Using an eSIM in Mexico City

What Mexico City is like on a phone

Mexico City is an enormous capital sitting more than two thousand metres above sea level, where the air is thinner than visitors expect and the first day tires you out early. Most people spend the day walking one neighbourhood after another and call a car back to the room at night, which makes the phone the central instrument of the whole trip. In the central districts the line is continuously good, but the city is so wide that quality differs noticeably between the middle and the edges.

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Most international flights land at Benito Juárez (MEX), which has two terminals not directly connected on foot — a shuttle links them. Turn the eSIM on while queuing for immigration so you can call a car the moment you step out. At the pick-up area there are both counter-paid taxis and app cars, and the app pick-up point is often on a different level from the arrivals door, so open the map first. Traffic into town is heavy at peak hours, so allow more time than the app suggests.

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Roma, Condesa, Polanco and the historic centre are continuously usable. Many metro platforms have a signal, but the tunnel runs usually drop it, so order the car or send the message before you go down the stairs. Large covered markets and thick-walled buildings weaken the line at the far end of an aisle, and some hillside districts on the city's edge are uneven. On days when a procession or a concert fills the main square, an enormous crowd shares the same mast and speeds fall even at full bars.

What a day here costs in data

A normal day of walking and calling cars tends to run about 1.5–2GB, because the map stays open most of the day and there are several rides. Add a fair amount more if you video-call home every night or stream music through long rides. Downloading the whole city offline helps a great deal — both in the tunnels and where the signal wobbles on the outskirts — and set photo backup to run only on the accommodation's Wi-Fi.

Districts travellers ask about

• Roma and Condesa — Leafy streets thick with cafés, the steadiest line in the city and the easiest place to get a car — which is why people working online choose to stay here.
• The historic centre and the Zócalo — Old stone and narrow streets push the GPS fix around when you navigate on foot, and on days when a big event fills the square the speed drops noticeably.
• Coyoacán and San Ángel — Old houses and craft markets with a good line, though under the densely roofed market stalls it weakens — save the address before you walk in.
• Polanco and Chapultepec — Hotels and museums with some of the best coverage in town, though deep under the park's heavy tree cover it softens on crowded weekends.

Day trips out of the city

• The pyramids at Teotihuacán — The road out is connected nearly throughout, but inside the wide open site the line thins and slows on busy days — pin the car park before you walk in.
• Puebla and Cholula — The highway across the mountains drops intermittently, especially where it threads a valley; Puebla itself is fine. Download the route before you leave.
• Xochimilco and the flower boats — The landing has a good line, but as the boat works into the deeper tree-lined canals it weakens in patches — agree a return time with the boatman at the start rather than phoning later.