Mexico is generally safe. Greater chance of getting mugged near Hobby Airport than being mugged in MX. Don't let the media narrative fool you.
I went two months ago to Mexico City and I actually stayed in Condesa and it was completely safe. Condesa is like the heights area of Houston with the younger crowd and cool bars. If you want to try wonderful mezcal you should check out La Clandestina. The area's that you do not want to be wondering about at night is the outskirts of the city. Just get ready for the air pollution there.
Cannot speak on specific areas, but Mexico City's homicide rate is about the same as Washington DC. Mexico City has the highest rate of violent car theft in all of Mexico.
Just like any big city. There are good safe parts, and unsafe part. Mexico city probably has more bad parts, but there is plenty of place where you can just walk around as long as you aren't flexin as my kids say.
In the diagram shown for car thefts, its not actually Mexico City being the maroon red, its outside and northwest in the general State of Mexico, not CDMX(Central District Mexico). I have a friend tell me there have been a lot of street thugs robbing taxi drivers and holding them ransom until their family pays money.
You have to be more careful if you are an obvious business traveler than a tourist. When I worked for a big O&G company, the warning was to not carry your laptop in an obvious laptop bag or display your work logo or badge. Employees of mega corporations were targeted for ransom pretty often, and there were some stories of some of our employees over the years getting driven to the wrong part of town and held there until a few thousand bucks worth of pesos was delivered. Additionally they often went after business traveler bags for the aforementioned laptops. Mexico City and Sao Paulo, Brazil were the two biggies for corporate ransom...for our company at least.
Any recommendations for traveling to the pyramids from Mexico City? I don't know how I feel about taking public transportation, seems safe enough, just have to be attentive and aware.
I was down there a couple months ago and I never felt unsafe. I can speak decent enough Spanish to get around. Check out the Castillo de Chapultepec if you can. It's pretty bad ass.
You'll be fine, Mexico City is an awesome place to visit. Just keep your wits about you like you would in any big city: don't flash a lot of money, keep the phone tucked away (unless you're snapping a quick photo) in the front pocket of a coat, etc. You should definitely take Ubers and don't feel bad about canceling one if it's clearly a new driver. The last time I was there, I noticed that Uber had a new feature that allowed you to see how many rides your driver has completed in addition to their rating. I found this helpful when riding around town with people. Condesa and Roma are near each other. You'll enjoy the food, drinks and feel of these neighborhoods. Polanco is ritzy, but Parque Lincoln is nice during the day time. Get some churros at El Moro, have some mezcal at Bar Clandestina and eat some tacos al pastor at El Tizoncito. Some other tips: Coyoacán is quite a ways from other central neighborhoods in traffic. Plan on spending a full day in that neighborhood. Buy tickets to the Frida Kahlo museum online before you go. Otherwise, you'll be stuck in an incredibly long line at the front door. The Mexico City Bike Tour is really great. The guide, Antonio, is a professor of anthropology who gives a very interesting tour of the city and details its pre-Hispanic history through numerous stops. You'll see a lot and he stops a few times for food (tacos, ice cream and a brief stop at a chocolate museum). Roads in the center of the city are closed to traffic on Sundays in order to encourage public exercise, so it's a great time to ride around on a bike. Lucha libre at the Arena Mexico is a lot of fun. Just buy the cheapest seat you can and move around in the upper deck. You can see everything just fine from up there and you won't spend a lot (maybe $5 per ticket).
This is great! Thank you! We're actually staying pretty close to the Frida Khalo museum but we think we're going to spend a lot of time north too.
Where exactly is the safe, how do I open it, and then how do I convert the two pesos. On a related note, anyone here have buried treasure?
Yup. I had to do this a few times. It was almost funny that I knew their city (and as a first timer) better than they did. Although, sometimes the Ubers will admit they don't know the location of where it is you want to go, so it's no problem.