Photo taken from Museo Nacional De Antropologia
Table Of Contents
- The 5 Quick Scores – An Overview Of The City
- My Favorite Neighborhoods
- Wifi Speed Tests
- Where I Stayed
- My Favorite Places To Work From
- Finding Community / Making Friends
- Transportation
- What I Ate
- What I Drank / Nightlife
- Exercise / Outdoors
The 5 Quick Scores
- Internet Speed – 4/5
- Lots of super fast wifi here in Mexico City. I ran 16 wifi speed tests, and here are the findings
- Avg. Download Speed = 67.04 MBPS
- Avg. Upload Speed = 40.15 MBPS
- Avg. Latency = 36.87 MS*
- *Not sure what these metrics mean? Read my guide to getting fast wifi here.
- Fastest internet I Got In The City – was at Cadillac Hotel Boutique
- Ease Of Connecting & Making Friends– 4/5
- This is a great place to find other travelers / make friends. I do still prefer Playa Del Carmen (ready my nomad guide here), but it’s still pretty easy to make connections
- Nightlife – 4/5
- Plenty of nightlife & places to enjoy some killer mezcal & artisanal beers
- Places To Work From – 4.5/5
- No shortage of Co-working spots, co-living spots, cafe’s and even cafe’s that double as co-working spots. Check out more about spots to work at here.
- Affordability – 3/5
- This isn’t the cheapest place in Mexico, however you can do it cheaply. If you want to hang out in the neighborhoods I recommend below you will be spending more. Centro is a good spot to hang out at if you’re looking to save some money have more of an “authentic” experience, while still being able to meet some other travelers.
My Favorite Neighborhoods
- Roma Norte / Roma Sur
- I’m actually writing this from Roma Norte, I love this place it’s definitely my favorite spot. Many of my favorite places to work from and eat are here. All of the streets are lined with green trees & plants. The prices are a bit higher though, going to give you a heads up.
- Juarez
- This is just north of Roma Norte, same beautifully lined streets and dozens of killer restaurants & places to work from.
- Condesa
- Outside of Roma, this is probably one of the best known neighborhoods for nomads / expats. If you go you’ll see why. May favorite bar was actually in this neighborhood. Check it out here.
Wifi Speed Tests
| Type / Device | Name | Upload | Download | Latency |
| Hotel | Cadillac Boutique | 343.034 | 189.373 | 54 |
| Hotel | U-Co Juarez – Faster Network | 249.735 | 92.611 | 45 |
| Cafe | COFFEEFY | 200.412 | 163.324 | 50 |
| Cafe | Pulpa Amor Liquido | 64.744 | 34.681 | 55 |
| Cafe | Tierra Garat – Nuevo Leon | 47.247 | 47.056 | 6 |
| Co-working Space | Selinas | 41.934 | 39.201 | 14 |
| Cafe | The Coffee Bar | 27.277 | 3.997 | 6 |
| Hotel | Selinas | 22.511 | 22.399 | 52 |
| Hotel | U-Co Juarez – Slower Network | 18.409 | 7.878 | 45 |
| Cafe | Tierra Garat – Jalapa | 15.61 | 4.292 | 65 |
| Cafe | Tierra Garat – Reforma | 4.723 | 9.446 | 11 |
| Public Wifi | CDMX Internet Por Todos | 4.653 | 2.143 | 53 |
| Cafe | Cafebrería El Péndulo Condesa | 4.583 | 3.567 | 10 |
| Cafe | Cielito Cafe – 16 De Septiembre | 1.173 | 0.739 | 64 |
For the hardcore geeks, you can check out my full spreadsheet of all my wifi tests in Mexico here.
Where I Stayed
Selina – CDMX
- OVERALL – 4/5 – Overall, I do love Selina’s.
- I stayed at a Selina the entire time I was in Playa Del Carmen and I’m writing this from a Selina in Cancun. If you were to take this Selina and put it in Roma or Juarez it’d be perfect. It is located right off of some major streets, in the super busy central part of the city. That being said, those looking for “authentic” Mexico tend to be charmed by all the noise and grit of the neighborhood.
- I didn’t mind it as much but also would’ve preferred it to be in one of the sexier neighborhoods. It’s a bit older building and you could tell from time to time.
- Affordability – 3.5/5 – Somewhat affordable, but not the cheapest place in Mexico City. At the time of writing this, it’s ~$17 for a shared dorm room & prices started at $40 a night for a private room.*
- They actually have monthly co-live plans that include co-working spaces. These start at ~$800 for a private room and go up from there. Not a bad deal at all, and you can jump between the different Selina locations during the month which is pretty killer. Personally, I went with the monthly plan, and loved it.
- They do offer a lot of different levels of rooms and options, which is pretty cool. Personally I thought the micro’s were a bit depressing but it’s pretty cool to have so many options.
- Wifi – 4.5/5 – The guest wifi really wasn’t too bad at all. It wasn’t crazy fast, but it was pretty stable. I was actually able to do an hour long video call without any issues. Their co-working speeds were quicker and super reliable.
- Guest Network Speeds
- Avg. Download Speed = 22.194 MBPS
- Avg. Upload Speed = 20.514 MBPS
- Avg. Latency = 10 MS
- Co-Work Network Speeds – You’ll need cowork access to get access to this wifi (at least in theory)
- Avg. Download Speed = 41.93 MBPS
- Avg. Upload Speed = 39.20 MBPS
- Avg. Latency = 14 MS
- Guest Network Speeds
- Sense Of Community – 5/5 – The staff is cool and there are tons of regular activities going on. They have a dedicated person to build & maintain a sense of community and even have their own Whatsapp group (which most Selina’s tend to have). There are a lot of other single / nomadic folks here that are easy to connect with.
- Location – 3/5 – Not crazy about the location and the incessant car honking outside my window. The neighborhood was reminiscent of some of my time in the larger cities of eastern Asia. So if you like lots of noise, don’t mind some grittiness it could be right up your alley.
- Cleanliness – 4/5 – A bit of an older building, so there were some issues with smelling sewage a bit if I didn’t cover the shower drain (they had a cover to use). But otherwise nothing too bad.
U-Co Juarez
- OVERALL – 4/5 – This was a CoLive spot too, where you had both a co-working spot, and also rooms. The Co-working spot wasn’t winning any awards. They also tried to charge me for a towel that I cleaned my feet with that had stains, which I thought was a bit weird… But overall, I would recommend the spot, I liked it.
- Affordability – 4/5 – For shared rooms (with capsule style beds) prices start at ~$15 per night, and in my case the private room was ~$40 for a private room*
- Their prices do get cheaper the longer you book the rooms for, so be aware of that. They do ask you how long your planning to stay on the website before you get quoted, so best to check their website.
- Wifi – 4.5/5 – Pretty damn good wifi. The speeds would jump around a little bit. But I had a buddy staying there that was on video calls all day and never had any issues.
- Avg. Download Speed = 249.73 MBPS
- Avg. Upload Speed = 92.61 MBPS
- Avg. Latency = 45 MS
- Sense Of Community – 4/5 – The staff is super friendly, and it’s quite easy to meet other people. It’s a pretty intimate spot so invariably you end up talking to others.
- Location – 5/5 – Super close to the huge metro and bus stop at Glorieta De Los Insurgentes and walking distance to all of my favorite neighborhoods.
- Cleanliness – 5/5 – Super clean spot and pretty well upkept
My Favorite Places To Work From
Co-working Space At Selina
- OVERALL – 4/5 – This is probably my favorite co-working spot. I generally prefer to work at cafe’s over Co-working space. Go to the Selina Hotel review section to see a video of the co-working space, and more details on it.
- Wifi – 4.5/5 – The wifi is quite fast and reliable, plenty of video calls without any issues
- Avg. Download Speed = 41.93 MBPS
- Avg. Upload Speed = 39.20 MBPS
- Avg. Latency = 14 MS
- *Not sure what these metrics mean? Read my guide to getting fast wifi here.
- Service & Friendliness – 4/5 – They don’t have any staff at the co-working space per se. However, if you order downstairs they can deliver food and drinks upstairs which is pretty cool
- Amount Of Outlets – 5/5– Tons of outlets!
- Location / Ambiance – 3.5/5 – Not my favorite location in Centro, a bit loud.
- Ergonomics 3.5/5 (Comfortable Seating / Standup Spots) – Not a whole lot of standing spots, but they did have some bean bags and the seats were pretty comfortable
COFFEEFY WORKAFE
- OVERALL – 4/5 – Killer concept, it had the laidback environment of a cafe but also all the amenities of a co-working spot. I walked past it a couple of times, then finally went in, and I was in love.
- Wifi – 4/5 – This was the fastest wifi I got at any cafe co-work spot in CDMX
- Download Speed = 200.412 MBPS
- Upload Speed = 163.324 MBPS
- Avg. Latency = 50 MS
- Service & Friendliness – 4/5 – The staff was super attentive and friendly
- Amount Of Outlets – 5/5– Plenty of outlets, even ones right on the sides of the couches!
- Location / Ambiance – 5/5 – The ambiance is killer, and it’s in an awesome neighborhood.
- Ergonomics 4/5 (Comfortable Seating / Standup Spots) – they had couches and a couple of different options. I can’t recall if they had any standing desks though unfortunately.
Tierra Garat
- OVERALL – 4/5 – Delicious drinks, incredibly well designed spots and consistent service and quality. These guys have a bunch of locations scattered around Roma, Condesa, Hipodromo, etc.
- Wifi – 4/5 – The wifi speed did vary quite a bit from location to location, and I only went to 3 locations. I wouldn’t take any video calls at these cafe’s necessarily, but for all but the Reforma location the wifi was acceptable.
- Nuevo Leon Location
- Download Speed = 47.24 MBPS
- Upload Speed = 47.05 MBPS
- Avg. Latency = 6 MS
- Japala Location – probably my favorite location
- Download Speed = 15.61 MBPS
- Upload Speed = 4.29 MBPS
- Avg. Latency = 65 MS
- Reforma Location
- Download Speed = 4.72 MBPS
- Upload Speed = 9.44 MBPS
- Avg. Latency = 11 MS
- Nuevo Leon Location
- Service & Friendliness – 4/5 – The staff was super attentive and friendly
- Amount Of Outlets – 4/5– Quite a few outlet’s not to the level of the co-working spots but still pretty good.
- Location / Ambiance – 5/5 – The ambiance is pretty killer at each of these spots. I Particularly loved the Japala location
- Ergonomics 3.5/5 (Comfortable Seating / Standup Spots) – This did change a bit from location to location but overall they did a pretty good job on this. Once again the Jalapa location did a great job of it.
Finding Community / Making Friends
- The Selina location did have a whatsapp group that was super active
- U-Co Juarez also had their own Whatsapp group
- I found a pretty active language learning Whatsapp Group
- I was recommended this site by someone who lives in the area to find Whatsapp Groups.
- I could never get the signup feature to work but it might be working now.
- Pretty regular meetups done through nomadlist.com
- All the FB groups I joined were mostly full of spam
Interested In Building Community As A Nomad? I interviewed 9 other digital nomads to come up with a complete guide, check it out here.
Transportation
- Getting There & Leaving
- This is a great hub to fly nationally or internally from and to, super cheap flights
- For buses, ADO is the company I always use in Mexico. Unfortunately, I don’t believe they have an English version of the website though.
- Getting Around
- EcoBici
- I love these guys. You sign up on their website, then literally get a bike right afterwards.
- As long as you only use the bike for 45 minutes or under, you won’t get charged again either, just the flat fee to signup.
- Having these bikes to jump on and run around the city in really enriched my experience in CDMX
- I love these guys. You sign up on their website, then literally get a bike right afterwards.
- Didi
- Uber can be a bit hit or miss, I had a lot of drivers cancel on me before I’d get a ride (I also experienced this in San Jose, Costa Rica as well) so I’d recommend Didi
- I had one ride from a local Taxi driver, he was a real piece of work…
- Buses / Subway
- They do have a subway system and I knew plenty of expats / nomads who used it. Personally I’d prefer to walk or bike but if you’re into that kind of thing. Here are some details on it from TripSavvy.
- EcoBici
What I Ate
Disclaimer – While here I was eating mostly vegan, with the occasional vegetarian dish. So my recommendations will be based around those dietary restrictions.
Not So Healthy Food
- Gorditas De Nata
- There are stands of these scattered throughout the city. Mostly in Centro. I loved these things. I’m 90% positive they weren’t vegan but they were vegetarian and they were warm and fucking delicious. I nearly turned into un gordito feliz due to these things!
- Fakc-Yeah
- 100% vegan fried food, sandwiches and cookies. These guys had some killer stuff, definitely the best vegan sandwiches I’ve ever had.
Healthier Food
- I’d say about 60 – 70% of my diet was my vegan recipe I perfected during my time in Playa Del Carmen. Click here to check out the details of my recipe.
- I also loved the Gorditas W/ Black Beans & cheese that you could find at a number of food stalls on the street in Centro. These aren’t crazy healthy, but short of a very unsatisfying salad was the best I could find as far as street food.
Add’l Restaurants I’d Recommend
Here are a list of the restaurants I liked (or heard great things about) with both healthier and less healthy options
- Pizzas Nosferatu
- These guys weren’t a vegan restaurant per se, however their vegan pizza was my favorite vegan thing to eat in the entire city.
- It’s pizza right, so not crazy healthy, however there were layers of vegetables on the pizza, it was like a lightly toasted salad over soft pizza crust. After spending about a month in Italy, I believe I’m a pretty good pizza critic 😂. Interested in digital nomading in Italy? Check out my digital nomad guide for Rome here.
- Pulpa Amor Liquido
- Another 100% vegan spot that was pretty good. They had a cake that was super delicious! (Can’t remember the name or type of cake unfortunately)
- Gracias Madre Taqueria
- These guys have both a physical location, as well as a vegan taco truck (check out the locations at the bottom of their contact page, here). Super well known, I actually didn’t get the chance to eat there but will have to check it out on my next visit.
Want to stay fit & eat healthy while traveling? Check out my guide to diet fitness while traveling here!
What I Drank / Nightlife
Mexico City is a Drunkards Dream
Particularly if you’re a drunk with a more refined palate. There are incredible craft beers available all over the city. I couldn’t tell you how many different Mexican Imperial Stouts I drank, it was magical.
There are also a ton of knowledgeable folks on Mezcal and other Agave spirits. I met multiple people at bars, liquor stores & tastings who went deep on different agave plants, methods of distilling, all kinds of stuff. I was introduced to new Agave spirits I had never heard of before (Bacanora & Sotol specifically). That being said – during my trip to Jalisco in 2020, I discovered Raicilla and that is still my favorite Agave spirit.
A Couple Spots To Get A Drink At
- Tacobar
- I love this bar, a small really intimate spot with super knowledgeable staff. Their selection of Mezcals, Tequilas & agave distillates is incredible. I tried so many new drinks. I even found out about Bacanora there, which is an agave distillate from Sonora.
- El Grifo
- I was a huge fan of this spot, this place is actually right next door to Pizzas Nosferatu (see food section above). They had a huge selection of craft beer and Mezcal (and even a couple Mezcal tastings). Plus you can order a shot or beer, then buy that bottle to back home with you!
- Bosforo
- A pretty well known bar. Honestly I did not go here, but I heard a lot of good stuff from multiple sources. I wanted to check it out, just didn’t get a shot.
- MisMezcales
- Great liquor store with an awesome dude running it. You can taste most of the bottles available. He has a few of the better known Mezcals, in addition to all kinds of obscure Agave spirits.
Drink Reviews W/ A Redneck From My Time Here
This is from my Drink Reviews W/ A Redneck Series. Which features me drinking and reviewing alcohol from around the world. Sometimes I’m with others, sometimes I’m by myself, sometimes I compare the drinks to romantic interests. Check it out!
Check out the video here!
Exercise
Want to stay fit & eat healthy while traveling? Check out my guide to diet fitness while traveling here!
- EcoBici
- I mentioned this in the transportation section, but it’s worth noting again. Ecobici is kickass!
- Other than walking I would argue cruising around on a bicycle is the best way to discover a city (and you get a workout!).
- Local Gym I Can’t Remember The Name Of
- If you’re staying at the Selina in Centro, there’s a gym super close. I can’t remember the name and wasn’t able to find it on Google but it’s located in this building, literally a block away from Selina.
- I believe it was about $40 a month for a membership
- Lots of equipment, a bit of a grittier gym if that sort of thing bothers you
- If you’re staying at the Selina in Centro, there’s a gym super close. I can’t remember the name and wasn’t able to find it on Google but it’s located in this building, literally a block away from Selina.
- SmartFit Gym
- These guys have locations all over Mexico. If you’re staying in Mexico for a year, you can access any of their gyms across Mexico, which is a pretty killer deal.
- At the time of writing this you did need to commit to 2 months to get a membership there, but I was able to get a 24 hour pass and go two days in a row. As I recall, this was about $5 USD.
- Yoga
- There are a ton of Yoga spots all over Roma and the surrounding areas. I didn’t find any I really loved outside of the classes offered at Selina, the hostel I stayed at.
- That being said, a quick Google search will reveal a bunch of yoga spots.
- Barras Insurgentes
- This is a Calisthenics park right next to the massive Glorieta De Los Insurgentes. Lots of different implements to train with, and a lot of jacked men and women there so apparently it works!