This past week, I was in Mexico City for 18 hours as part of my Mexico City and Santiago mileage run vacation. Here are some things I learned from being in Mexico City for 18 hours:
1) When I arrived at Mexico City Airport, I said screw the 280 MXN (~$21 USD) taxi and took the subway from the airport instead. The subway from Mexico City Airport to the city-center only cost 3 pesos ~ $0.23 USD with unlimited transfers.
2) Never buy anything from roaming vendors in Teotihucan. It’s always more expensive and haggling doesn’t always get you the best prices.
The prices are much cheaper in the vendor stalls. You can find many souvenirs for less than 10 and 5 pesos.
3) It’s illegal for vendors to sell things on the street in Mexico City without a permit. There is a lookout man who whistles to warn the illegal street vendors that cops are approaching. As you can see, the street vendor’s merchandise is laid out on the floor, but what’s it laying under? It’s a large bag which takes them 2 seconds to scoop up, and move along to a new location to set up shop.
4) 7 peso (~$0.53 USD) tacos are amazing. I had the taco al pastor with salsa verde which was delicious.
5) Police presence is everywhere. Mexico City is very safe and I even wrote about it here.
Would you recommend the subway over a taxi? I’ve been thinking about doing this for my upcoming trip.
the subway will take longer if you’re arriving in Terminal 2 fyi because you’ll need to take the Skytrain from T2 to T1. I would highly recommend the metro if you have light luggage (carry on only)
‘Mexico City is VERY safe.’ Yeah, right. Recommend you do a bit of homework/research. No facts to support such a open ended statement. Ask the countless crime victims in the D.F. their opinion.
Yes, Mexico City is safer than Detroit but not NYC nor LA by comparison. Local cops are very corrupt even by developing nation standards, members of my group were basically held up by Mexico City cops for money. As you go up in national standards the less corrupt you get, we had less issues with the Federalies and the military. Actually hung out with the military on our trip into the mountainous interior.