Hello all--
I'm already missing reddit for r/GrandPrixTravel, so here's a little write-up of my experience in Mexico City last year for the GP.
I've been to COTA, Montreal, Shanghai, Mexico City, Suzuka, and Silverstone for the GPs. Mexico City was absolutely fantastic and one of the best experiences I've had at an F1 weekend.
We went in large part because we were sticker shocked at the GA prices for COTA last year (and this year at that), and said "surely we can fly to CDMX and see the GP for the costs of flying to Austin for the GP." and we could! let's break that part down:
We were lucky and nailed the timing to get a Scott's Cheap Flights from CLT to MEX directly for $279 per person. Typical prices are $400-500 for that route.
We ended up missing the window for seats booked directly through the circuit (which we usually prefer to do) and ended up buying them through Grand Prix Events. We spend $1065 ($533pp) for 2 tickets in Foro Sol Norte (the stadium!).
Hotel was super cheap, and super nice. Just over $90 per night, and we did Friday - Monday (so 3 nights).
Food was also cheap and fantastic. Both at the stadium and just around the city. There's a weird system at the GP: you buy a card, load it with money, then can only spend that to buy stuff. Water was ~$1.50 and beer was ~$4.
Transport was cheap*, since it was all by train. 5 pesos per direction per person (like $0.30). Trains were of course busy, especially after the GP, but it didn't take much longer than normal.
This gives up $946.5 per person for travel, hotel, and F1 tickets, plus whatever food costs. You can definitely do much cheaper there, but for the $1,000 mark it's hard to have better seats from the US.
We mostly did F1 and Dia de los Muertos stuff, but there was a ton to see nearby. For Dia de los Muertos there was a subway station closed near the plaza (where we stayed), so we had to talk one subway stop away. Like any F1 race, we gave ourselves a few hours of buffer so it wasn't a big deal.
As for the race, we had AMAZING seats, got free Checo shirts (to make the crowd look like the Mexican flag in the stadium), cheered a ton (especially for Checo; when in Rome), got bootleg merch for almost nothing right outside the event.
It's a slightly weird one, in that you can only get in to your section with your ticket and can't freely roam around (even on Friday). So you don't see the whole track.
Of course after the GP, we went onto the track to watch the podium and have a beer on track. We walked down the whole front straight, checked out the pits, take photos, etc. All said, a really cool weekend, not horrifically expensive, and a very fun crowd. If you're on the fence, go to CDMX!
*I did get my phone pick pocketed immediately after the Friday session at the train station. A few people bumped into me in a row and next thing I knew my phone was gone from my front pocket. I spend $180 on a cheap random phone in Mexico and restored my backup and was off to the races again (with bad battery life and a terrible camera). That was a bummer; definitely keep a close eye on your stuff in CDMX.
COVID didn't feel like it was going to change everything all at once at first to me. Lots of "2 weeks and it'll be over" talk. Then reality slowly set it.
9/11 felt like all at once to me, same with the second Trump election. Like I woke up and things were different.