Hi, everyone. I haven't done a full-blown trip report in many years, but I thought I'd give a brief overview of my trip with friends to DF, Puebla and Oaxaca this past summer.

We had an excellent time.

Here's how we broke down our time:

2 nights: Marquis Reforma, DF
4 nights: Hippodrome Hotel Condesa, DF
2: nights Casona China de la Poblana, Puebla
5 nights: Azul Hotel, Oaxaca

More to come.

I'm having problems posting links here lately. Let's see if this works. My hotel rooms are in this gallery:

http://www.pbase.com/leelygoes/mexic...accommodations

MEXICO CITY: MARAVILLOSA

<b>Hotel snafu</b>
I hate really alliteration, but Mexico City is truly marvelous and so justifies the hack-y-ness.

A few days before leaving home I received a call from the hotel I had booked for one friend and me, Condesa DF. Plumbing problems so they needed to cancel my reservation. They offered to honor the reservation at another hotel in their group, in Polanco. Two of us had wanted to stay in Condesa or Roma, and my other friend had booked a room nearby.

I was able to find room at the newly renovated Hippodrome Hotel, but only for four nights. So the Marquis Reforma it was for the first two nights. Turned out to be a good hotel. Not glamorous, but a nice business hotel with all the services you would expect for business travelers. Great location on the busy Paseo de la Reforma, close to Chapultepec Park--perfect for me to go running in the mornings.

<b>Highlights</b>
Museo Nacional de Antropologia - This is one of the best museums I've been to anywhere. We spent nearly five hours here. Went on a Sunday and then to Teotihuacan (another super highlight) on Monday.

We spent our first full day in the historic center and environs. What a fantastic area just to wander around, looking at the beautiful architecture and lively street scene.

We went to the Palacio Nacional, and ended up taking a guided tour with another family from the States. Loved the history, the murals, the architecture.

Had comida at

Leely2: Oh thank you for reporting back!! I am off to see your hotel photos now. I will check back daily to see of you have done more installments. I followed your planning and replied to some of your planning threads, I think. I Love the DF, Puebla, and Oaxaca. Some of my favorite places on earth.

Eileen

Oops, hit submit too soon.

<b>Highlights, cont'd.</b>

We had a long, leisurely comida at <b>Maximo Bistrot </b> in Roma one day. Food was delicious, service was charming and we had a table of the Beautiful People (and they knew it, too ) speaking several languages, air kissing and more next us to add extra entertainment.

http://www.maximobistrot.com.mx/

<b>Casa Azul,</b> Frida's House. I saw a Frida retrospective in Rome the previous summer, at which I developed a fuller appreciation of her work. Seeing the house was great. We stood in the very long line for quite a while before we realized we could buy tickets online and waltz right in. Uhh, lesson learned.

<b>Coyoacan</b> In addition to Casa Azul, we liked this whole neighborhood. I misspoke above: we were here on a Sunday, not in Chapultepec Park. Lively does not fully cover how busy Coyoacan was on a Sunday afternoon. We toured Trotsky's house, had a tostada in the market, went in search of Malinche's supposed home, visited the churches, had a banana split (yep), and generally had a great time in this atmospheric quarter.

<b>Yet More DF Highlights</B>

<b>Teotihuacan</b>
I was surprised by how awestruck I was by this visit. The site is huge! And, to me, very beautiful. I was glad we had visited the anthro museum first because it provided greater context.

Had planned to take the bus out there, but ended up booking a driver through our hotel.

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/414

<b>Palacio Iturbide</b>
We ducked in here just as the late-afternoon downpour began. Beautiful 18th-century building that now houses contemporary exhibitions. We were very fortunate to see a retrospective of Mexican architect Mathias Goeritz--really cool.

http://fomentoculturalbanamex.org/goeritz/introduccion/

This show originated at the Sofia Reina in Madrid and is now at Museo Amparo in Puebla.

Thanks for commenting, eileen. The help I received here--directly and also indirectly through other posts--made this trip truly wonderful. I am very grateful to all the Mexico posters.

Oh, I've started working on a photo gallery. Nothing terribly exciting--I forgot my camera so all pics were taken with iPhones. But here you go:

http://www.pbase.com/leelygoes/mexico_by_phone_

I just noticed your thread and will be following along with pleasure!

I plan to return to Mexico this winter!!

I have never heard of the Palacio Iturbide. Did you just stumble upon it due to the rain, or had you known of it? I have been going to the DF fir so many years, so many trips, and still there are so many places that are wonderful to stumble upon, much less all the ones to plan on visiting.

I have been in Playa del Carmen for 10 wks of the last 16 wks. but I have been caught up on closing on a new place we have there, getting it painted and furnished and decorated. I want to get back to traveling around the country soon. We are going in January for two weeks, and will either go to Merida by bus, or maybe the DF by air and then Puebla by bus. So I will see if that exhibit is still in Puebla if we go there.

Teotihuacan is really amazing, isn't it. I felt the same way when I went there the 1st time You hear more about the Mayan archeological sites in MX, and they are indeed awesome, but the Aztec sites are also great, esp Teotihuacan. Did you do the clapping echo thing in front of the Pyramid of the Moon? That is pretty mind- blowing, like the bizarre ballcourt echo at Chichen Itza.

i love Coyoacan too! SO lively on the weekends especially. Great little covered market building, not as overwheling as the ones in the DF, and the zolcalo and church area is such a social meeting area, great people watching. If you go thru the Sanborns store right there, there is a fantastic small handicraft market with amazing goods in back of the Sanborns. That market has some hard to find special items, especially Olinala hand carved and decorated trunks and other hand-carved olinala goods from Guerrero. That handicraft market is one of the ebat- kept secreta of Coyoacan, if you ever go back.

I have never been to Condessa, Roma, or Polanco. I never seem to get away from the Centro Historico, as I stay close to the cathedral/zocalo area. i should venture into those trendier areas soon.

looking forward to more of your report and photos!

emd, re: Palacio Iturbide. It was in my guidebook, but also someone here on Fodor's had reported visiting and I had made a note of it. Of course I had a long, long list of places I wanted to see in the center, and I didn't get to many of them. But this one happened to be nearby when the rain started coming down in buckets. And it's FREE.

Looking forward to more.

<b>Wandering and Eating through DF: The Other Major Highlight</b>

I had been to DF before many years ago when I was young, but I didn't remember much. Visiting as an adult, I was blown away by the size, sounds and tastes of this magnificent, crazy city.

The sheer diversity of architecture, block by block and neighborhood by neighborhood, had me snapping my neck back and forth. Jogging in the mornings in Chapultepec Park took me twice as long as the mileage would suggest because I was always stopping to read a sign, snap a photo, do a double-take.

We especially enjoyed all the people out at 10-11pm at night walking their dogs in Parque Mexico in Condesa.

I was also struck by how thoroughly protest culture seems to be woven into the national identity. An obvious example: I cannot imagine <b>Rivera's murals</b> front and center in national public buildings here in my country (the U.S.), as they are in the <b>Palacio Nacional and Palacio de Bellas Artes.</b>

Okay, I have edged into the realm of gross oversimplification and even romanticization now, so I'll cut it out and leave these types of thoughts to the historians and political theorists among us.

In any case, the different neighborhoods, the shops, the noise, the people, and of course the food!--made this city a real thrill-ride.

As for food, I largely followed in ekscrunchy's footsteps, having done very little research myself ahead of time.

FWIW, we especially enjoyed eating at:
<b>Bistrot Maximo</b>, mentioned above.
http://www.maximobistrot.com.mx/

<b>Azul Condesa</b>
Upscale place. Everyone says to go to Azul Historico because of the building, but this was a short walk from our second hotel, so we dined there twice. Great mole negro, very very dark. Also loved their panuchos with chochinita pibil.

<b>El Hidalguense</b>
Barbacoa is the breakfast of champions and I like to think of myself as a champion. We ate *everything* on the table. Good food, low-key but lively environment. Maybe touristy if that worries you. I really couldn't tell.

http://mexkitchen.blogspot.com/2012/...idalguese.html

<b>El Bajío Polanco</b> was a good--not great--stop after a day in Chapultepec Park and the anthro museum. Other good stops were <b>El Huequito</b> in the cneter right by all the musical instrument shops for tacos al pastor. Special nod to the tostadas and tacos we had at the market at Coyoacan--those were delicious and chosen by sight.

Thanks for posting this. I'm hoping to make it to this part of Mexico soon and this is very helpful.

Great trip report Leely. We’re off to Mexico for the first time in February beginning in DF for about five days.

We want to do one day at Teotihuacan and have checked out some ways to get there from the Hampton Inn in Centro. We do not want to go to Guadalupe and (as do many of the package van tours) we absolutely do not want to shop. So far, it seems that Royal Tours can do just a Teotihuacan only car and driver. We are reasonably fit seniors; love museums and historical/architectural sites, so we want to get an idea of how long it’s reasonable to tour Teotihuacan. We’d love to hear your experience for this site – and any others who have suggestions and advice.

PaoloCast2 --

See this recent thread for info on Teotihuacan.

http://www.fodors.com/community/mexi...o-we-allow.cfm

PaoloCast, that link Fra posted is great--more info than I could ever give. We did end up going to Villa de Guadalupe, which I found interesting, some cool architecture. I hadn't wanted to go, but my friends did, and so I was outvoted.

At Teotihuacan itself we spent maybe 2-2 1/2 hours altogether, though honestly I could have stayed longer. I am one of those "likes to look at old rocks" kind of people.

We also saw Cholula and Monte Alban on this trip. You'd think I'd have been tired of pyramids by Monte Alban, but far from it. I wanted to continue on through Mexico to see more of the pre-Columbian sites.