March was the perfect time to visit Mexico City. The purple flowers of the Jacaranda tree were in bloom and the sunny days ranged from 14C to 28C. With an elevation of 2500m, there is no humidity with the warm temperatures. The cool mornings and warm afternoons made it very comfortable to tour the city. Mexico City is full of rich history, cuisine, and a blend of cultures. We stayed in the Centro Histórico area and walked to most attractions.
Getting There
We chose to take the metro into town from the airport (MEX). We arrived on a Tuesday afternoon and took the train. The Metro card machines are easy to use but require pesos in small denominations. It took us 50 minutes on two trains to get to our hotel. The total cost for both of us was 10 pesos. Our hotel was an easy 4-minute walk from the Hidalgo station. We opted for an Uber transport for our early, 4:30 am departure. It was a safer option for our return to the airport. It cost $15CDN and took 20 minutes.
Mexico City has 12 million residents, with 25 million in the metropolitan area. Although it is a huge city, there are many public transit options, and traffic and people moved smoothly.
Accommodation
We booked our flight and hotel as a package with Expedia. We stayed at the Hotel Fontan Reforma. It was in an ideal location, with friendly staff and an excellent rooftop bar to enjoy the sunsets. The room was simply furnished and spacious with large windows. We stayed 6 nights. For some unknown reason, our room was not cleaned on the last two days. We also discovered that early morning showers were cooler than those taken after 7 am. Although the hotel was in a great location and was reasonably priced, we would probably select a different hotel if booking again.
Mexico City Attractions
First Day: Walking Tour with GuruWalk
Frena, was our excellent tour guide in the historical part of Mexico City. We learned about the history and politics of the city through her stories. We used GuruWalk to book and were not disappointed! Our 3-hour tour began at the Plaza de la Constitución (Zocalo to the locals). This is where the Mexico City Metropolitan Cathedral and the Palacio Nacional (The President’s Home and Place of Government ) were built on top of the Aztec Temple Mayor. We observed an Ash Wednesday mass while visiting the cathedral. The cathedral is slowly sinking into the ground. Repairs were made to make sure the building sinks evenly!
The president lives in the palace and her balcony overlooks the square. There are political protests and demonstrations most days. There were three different protests in our 6-day visit! It was interesting to see that today’s government building had been built directly over the Aztec Temple Mayor. Frena took us down many streets and explained the neighbourhoods. She also helped us learn about when the various parts of the city were created.
In the early 1900s, Porfirio Diaz, the dictator, was greatly influenced by Italian and French designs. The Post Office and the Fine Arts building and theatre are named Palaces because they are! They were built by Italian architects and used Italian marble. They called this architectural style, Porfirato, but if it were in France, it would be called Neo-Classical. When the dictator was overthrown in 1911, the half-built Palacio de Bellas Artes was completed using Mexican artists and muralists for the interior. We learned a lot about the impressive landmarks and some political history. It was a great way to orient ourselves on our first day.
We have enjoyed using GuruWalk to book in several places. More details about booking can be found here: https://lifeafter50travel.net/2025/01/09/5-great-reasons-we-book-walking-tours-with-guruwalk-viator/
We enjoy visiting a capital city because there is always lots to see and do. Extra care was taken to make the city pretty, There were many museums and restaurants to keep us busy. Mexico City has an abundance of parks and green spaces. The large trees helped keep the streets cool on hot sunny days. There were large boulevards and several people enjoying the beautiful weather.
Day Trip to Teotihuacan
We booked a Viator tour to visit the impressive Aztec ruins of Teotihuacan. Our tour was excellent. There were 20 of us and we had an easy drive from CDMX (Central Mexico City). Teotihuacan is an ancient city with many temples built a few thousand years ago. The 3-hour tour required walking in the full sun and traversing up and over many steps. Our first 39 steps up a temple were most challenging when attempting the steep descent!
Favio, our tour guide studied anthropology and was very enthusiastic. He explained how many of our theories about pre-Hispanic people were being overturned as new 3D scanning technologies enabled more discoveries. He was excited to share that the Aztec culture was complex and new discoveries are made each year. We were impressed with the scale of the city! We walked only 10% of it. It was a diverse multicultural city with many neighbourhoods. Each temple was more impressive than the first. We were glad to learn about the Aztec culture from a knowledgeable guide!
Museums
Mexico City has an abundance of Museums and we had time to visit a few of them during our short visit.
The Museum of Anthropology
The day after our Teotihuacan visit, we decided to take public transit to the Museum of Anthropology. Many artifacts from Teotihuacan were brought to this Museum for preservation. It was a big, beautiful complex with multiple galleries around a central outdoor courtyard. Many pre-Hispanic cultural artifacts from many groups of people are housed here. We used Google Translate a few times to read the descriptions. Although it was busy, there was enough room for all. Mexican nationals can visit for free on Sundays. We were happy to pay 100 pesos each.
Palacio de Bellas Artes
One of the most notable museums is the Palacio de Bellas Artes. This stunning building is not only an architectural marvel but also houses a collection of murals by famous Mexican artists, including Diego Rivera. We visited twice. Once to see the murals and the display of architectural photography. Our second visit was to take in a concert in the principal theatre. We bought a pair of tickets ($35CDN) to the National Orchestra’s Sunday afternoon performance. We bought tickets directly from the box office but they can also be purchased via Ticketmaster. The theatre is beautifully decorated and the incredible stained glass curtain was worth the entrance fee. The concert was a great way to spend our last afternoon in Mexico City.
Public Library
As a former teacher-librarian, I am always interested in visiting libraries. The Biblioteca Vasconcelos was a 30-minute walk from our hotel on the morning of the large International Women’s Day March. It was a very busy place with classrooms, workshop spaces and of course many books! The contemporary building and its unique shelving matrix was built in 2006. Its architectural style is a dramatic change to the buildings in the historic areas of the city.
Our Favourite Dining Options in Mexico City
Mexico City has dining choices for all tastes and budgets. We did not choose to eat at the stand-up street food places although they smelled delicious! They are also inexpensive however, we wanted to avoid possible gastrointestinal issues. Instead, we opted for Mexican-style sit-down restaurants. All of the restaurants we visited accepted credit cards with modern wireless machines and we tipped about 10% for our meals. We gathered a list of recommended eateries from TripAdvisor and the Facebook page- Daily Drop Lounge. We tried all of them. Here are our favourites:
Cafe Tacuba
We ate lunch here twice at the iconic Café de Tacuba. It is centrally located and has been serving traditional Mexican dishes since 1912. The food was made with local ingredients and the ambiance and service were excellent. We really enjoyed our dessert on my birthday!
El Cardenal
We ate here three times in 6 days! Our first meal upon arrival was savoury and we enjoyed our breakfast at the Almeda location close to our hotel. The hot chocolate caliente and the fresh pastry were sweet and satisfying. I tried the famous conchas- a conch shell-shaped sweet bread. I also had my favourite dinner at El Cardenal – a mole sauce. The rich chocolate and spiced sauce over a cheese-stuffed chicken breast was gone before I could take a photo.
Cafe La Habana
Another favourite spot recommended was a 10-minute walk from our hotel. Cafe Habana is said to be where Fidel Castro and journalists used to hang out. I’m pretty sure the espresso machine was the original device from the restaurant’s opening. We sampled the Mexican breakfast both times even though they were open all day. The fresh juice, coffee and pastry were included in the meal.
Pizzorama
This restaurant was our only non-Mexican choice during the week. We enjoyed our early dinner at this rooftop restaurant. It is a great place to watch the sunset over the Monumento A la Revolucion. The Italian-inspired pizza and delicious margaritas were a great way to end a day of many steps and sightseeing. It was a busy place with a younger crowd.
Safety
Is Mexico City safe? The short answer is No. We did not run into any issues however, the heavy police presence indicated a need to take our safety seriously.
Here are the things we did to be proactive:
- left all jewellery at home
- used the hotel room safe
- were aware of those around us when in crowds and limited the use of our phone
- booked a hotel with a rooftop bar to enjoy at night so we would not have to go outside after dark
- only used public transit during the day and in popular areas.
- attended movies next door to our hotel instead of going out for late dinners.
One of the things we did not anticipate was the assembly of large crowds. International Women’s Day brings
180,000 people into the city to march along the Reforma to the Presidential Palace. The next day there was a march about the impending tariffs on the country. We did our best to book activities around the protesters and for the most part, we saw no violence. Many of the protesters were families. Police presence was everywhere; traffic, transit, auxiliary and military. Traffic and people moved smoothly throughout the city. Two days before the protests barricades were erected and many businesses boarded up windows. This made us a little anxious about being in the mix of things. Luckily it all worked out. We heard gunshots across the street from our hotel one evening and saw the police investigation afterwards. We were vigilant and minimized our risk in this metropolis.
Would we visit again?
Overall we had a good impression of Mexico City. It was a friendly, modern city. We had offers of assistance when we appeared lost. We received excellent service at restaurants even though we lacked Spanish-speaking skills. This city was welcoming to visitors. Would we go back? Probably not, as I feel like we got a good sense of the city and there are many more capital cities to visit. We would certainly consider another part of Mexico for another warm-weather vacation.
