Mexico City Travel Guide (Unanchor) - Everything to see or do in Mexico City - 7-Day Itinerary

You can learn more about the city and make the most of your trip here. In this itinerary, I will cover some basic questions that everyone has before coming to Mexico City, such as security, how to move get out and into the airport , specific maps and pictures of most of the places, what to eat and of course what to see. Here are a few things you will see in the city: Downtown, covering all the main downtown buildings and monuments, also includes some special markets such as the exotic food market where you may find lion, bear and other exotic animal meats A special place where you can have one of the best views of the city for free The biggest handcraft market in the city The only witchcraft market in the city, where you can find anything you need to attract love, fortune and money at least that is what the labels on the products say The famous Mariachi Square, where you can dance and enjoy Mexican music while drinking some tequila shots You will go to a typical Mexican cantina where you will be able to try the drink of the gods, the sacred Aztec drink, El Pulque Want to see real Mexican Folklore?

I will tell you exactly how to get there, buy tickets and enjoy the show.

Lots of extra activities in case you have extra free time If you make the whole 7 days, you will see and know more things in Mexico City than most of the Mexicans who live here. I know because I have done every single thing listed on this itinerary and most of my friends and people who have lived their whole life here in Mexico City haven't done even the half of this itinerary! At the end of the itinerary, I put my personal email address in case you need more information or have any doubt.

So, what are you waiting for? Press the buy button now. Kindle Edition , 98 pages. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. Lists with This Book. This book is not yet featured on Listopia. May 16, Ron Lee rated it really liked it. Personal and local This is not a polished, big publisher guide, but like having a conversation with a neighbor who has been to Mexico City, and loves it. Jerome Thomere rated it it was ok Jun 15, Jake Sanderson rated it really liked it Aug 08, JeanE Marinoff rated it liked it Feb 14, This location would then be appropriated as federal land, with the federal government acting as the local authority.

The choice was official on November 18, , and Congress delineated a surface area of two leagues square 8, acres centered on the Zocalo. This area was then separated from the State of Mexico , forcing that state's government to move from the Palace of the Inquisition now Museum of Mexican Medicine in the city to Texcoco. The Mexican—American War had just been fought. By that time, the total number of municipalities within Mexico City was twenty-two. While Mexico City was ruled by the federal government through an appointed governor, the municipalities within it were autonomous, and this duality of powers created tension between the municipalities and the federal government for more than a century.

Eventually, in December , the federal government decided to abolish all the municipalities of the Federal District. In place of the municipalities, the Federal District was divided into one "Central Department" and 13 delegaciones boroughs administered directly by the government of the Federal District. In , the General Anaya borough was merged to the Central Department, which was then renamed "Mexico City" thus reviving the name, but not the autonomous municipality. From to , the Federal District comprised twelve delegaciones and Mexico City.

In , Mexico City was split into four different delegaciones: Since then, the whole Federal District, whose delegaciones had by then almost formed a single urban area, began to be considered de facto a synonym of Mexico City. The lack of a de jure stipulation left a legal vacuum that led to a number of sterile discussions about whether one concept had engulfed the other or if the latter had ceased to exist altogether. In , the situation was solved by an amendment to the 44th article of the Constitution of Mexico ; Mexico City and the Federal District were stated to be the same entity.

The amendment was later introduced into the second article of the Statute of Government of the Federal District. Mexico City, being the seat of the powers of the Union, belongs not to any particular state but to all of them.

The Best Places to Travel in Mexico and Central & South America in February | Travel + Leisure

Therefore, the president, representing the federation, used to designate the head of government of the Federal District today the head of the government of Mexico City , sometimes called outside Mexico as the "Mayor" of Mexico City. In response to the demands, Mexico City received a greater degree of autonomy, with the elaboration the first Statute of Government Estatuto de Gobierno and the creation of an Assembly of Representatives.

He resigned in to run in the presidential elections and designated Rosario Robles to succeed him, who became the first woman, elected or otherwise, to govern Mexico City. In , Marcelo Ebrard was elected to serve until The city does not have a constitution, unlike the states of the Union, but it has a Statute of Government. As part of the recent changes in autonomy, the budget is administered locally; it is proposed by the head of government and approved by the Legislative Assembly.

Nonetheless, it is the Congress of the Union that sets the ceiling to internal and external public debt issued by the city government. According to the 44th article of the Mexican Constitution, if the powers of the Union move to another city, Mexico City would become a new state, the "State of the Valley of Mexico", with the new limits set by the Congress of the Union.

In , elections were held for the post of head of government and the representatives of the Legislative Assembly. Heads of government are elected for a six-year period without the possibility of re-election. Traditionally, the position has been considered as the second most important executive office in the country. The Legislative Assembly of Mexico City is formed, as it is the case for state legislatures in Mexico, by both single-seat and proportional seats, making it a system of parallel voting.

Mexico City is divided into 40 electoral constituencies of similar population which elect one representative by the plurality voting system , locally called "uninominal deputies".

Mexico City, as a whole, is a single constituency for the parallel election of 26 representatives, elected by proportional representation , with open-party lists, locally called "plurinominal deputies". Even though proportionality is supposed to prevent a party from being overrepresented, several restrictions apply in the assignation of the seats. In the elections, the PRD got the absolute majority in the direct uninominal elections, securing 34 of the 40 FPP seats. As such, the PRD was not assigned any plurinominal seat to comply with the law that prevents over-representation.

The overall composition of the Legislative Assembly is:. The politics pursued by the administrations of heads of government in Mexico City since the second half of the 20th century have usually been more liberal than those of the rest of the country, whether with the support of the federal government, as was the case with the approval of several comprehensive environmental laws in the s, or by laws that were since approved by the Legislative Assembly.

The Legislative Assembly expanded provisions on abortions, becoming the first federal entity to expand abortion in Mexico beyond cases of rape and economic reasons, to permit it at the choice of the mother before the 12th week of pregnancy. For administrative purposes, the Federal District is divided into 16 "delegaciones", or boroughs. While they are not fully equivalent to municipalities, the boroughs have gained significant autonomy, and since , their heads of government have been elected directly by plurality they had been appointed by the head of government of the Federal District.

Since Mexico City is organized entirely as a Federal District, most of the city services are provided or organized by the Government of the Federal District, not by the boroughs themselves; in the constituent states , such services would be provided by the municipalities. The boroughs of Mexico City with their populations are: The boroughs are composed by hundreds of colonias or neighborhoods , which have no jurisdictional autonomy or representation.

Other well-known central neighborhoods include Condesa , known for its Art Deco architecture and its restaurant scene; Colonia Roma , a beaux arts neighborhood and artistic and culinary hot-spot, the Zona Rosa , formerly the center of nightlife and restaurants, now reborn as the center of the LGBT and Korean-Mexican communities; and Tepito and La Lagunilla , known for their local working-class foklore and large flea markets.

Nevertheless, some areas of lower-income colonias are right next to rich neighborhoods, particularly in the case of Santa Fe. Urban sprawl continues further east for many miles into the State of Mexico, including Ciudad Nezahualcoyotl , now increasingly middle-class, but once full of informal settlements. Such slums are still found on the eastern edges of the metropolitan area in the Chalco area. Madero have important industrial centers and neighborhoods that range from established middle-class colonias such as Claveria and Lindavista to huge low-income housing areas that share hillsides with adjacent municipalities in the State of Mexico.

In recent years, much of northern Mexico City's industry has moved to nearby municipalities in the State of Mexico. Mexico City's HDI for the report was of 0. Greater Mexico City is the largest metropolitan area in Mexico and the area with the highest population density. As of [update] , 21,, people live in this urban agglomeration, of which 8,, live in Mexico City proper.

The above municipalities are located in the state of Mexico but are part of the Greater Mexico City area. Greater Mexico City was the fastest growing metropolitan area in the country until the late s. Since then, and through a policy of decentralization in order to reduce the environmental pollutants of the growing conurbation, the annual rate of growth of the agglomeration has decreased, and it is lower than that of the other four largest metropolitan areas namely Greater Guadalajara , Greater Monterrey , Greater Puebla and Greater Toluca even though it is still positive.

The net migration rate of Mexico City proper from to was negative, [84] which implies that residents are moving to the suburbs of the metropolitan area, or to other states of Mexico. In addition, some inner suburbs are losing population to outer suburbs, indicating the continuing expansion of Greater Mexico City. The historic district is also roamed by tourist police, aiming to orient and serve tourists. These horse-mounted agents dress in traditional uniforms.

Between and an average of crimes were reported each day in Mexico City; however, the actual crime rate is thought to be much higher "since most people are reluctant to report crime". Some of the policies enacted included the installation of 11, security cameras around the city and a very large expansion of the police force. Mexico City has one of the world's highest police officer-to-resident ratios, with one uniformed officer per citizens. The World Bank has sponsored a project to curb air pollution through public transport improvements and the Mexican government has started shutting down polluting factories.

They have phased out diesel buses and mandated new emission controls on new cars; since all new cars must be fitted with a catalytic converter , which reduces the emissions released. Trucks must use only liquefied petroleum gas LPG. Also construction of an underground rail system was begun in in order to help curb air pollution problems and alleviate traffic congestion. Fees are kept low to encourage use of the system and during rush hours the crush is so great, that authorities have reserved a special carriage specifically for women.

Due to these initiatives and others, the air quality in Mexico City has begun to improve, with the air becoming cleaner since , when the air quality was declared to be a public health risk for days of the year. Mexico City is one of the most important economic hubs in Latin America.

The city proper produces Due to the limited non-urbanized space at the south—most of which is protected through environmental laws—the contribution of Mexico City in agriculture is the smallest of all federal entities in the country. The high spending power of Mexico City inhabitants makes the city attractive for companies offering prestige and luxury goods. The economic reforms of President Carlos Salinas de Gortari had a tremendous effect on the city, as a number of businesses, including banks and airlines, were privatized. This led to decentralization [91] and a shift in Mexico City's economic base, from manufacturing to services, as most factories moved away to either the State of Mexico , or more commonly to the northern border.

By contrast, corporate office buildings set their base in the city. Historically, and since Pre-Columbian times, the Valley of Anahuac has been one of the most densely populated areas in Mexico. According to the census, Up to the s, the Federal District was the most populous federal entity in Mexico, but since then its population has remained stable at around 8. The growth of the city has extended beyond the limits of the Federal District to 59 municipalities of the State of Mexico and 1 in the state of Hidalgo.

Nonetheless, the annual rate of growth of the Metropolitan Area of Mexico City is much lower than that of other large urban agglomerations in Mexico, [83] a phenomenon most likely attributable to the environmental policy of decentralization. The net migration rate of Mexico City from to was negative. Nahuatl , Otomi , Mixtec , Zapotec and Mazahua are the indigenous languages with the greatest number of speakers in Mexico City. On the other hand, Mexico City is also home to large communities of expatriates and immigrants, most notably from the rest of North America U. While no official figures have been reported, population estimates of each of these communities are quite significant.

Mexico City is home to the largest population of U. Americans living outside the United States. Current estimates are as high as , U. Americans living in Mexico City, while in the U. There are also growing [ citation needed ] numbers of irreligious people, whether agnostic or atheist.

Mexico City is a destination for many foreign tourists. Wikipedia's sister project Wikivoyage has useful information on tourism in Mexico City. The Templo Mayor was discovered in while workers were digging to place underground electric cables. This avenue was designed over the Americas' oldest known major roadway in the 19th century to connect the National Palace seat of government with the Castle of Chapultepec , the imperial residence. Today, this avenue is an important financial district in which the Mexican Stock Exchange and several corporate headquarters are located.

Another important avenue is the Avenida de los Insurgentes , which extends Chapultepec Park houses the Chapultepec Castle , now a museum on a hill that overlooks the park and its numerous museums, monuments and the national zoo and the National Museum of Anthropology which houses the Aztec Calendar Stone. There is a double-decker bus , known as the "Turibus", that circles most of these sites, and has timed audio describing the sites in multiple languages as they are passed.

In addition, the city has about museums—the world's greatest single metropolitan concentration [] —over art galleries , and some 30 concert halls , all of which maintain a constant cultural activity during the whole year. It has either the third or fourth-highest number of theatres in the world after New York, London and perhaps Toronto.

Having been capital of a vast pre-Hispanic empire, and also the capital of richest viceroyalty within the Spanish Empire ruling over a vast territory in the Americas and Spanish West Indies , and, finally, the capital of the United Mexican States, Mexico City has a rich history of artistic expression. Since the mesoamerican pre-Classical period the inhabitants of the settlements around Lake Texcoco produced many works of art and complex craftsmanship, some of which are today displayed at the world-renowned National Museum of Anthropology and the Templo Mayor museum. While many pieces of pottery and stone-engraving have survived, the great majority of the Amerindian iconography was destroyed during the Conquest of Mexico.

Much of the early colonial art stemmed from the codices Aztec illustrated books , aiming to recover and preserve some Aztec and other Amerindian iconography and history. From then, artistic expressions in Mexico were mostly religious in theme. The Metropolitan Cathedral still displays works by Juan de Rojas , Juan Correa and an oil painting whose authorship has been attributed to Murillo. Many of the works produced by the students and faculty of that time are now displayed in the Museo Nacional de San Carlos National Museum of San Carlos.

Popular arts in the form of cartoons and illustrations flourished, e. After the Mexican Revolution , an avant-garde artistic movement originated in Mexico City: Frida Kahlo , wife of Rivera, with a strong nationalist expression, was also one of the most renowned of Mexican painters. Her house has become a museum that displays many of her works.

The Best Places to Travel in Mexico and Central & South America in February

The former home of Rivera muse Dolores Olmedo houses the namesake museum. The facility is in Xochimilco borough in southern Mexico City and includes several buildings surrounded by sprawling manicured lawns. It houses a large collection of Rivera and Kahlo paintings and drawings, as well as living Xoloizcuintles Mexican Hairless Dog. It also regularly hosts small but important temporary exhibits of classical and modern art e. Venetian Masters and Contemporary New York artists. Other painters came from abroad, such as Catalan painter Remedios Varo and other Spanish and Jewish exiles.

It was in the second half of the 20th century that the artistic movement began to drift apart from the Revolutionary theme. Mexico City has numerous museums dedicated to art, including Mexican colonial, modern and contemporary art , and international art.

The Museo Tamayo was opened in the mids to house the collection of international contemporary art donated by famed Mexican born in the state of Oaxaca painter Rufino Tamayo. The collection includes pieces by Picasso, Klee, Kandinsky, Warhol and many others, though most of the collection is stored while visiting exhibits are shown. The Museo de Arte Moderno Museum of Modern Art is a repository of Mexican artists from the 20th century, including Rivera, Orozco, Siqueiros, Kahlo, Gerzso , Carrington, Tamayo, among others, and also regularly hosts temporary exhibits of international modern art.

The Museo Soumaya , named after the wife of Mexican magnate Carlos Slim , has the largest private collection of original Rodin sculptures outside Paris. The museum inaugurated a new futuristic-design facility in just north of Polanco, while maintaining a smaller facility in Plaza de Loreto in southern Mexico City. It is said to have the largest private contemporary art collection in Latin America and hosts pieces from its permanent collection as well as traveling exhibits by leading contemporary artists. The Museo de San Ildefonso, housed in the Antiguo Colegio de San Ildefonso in Mexico City's historic downtown district is a 17th-century colonnaded palace housing an art museum that regularly hosts world-class exhibits of Mexican and international art.

It houses a large collection of pieces by all major Mexican artists of the last years and also hosts visiting exhibits. Jack Kerouac , the noted American author, spent extended periods of time in the city, and wrote his masterpiece volume of poetry Mexico City Blues here. Another American author, William S. Burroughs , also lived in the Colonia Roma neighborhood of the city for some time. It was here that he accidentally shot his wife.

In addition to this, entrance to most museums are free on Sunday.

Mexico City Unanchor Travel Guide - Everything to see or do in Mexico City - 7-Day Itinerary

In some cases a modest fee may be charged. Another major addition to the city's museum scene is the Museum of Remembrance and Tolerance Museo de la Memoria y Tolerancia , inaugurated in early The brainchild of two young Mexican women as a Holocaust museum, the idea morphed into a unique museum dedicated to showcasing all major historical events of discrimination and genocide. Permanent exhibits include those on the Holocaust and other large-scale atrocities. It also houses temporary exhibits; one on Tibet was inaugurated by the Dalai Lama in September Mexico City is home to a number of orchestras offering season programs.

The city is also a leading center of popular culture and music. There are a multitude of venues hosting Spanish and foreign-language performers. These include the 10,seat National Auditorium that regularly schedules the Spanish and English-language pop and rock artists, as well as many of the world's leading performing arts ensembles, the auditorium also broadcasts grand opera performances from New York's Metropolitan Opera on giant, high definition screens. In National Auditorium was selected world's best venue by multiple genre media. Other popular sites for pop-artist performances include the 3,seat Teatro Metropolitan , the 15,seat Palacio de los Deportes , and the larger 50,seat Foro Sol Stadium, where popular international artists perform on a regular basis.

There are numerous venues for smaller musical ensembles and solo performers. Mexico City has a number of IMAX theatres, providing residents and visitors access to films ranging from documentaries to popular blockbusters on these especially large, dramatic screens. Mexico City offers a variety of cuisines. Restaurants specializing in the regional cuisines of Mexico's 31 states are available in the city. Also available are an array of international cuisines, including Canadian , [] French , Italian , Croatian , Spanish including many regional variations , Jewish , Lebanese , Chinese again with regional variations , Indian , Japanese , Korean , Thai , Vietnamese , and fellow Latin American cuisines such as Argentine , Brazilian , and Peruvian.

Haute , fusion , kosher , vegetarian and vegan cuisines are also available, as are restaurants solely based on the concepts of local food and slow Food. Mexico City is known for having some of the freshest fish and seafood in Mexico's interior. La Nueva Viga Market is the second largest seafood market in the world after the Tsukiji fish market in Japan.

The city also has several branches of renowned international restaurants and chefs. Also notable is the Basque-Mexican fusion restaurant Biko run and co-owned by Bruno Oteiza and Mikel Alonso , which placed outside the list at 59th, but in previous years has ranked within the top Mexico's award-winning wines are offered at many restaurants, and the city offers unique experiences for tasting the regional spirits, with broad selections of tequila and mezcal.

Mexico City has many modes of public transportation, from the metro subway system, to suburban rail, light rail, regular buses, BRT bus rapid transit , 'pesero' minibuses, and trolleybuses, to bike share. Mexico City is served by the Sistema de Transporte Colectivo , a The first portions were opened in and it has expanded to 12 lines with stations. The metro transports 4.

It is the 8th busiest metro system in the world, behind Tokyo Several stations display pre-Columbian artifacts and architecture that were discovered during the metro's construction. The Metro stations are also differentiated by the use of icons and glyphs which were created for the illiterate, a unique system that has become iconic characteristic of Mexico City.

Each icon was developed based on historical characters, sites, pre-Hispanic motifs , linguistic, symbolic glyphs or geographic references. Chalco and La Paz. As of [update] , the approximately 28, peseros carried up to 60 percent of the city's passengers. In , the city launched so-called "Bus Rapid Service", with mid-sized Mercedes-Benz Boxer buses carrying passengers [] [] painted purple-on-white, replacing 'peseros' on certain groups of routes. More and more lines opened and as of mid there are 6 routes with a 7th planned along Paseo de la Reforma to connect Santa Fe with the city center and points north.

In late they transported an average of 1. In the late s many arterial roads were redesigned as ejes viales ; high-volume one-way roads that cross, in theory, Mexico City proper from side to side. The eje vial network is based on a quasi- Cartesian grid, with the ejes themselves being called Eje 1 Poniente , Eje Central , and Eje 1 Oriente , for example, for the north-south roads, and Eje 2 Sur and Eje 3 Norte , for example, for east-west roads.

There is an environmental program, called Hoy No Circula "Today Does Not Run", or "One Day without a Car" , whereby vehicles that have not passed emissions testing are restricted from circulating on certain days according to the ending digit of their license plates ; this in an attempt to cut down on pollution and traffic congestion. Street parking in urban neighborhoods is mostly controlled by the franeleros a.

Double parking is common with franeleros moving the cars as required , impeding on the available lanes for traffic to pass. In order to mitigate that and other problems and to raise revenue, [] parking meters as of October , have been installed in the west-central neighborhoods Lomas de Chapultepec , Condesa , Roma , Polanco and Anzures , in operation from 8 AM to 8 PM on weekdays and charging a rate of 2 pesos per 15 minutes, with offenders' cars booted, costing about pesos to remove.

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The granting of the license for all zones exclusively to a new company without experience in operating parking meters, Operadora de Estacionamientos Bicentenario, has generated controversy. The local government continuously strives for a reduction of massive traffic congestion, and has increased incentives for making a bicycle-friendly city. There are, as of September , stations with 4, bicycles across an area stretching from the Historic center to Polanco.

The city has four major bus stations North, South, Observatorio, TAPO , which comprise one of the world's largest transportation agglomerations, with bus service to many cities across the country and international connections. There are some intercity buses that leave directly from the Mexico City International Airport. The airport is also a hub for Volaris , Interjet and Aeromar. In , the airport handled almost 42 million passengers, about 3. An alternate option is Lic. TLC in nearby Toluca , State of Mexico , although due to several airlines' decisions to terminate service to TLC, the airport has seen a passenger drop to just over , passengers in from over 2.

The city of Pachuca will also provide additional expansion to central Mexico's airport network. Goals are to eventually handle million passengers a year, which would make it the busiest airport in the world. Three Nobel laureates , several Mexican entrepreneurs and most of Mexico's modern-day presidents are among its former students. They are, after all, some of the most famous parties in the world. But there are plenty of other reasons for travelers to take advantage of the quiet travel month and explore this half of the world. To find the absolute best places to travel in the area during the month of February , we tapped into a large pool of top tourism providers that specialize in this region.

We also looked at popular annual events, noteworthy openings, and called upon a deep knowledge of travel in Mexico, Central America, and South America to inform our selections. The Best Places to Travel in February. Travel near or travel far, but these are the best places to go in South America, Central America, and Mexico this February. Carnival marks the beginning of lent and is celebrated in countries around the world. The property features a 25 treatment room spa and guest rooms and suites decked out with Bulgari amenities, a pillow menu, aromatherapy, an in-room Lavazza coffee maker, a bottle of wine on arrival, a beach bag, and more.

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