Mexico City

I'm going to Mexico City for work in a couple weeks. No idea what to expect or what to do in the city. I'm planning on staying in Condesa, which I understand is a pretty popular area. Other than that, I have no plans. Looking for recommendations—food, parks, museums, tours, bars, etc.

i only spent a week there for a work trip a few years ago but i did the following, all of which i'd recommend

1) frida kahlo house & museum in the coyoacan neighborhood. even if you skip the museum (which you shouldn't!) it is a very cool neighborhood, lots of good food and markets. i happened to go during a big food festival featuring regional mexican street food from all over, not sure if it's a regular thing. there were a ton of open air food markets throughout the city though so try to find some of those. you might get sick (i did) but it's worth it
2) pyramids of teotihuacan. they are about an 1 hour north of the city. there are bus tours you can do, just ask your hotel if you don't feel like looking it up beforehand. teotihuacan has some of the biggest pyramids in the world, it is a really impressive archeological site, i would certainly not miss it and it's just a day trip from the city
3) national museum of anthropology. an enormous place, you could spend a friggin week in this place. it has many of the most famous aztec, mayan, and other mesoamerican artifacts and some pretty incredible contemporary murals
4) palacio de bellas artes, which is great for a brief visit on sunday (when admission is free) to see famous mexican murals, e.g. rivera, siquieros, clemente orozco, etc.
5) zocalo, the huge central plaza of the city. there is always something interesting happening there. when i went there was a teacher strike and they were all camped out protesting under tents for weeks.

i did not go to this place but i should've: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anahuacalli_Museum

very close to the palacio de bellas artes there is a small museum that houses diego rivera's Sueño de una Tarde Dominical en la Alameda Central, definitely worth a quick visit

All good recommendations. Templo Mayor is the other really essential museum / archeological site and has the advantage of being right in the centre of the city.

Condesa has a nice atmosphere- lots of small restaurants, bars, galleries, etc - as does Roma. Staying around Reforma feels more in the mix of things but nothing in the central areas is really that far away from each other.

I found Mercado Sonora interesting - it is a good place for cheap souvenirs but also doubles as the focal point for witchcraft / esoterica supplies. It is hectic, though.

It’s a wonderful city!

I'm going to be there at the end of Dec! I want things to eat!

I ate the seminal vesicle of a bull, along with one of its nuts, there. Delicious!

I had a blast at Xochimilco. You buy a bunch of barbacoa and tortillas and nopales and beer, then hire a boat and cruise through the canals, eating and drinking and singing.

Love Mexico City, been three times now and find something new each time.

The big companies (Viator etc) will try and upsell 'tours' of the city for $$$$ but you can easily get around the city yourself on the Metro. CAVEAT EMPTOR: I got my wallet stolen the last time I was on the Metro but that could happen to you in any big city and normally personal safety rules will see you fine. I know a lot of American tourists use Uber and it seems reasonable but the Metro is $5MX a journey and I am a tight Scotsman. The Touribus looks like a good scheme but I haven't used it.

The Museum of Anthropology is great and what encouraged us to go back the first time because we rushed round one of the five rooms in half a day. There is easily a full day in the museum alone, closer to two.

Chapultepec Castle has the national museum, the French colonial palace and the former seat of government. Tremendous views from the balconies and the park below is lovely for chilling in. Never been to the zoo in it, don't know if that's your thing. The park also has a couple of smaller museums (Museo del Caracol is worth dropping into) and monuments, and a splendid Museum of Modern Art which focuses on outdoor sculpture but had a couple of great temporary exhibitions when I was there including a revolutionary/counter-culture one.

Frida Kahlo Musuem kind of underwhelmed me but there is lots of great stuff nearby - the house where Trotsky was assassinated has been turned into a museum of his life and is a must-visit (although it's an hour at most). Further up towards Eje Central there's an incredible Brutalist church (Our Lady of Hope) near the junction of Popocatepetl and Divisio del Norte. The Coyoacan market has a brilliant taco stand (el jardin del pulpo) on the south west corner, and there's a family restaurant (fonda el morral) where I had the best tongue I've eaten in Mexico. There's always something going on in Plaza Hildago and Hernan Cortes' house is worth a look in too. There's a chocolate shop on the north side of Francisco Sosa that I haven't found a peer of (can't remember the name, but it's the only one on that side of the road, white building).

Zocalo/Centro - an embarrassment of riches. Palacio Bellas Artes certainly, but the Diego Rivera Mural Museum (and you can check in on the scientology centre when you're there), the Franz Mayer museum (not missing the lovely iglesia Santa Veracruz next door), a short leg stretch to the Monument of the Revolution (a huge Albert Speer-esque dome with astonishing views from the top across the city and a construction museum in the basement), the folk-art museum on Independencia, Casa de los Azulejos is worth a look (but don't sit down in the restaurant to get a better view, it's bang average, just go in and wander; they're used to it). Museum Estanquillo on Isabel la Catolica has a fast moving exhibition schedule which is always great - best thing I saw in there was an exhibition of gay underground art and flyers, with press clippings about famous party police busts through history and Mexico's genderfluid past. Templo Mayor and the Cathedral are the biggest attractions in the Zocalo themselves and great, but the National Palace is the secret star and has some giant Rivera murals. My favourite place to eat/drink in the area is Hilario Gastrobar on Fransisco I Madero which has good food and a massive craft beer choice (haven't found anywhere better for beer in DF). You have to go inside the Joyera on the south side (left if you've come from the zocalo) and it's up some stairs. Other good places in the area are in the shopping arcade on Isabel la Catolica (called something like Downtown Mexico, centred around a boutique hotel; can't describe it better but you'll know it when you see it). The cafe in MUMEDI, the design museum, is great although the museum itself probably isn't worth bothering about. In the evening, take a trip to Plaza Garibaldi and soak up the itinerant mariachi bands. There are big touristy places at the far end, but if you just pick one of the pulque places in the main square itself there will be wandering guys that are great fun and you're more likely to have dancing drunk locals. The benefit of this is a greater variety of songs (tourists tend to get La Bamab and Cielito Lindo) and some less traditional acts. We had a group that were kind of like the Stray Cats of the mariachi scene - an unconventional selection of battered instruments and looked like they slept in their costumes.

Mercado Sonora is fascinating but if you just want to wander round a market then the main Mercado (Mercado station comes up in the centre of it) is hard to beat. Since they're both together it's no hardship to do both and all human life is there.

We only went to Xochimilco in the evening for a weird a/v show, but I can see how much fun it would be during the day. I think you have to go when it's busy though, could be really odd when it's quiet.

EAT AT PUJOL. It's cheaper than you think for a superb taster menu.

There's plenty of places that can be reached for a day out that are worth considering - obvious candidates are Teotihuacan, Basilica de Guadaloupe and maybe Taxco (an old silver mining town). Puebla is just about achievable in a day, but not really if you want to spend any significant time at Cholula (which is between them). If you're able to spend a night away, I can't speak strongly enough about Guanajuato which is about a 5 hour bus ride. Beautiful town with a museum of mummies, tremendous restaurants and bars. My favourite place in the country.

Final tip - go to the Lucha Libre at Arena Mexico. It's so much more fun than you might think it to be; the whole crowd gets behind the technicos/boos the rudos, they serve you cheap beer and snacks in your seat and there's an astonishing array of semi-official merch outside of luchadores past and present. And it's cheap - the cheapest seats are perfectly fine and $100MX (actually, I think there might even be cheaper but really?) and just go to the window and buy your own. You'll get touts try and trade you up to their tickets because you're obviously a tourist but you don't need it. Lots of busy local bars when there are matches on, our favourite is Restaurant Fritz on Dr Rio de la Loza which was opened by a German who fled to Mexico in 1947 for some unfathomable reason - it has tap beer from a Bayerisch microbrewery and a full German food menu. It's also next door to Deportes Martinez, which claims to be the place where masked luchador was born.

I could probably go on, and may well do.

aldo can we go to mexico city together

I'll go there in a heartbeat. Genuinely love it and one of the few places I could see myself living.

Going back next month! :D

Definitely going to try to get to Chapultepec castle if I have the chance.

I too am going next month!!!

I'm going in march for a week. please tell me how your trips went and if you have recommendations to add to Aldo's post up there which i will definitely be referring to. also might spend part of the time in San Miguel / Guanajuato so would love to hear about there too.

Guanajuato is a beautiful city to walk around in in general. Try the mezcal (in moderation). i did tourist-y stuff like watch the Callejonedas in medieval garb play music on the street and went to the mummy museum too

Both are great for just wandering and hanging out. San Miguel maybe less so - some great iglesias, a good revolutionary museum and a vintage farmacia but pretty much all the action is in the zocalo and one of the nights we were there the locals were taking some of their saints out on parade so lots of fireworks and gunshots mixed in with the drinking.

Been a couple of years since I've been in Guanajuato but you more or less can't go wrong. Go up to the monument to look down over the town. Mummy museum is great. In town the university is an impressive building and the theatre is sensational with an insane glass floor in the upper lobby. The Cervantes art museum is sensational with representations from a huge variety of schools and the Diego Rivera museum is kind of the counterpart to the Frida museum in DF but to my mind better, also had an exhibit on the Popul Vuh which was fascinating. The restaurant next door to that was the best fancy place in town, but there was a great place opposite the theatre. A great chocolate place there too, and the main street had a couple of decent bars and coffee places. There was a really excellent bar on a small cobbled square in the east of the town - as the main street starts to go down the hill you take a lane on the right and end up in it, it comes out on the bottom road down where the day trippers get dropped off. Again the zocalo is where it's at in the evening, loads of mariachis and all the hotels open the sides that face the square so you can drink in them. We stayed in the place where El Santo stays in the movie which was a beautiful building in itself.

We also met this li'l guy but I'm pretty sure he's not there now.

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/593/21587041953_778c89a914_t.jpg