Mexico City alone last week of December
 

Hola.
I am a single 32 year old man. My workplace will be closed from on December 24th and will reopen the first Monday after New Year's Day. right now I am considering traveling to London, England, Washington D.C., or Mexico City during this time. I live in Michigan. I am a native English speaker but Starting early this year I have been teaching myself some Spanish using a Spanish-English dictionary and a book meant to teach spanish to English speakers. I know this is overkill but there are two Spanish speakers and one semi speaker at my workplace. I am currently on a radically restrictive diet consisting of mainly fruit and a little fish or poultry. I am usually an extremely cheap person and I like the idea of staying in a hostel instead of a typical hotel, but I would want a decent hostel where I would share a room with just a few people at most and not just the dirt cheapest place just for the sake of being cheap. In general the first places I visit are art museums and then ruins/ architecture/ parks. I have looked up information about Mexico City but I don't have an intenarary in mind yet. I don't drink or smoke.

Mainly I want decide whether this idea (travel to Mexico City alone, make reservations at a hostel if available, buy my own food) seems safe or makes sense and whether the time I am considering is wise or whether I should put off traveling until the weather is warmer, and the number of days I would want to make my trip.

Did you decide on Mexico City instead of London? Certainly it is easier from a budget point of view.

I consider Mexico City very safe if you stay in standard areas, and I have been a number of times. I speak Spanish somewhat, and it is very helpful for sure. But with various apps you can download today, you should be able to do fine.

I never buy fruit directly in Mexico City, though, because you have to disinfect it. The procedure is no doubt easy enough (look it up). As for fish and poultry, that is certainly available. But I have never considered cooking in Mexico City, because cheap options are so readily available.

Have you considered doing a homestay linked to a Spanish school? If you explained your dietary needs, it could probably work. The school allows enough time for activities, and you have a secure place to stay.

It is warm enough during the day in Mexico City, but nights can be a bit chilly in December. Very few buildings have heating, particularly in your price range, so you have to be prepared with layers of warm nightclothes for sleeping.

Consider going further south to Oaxaca if you want to avoid cold completely. To do this from the airport, you catch a bus to Puebla, and then a bus to Oaxaca. Or you could just fly to Oaxaca.

If you stay with Mexico City, still consider spending some time in Puebla, which as I mentioned is an easy bus ride from the airport and a pleasant city with a nice central hostel. It has a lot to see and it might feel a bit "easier" than Mexico City.

Hostel Cathedral is a very popular hostel among people of many ages. Take a look at the reviews and see what you think. It even has a self-catering kitchen. This is a good solid choice for its area as well.

I should say Hostel Mundo Joven Catedral.

https://www.hihostels.com/hostels/me...joven-catedral

I think Mexico will be a challenge with your dietary restrictions.

I met someone who stayed at the Hostel Catedral who lived on 7-11 sandwiches (there's a 7-11 near there). She was afraid to eat anything else. Still, she seemed to be having a good trip. Mexico City will definitely have canned fish, and you can buy fruit in various places, so if someone really wants to eat only that, he could.

I think any place would be a challenge with those restrictions, but you can always buy fruit in grocery stores, I guess. I'll admit Mexico City isn't one of my favorite places, I don't know about that time of year, but when I was there in July, the pollution was simply astounding, worse than I'd seen in any city any where. The entire sky would be very gray as if it were about to rain a lot of the time, but it wasn't. It was nice once you got out of the city just a few miles.

There are other places I like better in Mexico which you could consider. I hate to say the obvious, but what about the coasts? Something like Puerta Vallarta which isn't just a resort town quite as much as, say, Playa del Carmen on the Caribbean (which is a real city, of course, people live there, also). You could visit ruins there, but no great art museums like in the DF. Same for Puerta Vallarta, although it has a few more sites.

But I was thinking some place like Guanajuato, which I really liked a lot, or Oaxaca. Oaxaca at least has several museums. Guanajuato has a few sites like that, also, of course, nothing like the DF. December is one of the drier months for Guanajuato and the temperature is very moderate there all year. Even in December, the avg. daytime temp is about 65. From there, there are other places you could visit by bus for day trips.

YOu can get real cheap hostels or budget hotels in Guanajuato, don't know your budget. You can get hostel rooms from $15, cheap single rooms in hotels from around $60. Oaxaca has become real trendy, so I imagine it's more expensive but probably more to do right in the town. Christmas/NY is more expensive in these places than it would be at other times, of course, due to the holidays.

I'd at least compare rates in some of these places vs. the DF, as I'd rather spend time in then for that long, even if they don't have as grand museums. I just wasn't a big fan of Mexico City, in more ways than the filth and pollution. You could consider Merida, Mexico, also, in the Yucutan. YOu could stay real cheaply there and travel to some of the sites easily. It's a larger city so some things to see right there, also, but not as much a tourist destination as the coast.

You can stay in this hostel in a single room with shared bath for only $20 a night, for example, near the center of town in Merida. http://www.hostalzocalo.com/ Now it will be hot there, for a change, in the 80s in daytime. But you should get good fruit and fish (and they do eat a lot of chicken there, also). http://www.visitmexico.com/en/archit...-merida-mexico