After spending a few days in Antigua/Guatemela City for a wedding, we decided to make a trip out of it and visit a nearby country. None of us have ever been to Mexico City, and it was only a 2 hour flight from Guatemala, so that’s how we landed on CDMX. We spent 4 days and this is everything we got to do:
1. Eat some tacos
I ate so. many. tacos. I never met a taco I didn’t like. Plus, the tacos are so cheap here. You can easily find a good taco from a stand for about 75 cents or so
2. Go souvenir shopping at Mercado de Artesanías La Ciudadela
This is the cheapest place we found souvenirs, and the quality was pretty good. In fact, we ended up coming back on another day because there were a few more things we wanted to buy. You won’t really find keychains and shot glasses here, but instead, you’ll find a lot of hand-painted crafts, like bowls, plates, skulls for the Day of the Dead, handbags, clothing, and jewelry. If you want a unique gift to bring home, this is the spot to find it at
3. Send a postcard from the Palacio de Correos de Mexico
Also known as “Correo Mayor”, or “Main Post Office”, it is located in the historic city centre. It’s known for its beautiful architecture so even if you aren’t a letter-writing person, it’s still worth checking out
4. Tour the Castillo de Chapultepec
The castle is located on top of a hill in Chapultepec Park, which is one of Mexico’s largest city parks. Construction started in 1785, but wasn’t completed until 1864, and was mostly used as a home to political figureheads until it was turned into a museum in 1939. You can purchase tickets in cash only at the bottom of the hill. Prepare to spend about an hour exploring
5. Visit the Palacio de Bellas Artes
It’s a cultural center with various performing arts events. You have to purchase tickets if you’d like to take a look inside, which we didn’t do – but it was still worth admiring the building from the outside. It’s also right near post office, so you can kill two birds with one stone
6. Check out the Monumento a la Independencia
The Angel of Independence is a victory column on a roundabout in Downtown Mexico City that was built to commemorate the centennial of the beginning of Mexico’s War of Independence. It is one of the most recognizable landmarks of Mexico City
7. Admire all the flowers for sale at Mercado Jamaica
They sell bouquets and other arrangements and when it’s the Day of the Dead, flowers come in the truckloads since people bring them to cemeteries and use them for their ofrendas. They also sell lots of other things, like produce, meats, snacks, and candies
8. Eat at the largest food market in Mexico City at Mercado de la Merced
Unfortunately, we did not get to eat anything. Maybe we went at the wrong time, but we didn’t see many food stalls. It was mainly leftover produce and meats that look like they’ve been sitting out all day. We went on a Wednesday at almost 5 and the market closes at 6, so I’m guessing all the good food spots sell out early. There’s also a bazaar (known as tianguis) outside of the market that stretches for blocks and blocks, that well clothing and household items. The market is a bit outside of the normal tourist hotspots, so just be practice the same caution you would as visiting any other foreign city you’re unfamiliar with. My sister Olivia and I did get a few stares as two Asian women shopping around. There’s a lot of traffic in the area (not sure if it was because of the time we left) but it took us 40 minutes just to connect to an Uber driver. So if you can, try to take the metro
9. Grab a coffee and a good book (though it’ll be in Spanish!) at Cafebrería el Péndulo
Even if you do neither, it’s worth visiting just to see the vastness of books they have lined up from wall to wall
Also worth mentioning is Xochimilco. It’s a network of canals known as the Floating Garden, with lots of colorful gondolas, and home to the creepy Island of the Dead Dolls. It looked very interesting when I first learned about it on Somebody Feed Phil, but I also read that it can be very touristy, with vendors harassing you to buy things/rent gondolas every step of the way. In the end, we decided not to go. It’s an hour away from Mexico City by car or 1.5 by public transport, so we would have used up most of the day commuting/on the island. We felt our time would have been better spent in the city, exploring some more, and eating some more tacos. Here is a good site with lots of information for you to make a decision yourself.
4 Things I Learned:
- Public transportation – there is a metro system and buses, but we didn’t end up taking it. Most of the time, we walked or took Uber, which would take the same amount of time, according to Google Maps. Plus it was cheap, so it was worth the time save for us
- Restaurants – the dining scene is poppin’ in Mexico City. If there’s a restaurant you really want to dine at, make sure you try to get a reservation a few months ahead of time. We really wanted to check out Pujol but had no luck with reservations. We even dropped in since we were in the neighborhood to see if there was anything that opened up, but nothing
- Accommodations – a lot of the hotels we saw while researching looked very old and outdated. We ended up staying at MX Grand Suites in the Colonia Cuauhtémoc neighborhood. It felt relatively safe. There were restaurants nearby but none of the ones we really wanted to try were within walking distance. Those were mostly located in Roma Norte or La Condesa, which were the next neighborhoods over, but Mexico City is quite large, so they were still a bit of a walk. Colonia Cuauhtémoc is walkable to Chapultepec Castle (20 minutes) and the Angel of Independence (15 minutes). Other than that, there’s not much to see nearby
- Weather – dry season in Mexico city runs from November to April. We visited towards the beginning of April, and the weather was beautiful. Temperatures were in the 70s, so it does get hot while walking around but cools down at night, and you’ll need a light jacket
Overall, I would say 3-4 days would be enough to visit Mexico City.
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