Mexico City layover

[bellesgirl]

I am looking for flights to Puerto Vallarta and the best price I can get includes a 7 hour layover in Mexico City. We are going for 5 weeks so I am not overly concerned about getting to PV quickly but I would like to utilize my time in Mexico City if I do choose this option.

Would we be able to leave the ariport and come back easily or do we need a tourist card? Is this the same card we get in PV? Are there city tours available that we could go on during this down time? It would be in the afternoon.

I am trying to make lemonade out of lemons here, but I do not want to sit in the MC airport for 7 hours. Any guidance would be appreciated.

 

[Carol C]

Hola...Mexico City airport is large, the city is large...and there are lots of ways that a tour outside the airport can go wrong. I know 7 hours is a very long layover...I have suffered that myself.

I consider myself pretty savvy when it comes to Mexico, but I screwed up once and left the secure area of airport once, leaving my passport & boarding pass with my hubby in the secure area. Not a good thing to do...luckily I'm a pretty good Spanish speaker and problem-solver because I got back together with my documents and got back into the secure zone. I had been prohibited from going up that escalator at gunpoint.

Best advice to you: stay put in airport, and if you go off to stroll to kill time, always keep your passport and boarding pass on you, in a safekeeping pouch.

Have a great trip!

 

[Karen G]

Friends of ours had a four-hour layover in Mexico City and they got a taxi to take them on a tour of the city. It worked out fine for them, but one of them was fluent in Spanish, so that helped a lot.

I would think with a seven hour layover you'd have time for a tour. Seems like if you got your boarding pass before you left the terminal and all your luggage was checked through to your destination, you'd be able to get back to your gate in time.

 

[Monica]

With the new international terminal, they also have a AeroMexico lounge that has day passes for I think around $35 pp. It has free snacks, tv, there's a spa, nail salon, free internet, etc. I looked it over this passed June and spoke to the front desk there.

We've also stayed at the Hilton in the same building at a day rate. We did it for Christmas Day on our way to Acapulco. The rate for the day is $125. It was great! The beds are soo soft (not like all of those hard ones I've slept on for years thoughout Mexico). We order room service for our Christmas Dinner. They had e-mailed me the Christmas Dinner menu but I was already spending too much to avoid that 7-hr layover, so we just ordered from the menu. It was very nice, and I'd do it again w/ a long layover.

 

[bellesgirl]

Thanks for the good advice. I can alway rely on TUG to get me the info I need. Fortunately I found a great fare on American today that goes through Dallas instead so I don't have to deal with Mexico City!