Living in Mexico City: Why We’d Happily Live There Again

Updated August 2026. Mexico City is one of my favourite places in the world to live. I do not mean that in the holiday sense. I mean doing normal things: working, training, buying groceries, taking the Metro, meeting friends, eating a quick lunch and having enough interesting things around that I never feel trapped in a routine.

The city has obvious drawbacks. Traffic is terrible, air quality can be bad, earthquakes are part of life, tap water is not something I drink casually, and street crime is a real consideration. But the combination of food, weather, transport, parks, culture and everyday convenience works extremely well for us.

The short version: why Mexico City works so well

Mexico City feels like a proper megacity without making every part of ordinary life difficult. I can take a cheap Metro ride across town, pay by card in most formal businesses, order almost anything to the apartment, train at a local gym, eat extremely well at every price level and spend Sunday walking through a huge park.

It also feels socially easy. We rarely felt like outsiders creating extra work for people. If I asked a shopkeeper a question in Spanish, they answered it. If we wandered into a local restaurant, nobody seemed surprised we were there.

Where I would live in Mexico City

Roma and Condesa are the easy recommendations. They are attractive, walkable, full of cafes and restaurants and packed with foreigners. They are also expensive by Mexico City standards and can feel like an international neighbourhood that happens to be in Mexico.

I prefer being slightly outside that bubble. Escandón, San Rafael, Narvarte, Del Valle and parts of Coyoacán all give you different combinations of local restaurants, Metro or Metrobús access, parks and normal residential life. The right answer depends much more on where you need to go every day than on which neighbourhood tops a travel list.

I would choose the apartment only after checking street noise. Mexico City can be remarkably calm one block and unbelievably loud the next. Bars, traffic, construction, dogs and street vendors all matter when you are trying to work or sleep.

Public transport is genuinely useful

The Metro remains one of the best bargains in a major city: a normal ride is MX$5. It is often faster than sitting in an Uber or Didi through central congestion, especially at peak times.

Metrobús fills many gaps, and app-based cars are cheap enough relative to many wealthy countries that I use them when the route is awkward or it is late. I would not rent a car for normal life in the city. Parking and traffic would turn an advantage into a chore.

Mexico City’s weather is better than I expected

The altitude is the reason the weather feels so different from the tropical Mexico many visitors picture. Mexico City sits above 2,200 m (7,200 ft), which moderates the heat. Winter mornings can be cool, afternoons are often mild, and the warmer months still avoid the relentless heat of lower-elevation cities.

The rainy season changes the rhythm rather than ruining the city. Heavy rain often arrives later in the day. I plan outdoor things earlier and keep an umbrella nearby instead of treating May through October as a write-off.

Spanish makes Mexico City much better

Mexican Spanish turned out to be easier for me than I expected. In ordinary conversations in Mexico City, people generally spoke clearly enough that my Spanish worked immediately. There is plenty of slang, but the underlying language is close to the Latin American Spanish most English-language learners encounter in books and apps.

You can get by in English in Roma, Condesa and the most international businesses. I would not use that as a reason to avoid Spanish. The city becomes much larger once you can comfortably talk to anybody rather than limiting yourself to places built around foreigners.

Internet and mobile data

We had fast home internet and no trouble working online. I also buy a local prepaid SIM rather than paying international roaming rates. The old version of this post listed a specific AT&T package and converted it to US dollars; those package sizes and prices change, so I no longer treat them as permanent advice.

For a longer stay, I care much more about signal inside the apartment than which carrier wins a theoretical speed test. Concrete buildings can turn a good network into a bad one indoors.

Food: the hardest part is not eating constantly

Mexico City makes excellent food feel normal. Tacos, tortas, tamales, pozole, seafood, bakeries and neighbourhood lunch menus are everywhere, but so are good international restaurants when I want a change.

I particularly like how much good food exists outside formal restaurants. A street stall with a small menu can be far more interesting than somewhere with a reservation system and a tasting menu.

The Lebanese influence is also visible in food. Tacos al pastor developed from the vertical-spit cooking brought by immigrants from the eastern Mediterranean, then became thoroughly Mexican through the meat, tortilla, chilli, pineapple and local technique. It is a good example of how Mexico City absorbs outside influence without becoming generic.

Cost of living

Mexico City is no longer a cheap digital-nomad loophole, especially in Roma and Condesa. Short-term furnished rents in those neighbourhoods can be high, and restaurants aimed at affluent locals and foreigners can cost what I would expect in much wealthier countries.

Live more locally and the economics change. Public transport, street food, markets and ordinary services can still be inexpensive. Housing is the number I would price first because it overwhelms most of the smaller savings.

Safety: how I think about it

I never felt the need to move around Mexico City in a state of constant fear, but I do not treat it like Melbourne. I keep my phone under control in crowded places, pay attention at ATMs, avoid wandering around unfamiliar quiet streets late at night, and use a car when the alternative feels unnecessarily exposed.

Neighbourhood matters. So does time of day. I ask local people about specific streets and routes rather than trying to reduce an enormous city to “safe” or “unsafe”.

Earthquakes are part of living there

Mexico City has earthquake alarms and people take drills seriously for good reason. I learn the building’s evacuation route when I arrive and pay attention when an alert sounds. It is one of those risks that feels abstract until you live somewhere where everyone around you has a story about a major quake.

Would we live in Mexico City again?

Absolutely. I would choose a residential neighbourhood with good transport rather than automatically paying for Roma or Condesa, make sure the apartment is quiet enough to work in, and stay long enough to develop local routines.

Mexico City suits me because it is interesting without demanding that I be a tourist every day. I can have a normal Tuesday there and still feel very happy to be in Mexico.