A Summer in Mexico

This past summer, we spent over a month in Mexico.  Several people have asked me to share our experience there, so here goes........

We planned our entire trip ourselves using the Lonely Planet Guide Book, my personal favorite.  We spent a little more than 2 weeks in Mexico City and really enjoyed every minute of it.  Mexico City is a cosmopolitan city that is very progressive.  Yes, it is crowded in some parts of the city and yes, it has problems like any big city has, but we loved it.  To me, it was like New York City except totally affordable.  After that, we headed down to Oaxaca for 10 days.  We were lucky enough to be there for the biggest festival of the year there, the Guelaguetza.  It is a celebration of all the local indigenous cultures in the state of Oaxaca.  After Oaxaca, we spent a couple days visiting friends in Puebla.  We ended our trip in the beautiful, colonial town of San Miguel de Allende.  Here is how we did it and some pictures of our trip.

1. Mexico City

Mexico City has many direct flights for U.S. cities that are less than a few hours and usually you can find a flight around $300 or less.  We flew directly from San Antonio and the flight was only 1 hour and 45 minutes.  We flew on AeroMexico, which had better service and way better flight attendant costumes than any other airline we have flown on in awhile.

We used Airbnb.com and rented a 2 bedroom, 2 bath apartment with weekly maid service in the Condesa neighborhood for $45/night.  Since we were going to be there for over 2 weeks, we wanted some space and a kitchen so that we could cook some of our meals.  We were just a 2 minute walk to the metro station so we could get anywhere we wanted to in just a few minutes.  We definitely were not in the touristy area, Condesa is like modern day Brooklyn, where you are about 1,000x more likely to run into a hipster than a pickpocket.  My tips for using AirBnB or something like it is to really read the reviews carefully.  I don't book places that have less than 4 stars, places where the hosts cancelled the reservations, or places that don't have many reviews.  However, there are some exceptions.  If you can book far enough in advance, book a place that has just come onto AirBnB and may not have any reviews yet.  Just make sure they have a flexible or moderate cancellation policy.  Generally, places that are newly posted are priced lower.  Keep watching as reviews come in and make sure they are good.  You can always cancel if the reviews aren't good.  That is how we got our apartment in Mexico City.  Also, if you are staying in a large city with a good metro, stay outside of the city center in a more local neighborhood with easy access to the metro.  This allows you to see a different side of the city and save money.  However, if you are staying in a place without a metro and you don't have a car, stay in an area that is an easy 10-20 minute walk to the city center.  This will save you some money, but also allow you to have access to everything you need without needing a taxi.  Here are a few pics of our place in Mexico City.

Living and dining room

The kids' room

Our room

Living and dining room

Front stoop

As long as you don’t eat at Americanized chains, food is very affordable in the city.  We kept our costs low by buying food to cook some meals at home, but food in restaurants is very affordable too.  In general, we would eat one meal out a day (either at a restaurant or from a street vendor).   Our bill for a typical meal for all 4 of us in a nice, but not fancy restaurant was about $20.  If you’re willing to eat street food (which you definitely should), you can feed your entire family for less than $5!

Street Corn or in this case Canal Corn in Xochimilco

Tlayudas

Getting some tacos al pastor, a regular stop on our way back to the apartment

You can always find some fresh fruit drinks.

The metro here goes almost everywhere you need to go and it is CHEAP!  For our entire family to go anywhere in the city it cost us 20 pesos (which equals $1.33).  Taxis are affordable too.  Typically, a taxi ride across the city costs about $5 including tip.  We used them when we arrived from the airport and when we left town to get to the bus station.  We used the app Easy Taxi and felt safe and knew exactly where we were going.  We decided not to use Uber because the traditional Taxi drivers were on the verge of a strike because of Uber.  Also, Easy Taxi offered all the same features as Uber for the same price.

At the metro stop by our apartment

After we were in the city a few days, we had the kids plan out all our metro routes the night before and then they had to tell us how to get where we were going.  It made me feel better that they could navigate their way around town.

Mexico City has more museums than any other city in the world.  Not only are many of the sites world class, many of them are free or almost free.  If you pay for a tour guide and a tour bus to get you there, then I guess it could get pricey, but if you DIY it like we did then you will be shocked at how little money you spend on activities.  The Anthropology Museum, Templo Mayer, National History Museum, Castle, the Frida Kahlo museum and the Teotihuacan Pyramids all had a cost of less than $10 total for our whole family.  The zoo, National Palace, Cathedral, Bellas Artes  and many other museums and monuments were totally free.  The amusement park (similar to Six Flags) and the boat rides on the canals were the most expensive things we did, but not too bad. 

In Chapultepec Park, Mexico City's version of Central Park.  It's even bigger than Central Park and has all sorts of great things including a free zoo, an amusement park, a children's museum, the National Palace, tons of playgrounds, and lakes.  It was a short walk from our apartment.

   

On our way to  Lucha Libre at Arena Mexico.  We had to stop by and get some masks on the way.

Floating the canals of Xochimilco, a neighborhood in Mexico City

One of the many playgrounds where the kids spent their days.

Teotihuacan.  On top of the Pyramid of the Sun with the Pyramid of the Moon in the background.  We were the first people in the place since we took the local bus there.  It is about a 45 minute bus ride from Mexico City.

The view from the Pyramid of the Moon

The Museum of Anthropology

Frida Kahlo's Blue House in Coyoacan, a neighborhood in the city

One of the many Diego Rivera murals around the city

The National Cathedral built on top of the Templo Mayor ruins

On top of the Cathedral, amazing views of the historic center of the city

One of the many fun museums that had interactive exhibits for kids

La Feria amusement park

Just like any big city, Mexico City has places you shouldn’t go.  But, why would you?  Just like any big city, it is crowded in certain areas and you need to be aware of your behavior.  We never took money out in crowded Metro stations or in the crowded Zocalo or Central Historic District.  We used a money belt and only carried our snacks, water bottles and rain jackets in our backpack.  But, not once, did we feel threatened or scared.  And, yes, we stuck out like the American tourists that we were, but I never felt like a target.

One thing I was shocked by though in Mexico City was the lack of American tourists.  We saw a handful of Germans, French, and Australians, but almost never heard English spoken the entire time we were there.  This is really sad to me because it is a great place that I really think is being overlooked.  

2. Oaxaca

From Mexico City, we took a bus to Oaxaca.  It took about 6 hours, but the buses in Mexico are AWESOME!  Snacks, movies, fully reclining seats, so much better than flying.  We also used Airbnb in Oaxaca, but we actually just rented a room in someone's house.  It worked out well, but there was definitely less privacy.  But, the price was right and you could walk anywhere in town, so it worked for us.  Also, the couple we were staying with had a dog, so the kids were happy.  Oaxaca was the only place where we did some tours instead of just DIYing it everywhere.  These were great because we got to see lots of things over the course of our two full day tours and overall and they were not expensive ($50 per tour for our entire family of four).  If (When) I go back again, I would do things differently.  Monte Alban is a short taxi or bus ride outside of town and you can get there before the crowds if you do it yourself like we did in Teotihuacan.  Hierve el Agua is further from town, but cars can be rented for $30 for 24 hours, so next time we will just rent one and drive out there.  Mainly, I want to do this so we can spend more time there.  There are lots of places to hike and more springs to explore.  That being said, Oaxaca was still awesome!  It is so hard to pick a favorite place in Mexico, but I guess if I had to, I would pick Oaxaca.  Here are some pics from our time there.

Santo Domingo, Oaxaca

Monte Alban, ruins near Oaxaca

Hierve el Agua, about an hour outside Oaxaco.  Natural springs and spectacular views.

Hierve el Agua, looks like a waterfall, but actually are rock formations made be mineral deposits

La Soledad in Oaxaca

Eating chapulines (fried grasshoppers)

Huitlacoche, the dog where we stayed.  It was a Mexican hairless dog.

At the stamp museum.  Yes, that's a thing and it was actually really cool.

Tule tree, the tree with the largest circumference in the world is just outside of town

Oaxaca had the coolest children's library I have ever seen

One of our favorite cafes

Papel picada

Guelaguetza parade through town.  For 2 weeks every July, Oaxaca is taken over by the Guelaguetza.  Lots of parades, music, street dances and fun.

Another parade

The view from our room

The outside area of the house where we stayed.  It had a rooftop area, where you could hang out.

More Guelaguetza fun

3. Puebla

On our way back from Oaxaca we stopped by Puebla to visit some friends.  Again, we traveled by bus.  Tim and Jose are both artists in Puebla and they also own an art school.  It was a really unique experience to stay with them and they were awesome tour guides around Puebla and nearby Cocula.

Isabella with one of the dogs.  The kids were in heaven.

Poor Beck discovered shortly after this that he inherited my cat allergy

One of Jose's sculptures in town.

La estrella, the tallest ferris wheel in the world

On the ferris wheel with Tim and Jose.

View of volcano Popocatepetl from the Pyramid

Jose's studio

Our room

The cathedral built on top the pyramid.

Relaxing on the porch

Tim and Jose put together a dinner party for us while we were in town.  

4. San Miguel de Allende

We spent our last week in Mexico in San Miguel de Allende.  I little town about 4 hours NW of Mexico City.  It was a beautiful town with lots to do and see, but also perfect for just hanging around and doing nothing.  It is a popular town for expats and currently about 15% of the town are expats.  This has both its advantages and disadvantages, but it was a nice, relaxing way to end our trip.  Overall, San Miguel was a little more expensive than the other places we visited, but still affordable.  We stayed in a place that connected to a house, but had it's own private entrance.  It was the only place we stayed that did not have a full kitchen, but it did have a microwave, coffee maker and a small refrigerator as well as necessary dishes, so we were still able to save money on food.  It was an easy 10 minute walk to town and was a steal for $40/night.  Again, we found it on airbnb.com 

Our room in San Miguel

The main house where our hosts lived.  Our apartment was connected to the house, but it had a separate entrance.

Parroquia San Miguel Arcangel

El jardin

Parroquia San Miguel Arcangel

Parroquia San Miguel Arcangel

Entrance to the grotto at the hot springs just outside of town

The grotto

Hot springs

Every night this truck would set up and serve tacos al pastor.  So yummy!

Getting ready to watch the sunset over the town

Sunset looking down on the town

At the playground at the Botanical Gardens

Botanical Gardens

Botanical gardens

Rooftop dining at sunset

San Miguel is a destination town for weddings.  Parades, mariachi bands, donkeys!

From San Miguel de Allende, we headed back to Mexico City.  Again, we traveled by bus.  We stayed in the hotel that was connected to the airport and the next day, we were home.  Mexico was a magical place for us.  One day soon we will be back.