March/April 2026 – Mexico City and Teotihuacán

We spent the first 3 ½ years of our travel journey exploring Mexico by car so that we could travel with Gunner. Mexico City, abbreviated CDMX, is known for having a lot of traffic, and foreign cars need to a obtain permit to visit. As a result, we avoided the city… until now. I also really wanted to visit the ruins at Teotihuacán. Sandy had visited both places before, so neither was high on her list. However, she agreed to revisit them both so we could say that our exploration through Mexico was complete and we could focus our attention on other countries.

Mexico General

The exchange rate during our trip fluctuated between 17.3 and 17.8 Mexican pesos (MXP) to 1 U.S. dollar. When we started this journey in 2021, the rate was over 20, so the U.S. dollar has weakened quite a bit.

Credit cards were widely accepted in Mexico City. At restaurants throughout Mexico, we tend to pay by card and tip in cash. In Mexico City, we didn’t see anyone (locals or visitors) leaving cash tips, so either they weren’t tipping at all, or they were adding it to their credit card charge. Assuming it was the latter, we started adding our 10% tip on the card, and the waitstaff always seemed appreciative. Credit cards were not as widely accepted around Teotihuacán, so it was good to have plenty of pesos.

We rarely needed cash in CDMX, but did take out some cash to have on hand through our trip. We then got some additional cash before heading up to Teotihuacán.

Cell phones and sim cards – Our T-Mobile phone plans include free roaming in Mexico. I also have an older phone with a Mexican sim card that I top up and use as a hotspot to reduce our data usage. I spent about $20 USD on my Mexican data plan during our month in Mexico.

Mexico City

Travel – Mexico City has an enormous airport with a lot of flights, but traveling from Roatán proved to be a challenge. Options included flying through Guatemala, El Salvador, Panama, or even the United States. Looking at a map, and considering the long duration and hassle of an international arrival, we came up with a simpler multi-day option: Roatán -> Belize –> Chetumal (Mexico) -> Mexico City.

Step 1 – Roatán to Belize – Our trip started with a 45-minute taxi ride from our Roatán hotel to the airport. We pre-paid the $35 USD taxi through our hotel, and spent our final Honduran lempiras on a tip for our driver and some coffee at the airport. We had a direct flight to Belize City on Tropic Air, in a small, propeller-driven plane with 10 seats. There is only one flight per day, so we bought our tickets about two months in advance, for $230 USD each. Once in Belize, passing through immigration and customs was simple and straightforward. There’s no entrance tax, and the agent gave me hope that we’d avoid paying the exit tax because we were only in the country for one night to transit. We had pre-arranged a shuttle from the airport in Belize City through our hotel for $30 USD.

It took about 20 minutes to get from the airport to the Golden Bay Hotel in Belize City. We chose this hotel based on its location along our route and because it had a restaurant for dinner and breakfast. The hotel would have cost us $130 USD, but we had some credit card points built up, so our stay became free. We arrived quite early – around 11:30am, but the hotel was able to check us in early. Belize City is not very touristy – it’s really just a hub for people heading elsewhere in the country. But the people are nice, and our short one-night stay reminded us how much we had enjoyed our time in Belize at the start of our Central American journey. We had held onto some Belizean dollars for departure, but since we are hoping not to pay the exit tax, I managed to exchange all of our remaining BZD to USD. Day 1 totals: $460 for the flight, $65 for the taxis, $130 (actually $0) for the hotel, and 4.5 hours of travel.

Step 2 – Belize City to Chetumal, Mexico – We had a leisurely morning, staying until our check-out time of 11am. We got a hotel shuttle to the water taxi terminal for no cost (it’s typically $10 USD, but the hotel staff comped us the shuttle because they felt sorry about some construction noise that was happening throughout our stay). From the water taxi terminal, our plan wasn’t to take a boat, but to catch one of the many shuttles that use the terminal as their hub.

We purchased our shuttle tickets a few weeks in advance for $25 USD each. The shuttle was packed full, so it’s good that we did. We were scheduled to depart at 12:30pm, but the bus was coming from San Ignacio, arrived late, and we didn’t actually leave until around 1:30pm. We had a 3-hour drive to the Belize border, where we were each charged the standard 40 BZD ($20 USD) Belizean exit tax, even though we only stayed 1 night. The agent told us that to qualify as in-transit, we would have had to arrive and leave on the same day. Once through Belizean immigration, we waited about 30 minutes for all of the other passengers, then a 5-minute shuttle drive to the Mexican entry point.

Entering Mexico required going through immigration and customs, so we needed to take all of our luggage with us. Our suitcases were the first off the shuttle, which meant we had no one to follow through this process. We got some confusing directions, then eventually found a door to enter. We saw a “Banjercito” desk for visitors to pay their entry tax, but we’re Permanent Residents and didn’t need to do that step. We went straight to the immigration desk, showed our cards, and were stamped in with “RP” in our passports. From there, it was a quick walk to customs, then outside to wait for everyone else and our bus. Sadly, it took about two hours for everyone to make it through immigration and customs, with one very late straggler! We’re not sure what caused her delay, but our driver knew how many passengers he needed to wait for. Once we had all cleared, we reloaded and reboarded the shuttle, then settled in for a 30-minute drive to Chetumal and the Marlin Espadas (shuttle company) terminal. Most of the passengers expected to just drop a few people off and leave, but it turned out that everyone had to unload. The ongoing passengers were transferred to pickups and vans, while we requested an Uber to our hotel.

We were disappointed by the conditions of the Chetumal Wyndham Inn during our previous stay in January, plus their rate had gone up significantly. This time, we stayed at the Fiesta Inn, with decent reviews, an on-site restaurant, and airport shuttle. At $88 USD per night, it ended up being a nicer hotel than the Wyndham, and would likely be our choice if we returned to Chetumal. Step 2 travel totals: $50 for the shuttle from Belize to Chetumal, $5 for our Uber in Chetumal, $88 for the hotel. Total $143 USD, but 9 long hours of travel!

Step 3 – Chetumal, Mexico to Mexico City – We had another leisurely morning because the one daily flight departs at 6pm. We requested a late checkout from our hotel, which they gave us without hesitation. We checked out around 1pm, left our bags at the desk, then walked to our favorite restaurant in Chetumal – Ceviche 983 – where we shared 5 great ceviche tostadas. After lunch, we went back to the hotel, and caught their complementary shuttle to the airport. We were almost 3 hours early for our flight, which was too early, as the check-in desk didn’t open for another hour. When booking our 1.5-hour flight, prices were around $150 for economy class or $200 for first class, so yeah, that’s what we did. Unfortunately, there’s no premium lounge in Chetumal, but we got to skip the line at the check-in desk and enjoyed all the perks of first class on the plane – big seats, a meal, and free drinks, including a very good cristalino tequila hyped up by our cabin steward. As we flew into the city, we were visually impressed by the large number of flowering jacaranda trees scattered across the city, creating colorful purple blotches throughout our view. Once in the Mexico City airport, our bags came out quickly, then we called our hotel to coordinate a shuttle.

Although we’re staying in Mexico City for a couple of weeks, our flight landed at 7:30pm and we didn’t want to bother with a drive across town and checking into an Airbnb after dark. Instead, we got a room at the airport Marriott hotel, for an exorbitant $291 per night – but “free” because we used Chase credit card points. Day 3 travel totals: $400 for the flight, "free" hotel, and 7.5 hours, including all the sitting-and-waiting at the airport and for our shuttle.

On Day 4, it was too early to check into our AirBnb, so we used Uber to go across Mexico City to a luggage locker near our apartment. We stored our bags for the day for $30, then started our exploration of the city. Day 4 travel totals: $16 for the Uber ride, $30 for our luggage, for a total cost of $46 and 1.5 hours.

It’s nice to be able to slow-travel. Yes, we could have compressed our travels into just 1 or 2 days, but we enjoyed moving at a leisurely pace and never felt stressed or worried about missing a connection. Looking back, the shuttle from Belize to Chetumal was our only pain-point. We spent a lot of time waiting, often outside in the sun or surrounded by mosquitoes, and our arrival into Chetumal was about 3 hours later than we expected. It’s unlikely that we’ll ever repeat our route from Roatán to Mexico City, but in the event that we do, we would probably take a water taxi from Belize City to one of the cayes, and then a second water taxi to Chetumal – basically the reverse of our original entry into Belize.

Lodging – We found an apartment in the Roma Norte area for our two-week stay in Mexico City. It was a nice corner unit on the 7th floor of a 15-story building. The apartment had a beautiful view of the Cibeles Fountain and roundabout, surrounded by blooming jacaranda trees, with our only downside that the sun warmed our south-facing unit throughout the day. Fortunately, we had AC, which we tried to run only when really needed. The apartment complex had a gym that I visited 5 or 6 times, plus paid washer and dryer units for us to do laundry. It wasn’t too difficult to find them available, though that might be due to the high price-point – 100 pesos ($6 USD) per wash or dry.

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  Cibeles Fountain and jacaranda trees

Roma Norte is one of the more popular neighborhoods in Mexico City right now. It is fairly central to the best tourist attractions and has a lot of new/remodeled housing and shops. Most of the streets have wide sidewalks, and some of the streets are nice parkways – divided streets with a walking strip down the center. Most of the sidewalks are heaving or cracking – my understanding is that the ground is soft because Mexico City was historically a lake that has been filled in over time. Most of the streets are also lined with large, mature trees, providing a lot of shade. We had a nice grocery store (“Sumesa”) about 10 minutes away, and plenty of restaurants within a couple of blocks. Notably, most of the nearby restaurants were upscale or international, with more traditional Mexican options at least 20 or 30 minutes away by foot.

Overall, we thought our neighborhood was relatively clean compared to other places we’ve visited in Mexico. We occasionally saw city employees cleaning up the area, though we also saw scattered pockets of litter and evidence that not everyone cleans up after their dogs. Probably the most disappointing aspect was the large amounts of graffiti, not just in our immediate neighborhood, but basically everywhere that we went. There was also a bit of a homeless population living in our area.

Entertainment – With only a couple of weeks, we focused our attention on seeing the major sights in the city. Mexico City has a couple of tourist bus options, so we bought hop-on-hop-off tickets for “Turibus” for 315 pesos each ($35 USD total). We chose Turibus because one of the stops was right by our apartment, so it was a great option to start and end in a convenient spot.

We rode the Turibus basically all day, hopping off to switch routes, but never to explore. Our objective was really just to get to know the city and to learn a bit about major monuments and sights from the audio guide (in English) on the bus. Our two routes took us to the city center, as far north as the Basilica de Guadalupe, and as far west as Chapultepec Park. During our two-week stay, we revisited almost all of the destinations on the route, except for the Basilica. The Turibus was a great way to get an overview of the city, but I can’t imagine trying to use it to fully explore – there’s just not enough time to hop off, explore, hop on, and see anything else.

Our visit coincided with Easter, with the weeks before and after known as Semana Santa and Semana Pascua in Mexico. We have learned that many Mexicans travel to the beach during these weeks – we’ve experienced some very crowded, standing-room-only beaches during our travels. I also got some bad intel online suggesting that Mexico City would be less crowded during this time. This was not the case – all of the sites we visited were quite busy.

We had a few rain showers during the start of our trip, so we used those days to settle in, buy groceries, do laundry, etc. Temperatures were great throughout our stay – usually in the 70s, though our direct-sun apartment felt a bit hotter and we needed to run the AC in the afternoons. Once the showers stopped, our first real tourist stop was the main zocalo, or city center. We actually came back through here on five different occasions. By far the best sight in that area was the Templo Mayor, a huge Aztec temple complex that was destroyed and buried following the Spanish colonization of the area. A major excavation and preservation effort started in the 1970’s, and we really enjoyed walking through the site and attached museums. It’s very evident that the entire area is sinking, as the structures now have a bit of a “roll” to them. There is so much to see at the Templo Mayor that it’s easy to spend a day, or to think about coming back for a second visit. Admission for foreigners is typically 210 pesos ($12 USD) each, but our residency got us in at half price, so only $12 USD for the two of us.

Next to the Templo Mayor is the main Municipal Cathedral. We were able to enter and look around, but parts of the cathedral were cordoned off for Semana Santa, and there were more services than normal. We re-visited the cathedral a couple of times during our stay, to try to see a bit more of the chapel and altars, but were never able to do so. In addition to the cathedral being partially closed, the entire main plaza was full of large tents throughout our stay. We never saw the tents in use, so are not sure what they were for. The entire area was also generally crowded with vendors and tourists.

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  Multiple construction phases excavated at Templo Mayor

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  Municipal Cathedral and the central plaza full of tents

Other sites that we saw in the centro included the Palacio Banco, the Palacio Postal, the Palacio Bellas Artes, and Parque Alameda. The Palacio Banco is similar to a Federal Reserve Bank, and we learned a bit about Mexican currency and coins. The Palacio Postal is the original post office, and the building is quite ornate. Palacio Bellas Artes is a fine arts museum and auditorium. The art deco interior is interesting and unique, but we didn't care for most of the art, and we didn't have an opportunity to see any shows. Parque Alameda is a large city park that we walked across on a couple of occasions.

We generally used Uber to get to the centro, with a one-way trip normally around 150 pesos ($8 USD) each direction.

From our apartment, we were able to walk about 30 minutes to a huge city park - Chapultepec Park. We went here multiple times, walking every time. Our first trip was to see the National Anthropology Museum. With the popularity of the city for Semana Santa, we waited in a queue outside for almost an hour. Once we got into the building, we saw that the line continued around the entire lobby to the ticket booth. We abandoned our plan and wandered the popular park instead. Many of the paths were lined with food and souvenir vendors, which was both entertaining and repetitive.

Our second visit to the park was more productive. We had no line for the museum and wandered the exhibits until our feet got tired. The first level of the museum is basically a chronology of the people of Mexico, with exhibits featuring indigenous tribes, some of the more-famous pyramid ruins in the country, and artifacts from the Spanish, French, and American invasions of the country. The second floor dives into the cultural differences in the various states of Mexico – regional variations in clothing, dancing, and food. We spent most of our time on the first floor and quickly went past the exhibits on the second floor before deciding not to return to spend more time there. Admission to the archeology museum was the same as the Templo Mayor - 210 pesos ($12 USD) each, but half-price with our residency cards, so only $12 USD total.

Our final visit to Chapultepec Park was to see the large Chapultepec Castle, on a small hill in the center of the park. It was constructed over many years while Mexico was under Spanish rule, but was not yet finished when Mexico declared its independence from Spain. Later in Mexico ’s history, European leaders re-established control under Maximillian I, and the castle was finally completed and used as living quarters for a few years. Much of the décor and furnishings in the castle are from this time period. Overall, we thought the castle is nicely-restored and has many good exhibits. Most of the documentation is in both Spanish and English, so it was easy to self-guide through the castle. The only disappointment was that it’s virtually impossible to get a good view of the castle from the outside. It sits on a small, heavily-treed hill, surrounded by more trees in the park, and we never found a spot to get a clear view of the castle. Admission was once again 210 pesos / $12 USD.

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  Chapultepec Castle

Mexico City also had plenty to do that we didn’t attempt – shows, plays, music, concerts, and sports events. We were able to catch a baseball game on our final night in the city - more on that towards the end of the post.

Food – You might think we ate a lot of Mexican food, but you’d be wrong. While we did enjoy some local street carts and a number of taquerias, quite a few of our sit-down dining was international. Mexico City is a huge melting pot, and international options are very popular. During our stay, we had ramen, pizza, Greek food, Texas barbeque, and burgers.

On the local front, one of our favorites was Taqueria El Greco, where we enjoyed a meal of tacos arabes and drinks for 380 pesos ($22 USD). We discovered these Middle-Eastern-inspired tacos during our stay in Puebla and were excited to find them again. Another local favorite was Birria La Cuevita – a stall in a small food hall serving great birria and quesabirrias. The flavors were great, though only beef available, with no lamb or goat that you might find in more traditional birrierias. The prices at La Cuevita were also great, with our meal for two plus drinks costing about 450 pesos ($26 USD). A third favorite was actually a local chain – Taqueria Orinoco, where we each had plate-fulls of tacos plus drinks for about 435 pesos ($25 USD). We stopped in the Café La Pagoda near the centro to get a snack, and were quite impressed with the small tamales we ate. It's on our list of places to revisit if we return to the city.

One of our favorite international spots was AllWood BBQ. We shared a sampler platter with craft beers for 900 pesos ($52 USD). Pricey for Mexico City, but comparatively inexpensive for decent barbeque and $7 craft beers. Another favorite international spot was also a chain – Dr. Pizza. They make a solid wood-fired pizza and offer a number of craft beers on their menu. Our meal here was about 700 pesos ($40 USD), with the higher price again influenced by the $7 craft beers that we tried.

Speaking of craft beer, we also found some taprooms and specialty beer halls. The Falling Piano Brewery has a taproom next door to AllWood BBQ. We originally thought they were a collaboration, with food on one side and craft beer on the other, but this was not the case and we had to make two separate stops. Though we are typically dark beer drinkers, my favorite here was their Rosca de Reyes cream ale – a sweet, vanilla-infused beer inspired by the cake eaten shortly after New Year’s Day. Our favorite taproom was Dos Aves. They are actually based out of San Miguel de Allende, and we visited that brewery when they were much smaller and lesser-known. What makes Dos Aves stand out is the effort they've put into their kitchen. Our meal there set us back around 950 pesos ($55 USD) for beer and food. Our final mention is Drunkendog – a craft and import beer haven with a huge draft menu and selection of bottled beers from around the globe. Overall, we found a surprising number of craft beer options around our apartment. However, we felt that most were overpriced, didn’t have a great variety, had very mediocre food options, and were not worthy of mentioning in our blog.

Wrapping up our restaurant notes, there were three spots that we really enjoyed and returned to during our short stay: Taqueria El Greco, Birria La Cuevita, and the Dos Aves taproom. Overall, we averaged about $51 USD per day for restaurants, including our food, drinks, and standard 10% tip.

Expats and International Travelers – We saw a lot of tourists in Mexico City, and they appeared to be predominantly Mexican. With our stay during the Semana Santa holiday, there were always a lot of people out and about. In our neighborhood, maybe 10% of the people wandering around appeared to be from the U.S. or Canada, though we also overheard various European languages being spoken. People were welcoming and friendly everywhere we went. Some online sources have mentioned hostility towards foreigners, especially Americans, but we didn’t see or hear anything like this during our stay.

Living Costs – We stayed in one of the nicest neighborhoods in Mexico City, so our Airbnb was a bit pricey, averaging $133 USD per night.

We spent an average of $51 USD per day dining out, which is less than we expected. Eating street food and visiting a few local taquerias contributed to the lower amount.

With a medium-length Airbnb, we were able to buy groceries and have breakfast at home most mornings. Groceries cost us about $10 USD per day, and we spent $120 USD ($8/day) on craft beer and a bottle of wine from the local grocery store. Our grand total food spend was around $68 USD per day for the two of us.

Our entertainment spend was pretty low - we only spent $120 USD on admissions and sights. Most of the city’s museums are very low cost or free, plus we were able to take advantage of our residency discount. That $120 actually includes the $65 we spent on our first day for the Turibus and luggage locker, so $55 in admissions seems very reasonable for a two-week visit.

We spent $45 USD on our various Uber rides over the two weeks. We could have saved a lot by learning to use the Metro, but were too lazy to put in the effort. We also spent $45 on laundry! This was quite overpriced, but I suppose we were paying for the convenience of the machines in our building. Laundry prices would probably be less than half of that if we were willing to walk to a laundromat.

Most of our expenses were paid by credit card and we had very little cash spend. Two attractions were surprisingly cash-only (302 pesos / $17.50 USD), so it was good that we had taken out some cash to begin our trip. The bulk of our cash spend was for a couple of street food carts and one souvenir vendor, and we also used cash for small street or grocery tips. Including souvenirs, our total cash spend was approximately $100 USD for our 2-week stay. As such, I would recommend withdrawing only a small amount, 2000-3000 pesos ($115-$175 USD) upon arrival.

Summary – We enjoyed our time in Mexico City. It was an easy destination to settle into and our stay was comfortable and quite affordable. We were able to catch up on a lot of general personal items and still felt we had plenty of time to see the biggest sights. Our neighborhood and apartment were comfortable and we could easily have stayed for 3-4 weeks. That said, we saw most of the major sights, and don’t see any real reason to return unless we're connecting through on a future journey.

Teotihuacán

Travel - Visiting Teotihuacán was my #1 objective for our trip. It’s an amazing pre-historic pyramid site, and it’s been on my radar for a long time. We used Uber for the 1-hour drive from our Mexico City apartment to our hotel in Teotihuacán – actually the small town of San Sebastián Xolalpa, right next to the archeological site. Uber was a little challenging – our first driver cancelled on us after finding out that we really did want to travel one-way to Teotihuacán. Our next driver said he’d take us, but asked if we could pay cash (he gets to keep more of the fare that way.) We agreed, and our total for relocation was 1.5 hours and 750 pesos ($43USD).

Lodging – We booked 4 nights at the Hotel Jatziri, giving us 3 full days to explore the site without feeling rushed. The hotel was very simple, with no frills, and we chose it because it has “the best views of the pyramids” and had very good reviews. We made our reservation through Booking.com, then followed up with the hotel to coordinate two tours – one half-day guided tour of the pyramid site and one early-morning hot air balloon ride over the pyramids.

As I said, our hotel was simple. We upgraded to a room with a queen-sized bed and an in-room view of the pyramids. Truth-be-told, the in-room view was just ok, whereas the view from the hotel’s rooftop terrace was a bit better. Any photos you see of our view were taken on the terrace. Our hotel host, Fernando, was super-friendly and helpful throughout our stay. The Hotel Jatziri has a small restaurant, open only during breakfast hours, and had similar prices to other nearby restaurants. We ate there twice, mainly for the convenience.

Our hotel was about a 30-minute walk from the nearest entrance to the Teotihuacán archeological site. The hotel was surrounded by a traditional small-town neighborhood, with gravel streets connecting blocks of houses, a few small shops, a couple of restaurants, and a few other hotels. We typically walked everywhere, except for our organized tours, and one evening when we had a heavy rainstorm.

Entertainment – We came to see the pyramids, so we started our first full day in town with a guided tour of the archeological zone. Our guide met us at our hotel and we drove to the furthest entrance. Over the next few hours, we wandered from north to south, past all of the major structures. Teotihuacán is immense and impressive, built over 1,000 years ago, and very poorly understood. Very little written documentation has survived, and the city had been abandoned for over 500 years when the Aztecs first found the ruins in the 1100’s. The Aztecs named all of the major structures, with no clues as to what they were actually used for. So, the “famous names” of Temple of the Moon, Temple of the Sun, and Avenue of the Dead, were all actually assigned to the ruins, rather than given to the structures during their actual use. The Temple of the Feathered Serpents was named in more-modern times, based upon sculptures that were uncovered there. That temple is quite interesting – archeologists discovered a highly-decorated inner temple that had been buried by a larger temple. They successfully convinced the government that the site would be best-served by removing a large portion of the outer temple to uncover the inner temple. Today, you can see the shell of the outer temple, but the main attraction is looking at the original face of the earlier, buried temple. Sandy and I spent at least an hour looking at the sculptures on the original temple face, picking up some interesting facts from our guide, and also overhearing other guides explaining the structure to their groups. Overall, our guided tour was well worth it, as we learned a lot more about the site than was available by reading the various markers at each structure. (I should note that all of the site markers had both Spanish and English, which was nice.) Our tour guide cost 1350 pesos ($78 USD) for the two of us, and we had to pay for our own entry tickets into the site. Tourist tickets cost 210 pesos ($12 USD) each, but once again, we used our Permanent Residency to get half-price tickets, so only $12 USD for the two of us. Notably, cell phone coverage at the Teotihuacán archeological zone is very spotty, so the tour entrances don’t accept credit cards and were surprisingly cash-only (so plan ahead!). We finished our tour by early afternoon, quite tired from all the walking. It was nice to have a quiet afternoon back at our hotel to process everything that we had seen and learned.

On day 2 at Teotihuacán, we had an early start for our hot air balloon ride. Our hotel host, Fernando, met us at 5:40am and drove us 20 minutes to the launch point for our balloon ride. We launched shortly after sunrise and were stunned to count 50 other balloons in the air! We all drifted on similar routes, from northeast to southwest, over the Teotihuacán site. Most pilots, including ours, increased elevation to find an air current to float back towards the east, before descending and resuming our original course. We really enjoyed the flight and the unique views we got of Teotihuacán, including floating directly over the Temple of the Feathered Serpent. After our flight, we received a celebratory glass of champagne and were pitched photos and a drone video of our flight. Next, our hotel host, Fernando, took us to a nearby restaurant where we ate a traditional Mexican breakfast buffet. The full suite of morning events was arranged by Fernando, and we paid him a flat rate of 4500 pesos ($260 USD) for everything, plus we paid some cash tips to the balloon pilot, our waiter, and Fernando himself.

On day 3, we returned to the Teotihuacán site. We paid another 210 pesos ($12 USD) and self-guided through the site. This allowed us to linger at some of the more-interesting spots and read some of the site markers that we had skipped on our guided tour.

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  View of Teotihuacán from our hotel

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  Avenue of the Dead and the Temple of the Sun, as viewed from the Temple of the Moon

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  Our balloon-view of Teotihuacán

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  Balloon-overview of the two-phase excavated Temple of the Feathered Serpent

We had great weather throughout our short stay in Teotihuacán, with temps generally climbing close to 80 in the afternoons. We did have rain one evening, but it didn’t impact our ability to tour the site. If we were to do this trip over, we wouldn’t change a thing. We really enjoyed our splurge on the balloon ride, and the combination of guided tour, overhead views, and self-guided tour really allowed us to explore the Teotihuacán site.

Food – Our hotel did not include breakfast, but had a small dining area where we could get breakfast to order (eggs, meat, toast, and coffee) for 130 pesos ($7.40 USD) per person. One morning the chef didn’t show up to work, so we walked to a nearby spot and paid a similar price for a better meal.

Our dinners in Teotihuacán were much more traditional than in Mexico City. There are two small restaurants located underground, just east of the ruins. We picked La Cueva, where we dined on rabbit and beef shank. Both meals were huge, reasonably priced, and included live entertainment throughout the meal. Our dinner with drinks set us back 840 pesos ($48 USD), plus a 50-peso ($3 USD) tip to the entertainers. Near our hotel, we saw one local spot named El Nueve featuring chiles en nogada – one of Trevor’s favorite Mexican dishes, and typically only available in the fall. The chiles must have been frozen, but the dish was still very good. We enjoyed our meal there and returned for a second evening, where Trevor tried rabbit again. Note – stick to the chiles en nogada at El Nueve, and enjoy the rabbit at La Cueva.

Overall, we averaged about $17 USD per day for our breakfasts and $44 for our dinners for the two of us, including our standard 10% tip.

Expats and International Travelers – At the Teotihuacán archeological site, probably half of the tourists were foreigners. Many appeared to be American and Canadian, but there was a definite global mix of travelers. Surprisingly, we were the only guests at our hotel, and most of the restaurants near the archeological site were virtually empty. We surmise that the majority of the visitors to Teotihuacán had traveled from Mexico City for the day, or stayed a few miles west in the modern town of Teotihuacán.

Living Costs – Other than our hot air balloon ride, Teotihuacán was a very economical spot to visit. The Hotel Jatziri was $61 USD per night, and our food costs averaged $66 USD per day. As I noted, entertainment was our largest spend - $260 for the balloon ride and $110 for our two visits to the site.

We spent considerably more cash in Teotihuacán than we did in Mexico City. When we booked our tours, Fernando offered a 10% discount for paying in cash. Most (but not all) of the restaurants accepted credit cards, and it was not always possible to add a tip to the card. Using cash, we spent 750 pesos ($43 USD) getting to Teotihuacán, 7000 pesos ($404 USD) on our tours and entertainment, 750 pesos ($43 USD) on food and tips, and 220 pesos ($13 USD) on other miscellaneous things. In total, we spent over 8700 pesos ($500 USD) in cash for our short four-night stay in Teotihuacán. We had planned ahead for this and brought extra cash from Mexico City, which was fortunate because there were not any ATMs close to our hotel or the Teotihuacán site.

Summary – We had a great, short stay in Teotihuacán. It was definitely worth visiting, and we are glad that we spent multiple days here rather than making a long single-day trip like many visitors. The Teotihuacán site is so impressive that I could imagine returning sometime in the future to see what else has been discovered or interpreted at the site. If we return, we'd probably stay at the Hotel Jatziri again, and eat at La Cueva and El Nueve again as well.

One More Night in Mexico City

Following our visit to Teotihuacán, we returned to Mexico City for a single night before our flight back to the United States. To keep our stress levels low, we booked a night in the airport Marriott Hotel again. We used Uber to travel from Teotihuacán to the city, and had no trouble booking a driver. Our ride cost us 550 pesos ($31 USD), though I was surprised when some additional toll charges ($6 USD) showed up a few days later. I knew we were on a toll highway, but assumed the toll came out of the Uber charge. Nope, it was tacked on later that week. Total for our relocation: 1 hour and $37 USD.

We were able to check into our hotel room early and spent some time in the afternoon doing our final packing for our trip home – getting our carry-ons squared away and making sure that our checked bags were under 50 pounds.

That night, we went to our first Mexican baseball game. The hometown Mexico City Diablos Rojos (Red Devils) were having their season opener against the Campeche Piratas (Pirates). The game was very popular, and we managed to get two seats together in the right field stands even though we bought our tickets just a few days before the game for about 200 pesos ($11 USD) each.

We took Uber to the stadium, where we planned to eat dinner. The setup was similar, but different than stadiums that we’ve been to in the U.S. There was a food court area with multiple options, and separate counters where we could get beer, wine, or mixed drinks. We opted for cheesesteak sandwiches and beers, for a grand total of 420 pesos ($24 USD). Similar to the U.S., vendors walked the stands with food and drinks. What surprised us the most was that beer could be bought on a tab! The vendors tracked purchases in a notebook, then came back around in the 9th inning and collected payment from each customer. It looked overly complicated, with a high level of trust in both directions, but I suppose it works…

The game itself was great! The Diablos won, so the crowd was very animated with lots of cheering and chanting. During the 7th inning, there was no “stretch”, but we were treated to a fireworks show. I’m fairly sure it was a celebration for the Diablos winning the 2025 championship, but I can’t say for sure. We both had a great time, and would definitely attend another game if we get the chance.

The following day, we had an easy transit back to the United States. Our hotel was across the street from the airport, so we just walked across a pedestrian bridge to get to the terminal. There’s a lot of construction happening at the airport, but we had no problems checking in or making our way to our departure gate. From there, it was a non-stop flight to the U.S.

Summary

We enjoyed our time in Mexico City – a last gasp of sorts, as we plan to explore many more countries over the next few years. We thought the Roma Norte area was nice, though it didn’t feel like most of the other cities we’ve been in Mexico. We felt the same way about the food – good, but lots of international options, and we had to walk a ways to find our more-authentic meals. Overall, it’s a nice place to visit, but we would pick other destinations in Mexico to revisit before we return to Mexico City.

That said, our real objective was to visit Teotihuacán and we loved our time at the site. It’s huge, nicely restored, and we found the ruins and artwork very interesting. I’m glad that I finally got to visit the site, and Sandy enjoyed her re-visit. Teotihuacán is a place that we would both return to as the excavations and research progress.