Traveling to Mexico City? What to tip, how to behave and when to avoid the Metro

MEXICO CITY — This is the real-talk portion of your guide to Mexico City.

First, a note about the city's name. In 2015, city think-ocrats initiated a global rebranding for Mexico's capital. It lost its designation as a Federal District (akin to District of Columbia), and became simply Ciudad de México, but crucially, the government began pushing a fresh text shorthand: "CDMX."

Though "CDMX" has fully entered mainstream discourse, I remain part of the dwindling minority that avoids its use. I find the moniker so grating because it rolls off the tongue easily in English and a bit awkwardly in Spanish — a cutting clue for whom the rebrand was really targeting all along. In everyday conversation, you may still hear hard-core "chilangos" (slang term for Mexico City residents) stubbornly use "D.F." ("deh efeh") to refer to their city.

Now, to the tips.

1. The monster that hugs you

I must be blunt here. You see TikToks and listicles about Mexico City and it is always remarkable to me that none