1

How long is your total stay in Mexico likely to last? And, how many days and nights would be available for the side trip to another town or city?

Yes, your side trip could profitably be made to Cuernavaca, or Patzcuaro, or Queretaro, or Puebla, or perhaps some other place in the region, a location equally attractive but not mentioned (or extensively treated) in guidebooks.

What kinds of experiences do you want to have during your side trip? If the prospect of encountering contemporary indigenous culture interests you, consider going to Patzcuaro, or perhaps to Cuetzalan, a mountain town in northern Puebla state. It would take you about the same amount of time (six hours) to reach Cuetzalan as it would to get to Patzcuaro.

See: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/09/AR2005090900682.html

Or, for something different (more rural and relaxing) consider spending two or three nights in Tolantongo canyon, 3 and 1/2 to four hours north of Mexico City:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuMVLylsZkQ

2

thanks for your post Chris,
but do not understand how your answer help me to choose between Coyoacan, la condesa, polanco in Mexico district?
same for 1) Cuernavaca or Patzcuaro?
2) Querétaro or Puebla?
would you recommend option 1 or 2 ?

3

First I'd recommend spending some time with a guidebook (Lonely Planet is a good one).

As for your questions:

Polanco is the Beverly Hills of Mexico City. Here you will fnd the most luxurious hotels such as the Marriott Polanco at $350 usd/night (across the street from the Bentley car dealership andTiffany's jewlery). Polanco is nicely situated next to Chapultapec Park with easy access to the metro.

La Condesa is an upscale neighborhood with many fine restaurants, but not many hotels. It is mostly commercial and residential.

Adjacent La Condesa is another upscale neighborhood, Colonia Roma, with it's own selection of upscale coffee shops, bookstores, restaurants and such.

Coyoacan is farther south in Mexico City, another nice neighborhood, and is more characteristically young and funky. there are some B&Bs there (check Suites Coyoacan).

The centro historico has some budget hotels near and around the zocalo and the Holiday Inn on the zocalo. The area gets pretty quiet after 9 or 10 at night.

The Zona Rosa is a collection of clubs and nightspots - noisy and crowded.

The metro serves all of these areas except la Condesa which may require some walking to get to a metro stop.

As for neighboring areas to visit: Queretero and Puebla are large, industrial cities with well preserved colonial centers. Cuernavaca is almost a suburb of Mexico City, but quieter. These cities are easily reached by bus from Mexico City. Patzcuaro is farther out, about six hours or more away from Mexico City near Morelia, Michoacan on a large lake by the same name.

4

Thanks cascadeboy, your answers are more in directions of my questions.

it seems that Colonia Roma is more or less in our spirit direction, any tips for places to overnight?
Coyoacan in relation with your say, seems to be a little to far from down-town isn't it?
maybe better to visit during daylight.
polanco probably to "showy" for us. presume la zona rosa isn't difficult to reach from Colonia roma?
we are more friendly, "artistic" orientated; i forgot to mentioned we like architecture.
Cuernava, is it worth to overnight there or a day trip from colonia roma should be all right & stay longer in our hotel in Colonia roma?
thanks

5

La Condesa is an upscale neighborhood with many fine restaurants, but not many hotels. It is mostly commercial and residential.

I haven't stayed in Condesa, but there's the highly regarded Red Tree House B&B, also Amatlán 84, another guest house rated well by guests. I recently read about Villa Condesa, another fine B&B. (See TripAdvisor.com for details.)

For hotels, and not B&Bs, there's the Hotel Roosevelt, on Av. Insurgentes at Av. Yucatan, the boundary between Condesa and Colonia Roma. There's also the Condesa D.F. Hotel and the Hipódromo. That exhausts my knowledge of Condesa lodging for now.

You might also look into AirBnB.com, particularly a property claiming to be "Best House in (Colonia) San Miguel Chapultepec". I would consider staying there as it looks very attractive.

Usually, we stay at the Hotel Stanza, Hotel Milán, or Hotel Embassy in Roma Norte, in descending order of amenities and especially in price. But the Hotel Embassy (*NOT Embassy Suites!*) satisfies our basic lodging needs quite well.

Now, to the OP's question:
however, we can't really decide (again) where?
1) Cuernavaca or Patzcuaro?
2) Querétaro or Puebla?
it has to be the first of the second, we will run out of time for both.

Instead of suggesting our favorite areas, outside the OP's parameters, I'll try to give an answer within the lines.

1. Pátzcuaro. Beautiful setting, strong indigenous presence, native crafts and many small, charming villages (and you can stay in small hotels or b&bs in those villages)around and near Lake Pátzcuaro. Cuernavaca has a few good features, most of which are not apparent unless you have friends living there. It's large, noisy and somewhat polluted. The disadvantage of Pátzcuaro is that it's a 5 1/2 hour bus trip from Mexico City.

2. I would choose Puebla. While Querétaro is clean and attractive, but somewhat bland. Puebla is more interesting, ie, less modern in the center and with a notable regional cuisine.

6

"La Condesa is an upscale neighborhood with many fine restaurants, but not many hotels. It is mostly commercial and residential." should be attributed to CascadeBob.

7

If you are interested in architecture you might check out the Casa Azul in Coyoacan built by Frida and Diego Rivera and the Casa Barrigan in Tacubaya. Then, of course, there are the colonial structures around the zocalo (national cathedral and government palace) along with the ruins of Tenochtitlan.

8

Firstly, knowing the time of year you plan to visit and the total number of days you have to visit will help responders fine-tune their recommendations.

Secondly, I don't know of a reason to recommend against overnighting at one of the many hotels in the Zona Rosa district, if you wanted to do that. It's a popular section of the city with good transportation links. The environment in the Centro Historico district has improved markedly over the course of the past decade. Many people, particularly those who look for and enjoy older architecture, enjoy staying there and there are many options from which to choose. Though pedestrian traffic is light after, say, 9 p.m., there are sections where it can be lively until Midnight. Colonia Roma has, at long last, started to get the attention of foreign visitors it's long deserved. It's well-situated to take advantage of the wide-variety of things to see/do in the city and much of it is close to good transportation options. Currently, my hotel of choice in the Colonia is Hotel Embassy. A pretty good hotel room is priced at less than the peso equivalent of US$30. A room and environment which in a similar city in the USA or Canada would cost more than US$100. There are other options and some good reports posted by Anonimo which you might find (if the search feature is functioning) by looking under "Colonia Roma."

Hotel Embassy Information

Thirdly, as for where to head after Mexico City ... that depends on what you're looking for. If this were my trip and I had just a couple or several days to depart the city, see someplace else, and return to the city before flying home ... I don't think I'd want to travel more than 4/5 hours by bus in each direction. The earlier suggestion to consult a guidebook is a good one, to help you zero-in on a destination. You can immediately download just the Mexico City chapter of the new LP Mexico guide for probably less than US$5 and I believe that section discusses day-trips. Or you can visit your local public library and thumb-through the guidebooks ... even if they're out-of-date. The list of attractions and things to see/do doesn't really change much over the years. A last thought: maybe you'd like to see one of the Monarch Butterfly sanctuaries.

Anyhow, best of luck with the trip planning.

LW

9

Thanks for all your recommendations, as you understood our main problem is to select where to go as Mexico has a lot to offer and we only have 3 1/2 week.
However, we know what we don't want " be with the tourists groups"
we also want to enjoy good local or street food ( no international)
question is puerto vallarta a good period in march/April?
thanks again

10

I don't know of a reason to recommend against overnighting at one of the many hotels in the Zona Rosa district

There may not be one reason, but there are definitely dozens...

11

1. There is actually plenty of night life in Centro Historico, especially Wed/Thu - Sat. Not upscale type, like in Condesa, but plenty of people in the bars and on the streets, especially along pedestrian Ave Modero; we saw some pretty good Opera signers performing for the public form a balcony of Casa de Azulejos and a good Jazz band jamming just around the corner a Friday ago.

If you are into architecture, Centro presents balanced, if a bit neglected, mix of architecture from 16th to late 19th century.

2. I am not a huge fan of Zona Rosa but I challenge enroutesiglo to give one good reason not to stay there overnight.

3. Don Anonimo listed a good deal of hotels in Roma, which OP, based on their postings, will probably enjoy better than Condesa. Plenty of modern art galleries, still bohemian feel, despite recent gentrification, cafes, long standing tomales restaurant, art-deco and art-nouveau buildings - the further south you wonder, the more of rather beautiful decay you'd see.

4. Coyoacan is far in the South. It takes time to get to other parts of the city from there. Not my ideal place to stay in D.F.
I will have to disagree with CascadaBob - there is nothing particularly interesting architecture-wise in Casa Azul - ok, it is painted blue - but entire southern part of Coyoacan (along Ave Francisco Sosa and around) feature buildings from 16th century up, some built by Cortes's Conquistadors.
If you are still looking for a place, there are Hostal Frida B&B hostal Cujha.

5. I choose Queretaro over Puebla any day but I choose Queretaro over any other city in Mexico so I am biased. Both are marvelous as architectural monuments but Querataro is much better preserved. You'll find plenty to do and see in both, flip a coin.

Good Luck!
/alter

12

2... the best reason is simply that you're in Mexico City, surrounded by other much more desirable options. I did stay there (in the embassy section) in Dec. in Hotel Casa Gonzalez, a very nice little spot, during that booked-out documentary weekend, and didn't die of tacky, but was glad to get out.

The real reason is that it's (at least for me) kind of a downer, when I'm in the area I inevitably walk through some section of it, see what seems like least a dozen Starbucks, and just get that generally cheesy feeling that I don't get elsewhere. There's also the fact that a single guy can't walk a block without being constantly offered "table" and other fun stuff, one of the few places in the city where this can become a real nuisance.

Anyway, it comes down to personal preference, but I'd still call it an area to avoid just for the impression it gives – tho I'm sure some people are into that kind of vibe, and it's also the center of gay fabulous in the area so there's that. Noticed have a lot of stories in the Mexican media lately about how the area has gotten kind of rundown/mismanaged in general and is due for a serious sprucing up, it's hard to believe but the area really did use to be hip and fun like Condesa.

13

...another good option for Coyocan is checking AirBnB and Craigslist, that's how I found a killer apartment for a few weeks recently. Though I didn't end up loving living there, you could do a lot worse.

14

I agree with most of what's been said. The best neighbourhood from which to base yourself is Roma. You can easily walk to Condesa and Zona Rosa.

With limited time, neither Zona Rosa nor Polanco should be at the top of the neighbourhood list...but if there for more than 5 days then, sure, they're worth passing through. Actually, walking down Reforma from Revolucion to Chapultepec could technically count as Zona Rosa and it's worth doing...even more worth doing on a Sunday morning when Reforma is closed to traffic and you can bike or walk.

Polanco can be done after visiting Chapultepec; you can find some of the best high-end restaurants there, which, apparently can knock your socks off though I haven't been myself.

Coyoacan is certainly worth a day. You can combine it with adjacent San Angel, especially on a Saturday when that neighbourhood hosts a fantastic art market.

I also agree that the nightlife in Centro is pretty good on the weekends; safe and busy with several streets closed to traffic and lined with shops, bars, restaurants, cafes and, especially, cantinas, as reported here and here. Have fun!