Layovers are usually just a pain, and there is currently no non-stop flight to/from Santiago from SFO but we took advantage of that by extending our layover to spend a few days in Mexico City on our way back.
We stayed in Mexico City for about 4 days, taking time to relax and walk around and try to take advantage of everything that the City has to offer. Mexico City is such a large metropolitan area with so many excellent restaurants and food vendors and markets and museums and parks and landmarks; we barely scratched the surface.
Where to stay: From all of my research, I narrowed the location down to La Condesa or Roma areas. These are the casual trendy neighborhoods – easy to walk around, nice parks and good restaurants. There were a lot of Airbnb options and I’m glad that we chose one in the La Condesa area right next to the park. Alternatively, Polanco was the next choice – this is probably the nicest neighborhood for families or people who are used to luxury travel with nice hotels, shopping and restaurants in a more condensed area.
How to get around: We got a taxi from the airport to our Airbnb – you go to a kiosk at the airport and give them the address you are going to, and they process and calculate a prepaid rate for you. Once we got to our place, we got a SIM card and were able to use Uber everywhere else. Sometimes maps apps were a little confused at where landmarks were, but for the most part, we could figure it out. The subway is cheap and has stops at most places but I’ve heard that it gets crowded and is a common pickpocket location. There are also bike rentals and electric scooters; biking is common, but the only people I saw riding the scooters were American tourists.
My itinerary:
The first day, we landed in Mexico City after a red-eye flight, so a lazy morning was necessary. We walked around the neighborhood and got brunch; then walked out to the Chapultepec Park, went to el Castillo de Chapultepec which is the site of the National History Museum, and the Anthropology Museum. In the evening, we had tacos at El Tizoncito in La Condesa.
The next day, we went downtown – breakfast at El Cardenal, walking to el Zocolo, Museo de Templo Mayor, then walking down Avenido Cinco de Mayo to the Palacio de Bellas Arte. We stopped at Tacos Don Juan for a quick taco or two before resting at our Airbnb. In the evening, we had reservations at 9:45pm at Pujol for dinner.
We took one day to go to Teotichuacan which is about an hour outside of Mexico City. We got picked up by our tour guide at about 7:30am and made our way to the park. Once we got there we went right in and started to walk around the park. We took an Airbnb tour with a very high review rating; however, I’m not sure that I’d recommend it – we probably got more information than if we’d gone on our own, but the tour guide talked so slowly and wasn’t able to talk and walk very well so while I thought this day would be fun climbing and walking around, I actually got the least exercise out of any of the other days here. For lunch, we went to La Gruta, a restaurant inside of a cave. It was mostly a tourist attraction, but it was fun and I imagine a good stop on a hot day because the cave is naturally cooling. And in the afternoon, we did a couple of educational/touristy/shopping stops that were not bad. It was a pretty full day so we just walked around the neighborhood and grabbed a quick bite after and before just relaxing at our Airbnb.
And the last full day, we had brunch at Lalo! followed by a Churro at Churreria El Moro as we walked around the parks and streets in the Roma/La Condesa area. In the afternoon, we went to Dolores Carcamo Museum to see some Diego Rivera murals and wandered through the Chapultepec Park before heading to the Polanco area to walk around and make our reservations at Quintonil.
The trip was pretty packed and the only thing I would have changed was that I wanted to try more foods… we will just have to go back!
A few of my favorites:
Bosque de Chapultepec – the park was just a relaxing place to walk around. It felt really safe and quiet and beautiful in the middle of the city.
Museo de Templo Mayor – it was fun to be in the middle of an archeological site right in the middle of the City and the museum was really well done – I learned a lot and the space integrated at a site where history took place and was still being discovered was fascinating.
Pujol – our meal was excellent, memorable, and full of so many unexpected surprises.
