Cost of our nomad living in Mexico City

After a wonderful short week in Puerto Vallarta where we experienced Dia De Muertos first hand, we spent 6 weeks in Mexico City. Mexico city was our true slow travel stop in Mexico as it gave us plenty of time to settle down and explore both this big city and the Pueblo Magicos surrounding it.

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We gave Mexico City a 3 out of 5 stars rating. Overall the city has a lot to offer and we see why it had grown in popularity. It wasn’t our favorite city but we enjoyed our 6 weeks there. We removed one star for the pollution which is really bad and won’t make this place a place for us to come back in the future. We also removed another star for both water quality and safety. While we did not have any issue with safety, we found places in Mexico with a similar lifestyle that are much safer.

With that being said, let’s look into what we liked the most, what we recommend, as well as the details about our budget and how the two of us spent $33 per person per day. Let’s go explore Mexico City!

Where We Traveled Mexico City, México

Number of Days 6 weeks (from November 3, 2018 to December 15, 2018)

Type of Travel Married Couple, Slow Travel/Nomadic, Price Conscious

Total living cost $2861 USD (for 2 people) or $33 per person and per day or $996 for person per month

Note: Unless specified otherwise, prices are in USD and were converted from MXN to USD using a 1:20 ratio. (so 1 MXN = 0.05 USD).

Before getting into the nitty gritty details of our budget, we will take a moment to go over what we did during our trip with this budget. If you came here just for the numbers, check out our budget section below.  

What did we do / see and eat?

Here are our favorites places to eat, shop and get entertained:

Our Favorite Restaurants:

• Masala y Maiz – We discovered this gem after reading the National Geographic top travel destinations for 2019 and were pleasantly surprised. The very nice communal table brought people together to share food at the intersection of Mexico and India. A great address that is not yet listed on TripAdvisor, so you might want to give it a shot before it becomes super popular and probably less affordable!

• Forever Vegano – Forever Vegano is a wonderful vegan cafe in Roma Norte with delicious food. We tried their Wrap Forever which was made of marinated tofu, fresh avocado, spinach, hummus, tomatoes, pesto and came with a side of sweet potato fries (which btw are pretty hard to find in CDMX). The food was so good, that we came back for more. [Cost: 125 MXN (or 6 USD)].

• Mog Bistrot – This place seemed geared towards tourists and people that want to celebrate special occasions and can be really crowded. Their menu has various asian foods (japanese, thai…).
• Maikai Poke – If you have been following us you know that we love sushi. This place won our gold medal for best Poke restaurant in the Roma/Condesa Area of Mexico City! They have a great selection of add-ons, toppings & other extras with really tasty fish and well prepared dressing. [Cost: 120 MXN (or 6 USD) for a large bowl].
  • Lele poke – This place is our contender for poke bowls. We liked it because when we went there was some great live music [Cost: 135 MXN for the salmon poke bowl (or 7 USD)].
• Cienaga – This is a Columbian restaurant that offers great arepas and other staples from Colombia.

Our Favorite Local Shops:

• Ficelle – As a French I’m always on the lookout for some good bakeries to get my fix! I’m happy to report that Mexico City doesn’t disappoint so far! Ficelle is the first place I stopped at and it has been the best I’ve had through our entire stay. I tried their baguette, croissants & chocolate croissants and they all pass the French test! [Cost: 25 MXN per item (or ~1 USD)].

• Stracciatella – Mexico City has some really good ice cream (helado) places! This one is in Roma Norte. [Cost: 55 MXN (or ~3 USD].

• El Moro – If you are a churros aficionado, you must stop by this chain. They make fresh churros at an unbeatable price and you can have them with or without your favorite chocolate sauce. [Cost: 20MXN for 4 churros (or 1 USD)].

Our Favorite Grocery Stores:

• Mercado Medellin – This market was awesome. This is where we went to get most of our produce (fruits, vegetables, flours).

• The Green Corner – There are 3 locations in Mexico City. They have organic produce and a great selection of kombucha, cooking oils, milk and everything else that we could not find at the market.

Our Favorite Sights/Activities:

Mexico City has many neighborhoods. The ones that are worth exploring are Roma. La Condesa, El Centro (or Zocalo), Polanco (the champs elysee of Mexico) and Coyoacan (the historical neighborhood). Here are some of our highlights from each of these neighborhoods.

• [Zocalo] Palacio De Bellas Artes – This is the most photographed monument in Mexico City! You can get a great picture of it from to top of the Sears building which is in front of it. Besides enjoying the architecture of this building we recommend the following:
  • Ballet Folklorico de Mexico – We watched the « Ballet Folklorico de Mexico » at the Palacio de Bellas Artes and we had a blast. Some people called it both a traditional treasure and a cultural gem and we could not disagree. Who can beat that? A must do when you come visit Mexico City! – It is not a ballet per say but rather a folkloric show that covers the regions and traditions of Mexico very well. The performance has been distinguished by 400 awards in recognition of their artistic work and we can support that 🙂 [Cost: 300 MXN (or 15 USD pp)]

• Diego Rivera artwork – The most renowned masterpiece by Diego Rivera was “Man, Controller of the Universe”. This mural was first created at the Rockefeller center but got destroyed as Rivera refused to remove the portrait of Lenin. Rivera recreated it using photography he took from its initial creation and you can see the great contrast between Capitalism and Socialism. You can see it now at the Palacio de Bellas Artes of Mexico City (among others). [Cost: 65 MXN (or ~3 USD)]

• [Coyoacan] Museo Frida Kahlo – We visited the Frida Khalo Museum today (the most visited attraction in Mexico City) & we were not disappointed! Highly recommend to include this stop during your visit of CDMX! [Cost: 267.50 MXN (or 13.4 USD)].

Outside of Mexico City we recommend the following destinations:

• Teotihuacan [trip length recommendation: 1 day] – Teotihuacan was one of the largest cities in the ancient world, with over 150,000 inhabitants at its peak and it was a beautiful painted city! People of Teotihuacan were migrants. Initial settlers might have been refugees from a massive nearby volcanic eruption who found the valley where the city of Teotihuacan currently is as their promise land for a fresh start. Many things are still yet to be learned about Teotihuacan and we recommend that you watch Teotihuacán’s Lost Kings. It is a great documentary that provides the latest discovery about this site and reveal the clues about who these mysterious people were. Make sure to also be there early in the morning as it will get quickly crowded.

• Malinalco [trip length recommendation: 1-2 days] – Malinalco is another Pueblo Magico that was conquered by the Aztecs just 500 years ago (1470), This can be visited in a day. You can climb to see a sanctuary for their military elite that was carved out the side of the mountain.

• Tepoztlan [trip length recommendation: 3-4 days] – Tepoztlan is a really small town in a beautiful valley that is famous for its spas, meditation, alternative medicine clinics and a very traditional city center. It is one of the 121 Pueblo Magicos you will find in Mexico. For more details, please check out our weekend guide to Tepoztlan.

How much did we spend in Mexico City?

TL;DR; $33 per person and per day as a couple, or $996 per month per person!

Like with our previous trips to Montreal, Quebec City or Puerto Vallarta, our average monthly spend per person was around $1,000. For this budget we explored the best neighborhoods of the city, went on multiple city tours, visited museums, watched the impressive Ballet Folklorico de Mexico in the beautiful Palacio de Bellas Artes, took day trip to the major sites (including the wonderful Teotihuacan), went on a 4 days weekend discovering the Pueblo Magico of Tepoztlan and enjoyed both home made foods and food of some great restaurants of Mexico City. And we did all of this while staying in a great apartment conveniently located in one of the best neighborhoods of Mexico city. How did we manage to spend within this budget? Well let’s look into each main budget category in more detail.

Accommodation: $20 / person / day

(Or $587 / person / month).

We had a wonderful 6 week stay at a beautiful and bright 1 bedroom / 1 bed / 1 bath Airbnb apartment.

👉 You can check out our AirbnB rental listing here.

As soon as we entered the place, we felt right at home. The furniture, space and decoration were very tasteful and had everything we needed. (including extremely fast internet, laundry, drinking water and all the essentials we needed for cooking). The apartment was located in Roma and was walking distance to a lot of great restaurants, shops, grocery shopping and conveniently located near the subway.

⇒ In total, for the length of our say, the 2 of us spent $1551 on this apartment + $130 on our apartment in Tepoztlan for a grand total of $1682.

Transportation: $1.26 / person / day

(Or $38 / person / month)

Since our AirBnB was walking distances from shops, restaurants and grocery stores, we mainly used transportation to explore neighborhoods outside of Roma/La Condesa as well as leaving the city. Mexico city offers a few public options: Metro (or subway), metrobus, trolley bus, light rail, taxi and Uber. We exclusively used either the Metro or Uber. Using the Metro, a one way trip is 5 MXD (or 0.25 USD). There is no discount offer if you buy 1, 5, 10 or 50 tickets. If you stay for a long time, you can opt to buy a rechargeable card. Uber prices varies and be aware of rush hour time to avoid surge pricing, which in Mexico City are 7am-9am + 5pm-7pm during workdays and 9pm-11pm + 3am-4am during weekends when people are going to/from a club or social gathering. Yeah Mexican people like to party pretty late! We don’t recommend to rent a car in Mexico as driving seems to require pretty good driving skills. If you get a taxi/Uber you will be able to understand what we are referring to 🙂
⇒ In total, for the length of our say, the 2 of us spent $108 on transportation.

Groceries: $3.83 / person / day

(Or $115 / person / month)

We mostly went grocery shopping at our local farmers market (Mercado De Medellin) and The Green Corner organic supermarket and did not have any issues finding great and affordable produce.
⇒ In total, for the length of our say, the 2 of us spent $329 on groceries. This covered 91/126 meals (breakfast, lunch & dinner) which is about $1.81 / meal.

Eating Out: $6.16 / person / day

(Or $185 / person / month)

Mexico City has a really vibrant food scene. From the local taquerias and their great taco al pastor, the street stall food that can be smelled a couple blocks away to the world class Pujol or the upcoming Masala y Maiz you should be able to experience any type of Mexican food. The city has also a pretty wide array of international food options (like poke bowls, sushis, ramen, pad thai, arepas, pizzas…)
⇒ In total, for the length of our say, the 2 of us spent $477 on restaurant + $54 on snacks. Our restaurant budget covered 35/126 meals (mostly lunch or dinner). The average cost of our meals in was $5.42 (including tax + tip) which is 3.0 times more expensive than eating at home (by doing the ratio between what a full day of eating out will cost vs a full day of eating at home as per our budget).

Activities: $2.40 / person / day

(OR $72 / person / month)

Our activities while in Mexico City included entrance fees to national sites, museums, performances, city tour (tips), couple massages and Temazcal ceremony.
⇒ In total, we spent $206 on activities.

Our Slow Travelers Tips

Slow travel is part of our philosophy. It gives us the opportunity to really connect with a place by not having to experience FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) and getting unnecessarily stressed for being on a schedule. With slow travel, we can see all the iconic sights and have time to spare to find the more offbeat spots that most tourists miss. Most of the time, those are the absolute gems. And as this blog post explains, we spend much less by leveraging “local” pricing and being able to leverage long stay discounts.

Here are some tips for anyone that plans to stay in Mexico City:

• Use Public transportation – Mexico City is a huge city and public transportation is really safe as per our experience (just avoid getting back late). It is a very affordable way to explore the city.  
• Book the entrance to the Fridha Kalo Museum online (here). This is the most visited Museum of all of Mexico city and it is worth the visit. If you don’t book online you will have to wait hours in line and might not be able to make it. Don’t mind “splurging” by asking for the photo pass at the entrance ($32 MXN or ~$1.5 USD) that lets you take pictures inside Frida’s house. Lastly, watch the Fridha movie as it is a great introduction to her life.
• Explore outside of the city – There are great one-day, weekend and long weekends trips that you can organize from Mexico City that are totally worth it, like the long weekend we did in Tepoztlan.
• Use AirBnB – AirBnB is a website that allows homeowners, in destinations all over the world, the ability to rent private spaces (or entire apartments) for a fee. As nomadic long term travelers, we like to call AirBnB our home as it has helped us save a lot of money and provided us with really great places managed by wonderful hosts! Pro tip: If you sign up for AirBnB using our referral link, you will get a 55 USD credit (or the equivalent in your local currency), which should give you a pretty nice discount on your first night.

How did we save money for this trip?

• We used travel credit cards with sign-on bonuses to maximize free miles that we then apply towards our trip to travel for (almost) free.
• We walked when we felt like it 🙂 This helped us reduce our public transportation footprint while increasing our exercise activity. Double win!

So that’s it folks! Would you be interested in going to Mexico City? Is it as affordable as you thought it was? Feel free to share your experience and ask questions by leaving a comment below.