CDMX Trip (March 2025)
17 May 2025In March 2025, we went on a week long trip to Mexico City, and in the tradition of trip diaries like Los Angeles/California, London and Paris before it here it is.
Recommendations
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Tamales Doña Emi, Jalapa sin número, esquina, Tlaxcala, Roma Sur, Worth the trip and inexpensive
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Breakfast El Inicio, Av. Álvaro Obregón 61, Roma Nte., Excellent chilaquiles
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Mi Compa Chava, Zacatecas 172, Roma Nte., Amazing seafood, lunch, make a reservation
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Lagerbar Hércules, Campeche 322, Hipódromo, Excellent beer and food
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Pollos Poncho, Av. Álvaro Obregón 118, Roma Nte., Tacos
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Tacos del valle, Av. Álvaro Obregón 130, Roma Nte., Tacos
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Panadería Rosette, Colima 179, Roma Nte., bakery, busy in the afternoon
We stayed at the Four Points Sheraton in Roma and this was a great location to start our days of walking around the city. We managed to get in 84 km over the Sunday to Friday we were there. The tracks we took each day are in different colours, which are mentioned in the titles for each day.
Day 0 (March 15)
Our plane was delayed coming into Montreal, so we ended up leaving about an hour late. Then there were tornados across the US which forced the flight to take a longer route close to the east coast to minimize turbulence and this added another hour to our journey. There was still quite a lot of turbulence. In the end, we arrive more than 2 hours later than expected, but still managed to eat a few tacos before we got to bed at 2 am.
Day 1 (March 16, black on map)
Sunday morning, we ate breakfast at El Inicio (Av. Álvaro Obregón 61, Roma Nte.) which had delicious chilaquiles, and good coffee and juices. We then spent the morning wandering around Roma and Condessa. There were many roads closed for Sunday morning biking, but we didn’t realize that’s what was going on until too late to join in.
We continued our daily tacos regime at Taquería El Califa (Av. Álvaro Obregón 174, Roma Nte.) for lunch before a nap. In the later afternoon, we had some churros at Churrería El Moro (Frontera 122, Roma Nte.) then jumped in an Uber to the Palacio de Bellas Artes to see the ballet folkórico. I highly recommend the ballet show.
Finally, we went to the Gran Hotel for dinner up on the Terraza Gran Hotel (16 de Septiembre 82, Centro Histórico de la Cdad. de México) overlooking the Plaza de la Constitución. The restaurant was nothing special but the view was great and we even were treated to moonrise of a red hued moon.
Day 2 (March 17, green on map)
Monday was a holiday and many public places were closed. We started with breakfast at Peltre (Av. Álvaro Obregón 85, Roma Nte.) and then Doris needed to get her eye checked. So we found a pharmacy with a doctor, and Fernanda and I went walking around the area near Museo Soumaya while Doris waited.
Once we were done at the pharmacy, we had good sandwiches at Ojo de agua (Av. Homero 1513, Polanco). We got to our original plan for the day which was a visit to Museo Soumaya. The art was excellent including a floor of sculpture and Rodin. The history of communications and music technology was also very neat. The only complaint would be that most of the Diego Rivera level was closed.
Afterwards, we ate an afternoon snack at a bookstore/cafe before we wandered back toward Roma, stopping at the nearby mall and finding the Bosque de Chapultepec was closed for the holiday. This led us on a slight unintended detour along some streets in San Miguel Chapultepec before wen ended up at Agrotaberna (Ámsterdam 46, Hipódromo) for a light dinner with a side of beers brewed by Cervecería Monstruo de Agua.
Day 3 (March 18, orange on map)
On Tuesday, we thought we’d do something a bit different. After breakfast at Café de Raiz (Merida 132 Bis, Roma Nte.), we walked through an area of construction trade shops and auto part shops to get to the Museo de juguete antiguo (Calle Dr Olvera 15, Doctores). This was a pretty neat place with all sorts of old mexican toys, specific toys made in Germany and Japan for the mexican market, and souvenirs from the Olympics.
We had an amazing lunch of too much seafood at Mi Compa Chava (Zacatecas 172, Roma Nte.). I would recommend this as a priority eating stop. In the afternoon, Fernanda slept in the stroller while we wandered to the really cool Biblioteca Vasconcelos (Eje 1 Nte. S/N, Buenavista). After a walk back including popsicles and a stop at a playground, we had more tacos at tacos del valle (Av. Álvaro Obregón 130, Roma Nte.) and a donut from Randy’s donuts (Av. Álvaro Obregón 85, Roma Nte.).
Day 4 (March 19, purple on map)
Wednesday we visited the Frida Kahlo museum (Londres 247, Del Carmen, Coyoacán) in Coyoacán. Be sure to reserve your tickets well in advance if you want to go. We took an Uber to Coyoacán after breakfast at Belmondo (Tabasco 109, Roma Nte.). Since we were early for our ticket time at the museum, we went through the market and then walked around Vivero Coyoacán, which has nice paths through the lines of trees.
The Frida Kahlo musem is really well done and other than Fernanda throwing up on me there, we had a nice visit. Later we had lunch at Ta’ab (C. Tres Cruces 8, Coyoacán), which was fine but nothing special. We headed back to Roma for an afternoon snack at Panadería Rosette (Colima 179, Roma Nte.). It was really busy, so we got our drinks and snacks to go and sat in a park nearby.
These snacks energized us for our walk over to Hipodromo/Parque México and eventually our dinner at lagerbar Hércules (Campeche 322, Hipódromo). This place had excellent food, a welcome beer (small glass) and a nice atmosphere.
Day 5 (March 20, pink on map)
Another musem day on Thursday. We ate breakfast at a different Ojo de Agua (Zacatecas 177, Roma Nte.) location (and it was only fine). We walked, as usual, toward the Museo de Nacional de Anthropología (Av. P.º de la Reforma s/n, Polanco), but before going in we watched the Papantla Flyers, who climb a tall pole, wind ropes and then soar as the ropes unwind until they are back on the ground in an ancient rainmaking ritual. The museum itself was quite nice with sections for the various cultures from across Mexico.
We ate delicious sandwiches at Tortas Royalty (Av. Horacio 227, Polanco) before visiting some department stores and shops in the area. It was a hot afternoon, so we stopped for horchata coffees at Coffee Cucurucho (Campos Elíseos 105, Polanco), where Fernanda fell asleep in my arms for an hour. We continued walking back to our hotel and ate more tacos at Dinner Orinoco (Av. Álvaro Obregón 100, Roma Nte.).
Day 6 (March 21, red on map)
On our last full day, we had an amazing breakfast of tamales and atole at Tamales Doña Emi (Jalapa sin número, esquina, Tlaxcala, Roma Sur). This place is definitely worth a detour.
We needed to try the metro so after rush hour was done we took the metro from Centro Medico to Hidalgo. It was packed even after rush hour was done but at ~$0.35 CAD per ride, you would expect it to be busy and well used. This ride took us near the Palacio de Bellas Artes and we walked through the shopping district before heading back to Roma for lunch at Lalo (Zacatecas 173, Roma Nte.).
In the afternoon, we stopped at LPan (Jalapa 189, Roma Nte.) to get baked snacks for our flight the next morning. Our final dinner of tacos was at Pollos Poncho (Av. Álvaro Obregón 118, Roma Nte.) and these ones were quite good.
Day 7 (March 22, no map)
We got up very early to take an Uber to the airport, which was quite fast without much traffic (or waiting for green lights). We wandered around the gates for an hour and a bit before boarding started. Our direct flight back to Montreal was uneventful and we got home using the 747 bus about an hour after we landed.
