I'm leaving for CDMX on Friday - super excited! We got an airbnb in Condesa, overlooking the park. It was $75 a night - it seemed almost impossible to spend a lot on accommodation. We have a dinner reservation at Pujol for Monday night. Other than that I've been super lazy and pretty much left everything to my friend to organize. We're in town thru until Wednesday. The weather doesn't look great - I'm packing my umbrella. I guess its one of those places that has a regular afternoon storm?

Nice! You picked one of my favorite areas.

The weather will be fine. The weather apps are often deceiving because CDMX can get maybe an hour or 2 of rain per day in June, so the app will display the rain icon when in reality it will probably be sunny the majority of the day.

If you don’t have plans yet on Saturday, I could meet up with you guys for a coffee in the afternoon and show you a bit of Paseo de la Reforma. You’ll definitely want to visit there because it has a couple important monuments and is a beautiful avenue modeled after the Champs-Elysee in Paris.

That would be awesome - thanks! I'll shoot you a pm.

haha, perfect comparison, appreciate that. Colombian buses were just whatever, blasting AC and freezing. Peru/Chile/Argentina I found were all super duper nice and something I always looked forward to. Nice to hear mexico is the same, as I haven't been on a bus here since 2008.

Ended up going with Guadalajara in the end - moved here about a week ago. This place seems great so far, its got the nicer areas 15-20 minutes away with the super rich people, residential super tranquil places with great restos around for middle class family life, and I'm living a few blocks away from the main party zone - but still in a really picturesque neighborhood with trees everywhere and nice houses/architecture that's beautiful to walk around in. I normally skate, but have taken a few uber trips around the city and am always surprised at how close things are. That and being more economical than DF are some of the main reasons that brought me here. I hear the girls are great as well, but honestly I'm normally in love with everything that walks by. Gonna try to hold my ground and not get an actual gf for at least a month so I can have some fun single life for awhile. And I just read 'women' by bukowski and its pretty hilarious and exciting all the non-stop drama that comes from dating around.

Question - I saw perfect little motorcycles for sale at walmart for like $750. Can I get one and be legal at all? From what I've researched online, I can buy it but can't put plates in my name. Seems like I could get my landlord, friend, or any chick to go purchase the plates in her name and then sign it over to me though. Anyone have knowledge about this? I have an intl. drivers license (not valid for moto), but that was never mentioned in any of the forums I was looking at anyways. Cops seem suuuuper chill here which is a surprise. There's like 4-5 different kinds it seems, some on ATVs, military guys with guns all drawn, normal street cops, and then others in big pickups that seem a bit more serious. Nothing at all like baja california though where you feel the constant struggle of avoiding being shaken down.

That’s awesome man! How long will you be in GDL? I’ve never been but hear great things and have been wanting to visit for awhile so I’ll probably do so in the next month or 2.

Yah the girls there, tapatías, have a rep for being pretty hot. I’ve heard it’s a fairly conservative city so I’m curious to hear your thoughts on that once you’ve been there longer. Although maybe in the circles you run in, the girls are more open-minded regardless of a city’s mentality in general. CDMX is awesome because a ton of girls are super liberal and many will sleep with you on the first date. Also had a couple from Tinder just come straight over to my place on a first meet.

I’ve been in Mexico a year, 9 months in CDMX and 3 months traveling, and never once felt like the cops had any intentions on shaking me down for a bribe.

Sorry, can’t help you on the last question. Hopefully someone else will see it and chime in.

I took a trip to San Miguel de Allende and Guanajuato. San Miguel gets a ton of press. It was named Travel and Leisure's best city in the world the last 2 years running. But about a quarter of the city is old whites and it has more of a sleep town feel. It's neat to see for a day or 2, but nothing more. Guanajuato was the one I was in love with. I can't believe places like these exist right next door to the USA, and noone even knows. Guanajuato is a city of about 180k with a 30k student population. Tons of hotties running around. A younger (college aged up to mid 30s) white guy could do a ton of damage here.

I brought a girl along with me, so couldn't partake. We'd met 3 times before and each time she slept over at my place. Her sex drive is super high and she's incredible in bed, so I took her along for the 4 night trip.

Had a ton of fun with the girl, she's really fun and when we weren't out exploring, we were ****ing or sleeping.

A couple pics to get a feel for each place:

Guanajuato:






San Miguel de Allende:





The girl:

What are the prices there currently? Like rent it doesn't have to be in the bussiest spots but not too far from city centre, groceries, restaurants etc...?

Rents can be a bit pricy in the best spots, but you can also live just outside the popular foreigner spots and still be a safe area and probably pay $400-500 for a 1BR. I'm currently paying $800 for a pretty large 1BR, fully furnished and all bills included in a pretty nice part of the city.

Groceries are about the same prices as in USA in the chains, but if you go to markets to buy your produce and meat then you can get it dirt cheap.

Restaurants vary wildly. Slightly cheaper than USA for western style and high end places and super cheap for street food ($3-4 a meal) or menu of the day type places ($3-4 for a 3 course meal). And there's also a chain called La Casa de Toño with super delicious food that is generally around $5-6 for a meal.

I generally keep my same standard of living that I would in USA or France, and pay probably 30-50% of those prices. You could go even cheaper than that if you want to give up a few luxuries, and obviously 90% of Mexicans are living on like $500 a month, so that's possible as well.

What would be the best way to find a room for mid-long term rent? (6months+)
Currently there is some bug with my airbnb account, so can't conveniently find a place.

Any info would be dearly appreciated, thanks.

If you just need a room and not an entire apartment then it will be a lot easier b/c a lot of apartments want a guarantor. To find a room, I've been told that Dadaroom is probably the best option. You could also join the Mexico City Facebook groups for expats. They post a lot of rooms/apartments available for rent.

Hey friend, nice thread ; am late to the party, but happy to hop in Am in Tulum atm, but will be in Mexico City in a few weeks. Would be nice to meet up for a coffee bro Peace

Nice, enjoy Tulum! Let me know when you're here and we can meet up.

I just went thru the process of looking for a place as well. dadaroom seems okay, seemed geared towards roommates and best to make a paid account to get access to recent stuff. Facebook groups is huge and has become my go-to lately. Ask people at bars, students, hostel staff about which ones to join. Messaging people on airbnb and asking for lower prices is how I found my current place, although I did go check out a few via fb as well. I'm in a different city and it seems like supply vastly exceeds demand right now, but most options were too cheap for my liking so getting high end was a bit more difficult.

AirBNB seems like by far the best route if you're looking to live alone. If your budget is $500 then just look for places in the $400-700 range. Then message all of them and tell them since you'll be staying longer term, if they're willing to accept a price 10-20% lower. A lot of the time they'll agree or counter with a price that's still lower than their listed price. I found a place in Lyon, France and now in CDMX this way. Rented for 6 months, fell in love with the place, then came up with a verbal agreement with the owner to continue staying in the place (while also saving on the AirBNB fees). This will always be option #1 for me.

DadaRoom is basically only if you're looking for a room as boliver mentioned.

CDMX, I don't think you'll have any issues in any price range. There is some super luxurious stuff in a couple neighbourhoods all the way down to really cheap, but safe enough, just not in super interesting areas.

I just got back from Mexico City. We were here from Friday evening until Wednesday morning and I loved every minute of it! I figured I’d try and write a trip report. The short story is that the people are amazing, the food is fantastic, the art, culture and architecture are beautiful, and it is super cheap. I can’t believe it is only a 4-hour flight from the Bay Area! This will likely be my go-to long weekend destination from now on. We stayed in Condesa, which is the hipster neighborhood and borders Roma, where many of the bars and nightclubs are located.

Fossil was kind enough to meet up with us on Saturday afternoon. He’s a lovely guy - pretty much what you would expect from his posts. We chatted a bit about the cultural differences between the US and Mexico, what its like to live in Mexico City and we squeezed in a bit of poker talk as well. We went for a drink and then walked down the Paseo de la Reforma to Chapultepec park. He gave us some good advice about the things we wanted to see in Mexico City, and suggested some other things we might want to check out while we were in town. Thanks for making the time for us Fossil !

On Saturday night we had a fantastic meal at Agua & Sal in Polanco, which is the ritziest neighborhood in Mexico City. The owner’s brother runs a restaurant in the Mission in SF, so when he found out we were from the Bay Area we were treated like princesses. This was one of our best meals of the trip - two glasses of wine each, a huge bowl of ceviche, and almost a whole grilled octopus ran to $60. We then moved to the Roma neighborhood and hit up a cool Mezcal bar (La Clandestina), before moving to a bar that had been recommended to us before coming on the trip (Gin-Gin). I was not impressed by Gin-Gin – it was full of pretentious gringos and so we decided to bounce and found a cool cocktail spot where we had a couple of Mezcal cocktails (La Larinda). By now it was midnight and we were nicely buzzed to head back home, but down the block we pass a line of dudes waiting to go through an unmarked door (I later find out its called Terraza Roma). I can hear some pumping music coming from upstairs and so I head to the front of the line and ask the bouncer whether we can go in. He looks me up and down from head to toe and turns and says something to his colleague who also looks me up and down from head to toe. Uno momento. He goes through the door and returns with a third guy. El jefe looks me up and down from head to toe, says something to the bouncer and it looks like we’re in. I gotta admit…I did have some second thoughts about following three huge Latinos through an unmarked doorway in Mexico City. My friend has a ‘WTF Jo?’ look on her face (which is not uncommon ) but all that Mezcal had given us some courage/stupidity so in we went.

I try and figure out how much the cover (or doorman bribe) will be. Cuanto cuesta? No charge (huh?) but they want to go through our purses (ah!). They confiscate my Ibuprofen (ok, a bottle of white pills might not be the smartest thing to try and take into a nightclub), but otherwise we’re in for free. The place is packed and the music is fantastic. The whole club is on a rooftop terrace and we’re the only gringas in the place. We make our way to the bar and get a couple of tequilla shots for 100 pesos each ($5). I give them a 500 peso note which the barman gives to someone else, who promptly disappears. After waiting about 10 minutes for my change and not being able to flag down the barman, I figure that’s where the shakedown happens, and we head back to the dancefloor. In fact, it turns out the place is bottle service only, so the bar was not really setup for selling individual shots. Bottles seem to get added to some tab that gets settled somewhere else (tbh I didn’t ever really figure out the logistics of the thing but slips of paper seem to be being exchanged rather than actual cash). The bar staff sold us the shots as a favor and were then flummoxed when they needed to give us change. The barman eventually finds me on the dancefloor and hands me my change with a smile, and I give him a 100 peso tip. We have no problem buying shots for the rest of the night . It seems like Mexicans go out in big groups, usually consisting of both men and women. Its pretty unusual for two women to be in a club on their own. This meant that we could dance with relatively little interference, but when we did get hit on by a couple of guys, a posse of angry Latinas was close behind and dragged them back to their group. We danced for a couple of hours. The music was mainly deep house, with a bit of regaetton thrown in. I saw a couple of dudes making out with one another which surprised me - the city is much more open-minded than I’d thought it would be.

After a couple of hours, we call it a night. As I’m heading back downstairs to the exit one of the bouncers, steps out and blocks my way. Are you kidding - the shakedown happens on the way out? He reaches into his pocket and hands me back my Ibuprofen. Buenos noches senorita! Buenos noches senor! We wander back to our apartment, but not before stopping for some tacos and tecate, and I eventually get to bed around four am.

To be continued…

Great TR, excited to hear the rest!

Pretty gutsy to head into an unmarked bar, but it's probably no big deal in Condesa/Roma. That's the nice thing about that area, it's usually safe enough that you can wander around aimlessly and be ok.

I'm not a huge nightlife guy, so don't have a ton of experience in bars/clubs, but you kinda touched on one aspect that's a bit annoying. They tend to go in groups of guys and girls. Usually the guys are a bit protective of the girls in their group, funny to hear that it goes both ways!

Totally agree that it's surprisingly open-minded, lots of sex shops, tons of PDA between couples of all types, and noone really cares.

On Sunday we headed to the Frida Kahlo museum. If you want to go, make sure to buy your tickets online a few days in advance – they assign you a time and the slots get sold out. If you haven’t done this, good luck getting a ticket, as the line was horrendous. To be honest, I was a bit disappointed by the museum. It’s her old house and the focus is really on her clothes and interior decoration rather than her art. I couldn’t imagine a male artist being treated that way. It had the whiff of a woman being judged on her appearance rather than her accomplishments. Afterwards, we walked through the old town, which was a recommendation of Fossil’s, and we liked that a lot more. It was hard to believe we were still in CDMX. Lot’s of beautiful, colorful, weathered buildings and cobbled streets – it’s one of the oldest parts of CDMX – and we stopped for lunch in the square.

Sunday evening there was a big thunderstorm, so we decided to hop in an Uber and go to an authentic taqueria. I had the Tacos Orinocos, which was the house special. At 3 am that night, I began to regret my decision, and I continued to regret it for the rest of the week, while also making sure I always knew where the nearest banos was. I blame the cheese. I barely got out of bed Monday, other than to the bathroom and I slept about 20 hours. Tuesday, and after several doses of Imodium, I felt a bit better, and we headed to Contramar for dinner.

The restaurant has an inside and outside seating area and we manage to snag one of the remaining spots outside. As we’re wrapping up our meal, a woman walks past us to have a smoke. She looks really cool: shaggy, razor cut blonde hair, dressed all in black, including leather shorts, and she carries herself like a badass. My friend notices her as well and says “That chick looks like a rock star”. We’re still checking her out when she finishes her cigarette and walks back, and I realize its Emily Haines from Metric. I look inside the restaurant and there is the whole band having dinner. I’m a total Metric fangirl and I kind of lose my ****. My friend doesn’t really know them though. She’s also had two more glasses of wine than me, and so she says she’s gonna bum a cigarette off the next band member who steps outside, which turns out to be the drummer. We end up chatting to him for a while. It was funny, because we were playing it cool and not letting on that we knew who he was, while he kept dropping hints that he was a BIG DEAL, which we would just ignore. I asked him how often he went on tour and his reply was, “Not as often as we used to, because, you know…we’re kind of established.” Nope, I’m still not biting! He ended up offering to put us on the guestlist, but we were leaving the next day and couldn’t take him up on the offer. Our conversation ended when the band came out of the restaurant and Emily yelled at him that they were leaving. He gave us both a hug and then ran to join them.

We flew home the next day. All in all it was a great trip – one of the best in recent years – and I can’t wait to get back soon!

A few things that were mentioned by other posters:

i). Pollution – it really wasn’t bad, but I guess that might have reflected the time of year or the weather. We had at least one brief thunderstorm every afternoon, which cleared the air.

ii). Traffic – nowhere near as bad as the Bay Area, though that may say more about the Bay Area than CDMX. We Ubered a lot and prices were about a tenth the US price – most trips were between one and three dollars. Don’t flag down taxis on the street – there are fake taxis with gunmen in the trunk to mug/rape unwitting tourists.

iii). It’s a beautiful city to walk through with tree-lined sidewalks everywhere. We walked 11 miles over the first two days, until I was laid low by the food poisoning.

iv). There are surprisingly few tourists. Even in the tourist spots it is mainly Mexican tourists rather than extranjeros. This contrasts with Europe, where most tourist spots are now jam-packed with a billion Chinese tourists.

i lol'd b/c i envisioned this coming from Trump's mouth. that said, interesting... first i heard of the rapists hiding in the trunk with a gun.

Agree with your closing thoughts jo.

Pollution is not that bad. I checked right now and across CDMX the air quality is a mix between good and moderate. In the LA area, it's listed as moderate everywhere. It got really bad here for a 1-2 week period due to a nearby forest fire, but apart from that it hasn't seemed too bad in my year here.

Traffic is also roughly the same as most other super large cities. I've never really had an issue with an Uber taking an inordinately long time.

I'd never heard about the gunmen and rapists in trunks either, but I do agree that it's not a good idea to ever grab a cab off the streets. In any case, Uber is usually a lot cheaper and far less hassle, so there's almost no time you'll ever need a cab anyway.

Yah, it's a great city to walk. One of the main attractions for me. It's far more walkable than any American city and the architecture is a nice mix of many different styles. It's also super under the radar. I think the beaches and Chichén Itza serve as tourist magnets that help CDMX avoid them. I'm surprised it isn't a much bigger tourist destination, but I'm not complaining.

Great trip report pokerjo--I want to take off for somewhere, your TR (and this thread) has me re-considering Mexico!

Yeah, I was pretty skeptical of the gunmen in the trunk thing too, but it was my Mexican bf who told me, and he lived in CDMX for 6 years, so I consider him a reliable source.

The only other slightly sketchy thing that happened was a woman accusing my friend of stealing something in a jewelry market. She insisted on seeing in my friend's bag, but my friend refused. It was kinda weird, because it came out of nowhere as we were browsing her stall. We guess it was a scam of some kind, but not sure how it would have worked. Maybe she would have planted something in the bag, and then we'd have had a cop to pay off? Not sure.

I guess the bottom line is that its a big city, and you need your wits about you, just like you do in any big city.

Just got back from another trip here with my gf. Some new things we did this time.

Parque Viveros

The altitude/air is real, but if looking to run/walk, it's a sprawling park w/trails on the edge of Coyoacan w/a 2km loop around the outside. Had cops stationed at each entrance to the park. One of best things about CDMX is all the green space (vs. Tijuana, for sure). Great vibe with people doing all sorts of random activities on a Saturday.

Riding scooters on Sunday streets

Every Sunday from 8-2, they close off Paseo de la Reforma & partially close streets in Roma/La Condesa (like they would for a race w/traffic cops @ each intersection). We rented Bird Scooters for the first time & just cruised the streets & people spotted. Bikes, roller skates, a few skateboarders, runners, everyone was out taking advantage.

Only downside was once we tried to cross North of Av Chapultepec, it was outside the scooter range & we had to turn back.

Lucha Libre

We went to the smaller one @ Wrestling Arena Coliseo (just South of Tepito, not so bueno area). Was more on the minor league level of TJ Lucha, & many of the crowd were into "their team", like they go a lot & have specific wrestlers they cheer on. Pretty easy to buy tix online & pick up @ Will Call (though buying there may have been quicker, lol).

We got several warnings of the area & not to wander around, but there were packs of Fresas there & various expats. Lots of fake taxis in the hood, & it's hard for Ubers to get to right in front of the stadium, so have good street instincts/presence, etc. (probably more like going out somewhere in Rio).

Poker

Played a tourney @ Palace Casino. Great place to practice slang & how dudes actually talk to & give each other ****. Only downside is it was a smoking room, but they did get several tables of 25/50 NLH running once the tourney started breaking. Almost more of a social club vibe, pretty well run (compared to expectations).

A few other rooms appear to spread a mix b/n PLO & NL Mata Aces (crazy version of Stud). But if you speak little or no Spanish, it's going to be hard to navigate everything. Fun vibe, & a bit more aggressive play than your equivalent in the States. Of course I busted @ 2 a.m., right before the bubble, & still had to wake up to drive us to Teotihuacan the next day.

___

The weather was great in that it rained everyday, starting in late afternoon/early evening, so we could be active early in the day, & the air quality was a bit less bad than other times of year. But even after a week, that altitude/air is rough man. Felt so strong returning to sea level.

Ubering around everywhere is so cheap (30 min rides in traffic were ~$5 pre-tip), & even the Fresa/hipster food places, in the hipster-ish neighborhoods are cheap by US or even Tijuana standards.

Hasta luego.

Nice TR, lucha libre is super fun and usually attracts plenty of gringos. Arena México (where the bigger LL takes place) is also on the border of a rough area but felt fine.

Yah, weather is just average this time of year. Nice temps, but there's usually a big rainstorm that lasts 1-2 hours almost every day.

Pretty cool thread, tho couldnt´find the other OOT online dating thread.
Fwiw Didi tends to be 10-20% cheaper than uber, at least in my experience in DF (hate they changed to CDMX imo gud chance it will be DF again in the future)
Guys hidden on trunks of fake taxis are mentioned like it´ll happen +10% of the time, when again, having lived here for over 30 years it´s probly 0.1 to 1% chance (still pretty high risk tho).
About fancy restaurants, I found Pujol to be overvalued (my fav course was a "gordita" that u can get on the street for 1 usd), it is still a nice all around experience tho, but i think there are better cheaper fancy restaurant options.
I am curious, do u mention how u make a living on ur dating apps profile?, if so, does it seems like that helps or do they seem to be more like "whatever"?