Typically I try to write these “We’re Home” posts within the first two weeks of our long stays, mainly to record our initial impressions. However, these four weeks in Mexico City mark the first time we’ve had a second long stay in the same city. So none of our initial impressions were a surprise or probably worth noting. You can read my “We’re Home” post from our first long stay in CDMX here.
But we did have a great time staying in one of our favorite parts of the city and had a great quality of life that’s worth recording. I’ll use this post to share some highlights about our neighborhood and day-to-day routine and my next post to talk about some of the more touristy things we did during this time. Here are some of the best parts of our four weeks in CDMX:
Our Apartment
We chose to splurge on an apartment that was more expensive than we usually pay to be able to be in our ideal neighborhood and it was worth every penny ($1,680, if you’re curious). I put my public review below but can add that we loved the layout and décor of the apartment, which had interesting art and big windows with lovely trees. It had a good desk for Chad in the living room, while I worked in the bedroom as usual.
Like our prior CDMX apartment in the neighborhood of Polanco (where we stayed in January/February 2020), the building had a 24-hour security desk and great maintenance guy who resolved a couple of small issues for us (and spoke a little English because he’d spent some time living in the U.S.)
Because the apartment had two bedrooms and two bathrooms, we knew it would be perfect for having visitors during our stay. We love introducing new people to CDMX. Chad’s parents took us up on our invitation and I’ll share more about their time with us in my next post.
Cineteca Nacional
In addition to being very comfortable, the best part of our Airbnb was the location, about a block from the Cineteca Nacional. We loved seeing movies there on both our prior visits and it just has a great vibe overall with several bars and cafes and a churro place. They show a mix of international arthouse movies and retrospectives. We saw several movies while we were including a very cool African movie from the 1970s and a couple of films that were part of a Sam Fuller retrospective (and Spielberg’s new movie about movies, The Fableman’s, and the very interesting Tor). Generally movies are shown in their native language with Spanish subtitles so all the interesting Spanish, French, and other foreign language films aren’t possible for us, but anything in English is fair game. And they have very good popcorn and caramel corn. It may be Chad’s favorite place in CDMX and even when we were going there to see a film, we’d walk through on the way to the metro or shopping. One of the best parts is how easy it is to get a drink after the film to discuss. It is one of our favorite ways to spend an evening.
Coyoacan
Our location also meant that we were just a short walk to the main part of Coyoacan, which includes my favorite plaza in Mexico, Plaza Coyoacan. We enjoyed several picnic lunches there and just liked walking around past the interesting businesses and the cute, colorful houses. There are also tons of great restaurants in Coyoacan, so when we went out to dinner, we typically headed down there.
Coyoacan is also where the Viveros city tree nursery is, which is also a fabulous park and Chad’s favorite place to run, and one of our favorite places to take walks together. The other great amenity of the Coyoacan area is that it has several beautiful malls. We lived very close to the new Mitakah Mall, which was being built when we were last in Mexico City in 2020. We walked past the construction site every time we went to the Cineteca Nacional because it was between there and the Coyoacan metro station. It was fun to see it finally finished and shop in the stores.
Summary
After our last long stay in CDMX, we dreamed of being able to stay closer to the Cineteca Nacional and Coyoacan. Doing so was everything we hoped for. While we had to stretch our budget, our apartment was extremely nice and we were very happy with our choice. It almost always pays off to splurge a little on housing. We offset it with the amazing deal we got on our Puerta Vallarta apartment and the apartment where we’ll stay in April when we return to CDMX, which is more in line with our typical budget for housing on our travels and located in the more central part of the city. But we definitely hope to be able to stay in the neighborhood of Coyoacan again in the future (maybe even south of Viveros, closer to the UNAM). It was totally worth it.
Airbnb Review and Link – My husband and I loved our four-week stay at this apartment. It is bigger than the photos and so comfortable. Strong reliable wifi, good kitchen for cooking simple meals, and laundry with a dryer is a luxury (as was having purified water at the sink in the kitchen!). We loved having lunch on the upstairs terrace. Leon had great communication throughout our stay and was quick to address any minor issue we had. My husband’s elderly parents stayed there with us for several days and the apartment was comfortable for four adults and they had no trouble with the two flights of stairs to the apartment. The best part is the proximity to the Cineteca Nacional and being an easy walk to the Viveros and the main plazas of Coyoacan. We’d definitely stay here again.