We worked remotely out of this apartment for 5 weeks.
Pros:
- Spacious, well-lit common area
- Easy, friendly check-in
- Great response time and help from Diana, who manages the property
- VERY fast wifi (200 mbps) great for video calls
- Double locked gate and electronic code access door entry.
- Well decorated and clean
- Walking distance from Bellas Artes and Zocalo
- Full kitchen with all the essentials (except a wine opener!)
- two standup electric fans that definitely came in handy
- double shower head!
Cons:
- Very, very loud. If you stay in El Centro Histórico, this is almost unavoidable. This street in particular though has lots of traffic, loud buses/cars/motorcycles, loud people, and passing sirens every 5 minutes. Also the neighbor next door (balconies face each other) blasts music all morning day and night with his windows open like he’s playing a concert for the whole barrio. This didn’t stop for the entire 5 weeks we were here.
- It’s a 300 year old building and it doesn’t seal at all. Everything gets dusty fast and requires sweeping/cleaning every few days. This also makes the noise worse from the street.
- The mattress cover on the bed upstairs doesn’t breathe at all so the bed is hot. We ended up sleeping on the futon downstairs where it’s cooler.
- The futon downstairs is pretty hard. We slept on top of the comforters to try to soften it, which helped a little
- The hot water runs out in about 5 minutes. Less if you use both shower heads. Fine if one person showers, then you wait a bit and then the other showers.
- Traffic in the area is abysmal. Between the construction, constant road closures, protests, police barricades, events, etc, it’s next to impossible to Uber out of El Centro Histórico.
Summary:
If you want to stay in El Centro Histórico, or you’re here for a short trip and want to walk around and see the sights in the area, look no further. It’s a great AirBnB if you can tolerate the road noise. (Earplugs help!)
The biggest problem with El Centro Histórico is that it’s difficult to get out. If you want to get dinner in Polanco or something, the Uber will take 30 min to an hour to get you there and the first three will cancel on you anyway because they can’t get to you. The streets in the area are extremely loud. I’ve never heard so many police/ambulances in a 5 week period. A lot of the cars/motorcycles in the area don’t have a catalytic converter, some don’t even have mufflers. When you get to Roma Norte, Polanco or Condesa you’ll notice that the streets are MUCH quieter because the cars are newer/nicer and have mufflers. Also the pollution is way worse in El Centro Histórico than it is in those neighborhoods (likely for the same reason). For a short trip, I’m sure it’s fine, but it all starts to wear on you after a few weeks.
Overall we enjoyed our trip and the apartment was charming but next time we’ll stay in another neighborhood!