10 Days in Mexico City

I spent 10 days in Mexico City with my boyfriend over New Year's in 2008. Mexico City is gigantic, but filled with a million things to do. There are museums galore (we went to 8!), a variety of different types of food to experience (from low brow tacos to haute cuisine), and the people are very nice. 1 week was enough time to see a lot of the sights and take in Mexican experiences, however, there were still tons of things we had not had the opportunity to explore.

My family was concerned about safety, and our friends from Mexico City warned us about hijacking and such, but it was very safe, as long as you are aware of your surroundings!

Quick Tips:

GET A MAP: We forgot to bring a map with us and the 1st 2 days of our trip was a complete mess! There are "Mexico!" travel kiosks in the major tourist areas that offer maps of the different neighborhoods in the city.

ENGLISH IS NOT WIDELY SPOKEN: Make sure you have a few words on spanish in your vocabulary! It's not even guaranteed that a large hotel will have english speaking staff. People, however, are very nice and will try to help if they can.

NEW YEAR'S: Many establishments and museums are closed on the days surrounding New Year's. Make sure you plan accordingly if you are traveling during that time.

Best Way To Get Around:

BUSES: If you are taking trips to towns/attractions outside of Mexico City, buses are the best way to go. They are extremely luxurious (if you go 1st class), and very affordable.

METRO: The metro is very inexpensive and easy to use. Buying tickets can be challenging at first, but go for it!

TAXIS: Taxis are also quite inexpensive. Make sure you get one labeled with an "L" or "S", or at a designated taxi stand, which are the safe ones.

TOURIBUS: More expensive, and the waits can be long (between 10-40 min), but it is a nice way to see the city and get dropped off at the main attractions and neighborhoods. One or two days is enough, because the route is one way, and you may have to take a very long ride to get somewhere!

We stayed at Casa de la Condesa for 6 nights, and then came back for 1 more night before leaving for the states.

The pros: lots of tourists stay here, from all over the world. I believe it's because this place is listed in Lonely Planet, and has a good review! We had requested a room with a balcony facing the square, but there wasn't one available so we were actually upgraded to the honeymoon suite! The honeymoon suite had a kichenette, which was great because we liked to make coffee in the morning and have some fruit before leaving for the day. The room was very large, and had a TV with cable, but the window faced the hallway, thus, we didn't get my light.

There was also a very cute gelato place next door and a lively italian place on the same street. Across the square, there is a wonderful little bar called the Red Room, where you can get drinks and snacks, but it's open pretty infrequently. We discovered it on our last night there.

Calling a taxi is very easy from the hotel - you can get the front desk person to do it and it is very reliable. Just make sure you negotiate the fare prior to leaving.

The cons: The hotel is actually VERY close to the metro and the Touribus. However, if you ask a particular front desk woman (the one who speaks the best english), she will definitely lead you astray. She does NOT like to give directions or help people. The other staff members were amazing, however, although their english is not as good.

The neighborhood of Roma, while very nice, is not very well lit. Walking around at night may seem a little sketchy, but it is actually quite safe. It is within walking distance of Zona Rosa and Condesa, but probably a 15-20 minute walk.

Taking a cab back to the hotel proved to be challenging because many taxi drivers didn't know where it was. If you know the major streets around Plaza de Luis Cabrera, you should be able to navigate the taxi driver back to the hotel.

Lastly - this is the clincher. On our very last night, we booked the cheapest room in the place because we were only there for one night before leaving for the airport at 4am. it was miniscule, but ok. I had contracted food poisoning and started throwing up violently. The toilet was not flushing, and it was affecting other plumbing in the bathroom. to say the least, it was a mess and everything was overflowing. To our dismay, the unfriendly woman was working the front desk, and she did nothing to help us, except bring us up a plunger! She said housekeeping had already left for the day. After several hours of calling and plunging, my boyfriend went downstairs and demanded another room. She actually claimed there were no other rooms available!! he got angry and finally, she checked us into a new and bigger room and luckily, the plumbing worked.

We actually didn't go to San Angel Inn for a meal - we went because we heard it was the nicest hacienda in town!

We took the metro there, but it is a long walk from the metro - at least 20 min, if not more. But it was an interesting experience, the walk.

By the time we got to San Angel Inn, we were pretty sweaty (it was a warm day), and we were concerned that it was a very upscale place, and that they wouldn't let us in! We were there around 2pm.

However, we walked in, and it really is very pretty. The hacienda had was very well maintained with flowers and plants everywhere. It was very old school!

We sat down and had a couple of drinks (beers and vodka tonics) and they served us complimentary and very delicious homemade potato chips. They were very refreshing, and not expensive considering the environment. It was also nice to relax because we had some trouble finding our way.

The people who were dining there were very well dressed - more aristocratic and formal. I'm sure it's a great place to eat and the service is amazing.

This place was recommended by a friend who lived in San Angel. It was very difficult to find!!!

It is supposedly one of the top taco places in the city. However, we didn't expect it to be in a mall/shopping center. So we walked around the area for about an hour before someone told us it was in the shopping center. It was frustrating! The shopping center was relatively upscale, with some nice restaurants, eateries, and stores.

Once we got there, we were determined to make sure this search was worth it. El Farolito looks like a chain restaurant. We ordered a bucket of Coronitas (16 pesos for 4 beers, a deal), and ordered tacos al pastor and other types of tacos and quesadillas.

The tacos al pastor were really delicious!! They were large tacos, but we ate 2 or 3 each. They were really rich in flavor and the meat with the pineapple was amazing. The variety of options was quite large - they had tacos, quesadillas, and other mexican foods with a variety of different meat choices. The food was very reasonably priced. The tacos al pastor and gringas (with cheese) are definitely the most expensive on the menu, but very filling and worth it.

Our meal in total was about $20 - which were 3 orders of tacos and 1 order of quesadilla and 4 mini beers.

If you want tacos, this is the place to get them! I thought this was the best place for authentic, mexican tacos. A friend from Mexico City had recommended it to me as a top taco place in the city.

It's a small place, with a lot of tables that are kind of out on the street. It's in La Condesa, which is the neighborhood with trendy restaurants, and supposedly models (although i didn't see any!). They have several large grill/spits that they shave pork off of to make these delicious tacos. We ordered a tacos al pastor combo platter - with 3 al pastor, and 2 gringas (i think). surprisingly, 5 tacos was enough to satiate 2 very hungry people! there is a lot of meat and flavor on the tacos. We also each had 2 beers. The ambience isn't there, but it's common for Mexicans to stop by for a couple of tacos and a beer and take off.

We thought we were going to skip this one because it wasn't really en route to the other museums we were planning to see. However, we decided to go for it and it was totally worth it!! You can take the metro there and the signs in Chapultapec park will direct you to the Castillo. You can pay 11 pesos to ride a little trolley up the hill, if you're feeling lazy (we were tired, so we took the trolley!). The views of the city are amazing and there are tons of historical articfacts to review. Everything was very well preserved and very interesting. The gardens are also very nice to walk through and take photos. Unfortunately, you are not allowed to take very many photos inside. With a student ID, you can get into the Castillo for free.

The Teotihuacan Pyramids are a must see! If you've never seen pyramids before, this is a really cool, outdoor experience. We went to the Pyramids on New Year's Day, since mostly everything is closed in Mexico City on this day.

We took a taxi to the Bus Terminal, and then bought our tickets. It was very inexpensive - a few US dollars round trip. The bus was very nice and comfortable and the trip took about 45min - 1hour each way.

I would recommend packing a lunch or snack when going to the pyramids, since the food options are very limited at the park. We just bought sandwiches and a beverage at an OXO or 7-11 and packed it in our backpacks.

It is definitely cooler at the pyramids than in the city, so bring a long sleeved shirt! You'll sweat climbing the pyramids, but it can be pretty windy. Climbing the pyramids were very cool. The view is amazing and getting to the top is pretty exhilarating. Make sure to go earlier in the day because around noon and later, many tourbuses show up and climbing up is a slower and much more congested process.

There are two pyramids to scale - the Sun and the Moon. Do the Sun first because it is larger and requires more energy! There is also a small museum that is interesting with a nice jungly garden. There are two small "malls" where you can buy some Mexican handicrafts or hats/sunglasses since it can get pretty sunny. The prices are moderate - not cheap or expensive. Along the way, there are some vendors selling Mexican trinkets.

Lucha Libre is an amazing experience! It is Mexican wrestling - think WWF with crazy masks and cheesier girls! Lucha Libre is one of the most popular sports in Mexico.

You can buy 2 or 3 levels of tickets - the day we went, we were very afraid that tix would sell out so we took a cab to the Arena Mexico an hour early. Turns out, we didn't need to do that because there were plenty of tix available. There is also not much to do around that area.

You can purchase a ringside seat, or a mezzanine seat. If you purchase ringside, you could get sucked into the action! We were not that adventurous so we got the cheap seats - about $5 each.

Turns out ringside was not as dangerous, although there was a lot of falling out of the ring and jumping into the audience. The cheap seats gave us a decent view, but there was a railing in front of us (to keep us from going down to ringside). Still the view was fine, and there are lots of guys walking around selling fried snacks, chips, popcorn, candy. The food ringside was more plentiful and better, of course! The show lasted about 2 hours and there were plenty of different matches to watch. It was really super hilarious. Unfortunately, no photography is allowed.

After the show, all the street vendors come out selling lucha paraphanelia. You can get an authentic mask for about $15, and tees for $10. There are also dolls, posters, bracelets, and more.

This is a really cool museum, if you're interested in seeing tons of ancient artifacts. The unfortunate part was that it was a really cold day, and they leave all the doors open so it is FREEZING. It will probably take you 2+ hours to get through everything. Some of the information is in english (the more popular artifacts), but much is in Spanish. There are also totem poles and other large artifacts outdoors in the garden.

I would recommend going to this museum early in the trip to learn some history about the area before embarking on other treks to ruins.

I didn't think i was going to find this place that interesting, but the Diego Rivera murals are really fantastic! It is free to enter, and there are two floors to explore. The stairwell with the large mural is breathtaking and on the second floor, there are segments of murals on view. It takes awhile to take in all the detail! When we were there, there were giant paper mache Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlos positioned throughout the palace. A great photo op!

There is also a nice garden in the back to explore. The Palacio Nacional is open every day, including Mondays (when museums are typically closed).