Trip Report-Mexico City

Day 1 Thursday

Because of our late arrival there was no plan for this morning except to sleep-in and start exploring when we felt like it. As it turns out, our hotel room faces east onto the Zocalo which is the main square in the city. The official name of the square is the Plaza de la Constitución, but nobody here calls it that. We hadn’t closed our curtains and so the sun came up at about 6:45 directly into our eyes in a brilliant orange and purple sunrise framing the sinking cathedral. Starving, since we hadn’t eaten since before our flight left Calgary 13 hours earlier, we headed to the 5th floor where complimentary breakfast is served on a rooftop balcony overlooking the Zocalo.

The hotel offers it’s a guest a free historical tour of the historical centre of the city every morning at 9:30. We like to start things off with a tour like this wherever we go, however because of our late arrival we had decided we may not make it and had booked our own tour for late afternoon. But since we’re up and ready to go, we met in the lobby with other guests. As it turns out, the hotel contracts the tour out to Mexico a Pie https://mexicoapie.com/ which is the same company and same tour that we had booked through Viator for the afternoon. We made the call to do this tour anyway and could always skip out on the one we paid for in the afternoon. As it turns out, the same tour, done by two different guides can be completely different, as can the tourists. We noticed at breakfast that a great many languages and accents were being spoken, we picked up American and England English, German, Chinese and of course Spanish. However, for this tour there was us 10 or so Americans plus the token Canadians with Carla and I being the youngest in the group.

In a thickly accented English that was spoken at the speed of light our guide was off and running giving a history of Mexico City beginning with the Aztecs, but she was more passionate speaking about current affairs in Mexico City and its current problems. She says the Zocalo is busy everyday with people just hanging out, but also with protests, as the government buildings including the President’s apartments are also right across from our hotel. In her opinion the three main issues facing Mexico today are healthcare and lack of supplies, education and a lack of teachers and women’s safety. She says violence against women is a serious problem and every year on International Women’s Day in March 200,000 protestors will converge on the city to protest the roughly 10 women murdered every day, with 1,000 cases classified as femicide annually. Ironically one of the most violent protests of the year will be on Women’s Day when it’s not uncommon for Molotov Cocktails to be thrown. *to add a note to this, yesterday was the protest and I haven’t seen any news about violence, but I do note that the US had issued a travel advisory warning last week about potential violence this weekend.

Our afternoon tour was just as informative but more focused on the history. And the attendees were much more diverse which was what we commonly saw on this trip with 4 Canadians (all of us from Calgary), 2 Americans, 3 Brits, 2 Germans, 2 Aussies and 1 woman from Nigeria. This time we went from being the youngest on the tour to the oldest….but I still struck up a friendship with the young couple from Germany after he saw my Blue Jays cap and said he became a baseball fan after watching last Fall’s World Series and became a Jays fan and not one of the evil empire in Los Angeles.

Day 2 Friday

Besides the German Blue Jays fan, one of my most amusing conversations of the trip was at breakfast this morning with an American woman on a tour with Road Scholar. She said this was her 2nd time doing this tour and her 40th RS tour (Road Scholar, not the other RS). I asked her if she had done any tours with the other RS and she gave me a strange look like she’d never heard of the guy and said that she hadn’t. She said her favourite tour so far was one she would also repeat this year of Tuscany.

Today is Carla’s birthday and during my early conversations with Victor-the-Butler, I told him that dinner reservations were taken care of but could he arrange something else special. When we got back to the room later this evening our room had been decorated like we were going to hold a birthday party. There was also a small box of chocolates the hotel makes, a couple bottles of wine and a small birthday cake.

Today’s plan was to head to Chapultepec Park-which is Mexico City’s larger version of New York’s Central Park. First stop was the Chapultepec Castle which is the only castle in North America to have housed actual sovereigns; specifically, Emperor Maximilian I of Habsburg and Empress Carlota of Belgium. In traditional royal excess of the time, they had it decorated as a luxurious palace with opulent rooms and fantastic gardens. There are two parts to the castle when you visit-the rooms as decorated from this time, but it also houses the National Museum of History, which is interesting but not one bit of English signage. Make sure to bring Google translate. Even though Chapultepec Park was also the vacation grounds for the Aztecs (I’ll stop using this word later in the report) nobility, this museum focuses on the Spanish history of Mexico.

We spent about 3 hours at the castle and then a 20-minute walk through the park to the Anthropology Museum which is one of the most spectacular museums I’ve ever visited. It has 12 galleries featuring pre-Hispanic history of various indigenous cultures from across Mexico. We spent another 3 hours here and saw about half of it. Another warning, most of the signage is in Spanish but at the beginning of each gallery there is at least an English explanation of the history of what we were going to see. Today we focused on what we were going to be seeing over the next two days which were the galleries dealing with the Templo Mayor which are the Aztec ruins underneath the historical area of Mexico where we’re staying and the Teotihuacan gallery which are the incredible ruins NE of the city.

So far, we’ve been on our feet for 6 hours for 2 straight days, and had another 30 minute walk into the Polanco neighbourhood for Carla’s birthday dinner at Parole Polanco Italian restaurant. I mentioned that the city can be expensive, and this is a high falootin’ restaurant full of pretty dresses and Rolexes and menus featuring $1200MXP ($100CA+) pasta dishes. I saved money by ordering steak at $900MXP. Really nice restaurant but kinda overpriced in my opinion, but Carla’s birthday rules are that she will be kept happy and spoiled.

Last night I had asked Victor about how to get to Chapultepec, and I was perfectly willing to take the subway, but he insisted that there was more value taking an Uber. He stressed, Uber and not taxis because they’d try and rip me off. He said Uber was safer and more comfortable…just not the one we took back to the hotel…the driver’s google maps said it was a 47-minute drive…he made it in 32 without using his turning signals once. I wasn’t sure if I should give him no stars for that, or 5 stars for cutting 15 minutes off the drive…

Day 3 Saturday

Since 2008 when we visited the Mayan ruins at Chichen Itza I’ve wanted to see the ruins at Teotihuacan 50km NE of Mexico City. Finding a tour that met our ‘wants’ was a bit more difficult. Most tours offered cover more than the ruins and make touristy stops to sample tequila, visit shops and visit the church in Guadalupe. We finally found the immersive tour we were looking for through Viator. The tour is operated by Paseos Olmedo https://paseosolmedo.com/ but when you go to their website and click on tours you get ‘site not found’, so we had no option but Viator-which was fine. What we enjoyed about this tour is that it was led by an archaeologist who was very serious about his job and would only talk about facts with no fiction. For example, before we even set foot on site he told us that if anyone dared ask if aliens were involved in building the pyramids that he would walk away and not let them back on the bus. He said it with such a scowl on his face that I suspect it has come up more than once. He had a pretty prickly personality, but he knew his stuff. The most interesting takeaway I got from the tour is that nobody really knows who lived in Teotihuacan. It was populated staring in about 100BCE, peaked in around 550CE with 200,000 inhabitants and then was abandoned about 200 years later. The Aztecs discovered it on their way to Mexico City and named it Teotihuacan and called the two pyramids the Pyramids of the Sun and Moon and passed this information onto the Spaniards. But the Aztecs didn’t know either. It’s also just a guess that the inhabitants dedicated the two largest structures to the sun and the moon. According to our archeologist, Rudolfo, the latest theory is that the inhabitants worshiped the mountains, as both pyramids line up with the mountains behind them.

Carla’s birthday extended into another day as another expensive and very good restaurant was on the menu. Azul Historico https://www.azul.rest/ is in the centre court of a former palace and the ambience is terrific, as was the Mexican cuisine. Unfortunately, prices reflected this and my credit card took another $2900MXD hit. I love Mexican food; always have and I especially love mole sauce, I just didn’t realize though that everyone has their own take on the recipe. Every chance I got this trip I had something with mole sauce. “I’d eat it for breakfast” I told Carla after this meal. And I did, a couple of days later at our hotel. The free breakfast offered is a buffet, but there are also menu items to choose from including something I’d never heard of with mole sauce. My only regret is that I was strictly forbidden this trip from picking my plate up and licking it clean.

People at the restaurant were dressed more casually than at the Italian place last night. While the locals were dressed in pants, the tourists, including me were mainly in shorts. It was 29C today which was a 49-degree difference than at home, so I was making this a pants-free trip. When I read about how to dress here, the consensus was that Mexicans dress more European than their neighbours to the north, but we found no standard. While there were plenty of tourists in the Historico area, the vast majority of people were locals and when wandering at night we encountered locals wearing everything from sweats and tank tops to linen shirts and pants. Of the tourists, about half the men in our tours wore shorts.

Day 4 Sunday

The Aztecs never called themselves Aztecs. It’s more of a modern reference to describe the people in the area of Mexico City. The ‘Aztecs’ called themselves the Mexica (mehSHEEka), which the Spanish turned into Mexico as we know the country today. The Zocalo area of the city used to be the city of Tenochtitlan in the 1300’s with a population in excess of 200,000. The Mexica were not a popular bunch and depending on reports there could have been as few as ‘hundreds’ to as many as 20,000 human sacrifices/year. Buried underneath the Zocalo are walls built from the skulls of the sacrificed. Enter the Spanish in 1519 and with the help of very angry tribes that had been used as the sacrificial victims, the Mexica were conquered and Tenochtitlan buried until 1978 when electrical workers discovered it after digging a trench. People were aware of what may have been underneath, but nobody seemed to care. Now it’s a major tourist attraction with a fabulous museum. Unlike the anthropology museum, this museum is dedicated just to Tenochtitlan and it’s worth the time.

I mentioned ‘the latest theories,’ by our archaeologist/guide Rudolfo yesterday. He specifically mentioned Templo Mayor and how most of the information in the museum is based on discoveries in the 1970’s and 80’s. He says new things have been discovered since, but the signage of the museum hasn’t kept up. He suggested many museums; due to lack of funding, don’t keep exhibit information current. I wonder how common this is around the world.

And now for something completely different, we went to Lucha Libre wrestling tonight. It’s the Mexican version of pro wrestling highlighted by masked wrestlers, acrobatics and the typical good guy/bad guy story lines. It’s a fun time and even Carla was laughing. The crowd really gets into it with people wearing masks of their favourite wrestler like we may wear a team jersey to the game at home. Even some couples were decked out in his-and-her masks.

I’d read that it’s easy to get a taxi or Uber there, but it could be problematic getting one back to the hotel because of the crowds streaming out of the arena. I got Victor involved to make suggestions. He told me he’d find a driver that would wait for us until after the wrestling to bring us back home. Victor is a young guy-20-25 is my guess, works hard, eager to please, but is still a bit green. He said he found a guy that would do it for $1200MXP. A little pricey, but Carla wanted nothing to do with public transit and was nervous about being left in a strange place after dark. Our driver shows up; a young guy, and while I didn’t ask, my guess is Victor hired a friend who borrowed his dad’s car to chauffer us for the evening. It all worked out but I’m pretty sure this wasn’t a typical hotel approved transaction. As it turns out, Friday is the big wrestling night in Mexico City, and on Sunday evening the arena was only 1/3rd full and we watched people hailing cabs and using the Uber app to get rides back so we could have saved some money. I can’t speak for Friday night, but the arena isn’t in the finest looking neighbourhood and so our solution may have be the best one for a different night.

Day 5 Monday

So, we managed to survive the hysteria back home yesterday regarding the cartel rampage in Puerto Vallarta and can report that we didn’t get murdered even once. We were completely unaware of the violence until Carla’s phone blew up with concerned messages from family and friends about what was going on 800km away from us. I have to say that Carla appears to be a more valued friend and family member than me, while her phone wouldn’t stop buzzing, mine stayed silent and the only message to make sure I was OK was from Tassie Devil of this Forum. Thanks Ron, I got exactly one message more from you than everybody else combined.

Needless to say, while I’m sure there was a lot of commotion and concern in the government buildings across from our hotel, it was business as usual for everyone else here. Monday was no different as we did a whole lot of aimless wandering. We started with an Uber to the Condessa neighbourhood and spent the morning simply walking up and down neighbourhood streets. If you watch House Hunters International this is where Americans moving to Mexico City want to move. Likely because it’s reasonably pretty and more than half the conversations we heard were in English, whereas everywhere else we went, there was a lot of hand gesturing and Google translating to speak to the locals. We’d gotten spoiled in our 3 European trips last year to England, Netherlands, Belgium and Switzerland that we had no trouble communicating in English. Maybe I should say we got lazy and didn’t try very hard last year. Mexico City is different, outside of our hotel and higher end restaurants we couldn’t count on getting by with English only. Even in the restaurants where there was an English translation underneath the Spanish we couldn’t count on ordering in English. Every time, the server would have a look of confusion on their face, and we’d end up pointing at the Spanish entry of the item in the menu and letting them read it.

Condessa is a very nice neighbourhood and if we were to come back, we’d consider staying here but I think I’d miss the constant street noise and action going on in the Historico. If I wanted quiet and pretty, I could stay at home. Gritty and noisy brings a sense of adventure and feeling that we’re somewhere new and experiencing a different way of life. There were a lot of legitimate street vendors calling out loudly trying to drum up business, but also a lot of homeless and beggars; more than once a young child would come up to me a tug at my pant leg asking for change with his hands held out. I’d shake my head no and he’d run back to his mother. On our 2nd tour on Thursday in the late afternoon, I happened to glance into the shadows near a church we were passing to see a homeless guy squatting and then I realized he was taking a poop. On reflection, at no time did we feel in danger; it’s just the part of the life down here. I don’t think I’d feel this safe in San Francisco anymore.

But it’s always noisy. Even at 3:30 in the morning…every morning at this time I could count on someone out on the Zocalo blowing a conch three times. Apparently, it’s some kind of indigenous spiritual thing. And since there is always something going on in the Zocalo, construction crews would often work through the night. We woke up this morning to see them tearing down one stage and putting up a larger one for what we later learned was for a free Shakira concert that would attract 400,000 people on the Sunday after we went home.

Day 5 Tuesday

We rarely go to zoos when we travel, but the one here is highly rated and is accredited. It’s free which always makes me happy, but there are a few $100MXP extra for certain sections such as a butterfly exhibit or $6MPX for the bathrooms. It’s one of the nicer zoos we’ve been to, and it’s designed so we were mainly walking in shade. We had to snicker when we came across an enclosure featuring Canadian Geese. It never occurred to me that something so common at home would have a place in a zoo. And these ones seemed so calm. At home, Canadian Geese are called a lot of names; my favourite is cobra chickens because while the rest of us Canadians thrive on a reputation as being nice, and polite, heaven help you if you cross paths with a cobra chicken as they’ll snarl and snap and chase small children across the park. We should send an army of these to clean up the cartel (or America?).

We saw most of what needed to be seen at the zoo in about 2.5 hours and then it was a 15-minute walk to finish up at the anthropology museum. If you can, buy tickets online because both times we were here there was about a 15-minute lineup. Also, you can’t bring a backpack or water bottle and you’ll be directed to a locker. The line for the lockers was longer than the line for the tickets. Overall, if you want to take a deep dive into pre-Hispanic history at the museum, count on a full day. We paid the $210MXP/pp entrance fee twice to spread the visit over 2 days. I guess we could have saved money by doing it all in one day, but that’s a lot of museum in one day.

One of the other perks of our hotel was the 24-hour café in the lobby. You can get bottled water, pop, beer, snack and food such as pizza, salads and sandwiches at no extra cost. In theory, thanks to this and the breakfast, we wouldn’t have had to pay for a meal for our entire stay, and we did take advantage on a few days for lunches and if we got back to the hotel late but we definitely would have missed out on some excellent restaurants if we had decided to keep our budget low. Honestly, while I think the hotel had excellent value, I don’t think you’re going to be staying here if you’re on a tight budget.

Day 6 Wednesday

It’s our last day; however, our flight doesn’t leave until 2am Thursday morning so we've kept our room for the day and will check out tonight at about 10:30. These wacky flight times did create some initial confusion in our planning because our arrival was at 1am on Feb 19th and so I needed to book the hotel like I was checking in on the 18th, and of course while checking out on the 25th, I needed to book like I was checking out on the 26th. Booking the driver had the same confusion and I initially booked the driver for the 26th at 10:30pm because that’s the day our flight left. Luckily, I caught it in time and changed the dates on Welcome Pickup’s app without issue.

We’d been fascinated all week by how much the city is sinking. The Mexica built it on an island in the lake and created additional land by creating islands by bringing in dirt and driving stakes into the ground to support their buildings, similar technology to Venice and Amsterdam. After the Spanish took over, the lake was drained so they could build their new city including a massive cathedral to hide the very uncatholic like temples of the Mexica. Cathedrals especially, are so heavy and especially prone to sinking. When you look at the main cathedral in the Zocalo straight on it almost looks like it’s going to split in two. Inside the floor is noticeably tilting toward the west. Engineers ‘think’ they have it under control, but there are portions of the city that are sinking at 50cm/year and there is nothing that can be done about it. We became fascinated by this and dropped into several churches nearby and the sinking is obvious. I found this short video on YouTube that shows a good example. https://share.google/auONB30b2W1N0v9Am Not only is the city sinking, but it’s prone to earthquakes and there is still a live volcano nearby that burps ash into the air. But everyday life continues.

Another thing that caught our attention is the seemingly endless number of manual street sweepers the city has. They’re everywhere we went, these sweepers with what we were calling witches brooms made from a long stick, duct tape and twigs from trees were constantly sweeping leaves and at this time of year, purple flowers from the Jacaranda trees. The city has about 8500 on the payroll and they work around the clock. Apparently, they’re provided with corn brooms but most still prefer the traditional broom. In any case it’s a unique site to see these sweepers go about their business keeping sidewalks and streets clean in a city filled with poverty, crumbling infrastructure, sinking buildings and graffiti covered storefronts requiring steel shutters with 4 padlocks. It’s like I said in my introduction to this report, it’s a city of contradictions; it’s dirty, but it’s clean, it looks scary, but it’s safe, it’s visually unappealing, but it’s charming. I highly recommend it.

Hi Allan

So glad for your report.

I live in Austin, TX which is just up the road from Mexico City but have never been. Been to a few other places in Mexico but never Mexico City and have been considering it.

I would be going alone and am a senior citizen. Have concerns about the size as well s the air pollution because I have bronchitis.

If I went, what neighborhood do you think would be best for me. I would want a neighborhood that is easy to get to from the airport and back to the airport as well as convenient to the major attractions.

Bostonphil, that's a tough one to answer. Mexico City is kind of like London in that it's spread out and you'll need to rely on public transportation and/or Uber. I'm hoping Toby reads your question as he was recently in Mexico City as well and did take public transit so he may have some opinions on that. We really like the Centro Historico area but I'm not sure if you'd feel comfortable there as it is very gritty. The Polanco and Condessa neighbourhoods is where I'd recommend you research first. If you're on Facebook, check out Mexico City Travel Tips. Both Carla and I found it useful.

As for pollution, it wasn't nearly as bad as I'd been led to believe, but I also don't have lung issues.

Edit to add, here's a link to Toby's TR, he Sorrento a few days in Mexico City https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/mexico-and-a-bit-of-florida

Thanks for your detailed report, great read! Mexico City is on my list for someday. So many interesting things to see and learn about. It sounds like the mole is worth the trip alone. I'd probably book myself a food tour because that's one of my favorite ways to sightsee. Sorry your Welcome Pickups wasn't exactly what you thought it would be - I've used them in other large cities with success but will note that for Mexico City.

I chuckled at your description of Canada geese, we here in Oregon get a lot of migratory cobra chickens as well as a robust resident population. They are not to be trifled with.

Thanks Allan for another well written trip report. I've been interested in Mexico City for a long time, and your report was really helpful.

What a great trip report! Thank you for taking time to share the little details that make travel interesting. It was such a fun read!

Thanks for the excellent trip report, Allan. I haven’t visited Mexico so I really enjoyed all the interesting details which you included.

Allan, I was reading your description of your hotel and thinking, hmmm, I wonder if all the hotels in Mexico City offer round the clock, free pizza and salads and sandwiches? And then I looked at your hotel link, and sure enough, that's the same hotel that our tour stayed in. Except my room didn't face the zocalo. In some of our towns, I did get a room with a very nice view. In Mexico City, I must have been facing a small side street. The view from that breakfast room just at sunrise was something else!

We must have been checking out very nearly when you were checking in!

ETA: we checked out on the 15th, so we missed each other by 3 days and the hours until your late night checkin.

I enjoyed reading your view of Mexico City, which I must say had me nodding, exactly as you described, in all its contrasts!

Allan: Great trip report. Looks like you spent a lot more than we did. We also missed the fancier neighborhoods. We were told the wrestling matches were only on Fridays so missed that also. I am surprised Calgary has nonstops and wonder if they will last. There were very few tourists in shorts in January, but highs were 75/24 C.

BostonPhil: The airport (main one MEX, there are 2) is about 30-40 minutes from all tourist neighborhoods by taxi, nothing too far. We were very pleased with Juarez as an area to stay in. Zona Rosa is in Juarez but it is west of Insurgentes, east is a lot quieter. There’s a small Holiday Inn here, or I can send you our AirBnB, about $100/night for a large one bedroom. Note few apts have either heat or AC.

I wish the Anthropology Museum tied into the US when relevant. There are at least 2 ball courts in Arizona for example, one way up north of Flagstaff, how did Mesoamerican culture get this far? Also there’s a mirror ruin to Teotihuacan just NE of St Louis but made of earth not stone, how did that happen?

Allan, great trip report! Thank you!

Happy travels

Thank you Allen and Toby for the info

Toby, I read your report and Allen knows that I read his.

Have gone with a group for San Miguel de Allende during Day of The Dead and a couple of ports when on shore excursions. Do not know if I am ready to tackle Mexico City as a solo.

Have considered The Mexican Riviera cruise.

Toby, I find that as a solo traveler, it is best for me to stay in a hotel. AirBNB's may be less money when first looked at but the additional fees like cleaning fees every day make it extremely expensive.

I also like a front desk 24/7.

Boston Phil I think if you would like to see Mexico City, you would do well to use Road Scholar or another tour company. It doesn’t sound like the kind of place to go it alone as a senior woman. Just a thought.

Allan, another great report, thank you for taking us there!

We must have been checking out very nearly when you were checking in!

CWsocial, when I read your comments on the thread about anyone in Mexico during the cartel tantrum I started to wonder if you were in that group in my hotel, but the math didn't work. You had mentioned that the tour after your's had to turn back and I'm wondering if that was the group I encountered.

AirBNB's may be less money when first looked at but the additional fees like cleaning fees every day make it extremely expensive.

The $100 includes everything in this case, fees and taxes (and no extra cleaning fee). I can understand wanting a 24 hour front desk. We entered our Airbnb at 9 pm from a lockbox in the dark, not for everyone. Mex City has cleaner air than it did in a 90s visit so not a worry now.

Really think the city is safer (and feels safer) than a lot of major tourist cities in Europe.

Edit: I knew WestJet codeshares with Delta (SkyTeam) but didn’t know it also codeshares with Aeromexico (SkyTeam) so there’s potentially connections to all of Mexico from Calgary for people on this flight, helps explain the nonstop.

Bostonphil: I found Mexico City easy and safe as a solo senior woman traveler. I used public transport a lot but uber is always an option. The air quality has been cleaned up but some people may react to the altitude. There are lots of very uneven sidewalks due, I've read, from the soft soil underneath, which might be a concern for mobility.

Allan: I was especially interested in reading about your archeologist guide in Teotihuacan. I had reluctantly settled for one of the typical tours you avoided. It left us on our own to explore the ruins. I had a decent guidebook but not the more up to date theories you mention. Although I would not have chosen the Tequila/Mezcal and Guadalupe tour stops on my own, I actually found them much more interesting than I expected.

Stellar and appreciated report Allan.

Did chuckle when you mentioned the evil empire regarding baseball in Los Angeles.

A Northern California native who has dwelled in LA for nearly 35 years I proudly wear my San Francisco Giants baseball cap.

You never give up on the team you grew up with. Never!

Sounds like you enjoyed your trip and learned a lot.

I knew WestJet codeshares with Delta (SkyTeam) but didn’t know it also
codeshares with Aeromexico (SkyTeam) so there’s potentially
connections to all of Mexico from Calgary for people on this flight,
helps explain the nonstop.

Our original plan was a week in Mexico City and then to Merida, but that part didn't work out.

WestJet has been dropping flights to the US since demand dropped off last year and expanding worldwide instead, not only Mexico City but direct flights into Brazil and Colombia. Also into Asia to Korea and Japan. Codeshares to Europe include Delta, KLM and Air France.

WestJet has been dropping flights to the US

The Minneapolis flights are holding strong. There’s a lot of leisure travel from Minneapolis to Alberta, and a lot of family travel between Minneapolis and Saskatchewan. I suppose Canadians connecting to the MSP Delta hub adds additional passengers.

Merida is a wonderful destination, probably best Dec/Jan due to heat the rest of the year. I think WestJet to Aeromexico connections @ MEX require a terminal change.

Luv2Travel

Thank you

I was thinking about Road Scholar but the cost pf their tours is very expensive for me because I require my own room. Still I will look into it.

I might be able to fly free due to rewards.

Thank you CD in DC

When I travel I take my cane which I do not always need at home.

Always concerned about uneven sidewalks. Have taken some falls because of uneven sidewalks. That is among the reasons I use a cane when I am not familiar with the terrain.

Going to Paris in May. Might look at Mexico City in October.

Road Scholar has a number of trips that include Mexico City. My husband and I loved ours which was about 7 days in MC plus the Pyramids Allan described. (I have heard of the Other RS, but have not taken one of his tours.). It was perfect for a first trip to MC, more often called CDMX.

These RS trips are popular so it is worth signing up 9 months ahead.

I agree about uber…easy but so much traffic so trips can take a long time.

We loved the Frieda Kahlo house. Fortunately, RS got the hard to get tickets.

Next time we will brave the subway system.

We skipped street food and drank only bottled water. We did not get sick at all.

RS took us to a very enjoyable Ballet Folklorico performance and we ventured to a number of museums on our own.

I am jealous you saw jacarandas in bloom. We were there in November and did not.

Looks like you spent a lot more than we did.

Totalling it up in my head, we spent about $7000CA ($5000US) for an 8 day trip. We did splurge on hotel and a couple of restaurants but much of the day-to-day things like Uber and siteseeing was cheaper than usual, and flights were half the cost compared to flying to Europe. For us, I'd say this ended up about average for what we'd spend, and significantly cheaper than the Road Scholar tours that are being discussed on this thread.

Allan, I really enjoyed your report--both the details and the humor. We spent a week in Mexico City in 2019, with one overnight in nearby Puebla (which we loved and is easy to get to). We also went to the anthropology museum twice, and still only saw about 60% of the exhibits. It was a great trip. I'm glad you enjoyed Mexico City.

After talking to a friend who had lived in Polanco, and several friends who had traveled to Mexico City shortly before us, we chose to stay at an airbnb in the Condesa, so I think that's a good choice if you ever return. Walking around the Condesa in the evening felt safe--we saw plenty of families, and even just moms with their children in strollers walking around the neighborhood. After talking to our friends and family who had visited, we did use the subway, with all of our money and credit cards secured in money belts, of course. At least at that time, we were advised that taxis were safe as long as we took them from official taxi stands, and we had no problems with scams or anything else. But things may have changed since then.

Hi NYCMOM

so does Rick Steves offer trips to Mexico. I think not. When you use R S, I assume that it is Road Scholar.

I will look into Road Scholar.

I did go on a goup trip for Day of The Dead in the 80's. Went to San Miguel de Allende.

We have a very large Mexican and Mexican American population in Austin and Frieda is very popular.

We have a very large Mexican American Cultural Center (MACC) which is being enlarged and renovated. The grand opening will be in June long with the rehabilitated Waterloo Greenway. I will write about it then under "other places outside of Europe'

someone on this thread mentioned taxis. I d not now what the situation is now but many years back, I had a friend who took an unlicensed cab in Mexico City and ended up getting shot. He was very badly injured but did survive but walked with a limp the rest of his life.

At the time period, you were advised not to take the VW bug taxis. Always take a licensed taxi even if you have to wait.

I can not remember if the licensed cabs were green or the unlicensed ones were green.

Then when I went with a large group to San Miguel d'Allende in the 80's, a small number went on a side excursion to the pyramids. I do not now how it was arranged but they were held up a gunpoint when they arrived at the pyramids. I do not know details because no one in the group would talk about the situation.

So those are things to consider when traveling within Mexico.

Use licensed cabs only and book excursions carefully. Maybe book excursions through your hotel or very carefully research the excursion compnay.

Allan, that was a wonderful trip report and very funny! I always enjoy your sense of humor, especially where you questioned giving the driver five stars or no stars. That made me laugh out loud. 😂

Mexico is inching its way higher in my trip queue, and the more of these reports I read, the more I want to go there. I'm still trying to decide if I want to do this alone or on a tour. I would love to visit Mexico City but also Oaxaca and I'm not sure whether there are tours that offer both. Although I suppose I could tack on Oaxaca to the Mexico City tour if I did the Road Scholar one. So I guess I'll have to do some searching and see what prices are.

But I digress. I really enjoyed reading it and loved the descriptions. It just sounds like a fabulous place to visit! And that hotel sounds like very good value. Of course, I am getting ready to head off to Scandinavia, where the prices are really high So anything under $300 a night is looking like a bargain right now. Anyway, thanks for the report, and a belated happy birthday to Carla!

Great report, Allan. My son and daughter-in-law went to Mexico City in mid-February and had a wonderful time. She has cousins there, so they had people to visit, and they both speak Spanish fluently (my son, as his 3rd language, and my d-i-l as her first (she's originally from Colombia). Anyway, it's supposed to be an amazing place, and your report confirms that.

...can report that we didn’t get murdered even once.

I'm very relieved. Getting murdered once would be very unpleasant. Being murdered more than once would be a horrible experience, I'm sure. :)

Mexico is inching its way higher in my trip queue, and the more of
these reports I read, the more I want to go there. I'm still trying to
decide if I want to do this alone or on a tour.

Based on the diverse demographic presence of tourists we saw in Mexico City when it comes to age and country it seems to me Mexico City is already a hugely popular destination. But I wouldn't have known it based on my small sampling of opinions at home. I'd say the majority of our friends and family asked us why we'd want to go there, mostly because of the perception that it is unsafe and I doubt I'm going to change many minds. My wife has one friend who, let's just say is a glass half empty type of personality and she texted Carla every night to make sure we were safe and try to convince us to come home, especially after the cartell incident. When I made my " we didn't even get murdered once" comment on this TR, I was quoting myself in a text I finally sent her near the end of the trip after being frustrated with her negativity.

Having said that, after our first tour guide talked about women's issues and the murder rate among women, and especially the femicide issue, I'm hesitant to make a blanket statement regarding safety. Her statements did interest me enough though that I did Google the topic a couple of times, and the fear and frustration is real. For example, a survey from 2018 that stated 75% of women felt unsafe taking public transit in Mexico City. That's probably why the city has dedicated cars on the subway that are for women and children only. I've never been a women and don't plan on ever being one so I can't imagine the extra cautions a women must make when travelling alone and I'm not sure if I'm qualified to give an opinion, but from what I've read, if you're ever considering giving a tour a try, maybe this is the place to do it.

I would love to visit Mexico City but also Oaxaca and I'm not sure whether there are tours that offer both.

Mardee, the Road Scholar tour that I took started with 3 nights in Mexico City and ended with 3 nights in Oaxaca, with 2 night stops along the way in Morelia, Guanajuato, Puebla, Querétaro, and an afternoon stop in San Miguel de Allende.

So 14 nights total, and easy to spend time before and after in Mexico City and Oaxaca.

This one sounds like what you're describing:

https://www.roadscholar.org/find-an-adventure/23083/The-Best-of-Central-Mexico-Magical-Towns-and-Bustling-Cities/itinerary/

Yes, RobertH, that's the one!

Allan, thank you so much for your thoughts on that. That's very interesting and informative. I'm thinking that I'd rather err on the safe side and maybe use this trip as a way to launch my very first large guided tour. Technically, I was on one in Romania, but I'm not sure I really count that because that was only three of us with one private guide. At any rate, Mexico sounds so beautiful and so interesting, and I really, really want to see it.

CWSocial: If I take a tour, I think I would take the one your were on. It's been a week or more since I've read it, and I don't remember anything unless it took place in the last five minutes, so I'd forgotten that you went to Oaxaca. That sounds like it might be a really good option for me, and I trust your judgment and taste. I will definitely have to look that over. Thank you!

Robert, thanks for the link!
.

I still have a beautiful hand-made blouse that my mom brought back from Mexico when she and some friends went down in the late 1940s. She said that trip was what triggered her love for travel.

Allen, thanks for your trip report. I will be going on the Road Scholar Mexico City tour next year that includes a few of the sites you visited.

I had a good laugh about the Canada geese at the zoo. I've had European visitors get so excited by seeing racoons at our cottage.

we spent about $7000CA ($5000US) for an 8 day trip

Not trying to start a weird competition, and noting Florida accommodations were free and all flights were with points/credit so taxes only, for the 17 days we spent US $3031.

Susan, I'm excited for you. It's such a fun city to explore and I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

Toby, I just reread your Trip Report. I thought it was useful before my trip, but I enjoyed it even more now. I always enjoy other perspectives of what I've seen. I should have paid closer attention to what you had mentioned about the church where Cortes was buried. On our last day we dropped by but it was locked up. That was about 1:30. We could have easily killed some time in that area and come back at 2:30.

Allan, loved the trip report. Had me chuckling throughout the entire read! My suggestion is that you do something about your personality as you are obviously not as loved as your wife! LOL