We had 10 days in Mexico City. To really know this city would require a year-long stay!
The modern El Caballito fountain on the Reforma Avenue.
We always track our expenses wherever we are using the Travel Wallet app. I share them in a post in order to give prospective travelers an idea what a trip might cost. One can always spend more – or less.
Accommodation: $616.50 or $61.65 per night for 10 nights at one Airbnb in a central location.
We gained space to spread out in our Airbnb, but gave up services. No one makes the bed, scrubs the toilet, changes the towels, sweeps, or takes out the garbage for you. This place was in a good location, was relatively quiet and had a comfortable bed.
Food: $308.74 Basically, $30.87 per day for 10 days. I confess, we visited Starbucks twice daily and generally ate only one meal a day. I regret not taking a food tour; there were foods I would have liked to try but didn’t find.
On Thanksgiving Day we decided to splurge and had a lovely feast at El Cardenal Restaurant at the Hilton. We topped off our lunch with the hot chocolate and sweet bread for which they are known. I was almost tempted to not order Mexican. This was delicious: beef with nopal, onion and mushrooms, served with refried beans, guacamole and tortillas. Okay, they were basically $14 tacos! Steve had Beef medallions with a butter herb sauce and vegetables for less than $15. We also shared a salad and each had a juice for just under $39 before gratuity. You don’t have to splurge to eat well. One day we ate at this street stand. Tostados were $1 and the BBQ pork skewer was $3.
Transportation: $13.00 includes $7.00 for travel around the city. We Ubered once but discovered that the Metro was only .25 per person per trip! The transfer by taxi from the bus station cost $6. Not included: Airfare home, the $26.75 ADO bus to CDMX, or the $5 Uber to the airport.
Entertainment: $17.71 for a 2-day pass on the Turibus. We didn’t have to pay for any admissions because they were either free or it was Sunday when they generally don’t charge admissions. At Chapultepec Castle there was no charge for Seniors over age 60, a nice $8 savings. Sadly, we didn’t take excursions to Xochimilco or Teotihuacan Pyramids.
Misc: $12.85 for doing laundry twice and the cost for using the W/C.
Tips& Alms: $17.70
Total expenses: $986.50 for an average cost of $98.65 per day for two of us.
Fishers Seafood Restaurant was highly recommended. This is seafood chilaquiles which had shrimp, octopus and calamari. We also had a seafood cocktail, a shrimp, cheese egg burrito, a smoked tuna tostado and two fresh squeezed juices: mandarin and orange. The bill came to $19.25 before gratuity. This roast pork entree at Caifan is meant to be shared and was a bargain with enough fixings to make 8 tacos. The cost including two mint pineapple juices was a little over $12. An assortment of street tacos with carmelized onions, $1 each. The simple Concha sweet bread was surprisingly soft and delicious.This was taken on Thanksgiving Day – the final day of a 2-month tour through Mexico. I really didn’t tire of Mexican food. Hopefully we will return again soon as there are many more areas to explore and foods to try, plus we came home with pesos in our pockets!
We have published the Cost of Travel for each area visited as linked here: Puerto Morelos, Chiapas, Oaxaca, Huatulco and Puerto Escondido, and Puebla. I will do one more post of The Great Expense combining our total Cost of Travel: Mexico to show the average daily expense spread out over two months of slow travel.
Are you dreaming of 2022 travel? Let me know in the comments.
Meet You In The Morning 
Yum! All that food looks so good. 🌮
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Mexican food is wonderful! So much variety!
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