhoods like La Condesa and Roma (more on these + others later) have giant water tanks on their roofs that supply water for the whole building. That means that if your neighbor has a penchant for long showers or the people in the Airbnb before you were wasteful with their water, you’ll run out and be stuck unable to wash, flush, or clean. This happened to Diego and me three times in three different Airbnbs. Once the water was out for 24+ hours, which was very inconvenient. But such is life in CDMX. Be patient. Always have a bowl of tap water in the sink for French baths, counter wipe-downs, or manual toilet flushing in case yours goes out, especially if you’re in one of the older neighborhoods.
If you’re just visiting, you probably won’t deal with gas issues, but as someone who lived in CDMX for a few months, I never did quite get used to the process of running out of gas (no hot water, no stove), calling the gas guy for a delivery, and paying for individual tanks of gas to replenish my apartment’s stores.
So to sum up: it’s high, it’s dirty, it’s inconvenient. And that’s a huge part of why I didn’t want to make Mexico City my forever home.
But now that you know how to deal with those negatives, let’s talk about where you should stay and what you absolutely should not miss.
Neighborhoods: Convenience vs. Authenticity
I truly believe that many Americans who come to Mexico City, don’t ever leave La Condesa and Roma, and proclaim they are absolutely in love with CDMX are a) annoying b) lazy and c) contributing to a big problem in those neighborhoods.
While yes, those expat-friendly neighborhoods are convenient + leafy + full of lots of photo ops, expensive cafes and restaurants, and lots of nightlife, the very fact that they’re known for those qualities means that they’re getting impossibly expensive for locals and that you’re more likely to run into a gaggle of British tourists than you are to make any sort of connection with a chilango, or Mexico City native.
I’m not saying don’t go to La Condesa or Roma. Go! Enjoy the beauty! Even stay there if you’d like; they’re very safe! But don’t let your exploration of Mexico City begin and end within their confines.
Because good news: there are plenty of other nice, walkable, safe neighborhoods all over the city.
Diego and I lived in San Miguel Chapultepec, a beautiful, tiny neighborhood bordering a giant park on one side and La Condesa on the other, and we loved it for its charm, access to nature and the subway, and reasonable pricing (our one-bedroom sublet was $675/month—still much more than I thought I’d pay for a place in CDMX, but way more reasonable than friends’ apartments in La Condesa that went for $1,000/month or more).
Coyocan, where Frida Kahlo lived, is absolutely gorgeous. Deep blue facades, a lively central square lined with ice cream shops filled with families, and leafy trees shading narrow streets make it a beautiful place to spend an afternoon or two.
San Angel is a lot like Coyocan, only even fancier (it has a section of gilded shops that looks like a plopped-down block of Rodeo Drive). But it still retains a lot of its old colonial charm, with cobbled streets, artesian markets, and beautiful houses with bright brick walls.
I might feel differently about Mexico City as a whole had we lived in Coyocan or San Angel. Walking on the off-streets that carve through San Angel and finding a men’s haircut for 70 pesos (or $3.50, compared to the 290 Diego had been quoted in La Condesa)…coming across markets filled not with German tourists with big photo lenses but with locals doing their shopping…it felt, finally, like not everything was a show. That these were places you could just live.
If you want to stay near La Condesa and Roma but maybe run into actual locals at your closest coffee shop versus other visitors, try staying in Juarez. It used to be beautiful, then got pretty industrial, and now is on the upswing to be beautiful again. The eastern part of the neighborhood, in and around the gay-friendly Zona Rosa, is full of thoughtful eateries, curated boutiques (try Casa Caballeria if you’re in the market for men’s clothing, boots, or toiletries that you’ll want to caress for their lusciousness; Casa Fusion for anything else), and beautiful streetscapes.
Food and Drink: Where to Eat in Mexico City
Let me say it now: the large majority of places that pop up in the Instagrams of all your friends who have been to CDMX are not worth the cost. Everyone will tell you to eat at four places: Lardo, Pujol, Marsala y Maiz, and Panadería Rosetta (for the guayabana roll)…all lovely places with gorgeous décor and pretty decent food, but paying New York City prices for a plate of jamón-covered bread or an artisanal tamal or a single prawn coated in curry powder is a foolish act when you are in the land of truly fantastic street and shack food. (Notice I didn’t deny that the guaybana roll is a good idea. It’s delicious and though $2 for a pastry is nuts compared to Pasteleria La Ideal’s 40-cent-per-flaky-baked-good situation, it’s worth the indulgence.)
Go to those other places if you wish. They are the Roma of restaurants—too hip for their own good—and if you’re into artfully designed dining rooms full of clay figurines or stark minimalistic chairs, go, eat, and be merry. But none of those places had food I’d come back to Mexico City to eat. These places did:
- Tacos Los Juanes, a nighttime-only taco stand set up outside of the gym a block south of the Sevilla metro station in La Condesa. Each beautiful little circle of tender meat and chopped onions and cilantro will set you back 10 pesos, or about 50 cents, unless you ask for them con queso, in which case they’ll come on bigger flour tortillas with a delicious layer of griddled cheese and cost $1. Tacos al pastor con queso were our favorites, though they also offer delicious mushroom and cabeza options. They’re usually up and running by 8 p.m. most nights and I think they’re there till the early morning. (I’ve never made it to 3 a.m. in the city, but rumors have it they’d’ve been there if I had.)
- Tortas Al Fuego, a neighborhood sandwich-slash-seafood (go with it) restaurant tucked into the south of Condesa. This became another favorite haunt of ours after a friend introduced us to the 5-tacos-al-pastor-for-45 pesos situation, and Diego is also hugely fond of the shrimp tacos with cheese. Their aguas frescas come in giant cups full of sweet foam and their empanadas mariscos are truly worth the tongue-scalding you’re in for when you bite into them too soon.
- Café Tacuba, an old-school (and very famous) restaurant downtown near the Zocolo that is entirely worth the hype. Their pozole, or corn-and-pork soup, was the best we had in the city, and their service is fantastic. If you’re looking for a place to eat near the centro historico, look no further.
- Tierra Garat, a chain of coffee-and-chocolate shops that had some of the best hot chocolate we tried in the city. If you can’t get to Oaxaca to try a cup of steaming chocolate con leche, get yourself here, and try their varieties with cinnamon, coffee, or vanilla. They’re delicious, served in gorgeous ceramic mugs, and entirely reasonably priced (about 50 pesos or $2.25 a cup). They also have a decent menu of sandwiches and snacks if you need some solid food.
- Panadería Almuerzos, probably the best bakery in town (not definitive, as I only tried about 18, but still by far the best I came across). In the mornings, they have fresh-baked brick-sized loaves of the most perfect bread in all of Mexico: soft and fluffy interiors with crunchy crusts in every flavor imaginable. A loaf of whole-wheat, seeds, blueberries, chocolate, honey, activated charcoal, or onion will set you back 15 pesos, or about 75 cents. They also have perfectly round conchas, or sweet breads, and several other traditional Mexican pastries on rotation.
- Terraza Cha Cha Chá, an upscale, modern Mexican restaurant overlooking the Bellas Artes area that has the best pork shoulder Diego’s ever eaten in his life. You’ll need a reservation and you’ll want to ask for a table outside. Upon arrival, pursue the menu of Mexican classics done well, simply, and with top-notch ingredients, then order a creative cocktail or two to go along with the spectacular view. I’d go here with guests or as a last meal in the city. A main will cost between $20-30 here.
- And last but certainly not least, literally any populated market or street stall in the city. The best lunches you’ll ever have are the ones eaten standing up at a counter with a crowd of locals, shoving tacos de canasta or cochinita pibil or enchiladas de mole down your gullet. They’ll also be the cheapest. We ate delicious blue-corn quesadillas in the Coyocan market for $1.50, for instance, along with a $4 bowl of pozole, and walked out highly satisfied. The keys to good market eating: 1) bring cash (ideally in small bills or coins), 2) avail yourself of the giant jug of hand sanitizer before eating, 3) only order at places full of locals (less chance you’ll get food poisoning if the locals keep going back), and 4) try the salsas before you commit to dousing your food with them (I learned this the hard way and made three beautiful tacos inedible by accidentally drowning them in sauce that made me cry).
And these are the places we’d go back to drink:
- Baltra Bar for fancy, beautiful cocktails
- Drunkendog for a seriously impressive beer collection and a lively taproom
- The bar in the top of the Torre Latino for a gorgeous view, scrumptious $4 mocktails or $8 cocktails, and swanky chandeliers
Yes, this drink list is relatively short. I’m old and don’t love going out any more (and have decided to stop getting drunk on a regular basis because it feels truly terrible). When we did go out, we would most often wander around to find a cantina for a michelada (salt-and-lime-rimmed beer that may or may not include fruit juice, tomato juice, and hot sauce, depending on how you order it) or a kombucha. I’d highly recommend that option.
Culture, Baby: CDMX’s Got It
Way beyond food or drink or neighborhoods, the most impressive thing that Mexico City has to offer is its rich cultural backdrop. You’ve got indigenous culture mixing with European heritage mixing with visitors and international transplants to create a multi-dimensional melting pot of art, dance, music, and history that you could explore and experience for years on end. Assuming you don’t have that kind of time, I’ve highlighted my favorites. This section will be the longest, since this is what I spent the most of my time and money investigating, and I suggest you do the same. Whether you’re in it for Instagram backdrops (there will be many) or inspiration for your own artistic practices (there will be much) or a way to learn more about this giant metropolis, you’re in for a treat.
Most of these museums are free on Sundays, and otherwise cost less than 100 pesos to enter.
- Museo de Antropología. Everyone tells everyone to go to this museum, and everyone’s not wrong. From its stunning architecture to its incredible collection artifacts from the hundreds of indigenous cultures that made up and make up Mexico, this museum deserves at least a few hours of your trip (and is totally worth the ~$5 entry cost). Pro tips: skip the first rooms about evolution (they’re fascinating, but not Mexico-specific) and go straight to the Aztec room, where you can fawn over a replica of their calendar; don’t miss the outdoor sections of the museum which are all mini-versions of each culture’s architecture and climate.
- Museo de Arte Popular in Coyocan. This small museum (you’ll need no more than 45 minutes to case it from door to door) has orange walls crawling with bougainvillea and a big gallery in the back with rotating exhibits of Mexican artists—what more could you want? Can be combined with a visit to Frida’s house, if you’re into that.
- Casa de Diego y Frida in San Angel. These two small, bridge-connected houses were designed by architect Juan O’Gorman for Diego and Frida to live and work in. The exhibits are depressingly Diego-centric but outside shots of the boxy, colorful casitas and the cactus fence that separates them from the street are worth a visit.
- Castillo de Chapultepec in Chapultepec Park. The park alone is worth an entire afternoon (more on this later), and this castle-on-a-hill is worth at least a few hours of that afternoon. If it’s a clear day, you’ll have gorgeous views of the city, and even if it’s not, the exhibition rooms full of portraits of Mexican leaders, murals representing different moments in Mexican history, and collections of local artifacts like jewelry, clothing, and weapons is well-organized and -curated. The information in English is lacking, though, so if your Spanish is bad, try hiring a guide (or reading up on Mexico’s various revolutions ahead of time).
- City Hall / Palacio del Ayuntamiento. This gorgeous building’s upstairs rooms are full of tributes to Mexico’s evolving government, including exhibitions focused on key court cases, religious and secular leaders, and indigenous participation in the political process. Check ahead of time when their guided tours are; the information is hard to absorb without one.
- Museums I would expressly not recommend:
- Museo Soumaya in Polanco. The outside is gorgeous; go for a photo. But even though the museum itself is free, its lackluster exhibitions aren’t worth your time. I suppose that’s what you get in a museum based off a private collection subject to the whims of an individual versus maintained by a robust and diverse staff.
- Palacio de Bellas Artes downtown. TO BE CLEAR, YOU SHOULD GO TO THE BALLE FOLKLÓRICO HERE. It’s one of the best shows I’ve ever seen in the world, and it made me literally stand up and shout “Viva Mexico!” at the end, it was so good. And you should also visit the outside of the building and photograph its beautiful crystal roof. But paying to see the exhibits? Nooooo. Bad idea. The murals, while beautiful, come with no explanation or context to help you understand them, the guards are especially feisty (one yelled at me for sitting down…on a bench…with a sign that said it was for sitting down), and the art on display is (or was, in late 2019) mostly boring sketches and landscapes. Not the move.
One place you must go that is not a museum nor an outdoor space so I am letting it live here: La Biblioteca Vasconcelos in the Buenavista neighborhood. This boxy building doesn’t look like much from the outside, but inside it’s a veritable labyrinth of books and nooks and everything my nerdy, word-obsessed heart loves. We spent two hours combing through its individual pockets of books, enjoying the view from its outdoor balconies, walking through its garden, and curling up on its leather banquettes. There’s not much to do around the library that’s particularly safe—it’s within walking distance to notoriously dangerous neighborhood Tepito—so take the metro, train, or bus (all right next door!) from here onto your next stop.
And beautiful outdoor places worthy of your time and attention:
- Bosques de Chaputepec. This sprawling park is home to a food court, almost a dozen museums, thousands of trees, the cleanest air in the city, and my favorite place in all Mexico City (super pro tip coming your way riiiiiight now): the Audiorama. Open Tuesday through Sunday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., it’s a quiet little corner of the park where they play different, calming music every day, ask everyone to be silent, and have a free lending library. Go, drape yourself over one of their curved metal loungers, meditate or read or pray or write or do whatever it is you do to feel at peace, and be grateful for a world that includes this place.
- Parque Mexico in La Condesa. This small park of plants and shady benches is a prime spot to 1) make out 2) run 3) coo at the dog school students who are always practicing their “sit” and “lay down” and 4) walk off the churros you’ll eat next door at El Moro. What else could you want?
- Paseo de la Reforma, which runs from Parque Chapultepec all the way to downtown. It was commissioned by Emperor Maximilian during the brief French occupation of the city and inspired by Champs-Élysées. Its wide walking paths are flanked by diagonal flower beds filled with marigolds in the fall and poinsettias in the winter and feature art exhibitions, benches, and statues. Walking along it is the best way to get downtown, if you have time.
- The quad at UNAM, the National Autonomous University of Mexico in the south of the city. Grab a picnic blanket and some pesos to buy raspaditos (the best drink ever: shaved ice and fruit-flavored syrup) and enjoy an afternoon of people watching. And check out all the art all over campus—there are some truly gorgeous murals and mosaics here.
That’s all the wisdom I’ve got, folks.
Enjoy your time in CDMX. Protect your lungs, eat without (much) fear for your gastrointestinal track, and write me if you have any questions I haven’t covered here. Cheers!
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