Mexico City is very good value by any international standard, and the gap between a frugal trip and a comfortable one is small in absolute terms.
The currency
The Mexican peso. It floats and has moved substantially in both directions in recent years — it strengthened considerably against the dollar through 2022–23 and weakened again after. Check the rate rather than assuming.
Cards are widely accepted in the central districts. Carry cash for markets, street food, taxis, small restaurants and anywhere outside Roma, Condesa, Polanco and the Centro.
Withdraw from bank ATMs inside branches or malls. Decline dynamic currency conversion.
Daily budgets
Per person per day, excluding flights:
- Frugal: hostel or budget hotel, metro and Metrobús, street food and market comidas corridas, free Sundays at the museums.
- Comfortable: mid-range hotel in Roma or Condesa, Uber everywhere, restaurant meals, three or four ticketed museums, a day trip.
- Generous: a design hotel, Pujol or Quintonil, private guides, a balloon flight over Teotihuacán.
Even the generous figure is well below the equivalent in a European or North American capital.
Free on Sundays
Federal museums are free to Mexican nationals and residents on Sundays, which includes Anthropology, Templo Mayor, Chapultepec Castle and most INAH and INBA sites.
Foreign visitors generally pay. Sunday is therefore the worst day to visit them — very busy — and the best day to see them full of Mexican families, which is its own thing.
Museo Soumaya is free to everyone, always.
What museums cost
Very little. INAH sites — Templo Mayor, Anthropology, Teotihuacán — are all a few dollars. Frida Kahlo is the notable exception, being privately run and substantially more, with a further charge for a photography permit.
Where the money goes
Accommodation in Roma, Condesa and Polanco has risen sharply since 2020, driven partly by an influx of remote workers. It is still cheap by international standards and it is no longer cheap by Mexican ones, which is a live local grievance.
Restaurants at the top end are priced internationally. Everything below that is not.
Uber, which is inexpensive individually and adds up if you use it for everything, as most visitors do.
The genuinely cheap things
The metro is one of the cheapest in the world — a flat fare of a few pesos to anywhere.
Street food. A full meal of three or four tacos costs less than a coffee in most Western cities.
Comida corrida — the weekday set lunch of soup, rice, a main and agua fresca, served in small restaurants from about two in the afternoon. It is the best value in Mexico and it is what most of the city eats.
Xochimilco trajineras are hourly for the whole boat, not per person, which makes them cheap for a group.
What is free
The Zócalo and the cathedral. Chapultepec park and the zoo. Bellas Artes’ exterior and the Alameda. The Plaza de las Tres Culturas ruins and the Memorial del 68. The Basilica of Guadalupe. The UNAM campus and its murals. Coyoacán and San Ángel. The Museo Soumaya.
Tipping
10 to 15 per cent in restaurants. Small change for bag-packers, car watchers, petrol attendants and musicians.
Hotel housekeeping: a small note per night.
A realistic four-day sum
Two people, mid-range hotel in Roma Norte, Uber for most journeys, all the major museums, a day trip to Teotihuacán by bus, eating a mix of street stalls, comidas corridas and two proper restaurant dinners: Mexico City comes out at roughly half the equivalent trip in a European capital, with a considerably richer itinerary.
The two things that push it up are hotels in the fashionable neighbourhoods and the fine-dining restaurants — both of which are priced internationally rather than locally.
Where visitors overspend
Airport taxis when the Metrobús runs from both terminals. Organised tours to Teotihuacán when the bus from Terminal del Norte costs a fraction. Bottled water in quantity when hotels and restaurants provide purified water free.
Uber everywhere, which is cheap per trip and adds up over four days — the Metro is a few pesos and often faster.
Cash and cards
Cards work in restaurants, hotels and shops in the central districts. Markets, street food, taxis, small fondas and most of the city do not take them.
Withdraw at bank ATMs inside branches or shopping centres, in daylight. Standalone machines in the street have a higher rate of skimming.
Notes larger than 500 pesos are hard to break at a street stall; ask for smaller denominations when you withdraw.