Trip report!

Hi all,

We had a great trip to CDMX a few months ago and thought I’d share our itinerary in case it would be useful to anyone! We are 2 adults and one 10-year-old, and had a blast. Thanks to the redditors whose posts informed our wonderful trip! And thanks to the residents of CDMX - your city is wonderful and you are wonderful hosts!

Lodging: Hotel Circulo in Condesa. It was unremarkable but clean and well situated (though noisy). The breakfast hours were super limited, so we only had it once.

Day 1: Food Tour: Eat Like a Local. Very expensive but it was excellent and we love their mission. We were glad to do it on the first day since it introduced us to things we ate later. Highly recommend.

Day 2: Morning at the Anthropology Museum (I wish we had arranged a tour. They have free ones but the hours are irregular. Signage is 80% in Spanish only. We found the Creative Adventurer (https://thecreativeadventurer.com/)  which had a “highlights” guide - that was an excellent backup, especially with a kid and limited patience). Evening: Lucha Libre (Mexican wrestling). Weird but great. Delicious dinner right outside.

Day 3: Coyoacan: Frida museum in the morning, wandering around/craft market in the afternoon. Both fantastic.

Day 4: Centro historico in the morning (we were underwhelmed - this was the only place we went that felt touristy and chaotic), early dinner at Masala and Maiz (extraordinary). Evening: explore Condesa.

Day 5: Pyramids/hot air balloon. This was magical. We went with Flying Pictures - no touristy schlock stops. Per advice, we did this AFTER we had visited the anthropology museum. The anthropology museum provides context for what you see at the pyramids (there is very limited signage/explanation). Be aware that you can no longer climb on most of the pyramids.

Day 6: Depart

Tips:

• Many markets and street vendors are cash-only. We went to the ATM constantly.
• The city is super, super spread out with horrific traffic (I was warned, but still …). Plan 1-2 activities per day, max.
• We took public transit which was convenient and nearly free (though super crowded at times, and not uniformly air conditioned). The doors do not automatically reopen if a person is halfway in or out!
• I was extremely worried about getting sick, but we ate tons of street food and were fine.
• This felt like the right amount of time for our trip, but we could have easily filled another day or two within CMDX proper. 

With more time, we would have done:

• Library 
• Daytrip to a Pueblo Magico
• Xochimilco Eco Tour
• Cablebus  
• Quetzalcóatl Park (complicated to get to, very limited tickets)