Mar 21, 2019

I didn't drink the water at all (even brushed my teeth with filtered water usually), though I'm sure I ate some street food that was washed with it. Both airbnbs I stayed at in Mexico City provided 20L jugs of filtered water which was dope. I also took a probiotic the entire time I was there, not sure if that helped at all. I somehow managed to not get sick at all other than being regular hungover/minor stomach issues. No puking/s--- your guts out Montezuma's revenge.

I was alone for most of the time in Mexico City so I didn't really do much late night drinking. Only time I did was when I returned for a few days before I left and stayed at a hostel but it had a cool rooftop area so we didn't really go out late, just drank up there. I'd say as long as you're with a group and not going to any dangerous neighborhoods you should be fine. I'd really only be worried about being out alone at night, but obviously practice any caution you would when traveling to a big unfamiliar city/foreign country. Outside the touristy area Cancun honestly is prob more dangerous to tourists than Mexico City is (unless you're in a super bad area of course, but then it's a toss up). I stayed in a neighborhood called La Condesa which I never felt unsafe in though there's a neighborhood called Doctores close by that people told me to stay out of at night.

The experience is immensely different than Cancun/any other touristy part of Mexico so hopefully your friends will realize that pretty quickly. Barely anyone speaks english fluently (the only extended English convos I had were at my hostel/an English bookstore), but almost everyone is super friendly and works with your s-----y Spanish as long as you try. I was out late drinking in other cities/non-touristy areas (in a group) and it didn't feel any different than being out late in Seattle or New York or Austin or any other city the US. Just know the places you should stay out of, stay in a group, and don't be a moron. Also use uber instead of the taxis if you need to get somewhere bc the taxis will rip you off.

Obviously there are places in Mexico that are super dangerous but I think overall it gets a bad rap for being more dangerous than it is (at least the places a tourist would go). When I was in Playa Del Carmen apparently I was staying in its most dangerous neighborhood and I had no idea until a local told me...but I'm also a 6'3''/210 lb male so I'm sure there are much easier targets than me.

 

Apr 18, 2019

I was only in Mexico but I found it really easy to meet people at hostels to hang out with/go on day trips/etc. And you end up seeing some of the same people at other hostels too.

@YNW Squiddy I went to KC for a day last summer and I actually liked it quite a bit shouts out @JFK

The freeways are absolutely f----- though. s--- went to exit 2Z and s---. Why you got 26 exit 2s???

 

May 18, 2019

Teotihuacan is legit the most breathtaking place I've ever been. I don't use that word lightly, I always roll my eyes when people say some trash cathedral or something is "breathtaking" or "left them in awe" or whatever but climbing and sitting on top of all those pyramids is one of the coolest things I've ever done in my life. You can climb basically everything so make sure you get a chance to climb up one of the smaller ones without a bunch of people on it and take time to just sit for a few minutes and look around.

La Condesa is a super dope neighborhood. Make sure you eat lots of al pastor tacos while you're there!

 

May 19, 2019

A few good cheap taco places in the area:
Taquería Los Parados
Taqueria El Califa
El Tizoncito (supposedly the creators of al pastor tacos)
El Farolito

There's also a place called Señor Taco in La Condesa that I ate at a lot out of convenience since it was like two blocks from my first airbnb and it's open from like 8AM to 4AM. I found a lot of restaurants in Mexico City either open at like 1PM or 6PM and most places open in the morning are closed by 1-2PM so there's not a lot of overlap.

Also, idk if you're a coffee drinker but Espresso de Media Noche was next door to my airbnb and it's really good.

If anyone in your group is into beer there's a bar called El Trappist that's supposed to be cool—I didn't actually go in but a friend recommended to to me and it looked cool when I walked by.

There's also Bosque de Chapultepec close by the neighborhood which I think is the biggest urban park in the world, it's def worth walking around there (and there's also a bunch of museums and a castle and s--- but since you're going for bachelor party I kinda doubt too much of that will be on the agenda lol).

 

May 19, 2019

Man it's so hard to go back to paying US prices after being in mexico, you can get a taco for less than a dollar pretty much anywhere. I think the cheapest taco I found was 11 pesos (aka like 60 cents) but that was in Valladolid.

 

Jun 2, 2019

@Big Cuntry I'm gonna use this thread because I seen some good things in here.

So I'm going to Cost Rica for 3 weeks later this year. I've seen people itt mention being in Central America so gonna tag a few; can u give me recommendations (must see/avoid) things , if you've been there?

@WPG @Papa Alpha Andy @Worm

 

Jun 2, 2019

Yeah been to Curacao last year. Not doing all in since u'll stay at one place. Going to visit almost everything there. Zip lining thru the jungle seems nice , thanks!

 

Jun 2, 2019

Something I just remembered that was really cool that I went to was this huge hot springs place...it's been almost 15 years so I can't remember if it was at a resort or what but it had tons and tons of pools and I believe some of the pools were man-made and some were natural but they all used "natural" hot springs water if that makes sense. I just remember it was pouring down rain while we were there so it was a really cool experience. I'm sure there's a bunch of hot springs spots in CR but I'll try to figure out what it was called.

Also visit the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve...I think that's where I went ziplining.

We also stayed at this cool hotel that was on some Ewok village type s--- where the rooms were built into trees.

I actually think I have my journal somewhere that we had to write in every day to get school credit so I'll look through that to see if I wrote down any names of places.

Things to avoid: getting alcohol poisoning on the plane ride back. My friends and I bought a bottle of "estrella" vodka (I like to think it translates as "one star") for something like 2000 colones which was under $5 at the time. We were all 15 and had no idea how to drink so my friend overdid it and puked the whole plane ride back the next day.

 

Jun 2, 2019

Thanks man, things I'll keep in mind! Montverde is on the list already, looks good! Travel sites are nice but better to get info from people that actually been there.

 

Jun 10, 2019

Nah I used Pesos 99% of the time I was in Mexico—I had some USD for emergencies but I think the only time I used it was in Tulum. I didn't use any american money in CDMX and I'm not sure if most places will accept it—it's not like in resorty areas where they're super up front about accepting USD of pesos. Though 1 USD is around 20 pesos so you get used to the mental math pretty quick.

I will say that a lot of ATMs spit out 500 peso bills and many places couldn't or didn't want to break them. I usually had to do that at a grocery store or a touristy place like a museum (also if you go to a grocery store at all remember to tip the baggers, they don't get paid a wage and rely on tips only. I had no idea this was a thing til I saw someone do it and looked it up. A couple pesos per bag is the norm I think).

No idea about the airport, I bounced as soon as I got my luggage. None of the uber drives I had spoke much english but they're cheap as h--- and no different than using in the US so it hardly matters.