👁️Mexico City: Top things to see and do in Condesa
Mexico City's Condesa neighborhood, with its parks, galleries, boutiques, and restaurants, is a top place to explore—pretty, quiet, and welcoming for travelers.
With its green parks, pedestrian-only walkways, restaurants, bars, cafés, and shops, Condesa is a popular place for visitors to base their stay in Mexico City. Indeed, it’s our top choice for most: Condesa is pretty, quiet, and gentrified, and English is quite common.
We’ve been in Condesa at all times of day and night and have always felt safe there. As always, common sense is important. But Condesa’s street and parks are usually full of people walking, browsing, relaxing, or heading out for a quick meal or drink.
Our advice is to find a boutique hotel or vacation rental here and explore the leafy streets in the mornings and evenings, before or after visiting the city’s major attractions.
Like neighboring Roma Norte, Condesa doesn’t have a lot of major sights. But it’s a great place to wander and explore. Along many of the streets, you can admire the Art Nouveau and Art Deco architecture. You can explore art galleries featuring work from Mexico City’s up-and-coming and established artists. You can shop in vintage stores or upscale boutiques. And you can rest and refuel with a coffee, cocktail, taco, or meal.
This is an excerpt from our upcoming book, Eternal Spring: Our Guide to Mexico City.
🚶 Avenida Amsterdam ⭐️
This elliptical road has a central, tree-lined pedestrian path you can walk along as you admire the Art Deco buildings, homes, restaurants, and shops that line it.
The loop follows the path of a former horse-racing track for 1.2 miles. You can complete it in about 20 minutes if you stick to walking, but you’ll probably want to take your time and explore along the way.
On the northeast side of the avenue, you can walk a block inward to the Plaza Popocatépetl, named for the volcano outside the city. There you’ll find a nearly 100-year old Art Deco fountain. It could use a bit of maintenance, but it’s still worth taking a look.
To the south, the avenue passes through two more small plazas, Plaza Iztaccihuatl and Plaza Citlaltépetl, similar in style and upkeep to Plaza Popocatépetl.
For most of Avenida Amsterdam, heading inward just one block will take you to 🌳Parque Mexico. It’s two blocks in from the northernmost parts.
🛍️ La Naval Insurgentes 📲
If you need to pick up some wine or spirits, La Naval is the place to go. They have a great selection of Mexican wines as well as other wines from around the world.
They also have lots of liquors, from everyday mixers to expensive locked-behind-glass whiskeys and more that cost thousands or hundreds of thousands of pesos.
La Naval also offers a high-end grocery store with an assortment of cheeses, cured meats, olives, bakery items, and other options. It’s a great place to visit if you want to put together a picnic, snack, or meal.
If you want cold wine, check the cases far to the right, along the back wall. They’re about as far from the main wine section as you could get.
La Naval also has a good restaurant, La Quilla Insurgentes with Spanish offerings and, as expected, a great wine selection.
🌳 Parque España
You’ll find Parque España to the northwest of 🚶Avenida Amsterdam, connected to it by Avendia Sonora and Avenida Parras. This small park opened in 1921, when it was originally the entrance to the Hipodromo de la Condesa racetrack.
There, you’ll find monuments, exercise equipment, a children’s play area that was added during a 2008 park remodel, a nice fountain, a dog run, and plenty of paths to walk in the shade.
The park’s most interesting feature, perhaps, is Audiorama Parque España, a garden within the park where you can relax and escape from the noise of the surrounding city.
🌳 Parque México
Parque México is the biggest park in Condesa and arguably its best sight. Named after Avenida México, an elliptical roadway that runs along most of its perimeter, this 9-acre park opened in 1927 and renovations over the years have kept it up to date. There’s a lot to see.
The Foro Lindbergh is a large Art Deco plaza with a sculpture and fountain that was restored in 2023. You’ll find children running, playing, and learning to bike there; skateboarders mastering tricks; and, off to one side people dancing or learning their dance steps.
On this side of the park, be sure to check out the pretty Lago de los Patos (duck lake), and follow the path closest to it until you reach Audiorama Parque México, where you can relax, read a book from the free library, enjoy nature, and, sometimes, even listen to a concert.
Dogs are welcome throughout Mexico City’s parks, but there’s a nice dog run on the other side of Parque México, across Avenida Michoacan.
Mexico City’s dogs are almost always remarkably well-behaved. Don’t be surprised if you see a line of six, eight, or more dogs sitting side by side, their leashes on the ground, napping or waiting patiently for their trainer or walker to tell them what to do next.
Try to find two somewhat hidden areas on this side of the park. The Fuente El Reloj is a fountain with a set of clocks that all display different times. And Escultura Albert Einstein, an iconic memorial to the famous physicist, on his side of the park as well.
We’d love to get your feedback as we build out our guidebook. Please ❤️ if you like what you see here or 💬 with any thoughts or suggestions.