Weekend Getaway Guide: Colonia Roma, Mexico City

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This spring, the travel bug bit me… bad.  As a teacher, spring time at work can get a little hectic. State testing, kids feeling that spring fever…  I was ready to make an escape!

Looking over the calendar, Joey and I realized we both shared some time off in the form of a four-day weekend spanning from Good Friday to the Monday after Easter.

In that moment I thought… Hey!  What about Mexico City?

Love all the street art!

Two years ago, we got a taste for this amazing city during an overnight layover en route to Nicaragua.  We had been wanting to visit for a longer stay and explore the city some more.

Flights to Mexico City are very affordable from many US cities.  Right now, as I’m writing this post, a quick search on Google flights for a 3 day trip over Labor Day weekend 2018 shows roundtrip flights ranging from $208-$350 out of the following cities: Houston, Atlanta, Miami, Los Angeles, New York, Denver, Las Vegas… and my usual airport… New Orleans.  If you’re lucky to live close enough to one of the big hub airports, you’ve got the added bonus of a nonstop, direct flight! (Nonstop from Miami started at just $208!)

If you’re like me, you’re thinking…  What? An international flight for less than $350? Tell me more!

What did we do?

We took off Thursday evening after work and arrived in Mexico City around 10pm.  That night, we kept it pretty low-key as we were both pretty tired from a full-day at work.  We stopped in to a bar near our hotel, drank some mescal, popped into a nearby taqueria for some tacos al pastor, and called it a night.  Even if you arrive pretty late like we did, the taquerias are open late so it shouldn’t be too hard to find something to eat.

Day One: A Foodie’s Paradise!

The daily highlight of this trip was by far the food!  Arrive hungry because you will be wishing you had an extra stomach.  I have never tried so many new and exciting foods as I did on this trip.  Everything was delicious!

Check out some of my favorite places to eat!

This first day in Mexico City, we wandered around the Roma Norte neighborhood basically eating and drinking everything we could fit in our stomachs.

Not a bad spot to sit and eat breakfast!

The morning started at Panadería Rosetta (Colima 179, Roma Norte).  The smells in this little bakery were an experience in themselves.  Warm fresh bread and pastries are stacked and lined up behind the counter.  If you’re lucky ( and early ) you can grab a seat by the counter.  By the time we arrived around 9 am… there was line out the door. We ended up waiting about 30 minutes to order.  I’m glad we stood in that line though; our breakfast was that good.  My favorite, conchas, were all sold out, but the staff gave us some recommendations and helped us out.  Our espresso and pastries in hand, we walked around until we found a quiet bench to sit, enjoy our breakfast, and take in the scenery of this beautiful city.

The Roma Norte neighborhood is gorgeous! I was happy this first day just to walk around looking at all the different buildings.  It reminded me of my trip last year to Barcelona.  We spent the rest of the day exploring, checking out little boutique stores and sampling food and drinks along the way.

One spot we wandered back to a couple of times was Hamburguesa Mataleón (Plaza Villa de Madrid 6 local A, Roma Norte). The restaurant is decked out with mixed martial arts regalia and I saw a sign that said they do jujitsu classes certain days as well.  We stopped in for beers a few times.  The artisanal beers were great.  I tried the IPA and it had a great citrusy, hoppy flavor.  We always ended up stopping when we were already full, but their burgers looked amazing! The location was in a nice spot to sit outside and relax, taking in the view.  They’re also dog friendly! So many people stopped by for burgers and beers with their canine friends.  The fries are even served in dog bowls!

Drinks with Barbie at Hamburguesa Mataleón

We spent the evening sampling artisanal mescal and eating our way through the Mercado Roma Norte.  The empanadas upstairs were my personal favorite.  They had many different kinds with different meats and a few vegetable options as well.

Day 2 and 3: Exploring some history

We started off our second day with some pastries and espresso again… it was so yummy, how could I resist?

Then, we set off to visit the National Anthropology Museum (Museo Nacional de Antropología).  The museum is located in the Chapultepec Park, its also called el Bosque de Chapultepec.  Even if you’re not a total history nerd like me, this museum is really awesome.  Joey usually grudgingly lets me drag him along to a museum with the promise of beer afterwards… and even he was excited about this one!

Artifacts in the Museo Nacional de Antropología

Each room of the museum features artifacts and history about all of the different native people who lived throughout Mexico. There is so much much to see and to learn, it inspired me to learn and read more about pre-colombian Mexican history. All of the different artifacts were so intricate and beautiful…It is amazing what ancient civilizations were able to create and accomplish!

Part of the museum includes an outdoor courtyard with life-size recreations of pre-colombian ruins.  It was so cool to feel like you are visiting ruins in the jungle all while still in a big city!

Our intentions were… after returning to the Mercado Roma Norte for a delicious lunch of pozole, a traditional Mexican soup… to come back to the Bosque de Chapultepec and explore Chapultepec Castle.

Apparently… this was also everyone else’s intention as well. The line stretched all the way down the hill from the ticket booth at the entrance to the castle grounds…. to the initial descent.  I left Joey holding our spot in line and walked up to see just how far it went.  I got halfway and heard one of the staff telling people it was an hour wait from where they were standing.  We turned around and decided to come back another time.

A forest in the middle of the city… views from Chapultepec Castle

The next morning, we tried again around 10:00 am, after a delicious breakfast of churros and chocolate at Churrería El Moro (Address: Frontera 122), and there was no line at all! On Sundays, admission is free to Mexican residents.  This meant, everyone with a Mexican ID wasn’t buying tickets. They were checking IDs at the entrance and letting people in.  The ticket booth was totally empty when we got there.  Because we aren’t Mexican residents, we had to buy tickets, but it was a huge plus not to have to wait in line.

The castle is located on the top of a hill.  This means there are amazing views of the city from up here, but you should wear some comfortable shoes because it is a bit of a walk uphill. Perfect timing for burning off all those pastries and churros from breakfast!

I said before, Colonia Roma Norte reminded me of Barcelona, the Chapultepec Castle reminded me of Spain too!  It is the only castle or palace in the Americas that housed a royal family.  The emperor of Mexico Maximilian I and his wife Carlotta lived there in 1864.  There was a lot of interesting history to learn in the museum inside and a lot of art too.  The building itself is a work of art.  Outside, there are beautiful gardens overlooking the best view you can find of the city.

I definitely recommend going early to beat the crowds… And on Sundays when Mexican residents get in free, there’s no line!

History, art, architecture, and amazing views at Chapultepec Castle

Sometimes, it’s ok to veer off the plan

When I was planning this weekend in my head, I had originally planned to take our last full day to visit Teotihuacan which is about an hour or so from Mexico City by bus… but as a result of our nights spent sampling the offerings at our favorite mescaleria and hopping around to different cocktail bars… that morning we ended up sleeping in past the time we would’ve needed to catch the bus.  So we grabbed some churros and went to Chapultepec Castle instead.

After a delicious lunch at Azul Condesa (see my post about our favorite foods), we were wondering what we should do with our final afternoon… the conclusion… Lucha Libre!

After a failed attempt at buying tickets online on Ticketmaster, the website wanted a Mexican billing address and my credit card is from the US, we decided to just show up and try to buy tickets at the door.

After a lazy lunch turned into bar hopping, we grabbed an Uber a little later than we intended.

Much to the happiness of the scalpers selling tickets outside the Arena Mexico, they were very eager to sell us whatever tickets they still had left, we were able to get tickets and catch the last 30 minutes of the fight.

Lucha libre is Mexican masked wrestling.  I had no experience with this before.  It was not something I would have really thought of going to see, but I am so glad that Joey talked me into doing it.  When sat down in the area I noticed there were young children and older women yelling obscenities at their favorite wrestlers’ rivals.  The wresting itself was very dramatic and acrobatic.

We went on Sunday afternoon which is the family day, so there were a lot of families with young kids who went all out dressed up as their favorite wrestler.  This was a very unique Mexican experience and I highly recommend going to watch.  It was like nothing I had ever experienced before.

To get tickets, you can purchase them on ticketmaster.com, but I didn’t have much luck doing so with my US credit card.  You can also buy them at the box office in Arena Mexico (Address: Dr. Lavista 189, Doctores) before the fight.  Or like we did, just show up whenever and buy tickets off the street.  It wasn’t hard to find someone selling, they’ll come right up to you… even with only 30 minutes left in the fight.

 

What I Wish I’d Known:

The Chapultepec Park is huuuuge!  I mean, it looks big on the map, but once you are there it seems even bigger.  When your taxi is dropping you off, look on the map to see what the closest entrance is to where you are going.  When we tried  to visit Chapultepec Castle the first time… we ended up being dropped off at an entrance that was a 30 minute walk to where we wanted to go.  We were so tired from walking all that way, that we ended up not wanting to wait in line and came back the next day.  We found the Gandhi entrance to be close to the entrance to the castle… it was only about a 5 minute walk.

Because the park is so big… you can get lost!  There are signs around pretty regularly that point to the direction of various attractions… if you’re looking for the castle, it’s called the Museo Nacional de Historia on these signs. We didn’t know and we kept aimlessly wandering around, looking for signs that said something about a castle until we stopped and asked someone.

 

How We Got Around:

We used Uber for almost the entire trip, with the exception of getting picked up from the Chapultepec Park when our driver couldn’t find us… we ended up just hailing a taxi off the street.  The official taxis are pink and white cars. The taxis are metered so you don’t need to negotiate a rate.  I found Uber and the taxi to cost relatively the same.  Most rides we took around the Roma Norte and Condesa neighborhoods were about $2-4 USD.

 

Safety: 

A lot of our friends expressed concern about safety when we told them about our travel plans to Mexico City.  While the US State Department’s website has issued travel warnings regarding certain regions of Mexico due to organized crime in those areas, they only state to exercise caution when traveling in Mexico City.  There are no travel bans for US government workers throughout the city.

We felt very safe walking around Roma Norte and Condesa both during the day and at night.  We went out to bars at night, walked around, and had no problems. Taking Uber was a very safe and affordable way to get around the city at night.

Obviously, like any large city, its important to be careful with your belongings and not carry large amounts of money out in the open. That’s just asking to be mugged no matter where in the world you are.  If you exercise common sense, you should be fine.

 

Conclusion

I am in love with Mexico City!  With flights being so affordable, I will definitely be returning for another weekend getaway soon.  I loved the Colonia Roma Norte and I can’t wait to return and explore other parts of this beautiful city!

~Jackie