With only 3 weeks of vacation a year, I need to pick my travels carefully! Earlier this year, I went to Mexico City amid some apprehension from friends and family. Now that I’m back safe and sound (there was really nothing to worry about), I’d like to share a few of my favorite reasons to visit Mexico City!
Amazing Fine Dining
My fiancee and I like to eat out a lot! Although Vancouver has some wonderful restaurants, there’s not enough new openings to get us excited. We like to comb through the World’s Top 100 Restaurants list when we travel and to our surprise, THREE of the top 100 restaurants in the world in Mexico City!
We could not decide so we went to both Pujol AND Quintonil! If you like fine dining, Mexico City is the place to be! I’d highly recommend Pujol for a sophisticated but whimsical fine dining experience!
Truly Authentic Tacos (for Cheap)
On the other hand of the spectrum, there are countless taco shops and stands to choose from. If you are a budget traveler, you can get by eating tacos for under $20 a day! In Centro Historico, we visited 3 different taco shops with prices around 16-30 MXN ($1-$2 CAD) per taco. I can’t wait to do a full post on the various taco shops we visited. But here are a few to get you started: La Guerrerense, Tres Galones, and El Pescadito for seafood tacos. For meat tacos, try Taqueria El Greco, Taqueria Hola, Taqueria Orinoco.
Not only is the taco cheap and delicious, most of these shops have free guacamole or smashed avocados!
Hipster Coffee & Juice Bars
In general, the nicer neighbourhoods of Mexico City are just very cool. I’d definitely recommend staying in Condesa or Roma Norte if you’re into hipster cafes. We honestly walked into so many places with our jaws dropped because the design and aesthetics were just so cool. If you enjoy having a cup of coffee every morning, you’ll like Mexico City!
My favorite coffee bars were Enhorabuena and Blend Station. Enhorabuena was more of a classic minimalistic coffee bar where as Blend Station was more whimsical with a tree inside and amazing cartoon artwork. Both places had delicious tasting coffee.
Don’t miss fresh juice in Mexico City. There are two chains you can visit: Ojo de Agua and Frutos Prohibitos. It’s about $3 CAD for a huge glass of fresh tropical fruit juice!
Practice Spanish
We saw some comments about needing to speak Spanish in Mexico City but we didn’t realize how predominate it was. I guess it’s a bit arrogant of us to assume other countries around the world will speak English. If you are currently learning Spanish, going to Mexico City is a great way to practice and speak the language with locals!
For Art Lovers
If you are a fan of art museum, you will want to visit Mexico City ASAP! There are at least 10 contemporary art galleries in the touristy parts of Mexico City. Additionally, there’s the extremely popular Frida Kahlo museum about an hour’s drive south of the city. I never visit art museum but I enjoyed learning to appreciate contemporary art at Museo Jumex.
Stretch Your Dollar
For my American friends reading this, your dollar will go so far! The exchange rate is very favorable for Canadians and Americans. Mexico City is not so Americanized like Los Cabos or Cancun. The pricing still needs to be reasonable for locals because there are 22 million people who live in Mexico City! If you want to stretch your dollar, go visit Mexico City where prices are still denominated in MXN!
An example above is a trendy cocktail bar. The taxes are already included so the drinks come out to be about $11 CAD. In general, I find the nicer restaurants to be about 30% cheaper than in Canada. But if you want to eat street food, it can be a lot cheaper! Admission to museums and attractions are also very cheap by North American standards!
Museums for History Buffs
Not only are there countless art museums, the Museum of Anthropology is one of the most renowned. It is a massive venue with lots of artefacts from Mexican history. If you enjoy history, you can easily spend a day here. You can also visit Castillo de Chaputelpec which is the only castle in Americas. These are located in the same area so you can
Get Inspired by Modern Designs
Lastly, if you like architecture or interior design, you need to visit Mexico City! You can draw inspirations from restaurants, hotels, museums and even public installations. Restaurants are very well themed and the ambience, decor, and menu just mesh together to transport you to a different setting.
There are many more reasons to visit Mexico City so if you have any to add, please leave a comment down below!