Mexico City is a beautiful place and is having a bit of a moment with all the travel blogger hype. If you’re a fan of architecture and/or design, you will love Mexico City with its brightly colored homes, courtyards, and greenery. If you don’t, you can directly complain to me or blame it on me. Oh yea, you can also check out the pyramids at Teotihuacan, which were created around 100 BC, nbd. And the food…I pretty much lived on a diet of tacos and determined that it was the lifestyle I was meant to live. Also, please buckle in and prepare for a crap ton of solo shots because Mexico City is so damn photogenic.
Top Places to Visit in Mexico City
1. La Casa Azul – aka Frida Kahlo’s home. The use of color and print in her home is awesome and so is learning how deeply this woman influenced art and fashion. She even became a symbol of the feminist movement. It was crazy to learn more about her personal life, like how she suffered from polio, then survived a horrible bus accident, married fellow artist Diego Rivera who was 20 years her senior, Diego slept with her sister, they reunited and then hosted fugitive Leon Trotsky and his wife, Frida then slept with Leon…ay ay ay. Sounds like a movie right? That’s what we thought too, and a movie exists!
Pro tip: We tried booking reservations online and paying, but unfortunately the website did not accept our credit cards because they were foreign. If you can get through, definitely reserve online so you can skip out on the line! Otherwise, while you’re waiting you can take advantage of that time for more photo ops 🙂
Londres 247, Del Carmen, Coyoacán, 04100 Ciudad de México, CDMX, Mexico
2. Leon Trotsky’s home – Trotsky’s home provides more opportunities to learn about the famous communist, who was banished from Russia by Stalin. Most of the info in the gallery is in Spanish, but as you explore the complex there will be more English. It was pretty insane how Stalin systematically wiped out Trotsky’s family. You can also see the room where Trotsky was murdered with an ice pick.
Cto Interior Avenida Río Churubusco 410, Del Carmen, 03340 Ciudad de México, CDMX, Mexico
3. Pujol – This restaurant is ranked as the best in all of Mexico City. In 2016, Pujol was ranked as the 25th best restaurant in the world and the 5th best restaurant in Latin America. Pretty much, the food is good AND cheap compared to Western standards. The total pp was around $160, which included three drinks, a prix fixe lunch menu, and gratuity. A comparable in the meal and drinks in the States would easily cost $300.
TL;DR. This place is amazing. Go here. Make reservations.
Here is a picture of my friend being classy AF because this is a classy restaurant. Just like most of the places we went to in Mexico City, the design and decor were on point.
Tennyson 133, Polanco IV Sección, 11570 Ciudad de México, CDMX, Mexico
This is me trying to be cute lol.
4. Maximo Bistrot – This restaurant was started by a former chef from Pujol. The vibe is more intimate than Pujol, but I was less excited about the food. Though to be fair, we had a taco break right before this and I got pretty full halfway through the meal. It was more affordable than Pujol at $50 pp, which included a drink and a few items from the dinner menu.
Tonalá 133, Roma Nte., 06700 Ciudad de México, CDMX, Mexico
5. Tacos – eat all the tacos. ALL of em. Every single place we went to was better than the best Mexican food I’ve had in SF, a city that takes its Mexican food very seriously.
Pro tip: This is probably obvious, but don’t buy from scalpers! You can buy directly from the ticket office. We tried buying from the website, but again, our credit cards didn’t work.
Calle Dr. Lavista 189, Doctores, 06720 Ciudad de México, CDMX, Mexico
7. Teotihuacan aka ancient Pyramids – Exploring the pyramids and this complex was sooo much fun. My friend and I were extra AF, as you can see from the photos. It’s okay if you judge us, the tourists at the pyramids definitely were. I still find it pretty incredible that all of this was built without modern technology.
Pro tip: use this site for more info on transportation to and from the pyramids. It was a lifesaver.
8. Biblioteca Vasconcelos – If you’re into books/design like me, then you will fall hard for this Biblioteca. Take advantage of their free wifi and admire the insane design/architecture/planning that went into this. Or just take advantage of their free bathrooms. Either way, go!
Eje 1 Norte Mosqueta S/N, Buenavista, 06350 Cuauhtemoc, CDMX, Mexico
Cost
Airbnb w/ queen bed for 4 nights and 4 days: $165 pp (not bad considering we had the entire apartment to ourselves)
Round trip flight from SF to Mexico City: $285
1 very large taco al pastor at restaurant = $2
Beer = $2
Water = $2 and this was at a touristy place (Teotihuacan) too!
5-mile uber ride: $2
As you can see, Mexico City is very affordable relative to other Western countries.
Tips
- Wifi game in Mexico City is good, you can often find wifi at cafes and museums. If you’re primarily relying on wifi to look up stuff, I’d recommend buying a SIM card or getting a pocket wifi.
- Bring pesos. Some places take card, smaller restaurants will take cash.
- We didn’t find many people who spoke English. Up your Spanish game!
- So I know people feel a certain type of way about Uber and I do too but I am a hypocrite because we used them ALL the time in Mexico City. Frankly, they were a lifesaver and felt generally safer than taxis because you knew who the driver was, their ratings, and how much the ride would cost. We never waited more than 5 minutes for an Uber, it was insanely cheap compared to SF prices, and the drivers were all very friendly.
Have you been to Mexico City? What were some of your fave spots?
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