San Ángel
The other colonial village in the south — cobbled streets, high walls, bougainvillea, a 17th-century Carmelite monastery, and a plaza that becomes one of Mexico's best craft markets every Saturday. Quieter and wealthier than Coyoacán, and twenty minutes from it.
Who it's for: Anyone in the city on a Saturday: the Bazar Sábado and the plaza art market make this the best Saturday morning available. Craft and textile buyers. Architecture people, for O'Gorman's functionalist studio-houses. Travellers already going to Coyoacán who want to make a full day of the south.
Things to know
- Come on a Saturday or don't bother making a special trip. The Bazar Sábado and the plaza art market are the neighborhood's whole argument, and they run Saturdays only, roughly 10am to 6pm.
- Arrive before 11am on a Saturday for the best selection and before the crowds. By 1pm the plaza is dense.
- The craft quality here is genuinely high — ceramics, textiles, silver, lacquerware from named workshops — and prices reflect that. This is not a haggling bazaar; it's closer to a fair.
- San Ángel and Coyoacán are a natural pair. The classic Saturday is the bazaar in the morning, lunch on the plaza, then walk or take a short ride east to Coyoacán for the afternoon.
- The Museo Casa Estudio Diego Rivera y Frida Kahlo is a ten-minute walk from the plaza, far less crowded than the Casa Azul, and needs no advance booking — a genuine relief.
- Museums here close Mondays, as everywhere in the city.
- It's about 45–60 minutes from Roma or the Centro. Metrobús Line 1 runs down Insurgentes to Dr. Gálvez or La Bombilla; Uber is simpler and runs 200–300 MXN.
- Cobbles and steep camber throughout. Not comfortable in unsuitable shoes, and difficult for wheelchairs.