Four days in Mexico City - What to expect in CDMX.

All prices in Mexican pesos ($). £1 = $24.43 at time of writing - Nov 2025

The beginning of our Mexican adventure didn't get off to the greatest start. Chasing a cheap flight rather than a convenient one had landed us at Felipe Ángeles International Airport (NLU) - 30 miles from the city - instead of at MEX airport within the city itself. I'm not saying that's particularly far away, but when the coaches to the city only make a few trips a day, the train line is non-existent and Uber is completely banned, options were pretty slim. There was always a taxi, but it seemed a bit counter-intuitive to save money on the flight just to pay the jumped up prices for a taxi as soon as we landed.

We had to get creative, but first we needed to get through passport control. Before booking our flight to Mexico we had searched the UK Gov travel advice page for the entry requirements we would need to fulfill; at least 3 months left on the passports, proof of onward travel and proof of funds. Easy right? We thought so. It wasn't until we were nervously standing in front of the passport agent that we realised that perhaps we'd been overconfident. We had (each) brought onwards bus tickets to Belize... but we had brought them for the day we arrived in Mexico rather than for a month later. Luckily, our very lovely border agent understood that we were just idiots, and after a lengthy (and rather tense) consideration decided to grant us a 6 week visa rather than bundling us back onto the plane. Phew!

Before we could leave the airport there was a few more hurdles we needed to jump, we needed some cash and we needed a sim card. Getting money turned out to be fairly easy, around the corner from where we exited the baggage hall, just past all the car rental counters was a few different ATM's to chose from. There was of course a fee but it was far less than the commission for going to a currency exchange. The SIM card was not as easy to find. Unlike most other airports we've been through, where multiple phone providers have booths offering competitive deals, there was nothing to be seen. Eventually Ben brushed off his best Spanish and asked in one of the shops, they said maybe in OXXO. Cryptic, but at least we had a clue.

OXXO it turns out is a convenience store and was located in the nearby coach station. From there, after a frustrating half an hour of trying to set up the sim, we were finally ready to start our journey to the city. We had planned on getting the Mexi-bus to a nearby bus stop, and from there hop onto another local bus into the city... but it didn't quite work out. The Mexi-bus got us to our chosen stop but from there things felt more chaotic. We couldn't seem to locate the bus stop we needed, let alone manage to flag down the correct bus. All sorts of buses, coaches and colectivos (think rideshare without the app) seemed to be whizzing by and none of them were clearly marked in a way we could decipher. Feeling sleep deprived, more than a little unsafe and finally within the area that uber was allowed, we caved and went for the easy option. The hour and a bit journey would only cost us £12 after all.

As we drove, I noticed a series of cable cars dangling above the highway connecting the hillier parts of the city to one another. The houses on the outskirts seemed more rustic; simple single story plaster clad dwellings that soon gave way to apartment blocks the nearer to the centre got. The area we decided to stay in (Doctores), wasn't known for it's beauty or safety but the small mechanic shops, street-side taco stands and plethora of print shops certainly made it feel local and real. During our research, Condessa, Roma Norte and Polanco all showed up as the desirable parts of the city for tourists to stay, but as we had inadvertently booked our arrival to co-incide with "dia de los muertos" those areas also came with a hefty price tag. In the end, our slightly bizarre art-deco meet seventies hotel was perfect for our needs - the area felt safe to wander about in the daytime and grabbing Ubers at night instead of walking was a small price to pay for our safety.

By the time we arrived we were beat - we'd woken at 3am to get to our flight on time and with the time difference it was already late afternoon for us. The plan was simple, grab some food, have a nap. Not wanting to venture out too far, we popped fish tacos into google maps and found an option just a few streets away: Muelle 21. As it was still within our "rough" neighbourhood we didn't really know what to expect, but we weren't expecting a cute little restaurant open to the street with a handful of tables inside. Although there was no other customers when we arrived we decided to give it a go.

Our hostess guided us in and gestured to the tables throughout the restaurant as she spoke to us in rapid-fire Spanish. Ben's long ago GCSE language lessons came into use, and we knew to chose a table where we'd be soon given menus. Luckily I found the menu easier to decipher than the speech, so I didn't have to rely so heavily on Ben to work out what I wanted to eat. In the end we decided to share and ordered a tuna ceviche ($150), 2 x fish tacos ($100) and 2 x prawn tacos ($120).

While we were waiting for our food to be prepared we were each given a small cup of prawn consume to drink and a bowl of nuts to share. When the ceviche came out it was huge, the small pieces of raw tuna were mixed in with pineapple, onion and pepper, topped with crispy onions and drenched in a black sauce. It was delicious! The tuna melted in our mouths and the combination of flavours was surprisingly refreshing. The tacos were also pretty yummy too, battered fish and prawns with a simple salsa and some perfectly ripe avocado, wrapped in a soft flour tortilla. Everything was pretty perfect but the stand-out was definitely the ceviche - would highly recommend.

Feeling pretty sleepy and sated we headed back to our hotel for a small nap... Twelve hours later we woke up feeling slightly cotton mouthed but much more ready to start heading out into the city. Our nap had fully turned into a sleep, but luckily we still had tons of time to explore.

First on the agenda, purchasing a CDMX travel card. From what I could find out online, we could get by paying in cash for buses and buying individual tickets for the metro, but the first required exact change and the second would get annoying pretty quick. The best place to buy a travel card was a metro station, there were machines dotted around and they all had to option to turn the language to English - pretty helpful. Although it was only $15 for the card itself, we decided to just buy the one and share it - with no change given, sticking in a $100 note loaded it up with $85, which would see us through our stay.

Card in hand, we located the track going in the direction we needed (towards Condessa) and tapped our way through the turnstile, handing the card back so we could both get through. Making sense of the metro was pretty simple, locating a place for breakfast - not so much.

The shady tree lined avenues of the Condessa neighbourhood were framed with beautiful houses. Many of the roads had been pedestrianised for the morning, allowing the plethora of lycra clad runners and cyclists free reign. Dog walkers roamed, exercising their pooches before the day got too hot. What we could not find was anywhere to grab some food. We had assumed that one of the trendier tourist and expat friendly areas would have a range of options at 8am on a Sunday morning, but have since learnt that most places wouldn't even dream of opening before 9.

Eventually, just outside of Chapultepec park we found a large chain bakery "Esperanza" that was open. We always swear off having cake for breakfast as it leaves us feeling pretty crap later in the day, but as we hadn't eaten since 2pm the afternoon before we were starving. Armed with a date elephant ear pastry and a "pan de los muertos", we found a bench to sit in the park... where we were immediately set upon by squirrels. I never really realised how reserved British squirrels are, until we had their smaller Mexican cousins jumping onto the bench back, trying to grab the food out of our hands. As we weren't exactly enjoying our treats (both too sweet, the pan too dry) we let the squirrels win and broke small pieces off to give to them - bad to encourage them, i know... but how could you resist their little faces.

We arrived at Chapultec Castle within the park just as it opened. As it was a Sunday, Mexicans and residents of Mexico got in for free, while Ben and I paid a reasonable $100 each. The Castle now houses the National Museum of History but was first built for the Viceroy of "New Spain" in 1785. The building was never completed during his reign and stood empty until 1833 after Mexico became independent. The building then had a stint as a military academy, before becoming home to the short -reigning King and Queen of Mexico, then home to the following president and finally a museum.

The museum is split into two sides, one details Mexican history from the 17th century - focusing on the Spanish invasion, the revolution and modern day Mexico. The other shows how the castle was during the Rule of Maximiliano and Carlota , for only having a 5 year reign they sure put a lot of effort in decorating! The first side of the museum was purely in Spanish meaning we had to whip out google translate for the full descriptions, the second side had both Spanish and English allowing us to explore a bit more easily. The museum was great, and being located on the highest hill in central Mexico City, it also had some amazing views! I would recommend (especially on a Sunday) getting to the museum for when it opens at 9, as when we were leaving at midday there was a huge queue. Another thing to be aware of is that no foods or liquids were allowed inside and we had to ditch them at the second security check - goodbye almost full bottle of water.

From there we headed to the neighbourhood of Polanco, we were getting peckish and thought we could grab something there. Big mistake! We had wandered into the swanky part of town and the restaurants were either jam-packed or showing as over $1000 per person. Although we have been know to splash out on occasion, we have a big trip ahead of us and need to conserve those pesos. Thinking a supermarket might have some ready made snacks to go we headed to Walmart, but even that was a bust! Right, new plan: we'd go to Roma Norte.

Ben's Pork Tacos.

Rome Norte is another of CDMX's more gentrified areas, this one filled with hippies and those of the artistic persuasion. The first few vegetarian friendly restaurants we searched out had crowds of people waiting outside, not wanting to wait we headed on. Along our route, a scent caught Ben's attention, drawing him to a small rustic taqueria specialising in Pork Tacos. After a small amount of Spanish and a large amount of miming, Ben had acquired two tacos - one from shoulder meat and another of rib. As he bit into them his eyes lit up, and then the spice got to him and he began to hiccup. The chef found this highly amusing and after poking fun at him for a while, gave him some crackling as a commiseration gift. 10/10 experience.

I on the other hand was starting to get frustrated. Each vegan taco place we found on google was either shut or closing as we arrived despite their online opening times! To be fair it was the last day of "Dia da los meurtos" so I can understand people wanting to celebrate with their families rather than working. Ben suggested grabbing some crackers from the shop to tide me over, and I did... but I sure was sulky about it. In the end we went headed into a generic looking restaurant and I ordered one of the only vegetarian options on the menu; Vegetable volcanos. A volcano is simple, a fried tortilla topped with a filling then covered in melted cheese - I can see how it could be delicious but the ones I had weren't. The vegetables were slimy and the cheese was plastic, but at least I wasn't hungry anymore.

We felt defeated. We couldn't remember traveling being this difficult. Maybe we'd spoiled ourselves with some easy years in Australia and New Zealand, where sure there was decisions to be made and compromised to be had but there wasn't a language to contend with. Was Mexico city for us? Did we even want to travel anymore? Done with the day we headed back to our hotel. Maybe the next day would be better.

Learning from the day before we knew we wouldn't be able to grab any breakfast before 9am, luckily the local laundrette was open so we could get that task achieved first instead. Clothes washed, dried and returned to the hotel, it was finally time for food.

Rather than wandering aimlessly we had pre-selected where we were heading, Los Rica was only a block away from our hotel and solely sold Mexican fare. We went for chilaquiles, a classic breakfast dish consisting of fried tortilla chips, covered in a red or green sauce and topped with onions, cream and cheese - typically a protein is added on top. I selected the verde chilaquiles with fried eggs and Ben went for roja chilaquiles with beef. Both were delicious, and both were spicy as hell. The consistency was slightly hard to get used to, quite soupy considering we had only been provided a fork to eat it with... but I suppose thats why we were also given a small roll too. Bens drink was also a surprise. He had ordered a coffee, and when the waitress asked another question, he said yes despite not understanding. He did get a coffee, but rather than plain it was sweet and spiced and presented in a clay mug - a cafe de olla.

We had decided to spend the day exploring another of CDMXs neighbourhoods, Coyoacan. Situated far south in the city, it required us to jump on the metro and then a bus to make it to the area's centre. The metro was easy but the bus was a bit more nuanced. On google maps the bus we wanted had a specific number and a place name associated with it, but none of the buses we saw going by matched. In the end we just looked for the bus companies symbol then asked the driver if it stoped near the market we wanted to explore - success.

Coyoacan market, despite being the initial draw to the area for us was just okay. When we arrived at 11am half of the stalls were still shut, and although the ones open seemed to be doing a roaring business it all felt slightly too tourist focused for us. The atmosphere was lively but the prices were higher than we'd seen elsewhere and each stall had the exact same menu. Besides, the vendors were pushy - always a turn off in our books.

The rest of Coyoacan with it's colourful colonial architecture and bustling streets was much more our vibe. It's name translates to "place of the coyotes", this is brought to life with coyotes featuring prominently on various decorations - such as the crests on the benches and the statues in the main plaza's fountain. A few streets away from the market we found a small shop that specialised in churros, to be completely honest they weren't the best i'd ever had but getting 5 for just $45 seemed like a bargain.

After some more aimless wandering (to work off all that sugar), and a small rest under the shady trees dotted about the plaza we decided to tackle "Bazar Artesanal Mexico" - the craft market. I would surprised to find out that any of the items in the market were either artisanal or hand crafted, but it was still fun to wander through it to see what souvenirs they had for sale. From there we found by accident our favourite spot in Coyoacan, Plaza De La Conchita - which is home to Mexicos oldest church. Compared to the more polished streets of the central plaza, here nature had taken it's toll - the cobble stones were pushed unevenly from the ground and the grass, left to grow long, surrounded the planted shrubs. The conquistador church itself was well kept, but far less showy than it's larger replacement a few streets away. Alongside the normal images from the bible was an ofrenda celebrating the day of the dead - it was nice to see the pre-conquest tradition being honoured inside such as space.

Talking of the day of the dead, we had arrived in Mexico just in time to see all of the colourful and impressive decorations scattered across the city. While walking towards Roma Norte the day before we stumbled upon many of the outlandish (paper-mache) monsters that are walked through the city during the main day of the dead parade. Many of the monsters are based on the nightmares that plagued artist Pedro Linares during an illness in the 1930's and are popular as figurines today.

During our journey back to Doctores from Cayoacan we stumbled upon a cemetery that still had the more traditional day of the dead decorations up; dressed up skeletons, sugar skulls and flowers. It was beautiful to see just how lively celebrating the dead could be, a time of fun remembrance rather than a somber occasion.

On our last day in CDMX we finally made it to Centro, the city's historical quarter. We began with a visit to Pasteleria Ideal; a well loved Mexico city bakery that has been in operation for almost a century. There was almost an overwhelming amount of items to chose from, and despite internet claims that the process was confusing we found it pretty simple. Select the items desired and place them on a tray, give the tray to a "wrapper" to receive an invoice, take the invoice to the cashier to pay, collect yummy snacks. Our haul was small compared to most, a cheese empanada, a ham & cheese roll, a single croissant, an almond and jam cake and a muffin (all for under $100). I can confidently share that the bakery lived up to the hype, every item we brought was delicious and filling enough that this covered our breakfast and lunch.

The main place we wanted to visit in Centro was the Templor Mayor Museum, an archeoligcal site and museum that showcases Mexico's most important Temple, from when the city was Tenochtitlan. The museum was very informative and the explanations around the ruins themselves painted a clear picture of the site's history. It was amazing to see the different layers of the pyramid that once stood there, and how each successive ruler had built over the existing pyramid to make it more and more impressive.

The museum alongside the ruins was equally impressive with eight different exhibitions focusing on not only the temple, but how these ancient Mesoamericans connected with the world around them and neighbouring civilisations. Each room followed an easy to understand narative, it was honestly one of the best curated museums I have ever visited. For $100 each, it was money well spent.

While we were in the area we popped into the main plazas Cathedral. The Metropolitan cathedral was built over the previous cities sacred precinct, and although building started in 1573, it took over 250 years to complete. The mix of styles shown across the building gives it a unique appearance and what I found even stranger was that it has two large chapels inside.

The next museum we visited, Bellas Artes wasn't so good. The architecture of the building was certainly impressive and we enjoyed the murals on the top floor but the current artist being showcased just wasn't to our taste. The whole area we could visit was also much smaller than we expected for the $95 each that we'd paid. I actually enjoyed our glimpse into the nearby postal museum more than Bellas Artes, and wish that I had given it a go instead.

The rest of Centro wasn't really to our taste either, some streets were filled with vendors selling their wares from blankets on the floor, and the others just felt a bit sketchy - a feeling heightened by the high police presence around. Not everywhere was filled with chaos of course, there was some peaceful plazas scattered around where we could find a seat in the shade and some of the prettier streets were nice to wander... but on the whole it just wasn't for us.

For our last night we grabbed an uber to Roma in the search for some delicious vegan tacos... again. In all honestly, we had done the same the previous night and had a delicious meal at Taco Santo Vegano. This time we tried, Por Simpre Vegana Taqueria which was equally as good if not better. Each of the different "meats" had their own unique flavour profile and texture, and the salsa accompaniments were well thought out. Both of these restaurants were surprisingly affordable too, obviously not as cheap as a roadside taqueria selling 5 tacos al pastor for $75, but well under $400 for both of us to fill our bellies and have a drink to enjoy too.

Making the most of the "safe" neighbourhood we went for a little nighttime wander, in theory walking off our meal but in reality in search of ice cream. Within a few streets we had found Helado Bonito, an ice creamery with some pretty unusual flavours (Goat Caramel anyone?). What was even better than the ice cream (if that's even possible) was the service, Santiago was happy to encourage us to sample all the flavours and then even gave us a free baby scoop of ice cream when he learned it was going to be our only chance to visit.

So did we enjoy CDMX? Yes, for the most part. The city has so many different aspects that i'm sure there is a part of it that would appeal to anyone. For me, apart from enjoying exploring the food scene, it was learning about Templor Mayor followed by simply wandering the streets, especially in some of the less touristy places. In the end, it was to our benefit that we stayed in a less popular area - it was nice to get a glimpse into the real life of the city, not just the gentrified bits. There was also way more to explore than what we fit in, more museums to explore and day trips to places like Teotihuacán pyramids.

And did we feel safe? Again yes, for the most part. Perhaps more than anywhere we'd visited before we were aware of our habits. Keeping our phones stashed away, only having brief looks when consulting google maps and being quick with photos. Keeping our wallet in our bum bag, putting it away before exiting shops and only taking out the money we would need. At night we would get a uber rather than walk or use public transport. For the first time we also didn't take out our camera with us, maybe we were being a bit too cautious but we left Mexico city with everything we arrived with.