If itâs your first time visiting Mexico City, there are a handful of neighborhoods that should be at the top of your list of places to stay.
This is an excerpt from our downloadable book, Eternal Spring: Our Guide to Mexico City, which is designed to work seamlessly on your phone, e-reader, tablet, or computer. Use it to plan your itinerary, and refer to it any time you need to when youâre in Mexico City.
đșïž Where should you stay in Mexico City?
đŽ Condesa â
âïžCondesa is a comfortable base if itâs your first time visiting Mexico City, especially if you donât speak Spanish.
âIt can feel too gentrified and Americanized.
Quieter and less chaotic than Roma Norte to its east, Condesa is full of cafés and the home of some of our favorite restaurants and bars. There is even some terrific street food if you look past the tourist zones.
Itâs a good choice for if you want a quiet base to explore the rest of a loud and chaotic city. Itâs our top pick for visitors, especially on a first trip.
Condesa is really three separate neighborhoodsâColonia Condesa, Colonia HipĂłdromo, and Colonia HipĂłdromo Condesaâbut theyâre referred to as a single place called Condesa.
đ Roma Norte â
âïžRoma Norte is full of leafy streets with gorgeous architecture.
âLike Condesa and Polanco, Roma Norte is gentrified.
To us, Roma Norte is the perfect Mexico City neighborhood. Itâs walkable, safe, and friendly, and home to some of the cityâs best restaurants, bars, cafĂ©s, and street food.
If youâre looking for a risk-free, traditional local experience, Roma Norte is it. We love it so much that we made it our home.
đïž Centro
âïžCentro is home to many of the cityâs best sights. Itâs a logical starting point if youâre visiting the city for the first time.
âCentro can be crowded and feel touristy.
Centro refers to the European-style center of Mexico City made up of the Centro HistĂłrico and Alameda Central neighborhoods, plus a bit of the surrounding area.
It extends from the ZĂłcalo (main square) in the east, past the Palacio de Bellas Artes ands the Alameda Central park in the center, and out to the Monumento a la RevoluciĂłn (Monument of the Revolution) in the west.
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The whole area is quite walkable, and you could spend days exploring its sights, restaurants, bars, and cafes.
đž Juarez and Reforma
âïžThese neighborhoods are centrally located and less gentrified than Condesa and Roma Norte.
âBusy Reforma, lined with skyscrapers, can feel overwhelming.
Youâll find Juarez, San Rafael, and Colonia CuauhtĂ©moc on either side of Paseo de la Reforma, west of Centro and north of Roma Norte.
These neighborhoods arenât as gentrified as Condesa and Roma Norte, but they are catching up, with plenty of restaurants, some of the cities top cocktail bars, and many of the cityâs biggest hotels. Itâs also home to Zona Rosa, an LGTBQ-friendly community.
This area is most interesting on Sundays: Thatâs when Reforma closes its streets to car traffic so that walkers, joggers, bicyclists, and others can enjoy its monuments and fountains from a unique perspective.
Youâll also find Mexico Cityâs best art fair at the JardĂn del Arte Sullivan on Sundays.
đž Roma Sur
âïžRoma Sur has walkable streets and great, inexpensive restaurants.
âItâs a bit further away from most of the main tourist attractions than Roma Norte and Condesa.
If Condesa and Roma Norte are too gentrified for you, take a look at the busier, grittier, and smaller neighborhood to the south, Roma Sur. Itâs light on sights, but full of incredible, authentic restaurants, bars, and street food.
Itâs also the home of our favorite park, the enormous JardĂn RamĂłn LĂłpez Velarde, our favorite farmerâs market, Mercado El 100, our local market, the authentic and diverse Mercado MedellĂn, and our favorite bar, CafĂ© Tacobar del Sur.
đïž Polanco
âïžPolanco has lots of luxury shopping and upscale restaurants.
âYouâll probably face long rides in traffic getting in and out of Polanco.
Upscale Polanco is full of expensive hotels, restaurants, and embassies, and one of Mexico Cityâs best museums, Museo Soumaya, is nearby. The neighborhood is even more Americanized and gentrified than Condesa, and is considered a sort of Beverly Hills of Mexico City.
Itâs a bit remote, however, because itâs not served by the Metro and there is a traffic choke point separating the area from the rest of the city.
Itâs worth seeing, but the long Uber rides to and from elsewhere in the city make Polanco less desirable as a base for visitors.
đș CoyoacĂĄn and San Ăngel
âïžCoyoacĂĄn and San Ăngel are both charming neighborhoods to explore.
âThese neighborhoods are quite far from most of the areas youâll want to visit.
Geographically separated from most of the areas we recommend, CoyoacĂĄn and neighboring San Ăngel are very much worth the 25- to 30-minute Uber ride to the south.
Both feature traditional markets, gorgeous parks, and wonderful restaurants, bars, cafés, and weekend art fairs.
CoyoacĂĄn is also home to one of Mexico Cityâs most popular sights, Museo Frida Kahlo, a museum dedicated to the countryâs most famous artist thatâs located in her former home, the walled Casa Azul (the Blue House).
San Ăngel is home to two of our favorite restaurants, Oxa and San Ăngel Inn. While we love these neighborhoods, but we donât recommend staying in either because theyâre so far from most of the places youâll want to see.
đ
How long should you stay in Mexico City?
You can get a good feel for what makes Mexico City so special in 5 to 7 days. So we recommend that most first-time visitors try and spend the better part of a week here if possible.
That said, if you have more time for traveling, you could easily stay for two weeks or more without running out of things to do.
And, you can see quite a bit in a short time, if thatâs all you have. Hereâs what we did with friends who tacked a weekend with us onto a trip to Acapulco:
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Roma Sur â not too far not too close. The bigger drawback than traffic for Polanco, in my humble opinion, is the price of everythingâŠ
Awesome! I went to all those places in my month there, and they are must-sees. Great post.
Since I was visiting from a country with no IKEA, I also had to spend an afternoon IKEA!