Awesome TR!

I agree with you on GDL. It's OK, but I was a little underwhelmed. And +1 on the tortas ahogadas. My best meal there was buying a torta for $2 in a place a local recommended. I also couldn't drink enough tejuinos (a corn-based drink with lemon, salt, pepper, etc.)

Regarding Day of the Dead, yah it's more about celebration than solemn remembrance. The point of the grave sites is that you put all the food and items that your loved one enjoyed as a way to help them enjoy their journey to the afterlife. That's probably a crude summary, but the general gist of it from what I understand.

Regarding costs, I'd say the option is there to live extremely cheap, but as you do more western style stuff, costs start to approach those in USA. That being said, I live a pretty western lifestyle in CDMX and I'd say my budget is still 35-40% what I'd be paying in an enjoyable (for me) city in the USA like Denver, Austin, Portland, etc. And that's not even getting into the expensive tier like NYC, SF, Seattle.

Rents: I'm paying $850/month for a pretty nice, large 1BR, fully furnished, all bills paid in the center of CDMX. That'd be at least double in a walkable area of those cities I mentioned.

Food: Food can be extremely cheap in Mexico. You could buy all your stuff in markets and eat out on the street or in menu del dia places (3 course meals for like $3-5 up until 5PM). If you eat in western-style restaurants, prices will roughly be the same as in the USA.

Random stuff: I can go to a top-notch movie theater for $4/ticket and popcorn/drink is another $4. Haircuts cost me like $4.

Things also tend to be a lot more expensive as a tourist. I'm doing a couple days in Miami and everything is 3x more expensive than my recent trip to GDL.

Super sweet AirBNB near Chapu in GDL: $40/night
Complete shitbox motel near Fort Lauderdale airport: $55/night (I can't afford Miami prices)

Uber from Tlaquepaque into GDL: $4 (also could've taken public transport for almost nothing)
Train from FLL into Miami: $20 (I think, not 100% sure on that)

Museums in GDL: $5 entry
Museums in Miami: $20 entry

Bikeshare for the day in GDL: $2-3 (I'm paying $4.50 for the entire month for my bikeshre in CDMX)
Miami: $15

Breakfast/lunch in GDL:$2-4
in Miami: minimum $10, probably $15-20

So GDL (the 2nd largest city in Mexico) is still a fraction of what you're paying to visit any large American city. So I don't necessarily agree that prices are anywhere close to their American counterparts. I guess if you're expecting everything to be dirt cheap, it's not the case, some things are more expensive than you might expect.

Hopefully you enjoy Guanajuato and finally have some top notch meals. It was probably my favorite smaller city in Mexico that I've seen so far. I'd recommend a callejoneada, but it's probably a lot more fun with someone and if you understand a lot of Spanish.

Try ETN in the future. They only have three seats across the bus (as opposed to 4) and the ride is significantly more comfortable than Primera Plus in my experience.

All these pictures and trip reports are getting me amped up for Mexico. I'll be in Guadalajara in 5 weeks!

Prices sounded reasonable for your airbnb's.

Currently traveling in Guatemala for a week so I figured it'd be ok to add a quick update here since it's fairly common to combine México and Guatemala in one trip.

I was surprised to find out how much Guatemala has to offer and is actually pretty well regarded. Many on LonelyPlanet have it as their favorite Central American destination. I only have 1 week, so my trip just covers some southern destinations. It'd be a good 8 hours by car to get up north to places like Tikal.

Guatemala City:

I saw many gringos in the airport, I spent a day in the city and I didn't see a single other light-skinned person. Most just go directly to Antigua or Atitlán without stopping here. I knew the city would suck, but I figured it was worth 1 night anyway. I would say you can safely skip it and not miss much. It's pretty ugly and devoid of much of interest. Even the central plaza is not overly charming. It does have a few interesting buildings sprinkled throughout, but they are few and far between. It was also a bit unsettling walking through some areas of the center, so I was mostly speed walking and stayed inside at night.



Antigua:

Antigua is very touristy. Roughly half the people walking around the center will be foreigners. It is basically the only colonial city in the country and for that reason it's very popular. However, in México there are dozens of similar cities so for me it was a bit more of the same, although with volcanos and hills that serve as a unique backdrop.

It's a beautiful city and if you're new to colonial cities then you'll probably find it very charming. For me, the 2 nights I stayed felt like enough. If/when I return, I'll use it as a base to check out some of the nearby volcanoes.

The arch w/volcano backdrop which is the first thing you'll probably see when Googling Antigua, Guatemala:






Lake Atitlán:

The real highlight for me. A big like surrounded by a dozen or so little villages, each with a different vibe (there's a hippie village, party village, etc.) Really gorgeous views from all angles. I'm finding it enjoyable checking out each individual village and seeing how they differ. So far I've only made it to a couple, but I'll have 2 more days to explore.

It's a very peaceful and beautiful setting and I would like to return with the girlfriend. I would likely just skip both the capital and Antigua and head straight here. Hopefully with more time to head up to North Guatemala as well and see what it has to offer.

View of the some of the neighbouring towns:



Several little nooks like these and hammocks all over my hotel:



Hearty Guatemalan beef stew for lunch w/accompanying views:



Sorry for portrait, I post a lot of my vids as IG stories so tend to shoot that way:

Nice TR To add to the latter : there are a few other noteworthy destinations in Guatemala : Tikal for the ruins is worth the loop. Livingstone, AKA the lone Guatemalan Caribbean island, has its charm with its focus on thee Rasta culture, beaches and whatnot. But the most remarkable destination outside of Lago de Atitlan, me thinks, is Lanquin, a small town tucked along the way towards the Honduras border. You do have to do quite the detour to get there, but the caves, rapids in the river (and tube riding/swimming) as well as its remote location, make it well worthwhile Please keep in mind that I was last there in 2002 and it has since become a touristic hotspot (unlike in 2002 where there was not a single ATM or wifi connection in a 3h bus radius ), since I last worked there, but I have nonetheless heard positive reviews about it since.

Nice dude! If you go up to Quetzaltenango (Xela) there are a bunch of cool excursions and volcano hikes you can do. I did Mt. Tlajalmulco which gets up to about 14k feet.

Semuc Champey is pretty cool up near Coban as well. I never hit up Flores, but the ruins up there are supposed to be good.

Not surprised you enjoyed Lake Atitlan, it really is an amazing location. Too bad the lake is so polluted, though one can only wonder how over-run with tourists the place would be if the lake was healthy and swimming and other watersports were an option...

How much was your room in the hotel on the cliffs overlooking the lake? Looked like a pretty nice spot!

So I've been in Mexico for about three weeks now...clearly I've done a piss-poor job of posting about my travels (and occassional travails...) here, but, when faced with the choice of going back to my hotel room / airbnb and writing up trip reports versus staying out eating, drinking, exploring, etc., well, it's not that difficult of a decision. However, it's overcaste and rainy today (first time it's rained the entire trip), plus where I'm am at the moment (Patzcuaro) isn't (imo) overly interesting, so I've finally got some spare time on my hands.

I"m not going to write a day-by-day account of what I've been doing because 1) I can't be bothered, and 2) it doesn't involve any cocaine-fueled whoremongering, which I'm pretty sure is all most of you are really interested in reading about anyway.

Trip so far: Guadelajara>Lake Chapala/Ajijic>Guanajuato>San Miguel de Allende>Queretaro>Morelia>Patzcuaro

Hands down I've enjoyed Guanajuato and San Miguel the best. The architecture in Guanajuato is amazing, and as a tourist it's a really manageable / accessible city...I really enjoyed just walking around the historical area of the city. Lots of young (college age) people there, too. SMA is a really attractive city as well, and by far the most expensive place I've visited thus far. Definitely a great destination for higher end dining.

On my second day in San Miguel I met a female expat (early 70's unfortunately...) who had several airbnbs for rent, but after talking for half an hour she said "Well, if you're only staying for a few days, why don't you just stay at my place? I've got a couple of spare bedrooms, and you're welcome to stay in one of them for free." She was super-cool, had lived in San Francisco in the mid/late 60's (when she said it got too dark and infested with hard drugs), and had all kinds of interesting life stories. She introduced me to some other very interesting San Miguel expats, so meeting her really made my stay in SMA much more enjoyable than it likely would have been otherwise.

After staying at her house for two days she announced that she was taking off for a four day weekend to Mexico City, but said that I was welcome to stay at her house while she was away...so for the next four days I had a very nice 3 bed/3 bath house (with rooftop terrace) all to myself--talk about running good!

Other stuff:

Mexico seems perfectly safe to me. Definitely there are areas of the country that are best avoided, and I'm sure it wouldn't be difficult to find trouble if you are overly-stupid, stumbling around drunk and lost at night, and/or just looking for trouble (i.e., buying coke, etc.) but I'm not doing any of the above and am very much on the "gringo trail", i.e., visiting tourist-centric areas (even though there are very few gringos in many of them), and I've never once felt unsafe.

My Spanish sucks, but without exception every single person I've asked for help or interracted with has been super-friendly and at least tried to help.

The real danger for tourist in Mexico is gaining weight! I'm sure one can eat healthy if they try, but generally-speaking the food you encounter walking around is far from healthy. And that's not even taking into account all the ice cream and pastry shops that I seem to walk past every 5-10 minutes.

I've had lots of OK meals, a half dozen really really good ones, and only one "that sucked!" meal. I'm pretty much had my fill of street tacos (though I'm sure there are more in my near-future) and none that I thought were truly great (honestly I've had better Mexican street style tacos in USA), but the seafood tacos I've had (not on the street) have been w/out exception good to great.

I know I mentioned it before, but it bears repeating--the ice cream here is crazy-good. Why we don't have more Mexican-style ice cream places in USA is a mystery, maybe fresh ingredients too costly and too much manual labor involved?

The coffee is pretty damn good, too. Ditto beer, tequila, and mezcal obviously.

I've had a couple of "Michelada's"...the locals seem to love them but they don't do much for me. I like my beer to taste like beer I guess, and besides, whats the benefit of diluting the percentage of alcohol in my beer??

What is up with these bags of "Dorilocos"?!?! #$%^& gross if you ask me (and no I haven't tried them).

I've walked into and photographed dozens of cathedrals / Catholic churches and had about enough of that.

Have enjoyed my trip so far (only been sick once!) but feel I've spent too much time in cities and not enough time in nature. That's what I get for not doing a lot of pre-trip planning I guess.

Only not-so-nice experience was showing up in Morelia at 10pm only to find out that the hotel I had a reservation for had lost my reservation and had no rooms available. It was a holiday weekend (Mexico's Independence day I think + their version of "Black Friday") and I could not find a single hotel room anywhere. I finally found one room at a hotel near the bus station (never a good sign)....I'm pretty sure it was a "No Tell" hotel...picture a single low wattage lightbulb in center of ceiling, bare walls, natty bedspread, moldy bathroom, with funky cigarrete odor... I pulled the bedspread off the bed, wrapped a towel around the pillow, and slept on top of the sheets fully clothed--the only thing I took off was my shoes. I didn't unpack a single thing from my backpack, and placed it in the shower overnight in the hopes of avoiding it getting infested with bedbugs. Not an enjoyable experience, but nothing a six pack with a Xanax-chaser wasn't able to remedy.

Thanks for the rec, I had never heard of Lanquin, but I'll look into it. Hopefully I'll be back to Guatemala sooner rather than later.

I wussed out and didn't do any volcanos b/c I had such a short time and didn't want to get rekt by a 10-12 hour roundtrip hike, but it's something I'd like to try, along with Semuc Champey.

Yah, it's already seeming quite touristy and seems like it's about at capacity, but still manageable. Hopefully it doesn't get worse in the next 5-10 years.

The place was $55 on a Thursday and I believe $75 on weekends so I just booked the 1 night as I generally try to keep my AirBNB/Booking budget around $30-45.

There are several places with excellent views though. This was my view in San Pedro.



I got kinda lucky on my last full day there and had a tuk-tuk driver in San Pedro who was super nice. I was looking for a particular local soccer jersey and he took me to like 4 different places to track it down. Then he took me up to 3 different lesser-known lookout points. I knew there was a soccer match later that evening and he was also interested, so when he was done with work he picked me up on his personal motorcycle and we went to the match.

It was a Guatemalan 3rd division match, but was insanely fun. 4k capacity and it was packed, which is insane b/c the whole town has 12k people. There wasn't another gringo in the place and I got a lot of high 5s for the jersey. The atmosphere was basically a party the whole time with people singing and chanting the entire match.

Great TR PoC! I don't think it matters if you don't get up to much degen stuff, I think most would agree it's still an interesting read.

Pretty much agree with all your stuff

-Guanajuato is awesome, I love that place

-San Miguel is the only slight disagreement. It's obviously beautiful, but I wasn't too enamored with it. Too overrun with gringos now and I think it's a bit boring. Definitely a different feel in Guanajuato with all the students compared to SMA with the old retirees.

-re: danger level, I've had the same experience. Almost 2 years in Mexico and a couple dozen different cities/towns and I've yet to find myself in 1 situation where I felt uneasy. OTOH, I was in Guatemala City for just 1 day and was speed walking through the central areas during the day, just didn't like the vibe. Like you, I don't get up to any degen activities, so I think if you're not out looking for hard drugs or stumbling home drunk through unknown alleys at 2AM, then you can mitigate a lot of the risk. It also helps knowing which cities to completely avoid, but I don't think many gringos would be searching those cities out anyway.

-You definitely need to try the tacos al pastor in CDMX.

-Micheladas and dorilocos are weird to me too. Seems like sometimes Mexicans just try creating these random combos of foods and some are a miss. The propensity to put sauce on literally everything is also a bit strange. Like they can't just enjoy a pizza, popcorn, or Lays chips without needing to douse them in ketchup (odd for a pizza when it already has tomato sauce) or hot sauce.

-The real nature gems are Huasteca Potosina more to the north of where you are, or when you get to Oaxaca/Chiapas. Although there are many cool places dotted all around the central cities as well. Bernal, right next to Querétaro capital, for one. Tons near CDMX too if you find yourself with extra time. Nevado de Toluca, the town of Tepoztlán with a hike (not too long) up the Tepozteco, and more archaelogical than nature related, but the pyramids of Teotihuacán.

-No comments on Morelia? I liked the city a lot, beautiful central plaza and church, interesting food scene (only place to find gaspacho, for example), unique culture, and I love the city for its different architectural style (Mexico can be pretty colonial heavy).

These 2 are the same place.

Ahh ok, then I have heard of it!

Fossil: Understand what you're saying about SMA being boring and overrun with retired gringos. Again, my experience was quite a bit different than it would likely have been had I not met that woman, she has lived there for nearly 15 years and had quite an interesting group of friends... Speaking of interesting people, I met this guy, took a tour of his compound, and spent a bit of time talking with him...he's had anything but a boring life! madebyanado.com

Definitely enjoyed Morelia, stayed there for two nights at a very nice airbnb two blocks from the main plaza. As impressive as Morelia's main cathedral is, I was actually much more impressed with the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Guadalupe--talk about over-the-top ornate!

Weird that Morelia's the only place to sells gaspacho, one would think they would have exported that across MX. I had two cups and enjoyed them, though I still prefer my fruit with yogurt and granola. I did not think the women in Morelia were particularly attractive though...

Funny you mentioned Huasteca Potosina--someone I met here in Patz mentioned that place, and I've been researching it online tonight. It looks really interesting and would scratch my "need to get out into nature" itch, but it sounds like the various hikes and waterfalls are pretty spread out, so you really need to have your own car, or if not, willingness to hire a driver and guide. Also sounds like the kind of place where you really need to plan in advance versus just "show up and wing it" which pretty much describes how I've been traveling thus far.

I've also been reading up on the the Michoacán coastline...sounds like there might be some nice tranquillo beach areas in the Zihuatanejo area which is not too far from me.

So what to do? Catch a bus to Mexico City or head to the beach??? Decisions decisions....

I think each area is so proud of their local food and customs that they think it would be "selling out" to offer another state's specialties. I liked gaspacho a lot and loved tejuino (from GDL), but haven't been able to find them outside of those cities. At the same time, it's what makes Mexico so cool, that each state is so different and diverse.

There's a channel on Youtube by a couple called Kinetic Kennons. They're a young couple who have done a shitload of videos on Mexico and their favorite place was Huasteca Potosina. You could watch some of their vids on the topic if you wanted a closer look at each place. It does seem like a hassle to get to the different spots though.

Zihuatanejo is in Guerrero and I've heard pretty good things about it. Michoacán coastline can be slightly dangerous in some spots. My ex-gf said we couldn't go to Lázaro Cárdenas b/c of a bit of narco traffic there. Some of the smaller beaches should be fine though. My girlfriend loved the beaches in Colima, a bit up the coast.

Thanks for the last TR's PoC and fossil. Good stuff. Personally, I'd encourage people to post a wide range of destinations ITT.

There actually are several Mexican ice cream shops in Vegas. I tried one and it was good, but I wasn't floored. Maybe I need to try more, or I will appreciate it better after a second taste. I will def. try it next time I'm in Mex.

Re: your hotel debacle PoC. While I only tried it in CDMX, I'm pretty sure that reserving hotels is terrible strat. I got better prices just walking in and asking the cash price than any prices listed online.

That only saves you a few bucks. But if you use Priceline, Orbitz etc. it is inevitable that you will get royally screwed at some point. Worst for me was when I missed my flight to Brazil. Had like a 10 day hotel reservation. I got there a few days late and they wouldn't even give me the remaining days I'd paid for. Orbitz told me to go eff myself. Something like $600 down the toilet.

I think in the vast majority of cities the chances of you showing up and every hotel room being booked are near zero. So just look on Priceline or whatever when you arrive. Don't book through them. Go to the hotel you like and ask to pay cash.

As I said before, I also felt safe in CDMX, even in poorer areas. But I wouldn't throw caution to the wind.

I did have a minor run in with the police there. My friend and I were caught drinking in public. The cops wanted a bribe. My friend demanded to see their boss and we were taken to him. Of course I'm like, "can we just pay them?" My friend (who is Mexican) had a very animated conversation with the higher ranking cop. I was quite nervous about this. But after a while, we were let go. My friend told me that he gave him a big speech about how people are afraid to come to Mexico because of crooked cops, and if I went back to the U.S. and told everyone the police shook me down, it would be confirming that prejudice.

But on the other hand, we were guilty!

I actually think Tijuana is pretty dangerous. There, I was abducted and robbed by the police. I've heard many similar stories. When I was a sub in LA, one of my Mexican American students told me that they went down there to party and the cops killed his cousin.

On the whole, I think it's pretty safe. Actually, that's objective fact. Just don't let your guard down completely. Be aware that people will look at you and know you probably have what they make in 2 months in your pocket.

I've used AirBNB probably 80 times in LatAm and Europe and it meets or exceeds my expectations almost always and only had 1-2 minor problems. I only use hotels if I see one that looks especially nice (like that lake place in Guatemala seen above) or seems like a great value (this is rare). So I pretty much swear by AirBNB, at least for most locations in LatAm and Europe. It's not as good in USA from what I've seen.

Just look for a place with over a dozen reviews and an ave. rating over 4.7 and you'll usually be happy. Also, far less hassle just paying online and dealing with a host who has a vested interest in keeping you happy than hotel front desks.

The only place on this trip I’ve booked a hotel was Morelia due to the fact that I couldn’t find an airbnb I liked—again it was a holiday weekend and rooms were super hard to come by. But other than that it’s been 100% Airbnb’s this trip.

Back in my younger days I used to show up in a town and spend an hour walking around trying to find the best place for the cheapest price, but now I can’t be bothered, and it’s so much easier / nicer to have a place I’m almost certain to like pre-booked. I’ve lstayed in 100+ Airbnb’s and only had 2-3 negative experiences, one is which I complained to airbnb about and they refunded my full stay.

One thing I often do, however, is look for places that are nicer than I need / more expensive than I want to pay, contact the host, compliment them on their apartment but tell them it’s more than I can afford but if they’re willing to rent it out for “X” to send me a special offer.

I just arrived Puebla this afternoon; last night I contacted an owner who had a one bedroom for rent in the historic zone for $50/night + $18 cleaning fees. I offered $25/night including fees which she agreed to.

Obviously this works best for last-minute bookings, and my success rate is probably around 60%-70%.

Good tip. I've negotiated on my last few AirBNB stays of 1-6 months, but never thought to do it on short stays. I guess it makes sense. If a place is still free a couple nights before a certain date, chances are it will remain unoccupied and the owner will accept low offers.

Hey, love the thread! My wife, my dad and I are planning to visit at the end of January. Best way to get to Polanco from the airport?

Uber is around $6. When you call your Uber it will ask you to enter which exit door you're closest to (you'll probably be around door 7 I think). Just enter the door # and then stand under the big # they have to indicate each door and wait for the driver. Quick and painless.

Polanco is really nice and almost like a mini-city in and of itself with lots to see and do, but it doesn't have the best public transport b/c most people living there own cars. So you'll probably end up using Uber a bunch, but luckily it's like $3-5 unless it's a really long ride.

If anyone's thinking about visiting CDMX and just want get a feel for what it's like or are just curious, I recently discovered an awesome YouTube channel called 4k Walk. Basically he just picks a zone of a city and films for 15 minutes with unedited footage. Looks like he's been in CDMX a lot lately and also has videos on Brazil, Colombia, Buenos Aires, and spots in Europe/USA.

Here's a recent video on Reforma, which is where I live. The very first thing he films is the Mexican stock exchange, only a couple blocks from my apartment.

Nice video. It actually occurred to me to try to do something similar, but I figured there weren't enough other weirdos who are interested in seeing mundane aspects of foreign cities. Not that I'd have followed through on it anyway.

Long story short, that's a cool channel.

Thank you for posting these pictures. I like the dishes so much. They look so tasty. Can't wait to enjoy them

If your hotel / airbnb is within walking distance of a metro station, taking the metro from the airport is also an option, and depending upon traffic conditions might actually be faster than uber or a taxi. But if you've got lots of luggage (or traditional suitcases) Uber would probably be easiest.

Lots of great (though not necessarily cheap) restaurants in Polanco!

The metro can be nice or a nightmare depending on when you try to take it. I usually look for other options (or just don't leave my area) between 4-7PM b/c I know the metro will be so chaotic and I'll be crammed in there barely able to breathe. It's also a bit sketchy when it's so packed and is usually when pickpockets can get handsy and try to grab something.

PoC is a travel legend so I'd trust him to know how to handle himself in most situations, but for people freshly arriving to CDMX with limited street smarts/navigational skills, I'd probably just bite the bullet and pay $4-8 for an Uber (although prices have gone up during the Holidays due to increased demand).

If you usually can find your way around cities and see that your AirBNB/hotel is less than 15 minute walk from a metro station and it's outside of rush hour. Sure, consider the metro.

The nice thing about public transport in CDMX is that it's basically free. A dozen rides here costs about the same as 1 in Paris. One time I was headed to Estadio Azteca and there's a light rail to take right before you get to the stadium that listed the price as $4. I was thinking "why the F are they listing the price in American dollars?" I couldn't fathom that it would only cost 4 pesos (like 20 cents) and didn't even think about it.