Mexico City Layover Tour Review
Post Last Modified – February 20, 2023 ¦ gr8traveltips.com
On our recent travels to Ecuador from 🍁 Vancouver, British Columbia, we had a long layover between connecting flights in Mexico City. As we had the entire day, we decided to book a private 🏜 Mexico City Layover Tour.
We’ve done this before at other destinations and have always enjoyed taking advantage of our free hours, to explore a new city.
This private tour was an excellent, stress free and relaxed way to see the popular sites of 🏙 Mexico City in a short time.
Mexico City Layover Tour Withlocals
The great thing about taking a private fully guided tour, is you have the freedom to request any particular place you would like to see or visit.
Your guide will do their utmost to accommodate your requests within reason, of course.
Other than what the tour recommended, we did have a couple of establishments we definitely wanted to check out during the day.
Below, is a sample of the places and sites we were able to see on our layover tour with our guide Rogelio. 🙂
Airport Pickup and Drop Off
The great thing about a layover tour, is you don’t have to worry about transportation from the ✈ airport. In most cases and depending on what business you select, your private guide will be there to meet and greet you outside of arrivals.
Rogelio was waiting outside arrivals at a predetermined designated spot. After greeting one another, it was off to his newer 🚙 vehicle, which was very clean and comfortable.
The drive from the airport to the historic center of the city is only about 30 minutes, or about 10 kilometers away.
This is certainly the area of the city to visit, if you only have a short time as we did.
Here, you will find historic landmarks dating back to the Aztec times. This is also where you will find the huge Zócalo plaza. As well, there are; museums, historic buildings, churches, shopping, restaurants and much more.
Below, I’ve listed just a few of the sites and establishments we visited with Rogelio.
El Moro Restaurant
As soon as we arrived in the historic center, we definitely wanted to check out El Moro.
Churrería El Moro is an iconic restaurant in the city. It’s open 24 hours a day and serves delicious freshly made churros and hot chocolate.
Tacos al Pastor is also located right next door to El Moro. You can order your tacos and take them into El Moro with you.
Tacos, Churros & Hot Chocolate – A Perfect Match!
I discovered both of these establishments from watching the Netflix Series Somebody Feed Phil.
This is a great travel and foodie series featuring Philip Rosenthal. With his crew, they travel the world and enjoy local eateries and fine dining in this fun television series.
If you love travel and food, this series is a “Must Watch.”
We visited the original 1935 location of El Moro, which was conveniently located in the Historic center of Mexico City.
I asked our guide Rogelio, on a scale of one to ten, what he thought of the tacos. He replied – nine!
As for the warm fresh churros and hot chocolate?
Delicious!
National Palace of Fine Arts
This historic building houses the 🏛 National Museum of Plastic Arts.
“The Palace of Fine Arts (Palacio de Bellas Artes) is one of the most iconic and grand buildings in the historic center of Mexico City.”
The most important government building and which houses some of the most famous murals of – Diego Rivera.
Surrounding this historic building is also a 🌴 park for locals and visitors to enjoy.
Zocalo
Zócalo is referred to as the Main Square in this part of Mexico City.
Dating back to the colonial period, it was the main Ceremonial Center in the Aztec City of Tenochtitlan.
Surrounding the square are some beautiful historic buildings.
San Francisco Ex-Convent
Founded in 1542, just 3 years after the Conquest of Mexico, this was one of the largest convents during the Spanish times.
Templo Mayor – Aztec Ruins Site
The Templo Mayor was the main temple of the Mexica people in their capital city of Tenochtitlan, now known as Mexico City.
Madero Street
Francisco I. Madero Avenue, more commonly known as; Madero Street.
A geographically and historically significant pedestrian street in the city and a major thoroughfare located in the historic section of the city.
Very popular with locals and tourists, this huge walkway is filled with shops galore!
Pasteleria Ideal
This very popular outrageously huge 🍩 pastry/bake shop, dating back to the 1920’s is filled with a huge selection of Mexican pastries.
They are particularly known for their beautiful 🎂 cakes and the specialty; eight-tiered wedding cakes.
La Merced Market
Our last stop of the day and located very close to the airport, is a visit to one of Mexico City’s largest marketplace.
This is an incredibly huge market, where you can find just about anything you want, including a kitchen sink!
The size is overwhelming, but we made a quick stop to browse a few of the isles, including the flower section of the marketplace.
Great to see and watch the locals get on with their everyday lives.
After our visit, it was just a few minutes back to the airport, allowing plenty of time to clear customs and catch our connecting ✈ flight to Quito, Ecuador.
Mexico City is enormous and depending on how much time you have on your layover, I definitely recommend taking a private guided tour with a local.
Let your guide know what you have in mind beforehand and they will do their best to accommodate you.
Just do a Google search for Mexico City Layover Tours and choose the right one that suits you best!
😎 Safe and Healthy Travels!
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Cover Photo by Ivon Gorgonio – pexels
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