Mexico City during thanksgiving break

[Anonymous]

Please suggest an itinerary, restaurants, and places to see for a three day trip. Thank you.

[Anonymous]

As for restaurants, Pujol is incredible. It can be hard to get reservations so look in advance.

[Anonymous]

Who’s going on the trip? Just adults, or kids too? Either way, you should definitely include Teotihuacan, which is a bit outside the city.

[Anonymous]

Take tours of the cartel areas and count chopped off heads, burning bodies and hanging corpses. Lovely.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Take tours of the cartel areas and count chopped off heads, burning bodies and hanging corpses. Lovely.

Wow, that would be cool.

[Anonymous]

Frida Kahlo’s house is truly wonderful, and Trotsky’s house is fascinating.

Spend some time in Condesa and Roma, which are beautiful residential neighborhoods.

[Anonymous]

I went with my 10 yo dd last fall. We had a nice time but I wish we had stayed in a hotel or in Polanco or Condesa around Parque Mexico. We are not very intrepid travelers- we live in a random small city in the midwest and Mexico City was just an easy place for us to get to, was something different, and we are both learning Spanish so decided to go. People online will tell you Polanco is too gentrified, but it would have been a good intro for us. We liked our airbnb in Roma Norte but it felt sketchy walking around - I'm sure it was safe enough (it is considered a nicer part of the city), but the architecture in CDMX is very much concrete facades, barred windows, lack of street lights, closed up shop fronts at night, wires dangling. It was fine in the daytime but felt sketchy and empty at night. We loved our airbnb, though. Like many places in Mexico it has an unassuming facade and then gorgeous interior and courtyard.

We were disappointed in the Anthropology Museum - we thought the little signs by the exhibits were boring and didn't really give us the big picture. Wish we had done a tour. There are some amazing artifacts and design there. We loved our bike tour through Chapultepec Park and down the Reforma and through beautiful Condesa/Roma neighborhoods- learned so much history, lore, had some delicious basket tacos, and just had a great time. (My dd and I were the only ones even though it was billed as a group tour)

We we were traveling on a budget, but the big ticket item we would have splurged on was a hot air balloon ride over Teotuahacan.

We got "museumed" out faster than I'd hoped - if you have more museum minded family members there are a zillion museums for every interest. I really wanted to check out the Museo de Arte Popular among others. We did enjoy climbing to the top of the Monument to the Revolution at night - if you are looking for an activity vs more typical sightseeing.

Travel was a bear - we did not have convenient metro access so did not try that. Ubers are ubiquitous and cheap but traffic is horrendous, and no one uses AC, so you just sit around in traffic with windows open breathing in smog. (Hopefully it will be a bit cooler in Nov.) I wish I had known that ahead of time - we had planned too ambitious of an itinerary and had to narrow it down to a smaller geographic radius. I also wished I prioritized being right in the center of a bustling, well lit area so we could walk more.

We liked the food. Lots of natural ingredients, cafe culture, farm to table type mexican food etc. There was also a learning curve there. We had some mediocre expensive meals and some delicious cheaper meals. My dd doesn't love spicy food or tacos but she loved all the aguas frescas, salad/bowl places, paleterias, churrerias (El Moro was the fave), creperies, etc. We did get tacos at El Tizconcito in Condesa which apparently invented al pastor tacos and they were great. We did better when we researched restaurants rather than hoping to stumble onto something (except in Polanco).

If you have 3 days, I would do a Chapultepec day (see what's of interest there - castle, museums, bike tour, etc.); downtown (Zocalo, museums, Monument to Revolution, ballet folklorico); and Coyoacan or Teotihuacan. I have no clue what ages, budgets, tastes you have (if you are thinking Michelin stars I can't really help you). But that could be a starting point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I went with my 10 yo dd last fall. We had a nice time but I wish we had stayed in a hotel or in Polanco or Condesa around Parque Mexico. We are not very intrepid travelers- we live in a random small city in the midwest and Mexico City was just an easy place for us to get to, was something different, and we are both learning Spanish so decided to go. People online will tell you Polanco is too gentrified, but it would have been a good intro for us. We liked our airbnb in Roma Norte but it felt sketchy walking around - I'm sure it was safe enough (it is considered a nicer part of the city), but the architecture in CDMX is very much concrete facades, barred windows, lack of street lights, closed up shop fronts at night, wires dangling. It was fine in the daytime but felt sketchy and empty at night. We loved our airbnb, though. Like many places in Mexico it has an unassuming facade and then gorgeous interior and courtyard.

We were disappointed in the Anthropology Museum - we thought the little signs by the exhibits were boring and didn't really give us the big picture. Wish we had done a tour. There are some amazing artifacts and design there. We loved our bike tour through Chapultepec Park and down the Reforma and through beautiful Condesa/Roma neighborhoods- learned so much history, lore, had some delicious basket tacos, and just had a great time. (My dd and I were the only ones even though it was billed as a group tour)

We we were traveling on a budget, but the big ticket item we would have splurged on was a hot air balloon ride over Teotuahacan.

We got "museumed" out faster than I'd hoped - if you have more museum minded family members there are a zillion museums for every interest. I really wanted to check out the Museo de Arte Popular among others. We did enjoy climbing to the top of the Monument to the Revolution at night - if you are looking for an activity vs more typical sightseeing.

Travel was a bear - we did not have convenient metro access so did not try that. Ubers are ubiquitous and cheap but traffic is horrendous, and no one uses AC, so you just sit around in traffic with windows open breathing in smog. (Hopefully it will be a bit cooler in Nov.) I wish I had known that ahead of time - we had planned too ambitious of an itinerary and had to narrow it down to a smaller geographic radius. I also wished I prioritized being right in the center of a bustling, well lit area so we could walk more.

We liked the food. Lots of natural ingredients, cafe culture, farm to table type mexican food etc. There was also a learning curve there. We had some mediocre expensive meals and some delicious cheaper meals. My dd doesn't love spicy food or tacos but she loved all the aguas frescas, salad/bowl places, paleterias, churrerias (El Moro was the fave), creperies, etc. We did get tacos at El Tizconcito in Condesa which apparently invented al pastor tacos and they were great. We did better when we researched restaurants rather than hoping to stumble onto something (except in Polanco).

If you have 3 days, I would do a Chapultepec day (see what's of interest there - castle, museums, bike tour, etc.); downtown (Zocalo, museums, Monument to Revolution, ballet folklorico); and Coyoacan or Teotihuacan. I have no clue what ages, budgets, tastes you have (if you are thinking Michelin stars I can't really help you). But that could be a starting point.

OP. Thank you for this! Very helpful.

[Anonymous]

OP. Thanks for responses. Adults and high school to college aged kids. We all love walking Around cute neighborhoods, museums, and good food.

[Anonymous]

I was the long replier above. With those ages you will have a great time. My oldest is a teen (and adventurous eater and great walker) and I could have done a lot more cultural stuff with her. With my middle dd we ended up doing more kid-friendly things like the children’s museum, zoo, movie, etc. it was still interesting to see how those things how those more familiar things looked in a different country. But I think your ages will be perfect. If you have boys we got lots of recs for Lucha Libre but did not go