Job Discussion Forums

[deeb]

Hi All,

In November, I will be taking a small group of university students to DF. We only have enough time and money for a long weekend and I'm thinking we will arrive Friday night and leave Monday early-evening.

What would you do or see in DF for two and a half days?

None of my students have ever been there before, so I am interested in showing them a bite-sized version of the city and then I hope they will return on their own for more exploring. I would like to show them some things that are not necessarily in their Lonely Planet guide books.

I have a few ideas, but for those of you living in the area you might have greater insight than I do, coming from GDL.

Thanks in advance for your suggestions!

[Prof.Gringo]

Day One

1. Take the TuriBus tour of Mexico City. You can get on and off the bus at different points along the route and it covers many of the major sights in DF.
http://web.turibus.com.mx/turibus/


2. Spend a few hours exploring downtown, the Zocalo and the museums including El Templo Mayor, the remains of Tenochitlan, the Aztec capital. Don't miss the ceremony at 6pm when the Mexican Army marches out from the National Palace and lowers the Mexican flag. Complete with band.
http://www.templomayor.inah.gob.mx/

3. At night you can go and check out one of the "cool" colonias such as Condesa or Roma.
http://www.mexicocity.gob.mx/index.php?idioma=en

Day Two

Depends on what you want to see and do. For me-

1. Take a tour of the National Anthropology Museum, Chapultepec Castle and Reforma if you didn't check it out the day before while on the TURIBUS.
http://www.inah.gob.mx/

2. Take a quick tour of Teotihuacan. It's a "must" see if you come to DF.
http://archaeology.la.asu.edu/teo/

[dixie]

[notamiss]

To the good suggestions above I can only add:
My recommendation for anyone who is staying less than a week is to forgo the enormous Anthropology Museum. Substitute the Templo Mayor in the Z�calo, as it is smaller and more or less equivalent to a "best-of" condensed version of the type of exhibits displayed at the Anthropology Museum.

Since they are university students and might be interested to see where many Mexico City students attend, I would have liked to suggest a quick visit to the UNAM, but since you only have 2 days, it would eat up proportionately too much time to be worth it.

[Guy Courchesne]

For something off the beaten path, you can pick up a copy of Tiempo Libre at a newsstand or Sanborn's. Timepo Libre covers everything that isn't on the Turibus route, including ballet, free concerts, galleries, and very interesting afterhours locations.

[deeb]

[Milenka]

I would devote one day to Z�calo, Templo Mayor, Bellas Artes and Plaza de las Tres Culturas (especially if your students are studying history, don't forget that 40 years ago this upcoming October the masacre de Tlatelolco took place there). I would devote the second day to the southern part of town: Coyoac�n, casa-estudio de Diego Rivera, la Casa Azul, casa-museo Le�n Trotsky, and UNAM. It's doable if you get up early enough. If you take the metrobus to the south you can even make a quick stop at Poliforum to admire Siqueiros' murals.

Teotihuac�n would definitely not be on my list.

[notamiss]

[M@tt]

two days in mexico city and you're sending people to UNAM?
seriously?

[MO39]

[deeb]

[Milenka]

Hi again, deeb. My suggestion was based on your original post, i.e., "a bite-sized version of the city". Of course you could spend many days (and nights!) enjoying the very "centro hist�rico"... so many museums, so many cantinas, so much art, so much history, so much architecture... it's endless. I believe that downtown plus the southern area provide a better, albeit sanp-shot kind of picture of Mexico City. A key issue here is whether you yourself are familiar with public transportation and sights in Mexico City, are you?

[deeb]

[Prof.Gringo]

[Prof.Gringo]