Mexico City, altitude and appetite
Courtyards, markets and a food culture built on maize, beans and chillies — which is to say on exactly what nutritionists keep recommending.
Words — WT Editorial Team
- Go when
- March to May, before the rains
- Pace
- Slow start, late lunch, long evening
- Money
- Mexican peso
Two things to plan for: the altitude, which will flatten you on day one if you arrive and go straight out, and the size, which makes neighbourhood-by-neighbourhood the only sane approach.
The city's restorative spaces are courtyards and parks rather than spas, and they are everywhere once you start looking through doorways.
Move
Walks, water, hillsBosque de Chapultepec
ChapultepecBigger than Central Park. The second and third sections are where locals run.
Sunday Paseo Dominical
ReformaReforma closes to cars every Sunday morning. Borrow a bike and join in.
Xochimilco canals, early
SouthGo at eight for birds and quiet rather than at two for parties.
Eat
What the locals orderMarket comida corrida
Any mercadoA set lunch of soup, rice, a main and agua fresca for the price of a coffee elsewhere.
Nixtamalised tortillas
Roma / CentroSeek out a tortillería using real masa. The difference is not subtle.
Agua de jamaica
EverywhereHibiscus, barely sweetened. The default drink instead of soda.
Restore
Where the noise stopsA Roma Norte courtyard café
Roma NorteTen minutes off the street and the noise stops entirely.
Temazcal, chosen carefully
OutskirtsA pre-Hispanic sweat lodge. Go with a practitioner with a lineage, not a hotel spa version.
Museo Casa Luis Barragán
TacubayaBook ahead. An hour in those rooms does more for the nervous system than most treatments.
Stay
NeighbourhoodsRoma Norte
Walkable, leafy, full of good food, easy to navigate on a first visit.
Coyoacán
Further out, quieter, more domestic, markets that feel lived in.
One good day
- 1
Slow coffee in a courtyard; the city does not need you before ten.
- 2
Chapultepec for the walk and one museum, not three.
- 3
Comida corrida in a market at two.
- 4
Afternoon in Coyoacán or a long sit somewhere green.
- 5
Tacos at nine, standing up.
Don't bother
Altitude supplements. Two easy days, a lot of water and less alcohol does the same job.
The Sunday Edit
Five things worth knowing for a healthier week.
