Mexico City Tour – Tour {Review}
Post last modified – February 20, 2023 ¦ gr8traveltips.com
🍁 On our recent travels from Vancouver, British Columbia to Ecuador, we had a long layover between connecting flights in Mexico City. Since we had the whole day, we decided to book a private 🏜 Mexico City tour.
We have done this in other destinations before and have always enjoyed taking advantage of our free hours to explore a new city.
This private tour was a great, stress-free and relaxing way to see 🏙 the famous sites of Mexico City in a short amount of time.
Mexico City Tour {Withlocals}
The great thing about organizing a private tour is that you have the freedom to request any specific places you would like to see or visit.
Your guide will do his best to accommodate your requests within reason.
In addition to what the tour recommended, we had a few establishments we definitely wanted to check out during the day.
Below is a sampling of the places and sites we were able to see on our tour with our guide {Rogelio}. 🙂
Airport pick up and drop off
The great thing about a relaxing tour is that you don’t have to worry about ✈ airport transportation. In most cases and depending on which business you choose, your personal guide will be there to meet and greet you outside of arrivals.
Rogelio was waiting for the arrivals from outside at a predetermined destination. After greeting each other, he moved to his new 🚙 car, which was very clean and comfortable.
The journey from the airport to the historic city center is only about 30 minutes or about 10 kilometers away.
This is definitely the area of the city to visit if you only have a short amount of time like we did.
Here you will find historical sights dating back to Aztec times. This is also where you’ll find the massive Zócalo square. As well as there are; museums, historic buildings, churches, shops, restaurants and much more.
Below I have listed just a few of the sites and establishments we visited with Rogelio.
El Moro Restaurant
Once we got to the historic center, we definitely wanted to check out El Moro.
Churrería El Moro is an iconic restaurant in the city. It is open 24 hours a day and serves delicious freshly made churros and hot chocolate.
Tacos al Pastor is also right next door to El Morro. You can order your tacos and take them with you to El Morro.
Tacos, Churros and Hot Chocolate – a perfect match.
I discovered both of these establishments from watching the Netflix series {Somebody Feed Phil}.
This is a great travel and food series {featuring Philip Rosenthal. Along with his crew, they travel the world and enjoy local eateries and fine dining in this hilarious TV series.
If you love travel and food, this series is a “Must Watch”.
We visited the original El Morro location from 1935, conveniently located in historic downtown Mexico City.
I asked our guide, Rogelio, on a scale of one to ten, what he thought of the tacos. He replied, nine.
How about hot fresh churros and hot chocolate?
Delicious!
National Palace of Fine Arts
This historical building houses the 🏛 National Museum of Plastic Art.
“The Palace of Fine Arts (Palacio de Bellas Artes) is one of the most iconic and grand buildings in the historic center of Mexico City.”
The most important government building that houses Diego Rivera’s most famous murals.
There is also a 🌴 park around this historic building for locals and visitors alike.
Zocalo
The Zócalo is called the {Main Square} in this part of Mexico City.
It dates back to the colonial period, the main {Ceremonial Center} of the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan.
The square is surrounded by several beautiful historical buildings.
Former Congregation of San Francisco
Founded in 1542, just 3 years after the {conquest of Mexico}, this was one of the largest convents of Spanish times.
Templo Mayor – Aztec Ruins Site
The Templo Mayor was the main temple of the Mexicans in their capital, Tenochtitlan, now known as Mexico City.
Madero Street
Francisco I. Madero Avenue, better known as; Madero Street.
A geographically and historically significant pedestrian street in a city and the main thoroughfare in the historic part of the city.
Popular with locals and tourists alike, this huge walkway is full of shops galore.
Pasteleria Ideal
Dating back to the 1920s, this hugely popular 🍩 patisserie/bakery shop is filled with a huge variety of Mexican pastries.
They are especially famous for their beautiful 🎂 cakes and specialty. eight-tiered wedding cakes.
La Merced market
Our last stop of the day, located very close to the airport, is a visit to one of the largest markets in Mexico City.
This is an incredibly huge market where you can find almost anything, including the kitchen sink.
The size is overwhelming, but we stopped quickly to browse some of the isles, including the flower section of the market.
It’s great to see and see how the locals go about their daily lives.
After our visit, it was only a few minutes back to the airport, which gave us plenty of time to clear customs and catch our connecting ✈ flight to Quito, Ecuador.
Mexico City is huge and depending on how much time you have on your vacation, I definitely recommend taking a private tour with a local.
Let your guide know in advance what you have in mind and they will do their best to accommodate you.
Just search on Google for {Mexico City Layover Tours} and choose the right one that suits you best.
😎 Safe and sound travels!
All personal 📸 photos in this post are owned and copyrighted by gr8traveltips.com. Unauthorized use is strictly prohibited. 🚫
Cover photo by Yvonne Gorgonio – pexels
And did you know…
🌵 Tourist Scams in Mexico City {Good to Know}
🌵 Affordable Weekends in Mexico {A Clos Look}
🌵 Baja Mexico RV Caravans {Baja Amigos}
🍹 Don’t forget… Be sure to pin it! 🍹
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