If you’ve been thinking of living in Mexico City or taking a Mexico vacation in the nation’s capital, you’re probably curious about how much it costs to vacation and live in Mexico City, and also what are the best places to live in Mexico City.
In my latest Mexico City travel video, I show what you can get for about $900 a month or $65 a night in Mexico City’s super hip, super cool Roma Norte neighborhood — a modern, two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment with decidedly modern style. This video also serves as an Airbnb review, since that’s the platform we used to rent this apartment. Ours was a short-term stay and we paid about $65 a night at this fabulous apartment, but we also shopped comparables for long-term rentals in the neighborhood and found that you could get a two-bedroom, two-bathroom property for about $900 a month, for a long-term rental (a month-by-month rental will cost you more, and even that $900 is only if you’re lucky; similar apartments can cost quite a bit more in this trendy neighborhood).
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Here’s a full review of my nine-night stay at this Airbnb apartment in Mexico City.
THE STYLE: This two-bedroom/two-bathroom apartment has a memorable design sense. Black accents, white and gray concrete walls and spectacular black-and-white tiles create an ambiance you won’t likely confuse with any other. It’s located in a three-story residential building on Avenida San Luis Potosi, a fairly busy street that slices through Roma Norte.
ARRIVAL & CHECK-IN: Arrival was super easy. We took an Uber from the TAPO bus terminal and Daniela, the host, texted me a code to access the keys, which were in a hanging lock outside the building. We used one key to open the building door and another two to open the black metal apartment door.
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FIRST IMPRESSIONS: The black metal apartment door provides a hint at the unique style that awaits inside. Upon entry, you’ll find yourself in the large, open-concept kitchen, which has black-and-white tile floors that also appear on the dining counter. There’s a full-size refrigerator, blender, toaster oven and stove, as well as a large Unilever water purifier and dispenser, which is a nice touch. The grey concrete walls feature built-in concrete kitchen shelves.
The kitchen opens into the living area, which features a lovely wood floor that’s been painted white; it’s accented on one side by a gray concrete wall and on the other by an exposed brick wall that’s painted white. I loved the comfortably large black couch and the free streaming channels on the large, wall-mounted TV. Large windows on the living room side as well as in the kitchen allow for plenty of natural light to enter the living/dining/kitchen area.
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The two bedrooms are decently sized, both with a queen-size bed. The larger bedroom has a sizeable open closet space, with a couple big windows that are mostly frosted since they face the interior courtyard of a neighboring building. It’s the larger and quieter bedroom, but receives less natural light and has no view. The smaller bedroom sits in the front and has a large, non-frosted window that faces the street, which can be a bit noisy at times but the windows are thick enough to cancel out a good part of the noise, while the blackout drapes keep the room nice and dark for sleeping.
Attached tothat bedroom is one of the two magnificent bathrooms, which seem to be designed to beg for photographs. The bathroom is graced with the same dramatic tiles as the kitchen area, both on the floor and walls, and there’s an equally dramatic bathtub. The second bathroom lies at the end of the hallway and features identical style, although it has a large shower stall rather than a tub.
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Nice touch: I appreciated the fact that the apartment had two powerful stand-up fans (so many Airbnb apartments have no air conditioning and also no fans, which has often sent me rushing to the nearest Woolworth to buy one).
While the location of this Airbnb rental in Mexico City is on a block without multiple dining and entertainment options, it’s an easy walk to the many restaurants and shops of Roma Norte.
If you’re looking for a gym in Roma Norte or Condesa, take note: I found a gym I liked about a quarter mile away from my apartment rental: Roma Club, a multi-level athletic center that charges 100 pesos a day (about $5) and 700 pesos a month for gym access. It also has a large indoor swimming pool that’s accessible for an extra fee. I chose Roma Club after visiting another facility, Sports World, that did an annoying bait and switch — Sports World charged me 250 pesos for a day pass when I first visited in the late morning, but they wanted to charge me 350 pesos the following day, simply because I arrived at a peak time, earlier in the morning. There’s no reason to pay so much money when there’s a perfectly good option like Roma Club nearby.
Please feel free to share your comments, experiences and questions about Mexico travel, expat life and living abroad! Please also follow my travels on Instagram and find more Mexico travel tips on my YouTube channel, where I post lots of unfiltered, unscripted travel videos that show things like they are. Happy travels!