On 11 June 2026, Mexico City is making history by kicking off the biggest-ever edition of the World Cup. It will be the first time since 1986 that the World Cup has come to Mexico, but it’s not only Mexicans who are excited for its return; thousands of football fans around the world are expected to come and celebrate the opening match at Estadio Azteca and get a taste of what this vivacious country has to offer.
There’s so much to see and do in Mexico City (CDMX), and while the tourist staples like Frida Kahlo Museum and Palace of Fine Arts are famous for a reason, you have to go off the beaten path to find the authentic insight and experience of the city you truly crave. Fortunately, we have created an ‘Off the beaten path in Mexico City for the World Cup 2026’ for the travel tastemakers like you who want to explore beyond the surface. In the guide, we tell you the most design-forward hotel to stay in, what up-and-coming neighborhoods to explore, where to find the city’s best food and much, much more. Read on to find out how to make your CDMX travel itinerary more authentic and interesting.
Hotels off the beaten path in Mexico City
Hotel San Fernando, Condesa
Hotel San Fernando is a design-forward boutique hotel blending playful 1940s features with modern boho style in a refurbished Art Deco apartment building in CDCDMX’s trendy Condesa neighborhood. The 19 studio apartment-style suites are given a thirst-quenching color palette complemented by locally crafted furniture and design features. On the ground floor, Lounge Fernando offers coffee and pastries by day, and by night it evolves into a cozy bar serving natural wines, agave cocktails, and small bites such as tostadas, empanadas, and aguachile. The thought that has gone into everything in Hotel San Fernando, from the design to the livability and food, has earned it a Michelin Key.
Condesa DF, Condesa
On the outside, Condesa DF is an elegant 1920s French Neoclassical heritage building, but step inside and you’ll be transported to a serene minimalist masterpiece by world-renowned interior designer India Mahdavi. While the neutral, rounded soft furnishings add a sense of luxurious comfort to the spaces, the wood panels and leather features add a sense of coziness. The 40-room hotel is set around a leafy central courtyard where the Mexican-French fusion cafe serves a mean brunch. Meanwhile, the triangular rooftop terrace invites guests for cocktails and sushi overlooking Parque España and Chapultepec Castle, and the wellness center invites guests for a Moroccan hammam.
La Valise Mexico City, La Roma
La Valise is a grown-up luxury boutique stay in CDMX with bespoke furnishings, handpicked artwork, and artisanal objects that it says “invites visitors into a living cabinet of curiosities”. Occupying a French Colonial townhouse in La Roma, the hotel has eight unique suites inspired by the universe. One suite even has a king bed that rolls out onto the spacious terrace so you can sleep under the stars. Defying the typical hotel experience, La Valise inspires guests to feel like they are staying in their wealthy, tasteful friend’s townhouse with personalized luxury services like immersive curated excursions and pastries delivered to your door.
Neighborhoods off the beaten path in Mexico City
Coyoacán
Most tourists go to Coyoacán for the Frida Kahlo Museum but don’t hang around long enough to enjoy the rest of what this inspiring neighborhood has to offer. Over the years, Coyoacán has been a creative enclave for many of Mexico’s best artists, writers, and filmmakers from Frida to Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, Leon Trotsky, each of whom gave it the intellectual’s bohemian atmosphere that makes it special today. At the heart of Coyoacán lies the plazas Jardín Centenario & Jardín Hidalgo, an ever-lively place filled with musicians and street performers and surrounded by mezcalerias, cantinas, and artisan stores. Go beyond the plazas to discover the neighborhoods’s fascinating cultural museums.
Morning: Start your day at the Frida Kahlo Museum (the earlier the better) and then head to the plazas where you can soak up the vibrant atmosphere before heading into the Bazar Artesanal Mexicano, where you can find the city’s best selection of handcrafted souvenirs.
Noon: For lunch, stop at Corazón de Maguey on the plazas for some exquisite Oaxacan-style tlayuda tortillas. Afterward, wander lazily around Coyoacán’s top-tier independent bookstore,s including Librería Tres Cruces, Centro Cultural Elena Garro Bookstore, and U-Tópicas: Librería & Galería de Mujeres. Finish the afternoon at another must-see cultural institution like The National Sound Archive, the Casa de Cultura Jesus Reyes de Heroles, or the Museum of Popular Cultures.
Night: Get dinner at Los Danzantes, an upscale restaurant with a creative contemporary take on Mexican cuisine. Finish the night listening to mariachi bands in the local mezcalerias.
San Rafael
As one of CDMX’s most historically wealthy neighborhoods, San Rafael (located north of Roma Norte) is home to hundreds of heritage buildings from French neoclassical mansions to Art Deco masterpieces. It’s easily one of the city’s most beautiful neighborhoods to stroll around and admire the architecture. Beyond the facades, the neighborhood became known as CDMX’s main theater hub in the 40s and 50s. While many are now closed, the dozen or so remaining uphold its status as a cultured theater hub for everything from classics to the avant-garde. More recently, San Rafael’s streets have become abuzz with art galleries and other creative spaces too. Here’s how to spend a day here:
Morning: Start the day with a stroll through Jardín del Arte Sullivan which has an excellent local maker’s market on Sundays. Afterward, see the latest inspirations of CDMX’s contemporary art scene at Museo Experimental El Eco.
Noon: Stop for lunch at Mexico’s first Michelin-starred taco stand El Califa de León, which serves legendary beef and pork tacos on handmade tortillas. Full and fueled, wander through the neighborhoods elegant streets on a self-guided architecture tour.
Night: Get dinner at La Polar, a historic cantina famous for its traditional birria before seeing what’s on at Teatro Sergio Magaña or Teatro San Rafael.
Escandón
While most tourists stay in CDMX’s most popular neighborhood, La Condesa, the cool kids will wander down to Escandón, the more laid-back, lived-in neighborhood directly beside it. On one side of the neighborhood find leafy streets lined with historic homes and modern residences. On the other, calm but cool commercial streets lined with community-oriented restaurants, cafes, and shops. With a delicious mix of street tacos, old-school panaderías, cantinas, and a growing number of independent cafés, it’s a firm yes for foodies. For the full Escandón community experience, stop in Mercado Escandón, a lively local market with fresh produce and food stalls.
Morning: Start the day with coffee at Yume & Pimpa, a café-come-gallery boutique with a curated selection of Mexican designer items—think playful bunny sculptures, ceramics, and a small bookstore. Continue with the boutique browsing in other cute neighborhood stores like Mercado Negro and Sombrerería Escandón.
Noon: Head to Mercado Escandón to browse the produce and take in the buzz of local shoppers. Stop for a traditional lunch at La Perlita or for a taste of seafood at Puerto Escondido inside the market.
Night: Soak up the nightlife in Escandón at the traditional cantinas and pulquerías like El León de Oro and El Pirata. Alternatively, opt for a couple of cocktails at the more upscale bars like Baltra Bar, La Clandestina, and Deleted Souls.
Things to do off the beaten path in Mexico City
Become spellbound in Mercado de Sonora
Discover the mystical underbelly of Mexico’s witchcraft scene at Mercado de Sonora. It’s part everyday market, part spiritual bazaar, and part anthropological wonder. The stalls are piled with potions, crystals, Santa Muerte statues, herbs, and occult candles. Although simply browsing the curious selection of items is fascinating enough, you can get a more intimate experience of the market by opting for tarot readings, limpia (spiritual cleansings), or advice from curanderos (folk healers).
Watch Lucha Libre at Arena México
Lucha Libre (Mexican-style wrestling) is not to everyone’s taste, but if you’ve got a tough stomach, you won’t regret sitting ringside at one of the local matches. The impressive aerial techniques and colourful masks are unique to Mexico, and many of the wrestlers come from a long lineage of wrestlers, creating an intriguing cultural significance to the events. Several places hold these events in CDCDCDMX, but they’re most exciting and extravagant at Arena México, where the wrestlers and the crowds don’t hold back.
Eat at Mercado de San Juan Pugibet
Mexico City is bursting with local food markets and cantinas serving cheap, tasty local dishes, but if you’re looking for a gourmet experience of typical Mexican dishes, stop in Mercado San Juan instead. Forewarning: it’s known for selling everything from the wonderful to the downright weird. For the best experience, take a guided tasting tour where you’ll be guided directly to the most daring and delicious stalls, and introduced to some of the market’s most prominent chefs. You’ll have the option to try mouthwatering seafood cocktails and cured meats and cheeses, as well as the market’s infamous insects like Escamoles (ant larvae) Chapulines (grasshoppers).
Shopping in Colonia Juárez
Instead of sticking with the mainstream in Roma Norte, head to the neighboring Colonia Juárez for something a little cooler and more upmarket. From Havre Street to Londres and beyond, the historic mansions are now home to indie boutiques, record stores, bookstores, and galleries. Whilst there, don’t miss designer collective Bazar Fusión, the minimalist’s dream Utilitario Mexicano, a curated selection of fashion, music, and homeware at Loose Blues, an epic selection of books at Librería Jorge Cuesta, and the best in Mexican design at Galería Mexicana de Diseño.
Watch an outdoor screening at Cineteca Nacional
As the national film archive and cinema complex, Cineteca Nacional is CDMX’s temple to film. The futuristic cultural hub screens everything from international indie releases to Mexican classics, experimental shorts, and retrospectives, plus it hosts film exhibitions, serves great coffee, and sells specialist film books in its very own library. The ebay time to visit is in the evenings when the cinema hosts quaint outdoor screenings in the grassy courtyard.
Food and drink off the beaten path in Mexico City
Football and beer: Pinche Gringo BBQ Warehouse, Polanco
In case you can’t make it to all the live matches you want to see during the World Cup 2026, head to Pinche Gringo BBQ Warehouse instead. The wooden bench seats, lined up in the airy, open warehouse, give it a gentrified, hipster vibe, while the TVs hung every other meter along the wall maximize its sports viewing potential. Be sure to order a house beer and pulled pork burger before the match begins!
Foodie favorite: Mercado de Coyoacán
Mercado de Coyoacán is an excellent place to shop for artisanal goods, costumes, and festival supplies, but when it comes to food, it’s on another level. The hype is led by one of the market’s many unique food stalls, Tostadas Coyoacán, which serves towering tostadas piled with octopus, mole, pig’s foot, mushroom, and more. They’re closely followed by El Jardín del Pulpo’s shrimp cocktails and lobster, and Cocina Mary’s enchiladas and pozole. Spoiling you for choice, aren’t we!
Best tacos in town: Tacos Orinoco + El Vilsito
For the best tacos in town, head to hipster hotspot Orinoco, which has locations across CDMX, including Roma and Polanco. The taqueria’s tiled white walls and bold red chairs stand out in the crowd just as much as its Bistec, Chicharrón Norteño, and house-made salsas. And for those post-mezcal cravings, stop at legendary late-night taquería El Vilsito, a Bib Gourmand restaurant by night, a mechanic’s workshop by day.
Drink like a local: Pulque bars
Pluque is a fermented agave beverage with a milky texture and a sweet and sour flavor. It used to be considered a sacred drink mainly consumed by priests and nobility. Today, pulque is having a revival, and pulquerías are popping up all over CDMX, making it a must-experience when you’re in town. The best pulque can be found at Las Dualistas, a legendary eralry 20th century pulquería with over 40 flavors. Other notable establishments include Pulquería La Risa, El Templo de Diana, and La Nuclear.
Fancy Mexican Food: Azul Histórico
CDMX is well-known for its cheap and cheerful taquerias and street food stalls, which are often just as good as the fine dining restaurants. However, it’s ok to want something a bit fancier sometime too, so save Azul Histórico for when that moment comes. This traditional restaurant set in a tree-filled courtyard serves the best of calssic Mexican cuisine including Mole Negro, Panuchos de Cochinita, and Manchamanteles.
Create your personalized Mexico City itinerary
Now that you’ve read our off-the-beaten-path guide to Mexico City for the World Cup 2026, you’ll likely have a better idea of how to spend your time in the city. Whether you feel ready to create an itinerary or want more recommendations, our Tripsby Travel Planner is here to assist you. All you have to do is give us a rough summary of your travel style and preferences, and in a matter of minutes, we will provide a bookable itinerary or recommendations. Extraordinary travel has never been so effortless! Get started now.
