Del Valle on Foot

Why Del Valle

Colonia del Valle is where Mexico City’s middle class actually lives. Leafy streets, apartment blocks over old house lots, two good markets, a sunken park, and a 16th-century chapel sitting in a playground. Nobody comes here for the sights, which is exactly why it is worth a morning.

It sits in Benito Juárez, south of the Viaducto and east of Avenida Insurgentes, about 4 km south of Roma Norte. It is big (about 170 hectares) and officially split into Del Valle Norte, Centro and Sur, plus Tlacoquemécatl del Valle, the old village core where the best of this walk is.

This walk suits repeat visitors who have done Roma and Condesa and want to see how the city lives on a weekday: market breakfasts, dog walkers, office workers queueing for tacos. It is not pretty all the way. The eje roads are loud, much of the architecture is ordinary 1970s mid-rise, and the long middle stretch is just a walk down a residential street. I like it for that.

Practical basics

The walk is about 5.3 km, one way, and takes a relaxed morning plus lunch. Take an Uber or taxi to the start and home from the end. Do it on a Friday if you can.

Start around 8:30. Fonda Margarita stops serving at noon and Los Consentidos del Barrio opens at 13:00, so the timing works if you dawdle. Start later and you can eat at the Tlacoquemécatl market instead.

If you come by public transport, Metrobús Amores (Line 2), on Eje 4 Sur Xola, is a couple of blocks north-east of the first market, and Metrobús Félix Cuevas (Line 1) is right outside Liverpool, about seven minutes south of Parque Hundido.

Del Valle is calm by day; the danger is the traffic on División del Norte, Insurgentes and Félix Cuevas, so use the lights.

A short history

Long before it was a colonia, this was farmland around small Indigenous villages. Two of them, San Lorenzo Xochimanca and Tlacoquemécatl, survive as neighborhoods and still hold their saints’ festivals. From 1683 the Jesuits bought up land here for their Hacienda de San Borja; after their expulsion in 1767 it passed to private families.

Around 1908 a company called Colonia Del Valle, S.A. began subdividing the ranches: Colorado de Nápoles, Santa Cruz, Santa Rita and Los Amores, among others. According to Chilango, the colonia took its name from that division of ranches, and streets like Amores still carry ranch names. In Tlacoquemécatl the streets are named after the fruit that grew there: Fresas, Moras, Manzanas.

Growth was slow. The tram to Coyoacán ran through, but big houses only went up after Avenida de los Insurgentes was paved around 1920. Parque Hundido was laid out in the late 1930s in a hole left by a brickworks.

Mid-century was the high point. Mario Pani’s Centro Urbano Presidente Alemán, the city’s first multifamiliar, opened on Avenida Coyoacán in 1949. Luis Buñuel moved into his house on Félix Cuevas the same year and stayed until he died in 1983. Mercado Lázaro Cárdenas opened in 1956, and Liverpool Insurgentes and the Santa Mónica church both in 1962. Residents over the years included Pedro Infante, Chespirito and Elena Poniatowska.

Then the roads arrived. In 1978 the city cut its eje vial system through the neighborhood, and many families sold up; mansions became apartment blocks, offices and schools. In 2009 Del Valle was the second most crime-ridden colonia in the city, though by 2012 it had dropped off the list. Today it is solidly residential again.

The route

The walk runs one way, north to south, from the Lázaro Cárdenas market down to Félix Cuevas and back up to Parque Hundido, in 10 numbered stops. Coffee, breakfast and lunch come in between, where you pass them. Follow it on the Del Valle on Foot map, which shows every stop, the walking route, and the coffee places and bakeries along it.

The walk, part 1: Lázaro Cárdenas to Tlacoquemécatl

The first half takes you from the northern market down the length of Del Valle to the old village of Tlacoquemécatl. Coffee early, then a long straight walk to breakfast.

1. Mercado Lázaro Cárdenas

Adolfo Prieto at Romero de Terreros · daily, check hours · free

Have the driver drop you at Adolfo Prieto and Romero de Terreros. This is the Del Valle market, open since 1956, and one of the best neighborhood markets in the city to eat in. Fondas serve comida corrida, and Comedor Yolanda has cooked Mexican home food on two tiny floors since 1992.

Coffee: Café Passmar, in aisle four of the market (local 237), Mon–Sat 8:00–18:00 (brown circle on the map). Most visitors come to this market for it. A Guerrero family has been in coffee since 1995, and its baristas have won a shelf of national titles. Beans from Guerrero and Veracruz, brewed every way you can name. Buy a bag on the way out.

2. Parque Mariscal Sucre

División del Norte at Amores and Gabriel Mancera · open space, free

Seven minutes south, five streets meet at a glorieta with old trees, a fountain, lions and a French kiosk, donated by developer Gustavo Antonio Martínez Michaus in the 1920s. A seven-sided pedestrian bridge loops over the traffic. The 1970s eje roads nearly killed the park and the city wanted to move the kiosk, until neighbors organized and repaved it themselves.

3. Parroquia del Purísimo Corazón de María

Gabriel Mancera 415 · check hours, daily masses · free

Four minutes east, the big church on the glorieta. A brick chapel stood here from 1923; the current building went up slowly between 1938 and 1954, through three architects. The official description, “between art deco and functionalism, with a certain gothic air,” is fair. The dome is a polyhedron topped by a tall figure, and the interior has around 1,400 square meters of murals. Baz Luhrmann filmed the wedding and the final scene of Romeo + Juliet (1996) here.

Now comes the longest leg of the day, about 27 minutes. Walk about 13 minutes south on Gabriel Mancera, through the plain residential middle of Del Valle, then turn right (west) on Tlacoquemécatl for the walk to the park, about 14 minutes more.

Coffee break: Ningún Lugar, Gabriel Mancera 910, halfway down this leg (brown circle on the map), Mon–Fri 7:00–21:00, Sat 9:00–15:00, closed Sun. A small specialty café next to an IMSS clinic, the place for a second coffee and a pastry; a pistachio-chocolate croissant keeps turning up in the reviews.

Breakfast: Fonda Margarita, Adolfo Prieto 1364 B, on the plaza at stop 4, Tue–Sun 6:30–12:00, about 150 pesos (~8 USD). Eat before you look around the park. Margarita Lugo de Castillo, “Maguitos,” started out selling food from a brazier under a tree, and moved into this spot on the plaza in 1956. You sit at long shared tables, someone plays guitar, and you eat refried beans with scrambled eggs, chicharrón in salsa verde and café de olla. Anthony Bourdain called it perhaps the best place for breakfast in the world, which has not helped the queue. Dishes start running out around 11:00, so don’t linger at the first market.

4. Parque Tlacoquemécatl and Señor del Buen Despacho

Adolfo Prieto at Tlacoquemécatl · park open 24 hours, free · church check hours

“Tlaco” was Rancho de Santa Anita, growing alfalfa for cows and horses; the name is Nahuatl for a place thick with tlacotl, a shrub. The city expropriated the land for a park in 1958. Dog walkers own it in the mornings, painters show work on weekends, and on Fridays a tianguis fills Moras with food stalls. Look for the 1990 plaque to Carlos Gardel, from the Mexican tango association.

The church in the middle, Señor del Buen Despacho, grew out of a hermitage that may go back to the 16th century. It has been rebuilt so often that it looks modern, but the atrial cross, with Indigenous carving, is old. Its Christ is said to “dispatch” petitions quickly.

Coffee: Drippin (Tlacoquemécatl 217) and Caffé Bistrot by Diemme (Tlacoquemécatl 123), which looks onto the park, are both on the square (brown circles on the map).

The walk, part 2: Tlacoquemécatl to Parque Hundido

The second half stays in the old village streets: a market, a 1962 church, a filmmaker’s house and tacos, then a chapel 400 years older and a park in a hole.

5. Mercado Tlacoquemécatl

Miguel Laurent 75 (also listed as San Francisco s/n) · daily 7:00–19:00

Six minutes west, the colonia’s second market, rebuilt in 2014 after years of decay. It is mostly food, raw and cooked, with fondas, a seafood stall, flautas and tacos. Locals swear by the lamb barbacoa. Office workers pack it at lunch, so come in the late morning.

6. Capilla de Santa Mónica

Fresas 126 · check hours · free

Three minutes south-west on Fresas is a 1962 church by Fernando López Carmona and Carlos Ríos López, with Félix Candela advising on the roof. The plan and the curved concrete shell are meant to read as a palm trunk with its branches raised. Five triangular stained-glass windows by Armando López Cardona show the lives of Saint Augustine and Saint Monica. One reviewer says to come back at 19:00 or 20:00, when the light through the glass is different.

7. Casa Luis Buñuel

Félix Cuevas 27 · Mon–Fri 11:00–17:00, register in advance by email · free

Walk about six minutes south to Félix Cuevas and the brick house where Luis Buñuel lived from 1949, the year he became a Mexican citizen, until his death in 1983. Arturo Sáenz de la Calzada, a friend from Madrid’s Residencia de Estudiantes, designed it, and Buñuel asked for exposed brick to remind him of the Residencia. A small room by the entrance was his private cantina. Spain bought the house in 2010 and handed it to Mexico in 2017; the Mexican film academy now runs it, with small exhibitions.

8. Liverpool Insurgentes

Insurgentes Sur 1310 at Félix Cuevas · daily 11:00–21:00

Walk five minutes west along Félix Cuevas to Insurgentes. The department store opened here in 1962, and for years its plaza put up a giant Christmas tree every December. Today it is a good place to use a clean toilet and browse the gourmet food hall.

From here walk about seven minutes north-east to Manzanas and up it to Parque San Lorenzo. Lunch is on the way.

Lunch: Los Consentidos del Barrio, Manzanas 27-B, Mon–Sat 13:00–0:30, Sun 13:00–23:30. You climb to a second floor above what looks like a garage, and there is a charcoal grill built into the dining room. The specialty is tacos al carbón, thin meat grilled and then chopped. Reviewers rave about the costilla and the quesadilla especial, charcoal-grilled meat and Manchego stuffed into pita and crisped. Michelin gave it a Bib Gourmand in 2026. If it is before 13:00, go back to the Tlacoquemécatl market for barbacoa instead. Ristretto, a tiny café at Manzanas 15-B (brown circle on the map), is next door for coffee after.

9. Parque San Lorenzo and San Lorenzo Mártir

Between Fresas, Magnolias, Manzanas and San Lorenzo · park open 24 hours · chapel Tue–Sat 9:00–12:00 and 16:00–18:00 · free

The oldest building on the walk. The Franciscan chapel of San Lorenzo Mártir dates from the 16th century (some chronicles say the 17th), built of volcanic stone with a bell tower in the Mixcoac style. It was the church of San Lorenzo Xochimanca, and its atrium was a cemetery until the early 20th century. It was declared a national monument in the 1930s and keeps its atrial cross.

Now the atrium is a playground. After lunch the chapel itself may be shut until 16:00. Look for El Guapo, a pirul tree that fell over and kept flowering; the neighbors gave it a name and a plaque.

10. Parque Hundido

Insurgentes Sur at Porfirio Díaz · open 24 hours · free

Walk west on Millet and cross Insurgentes, about five minutes. Officially Parque Luis G. Urbina, this park sits below street level because it was a brickworks, the Ladrillera Nochebuena, until the Porfiriato. In 1972 copies of pre-Hispanic sculpture, including an Olmec head, were set along six marked trails.

The centerpiece is a floral clock, the first one Relojes Centenario ever built in Mexico, installed in 1977. It has not told the time since its power cable was stolen in 2020. Strictly speaking the park is in Extremadura Insurgentes, not Del Valle, but nobody here cares. The walk ends here. Get an Uber home from Insurgentes.

Coffee, food and drink

For coffee, go to Passmar; for breakfast, Fonda Margarita; for lunch, Los Consentidos del Barrio.

If you just want a familiar cup, the chains are right on the route:

• Starbucks at Tlacoquemécatl 191, on the corner of the park at stop 4
• Tierra Garat at Adolfo Prieto 802, between stops 1 and 4, and at Eugenia 302
• Starbucks WTC at Insurgentes Sur 729, by the Polyforum
• Cielito Querido at Dakota 95, Nápoles, near the Polyforum

Shops worth the detour

Del Valle is not a shopping neighborhood; its best buys are edible.

• Café Passmar (inside stop 1): bags of Guerrero and Veracruz coffee, the best souvenir on the route.
• Mercado Lázaro Cárdenas (stop 1): in December it runs a big Christmas bazaar with piñatas, nativity hay and fruit for ponche.
• Café de Alguien (Av. Coyoacán 326): a coffee bar that sells Mexican handicrafts, from lucha libre figures to axolotls.
• Friday tianguis on Moras (stop 4): food, clothes and sweets by the 100 grams.
• Liverpool Insurgentes (stop 8): the gourmet food hall for imported and Mexican pantry goods.

Which day to walk

Friday gets you the most; Monday and Sunday the least. Only the places with limited days are listed below.

On a weekend, swap Casa Buñuel for a longer loop of Parque Hundido and take your coffee at Drippin or at Caffé Bistrot by Diemme (Tlacoquemécatl 123), which looks onto the park.

Keep walking

Three easy extensions from the route.

South: the Teatro de los Insurgentes. Walk 15 minutes down Insurgentes from Liverpool (stop 8), or take the Metrobús from Félix Cuevas two stops to Teatro Insurgentes. Alejandro Prieto’s 1953 theater has Diego Rivera’s history of Mexican theater across its facade, with Cantinflas as a kind of Robin Hood.

East: the Centro Urbano Presidente Alemán. From Casa Buñuel (stop 7), walk east along Félix Cuevas to Avenida Coyoacán for Mario Pani’s 1949 multifamiliar, 1,080 apartments in a park, with a good small café, Terco, inside. Carry on to Metro Zapata (Lines 3 and 12).

North-west: the Polyforum Siqueiros and the WTC. Best done before you start: take Metrobús Line 1 to Polyforum, look, then walk about 12 minutes east to stop 1. The Polyforum (1971) holds Siqueiros’s enormous mural; it has been closed for years, but the painted outer panels are visible from the sidewalk. The WTC tower behind it was built as the Hotel de México, which never worked as a hotel.

About the author and where to stay

Brian has lived in Roma Norte for about five years and writes the See Mexico City guides. He speaks seven languages and still gets lost on purpose.

When you visit, stay with us at Penthouse El Cielo de Roma in Roma Norte.

Photo credits

Photos via Wikimedia Commons, used under the licenses shown. Numbers match the captions.

1. Mercado Lázaro Cárdenas (2024).jpg, UNVERIFIED, UNVERIFIED
2. Kiosco Glorieta Mariscal Sucre -i—i- (34961008932).jpg, UNVERIFIED, UNVERIFIED
3. Parroquia del Purísimo Corazón de María 2026.jpg, ProtoplasmaKid, CC BY 4.0
4. Parroquia Señor del Buen Despacho, interior1.jpg, Hectorchavez17, CC BY-SA 3.0
5. Casa de Luis Buñuel en la Ciudad de México.jpg, UNVERIFIED, UNVERIFIED
6. Reloj del Parque Hundido.jpg, UNVERIFIED, UNVERIFIED

Map: drawn from OpenStreetMap data, © OpenStreetMap contributors, Open Database License.

Sources

Hours and prices checked October 2026; confirm before you go.

• Wikipedia: Colonia del Valle
• Libre en el Sur: Esta es la verdadera colonia Del Valle
• Libre en el Sur: Del Valle de mis recuerdos, una historia centenaria
• Chilango: Doctores, Del Valle, Condesa… cómo surgió el nombre de estas colonias
• Time Out México: 15 lugares imprescindibles en la Del Valle
• Time Out México: Dónde desayunar, comer y cenar en la colonia Del Valle
• Time Out México: Passmar
• El Financiero: Cafés que encuentras en los mercados de la CDMX
• Mexico City tourism: Mercado Lázaro Cárdenas
• Spotted by Locals: Mercado Lázaro Cárdenas
• Mexico City tourism: Parque Mariscal Sucre
• Mexico City tourism: Purísima Corazón de María
• Chilango: La iglesia de CDMX donde se filmó Romeo y Julieta
• Wikipedia: Tlacoquemecatl Arts Garden
• Time Out México: Parque Tlacoquemécatl
• Mexico City tourism: Señor del Buen Despacho
• Chilango: Fonda Margarita, desayunos, madrugadores y Anthony Bourdain
• Mexico City tourism: Mercado Tlacoquemécatl
• Chilango: Reabrió el mercado de Tlacoquemécatl
• Spotted by Locals: Mercado Tlacoquemécatl
• Mexico City tourism: Iglesia de Santa Mónica
• Local.mx: Capillas de Félix Candela en la CDMX
• Chilango: Parque San Lorenzo, un rincón en la Del Valle con 400 años de historia
• Wikipedia: San Lorenzo Xochimanca
• Wikipedia: Parque Hundido
• Publimetro: El reloj del Parque Hundido
• Michelin Guide: Los Consentidos del Barrio
• Food & Pleasure: Casa Luis Buñuel en la CDMX
• Última Hora: España entrega a México la casa de Buñuel
• Chilango: Multifamiliares en la CDMX
• Wikipedia: Teatro de los Insurgentes
• Wikipedia: Polyforum Cultural Siqueiros
• Wikipedia: World Trade Center Mexico City
• Tripadvisor: Polyforum Siqueiros reviews