I know it’s been a while since my last post, and I honestly have no excuses. I will make a better effort of posting more frequently though! Anyways, I want to write about my trip to Mexico City and share all the experiences I had. It was only a weekend trip (about 2.5 days) with my girls, Elisa and Pankhudy, but we packed in a lot and still had a ton of fun!
We flew out from San Diego airport on Friday morning (7AM) and returned Sunday evening (8PM). It was about a $250 flight, which is a pretty good deal. Luckily, the flight was less than 3 hours.
Our Stay
We stayed at Casa Anzures, which is a very modern boutique hotel located in the safe neighborhood of Condesa. The people who worked there were super nice and helpful. Just to give an example of their hospitality, we all forgot our toothpaste and the hotel had someone go to the local store to pick some up for us!
While comfort and safety is important to me, I also like finding hotels that have beautiful decor and style. This hotel had all of it. They also have themed rooms, and we had the opportunity to stay in the “India” room. Total coincidence that two out of the three of us were Indian! (Akshay’s note: Suuuuure. “Coincidence.”)
Even though the hotel was located in a very safe area, we relied heavily on Uber to take us everywhere. Elisa does speak Spanish, so she was able to communicate with the drivers fairly easily. However, if you aren’t a fluent Spanish speaker, then I recommend knowing your cross streets. If you aren’t at a specific destination, it can get difficult to identify your driver since there is so much traffic.
Three Day Itinerary
I have organized our itinerary for each day; however, I’ve also included suggestions for things we didn’t get to do.
Day 1, Friday:
While we had an early morning flight out of San Diego, we weren’t settled into our hotel until the afternoon. And then of course, it takes time for three girls to get ready! We ended up leaving the hotel around 3 pm.
We went to a beautiful rooftop restaurant called El Balcon del Zocalo Restaurant. It has amazing views of the Mexico City Metropolitan Cathedral, great interior decor, and awesome photo opportunities! We ended up ordering dinner and drinks here. Unfortunately, a huge thunderstorm prevented us from exploring, so we ended up hanging out at the rooftop for the rest of the night.
Tika’s suggestion: Grab drinks at this restaurant, not food. The margaritas are tasty, but the food wasn’t as interesting. Then walk around the city center to see all the historical monuments and buildings. Watch the sunset at Torre Latinoamericana, a high rise that offers amazing 360 views of Mexico City.
Day 2, Saturday:
We were between going to the Teotihuacán Pyramids or Xochimilco, a borough in Mexico City. Since the pyramids are a full day adventure, we decided to stick to Xochimilco. That way we could explore other areas after. Most people go to Xochimilco to rent the trajineras (the colorful boats) that go down the water canals. This was seriously such an awesome experience! Vendors on boats approach the trajineras with food, toys, alcohol. We purchased flower crowns, corn, and Micheladas. Since it was earlier in the day, there weren’t any other people to split the trajinera with, so we ended up having the entire boat to ourselves. We paid for 2 hours, which came out to less than 40 bucks at $19/hour.
Afterwards, we headed to Roma Norte, another trendy part of Mexico City. We decided to check out the famous Mercado Roma, a market full of vendors that serve different types of food and beverages. For those who are from Anaheim or LA, it reminded me of the Anaheim Packing House or Grand Central Market. It was a pretty modern area, so there weren’t many options for more traditional Mexican food. However, Churría El Muro, the world famous churro spot, is located here, so we decided to try it out. It was so good we devoured it all!
Because the rain ruined our Friday night, we made our way back to the city center. We spent about an hour or so just walking around and exploring the historical buildings. Some of the things we saw were:
- Mexico City Metropolitan Church: This is the church we had beautiful views of from the rooftop bar. It’s just as beautiful in the inside as it is on the outside.
- Casa de los Azulejos: There’s a pretty blue tile wall that has great photo opportunities
- Palacio de Bellas Artes: Honestly, we just walked around. The building is majestic.
- Torre Latinoamericana (featured image): While there is an option to go directly to the top of the building, we decided to go to the restaurant instead. We avoided long lines and were able to enjoy the sunset while drinking a yummy cocktail!
Tika’s suggestion: If it hadn’t rained on Friday, I would have explored the city center after our rooftop experience. Then on Saturday that would have left us room to explore the famous Museo Frida Kahlo.
Day 3, Sunday:
Since our flight was later in the evening, we decided to go visit the Castillo De Chapultepec. It’s a castle located on the top of the Chapultepec Hill, so I strongly recommend you wear comfortable shoes. We paid a small entrance fee ($3-4), which wasn’t too bad. The grounds are fun to walk around and have plenty of photo opportunities. We spent almost an hour here. After, we decided to go back to Condesa (the area we were staying in) so we could be closer to our hotel. There’s an area in Condesa that has many nice restaurants and bars to hang out in. We wanted more authentic Mexican food, so we chose a really colorful restaurant that served some delicious margaritas and tasty quesadillas. I want to point out that the two times I ordered a quesadilla, they served it in a corn tortilla! It was actually pretty delicious!
I think one extra day would have allowed us to see the pyramids, which based on photos, is definitely something worth seeing. Also, my friends who are foodies really wanted to eat at Pujol, a super famous restaurant. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to eat there since reservations get booked a month in advance. If this is something you want to do, make sure to book reservations immediately. All in all, our trip was awesome!
