Santa Fe is the office district on the western edge of Mexico City: glass towers, corporate headquarters, private universities and hotels built for business travel. If you are here for work, a conference or an event in the district, this is the logical place to stay —new hotels, large rooms, meeting facilities, and rates that drop at weekends when the district empties out.
The honest warning. If you are here as a tourist, Santa Fe is a poor base. There is no metro, it is 40–60 minutes from the Historic Centre in normal traffic and considerably more at peak hours, and it is not a walkable district: distances were designed around the car and pedestrian crossings are scarce. For a holiday, the Centro, Juárez, Roma, Condesa or Polanco put you within walking distance of most of what you came for.
What is around you. Centro Santa Fe, one of the largest shopping centres in Latin America, holds the shops, cinemas and restaurants; Garden Santa Fe is the other mall, built below a public park and known for its architecture. Parque La Mexicana is the district's green space, with a running track and a lake.
Getting around from here. A ride app is the practical answer. On public transport, the approaches are the Metrobús and the bus services from Tacubaya and Observatorio; allow extra time, as the access roads into Santa Fe jam at the start and end of the working day. If you have an early flight, remember the airport is at the opposite end of the city.
