The best way to experience a real Mexican mercado is to go see one for yourself. You can do this, even if your Spanish is almost nonexistent, and you are just making a brief trip to Mexico City. Here are step-by-step instructions for visiting a fine mercado inside Mexico City.
(current as of 2025)
This is the big mercado featured in our One Day in the Life of a Mercado essay, and it is a mind-boggling place. Since the Merced has its own metro, or subway, station, visitors can reach the Merced with a minimum of fuss. Mexico City's subway system is amazingly efficient, safe, and clean -- though it can be mind-bogglingly stuffed during rush hours.
Mexico City's main hotel zone lies downtown just east of Chapultepec Park, not far from the large avenue called the Paseo de La Reforma. Fortunately, the main metro line serving this area, Linea 1, or Line 1, is also the one with a station in the Merced. The main three stations of Line 1 found in the hotel district are Insurgentes, Sevilla, and Cuauhtémoc. To find a metro station, all you need to do is to ask anyone in the street this question:
Can you please tell me where the Metro is? (Puede usted decirme, por favor, donde está el metro?)
Ticket machines and card recharging at Buenavista Metro Station in Mexico City ( photographed in 2024); copyright free image courtesy of "ProtoplasmaKid" made available through Wikimedia Commons.
As of 2025, access to the Metro mainly depends on your having a Mexico City Metro Card, the Integrated Mobility Card, the Tarjeta de Movilidad Integrada, which can be bought at any Metro station ticket window, from a Light Rail ticket window, and at machines in any Metrobús station. In 2025, tickets cost $15 pesos. The same ticket pays for fares on the Metro, Metrobús, Light Rail, Ecobici, Trolleybus, RTP buses, and Cablebús systems.
When you buy a card, you pay the price of the card, plus the balance you want available on your new card. This means that if you pay 100 pesos total, you’ll receive a Metro Card with a balance of 85 pesos, after the price of the card is deducted from your total payment. After using your card you can have it "recharged" at stations of the above-mentioned services, as well as from private retailers around the city. In 2025, the maximum a card ccould be recharged to was $500 pesos.
When buying from a machine click the COMPRAR (buy) button, deposit the amount indicated on the screen, then after verification remove your ticket.
To recharge the ticket, place the card in the machine, click the RECARGA (recharge) button, deposit, deposit the amount indicated on the screen, then after verification remove your ticket.
Metro turnstyles at Deportivo Metro Station in Mexico City ( photographed in 2023); Public domain image courtesy of "Tbhotch" made available through Wikimedia Commons.
Once past the turnstiles -- entrada means "enter" -- if you are in the hotel zone, look for the platform for eastbound trains going toward the end station called Pantitlán. Once aboard, stay on until reaching Merced Station, which comes immediately after Pino Suarez. Exiting the train, look for exit signs (SALIDA), and follow the celery odor up the stairs. You'll have no trouble at all knowing when you have entered the Merced Market.
When you return to your hotel on Line 1, look for the platform for westbound trains going toward the end station called Observatorio.
Metro map of downtown Mexico City showing the Merced's location on Line 1; image taken in 2022.
Of course, the Merced can be reached from metro stations other than those along Line 1. However, that requires using a map of the metro system for navigation, and maybe changing trains once or twice. Excellent maps of the metro system are mounted in each station and inside every subway car, and they can be bought at many newspaper stands. Mexico's subway system is very easy to use.
Large bundles and backpacks usually are not permitted on the Metro. If you are walking toward a platform, you are male, and an armed policeman stops you, probably you are entering a section of the platform reserved for women; simply look for another entrance onto the platform where men are standing about.
There's no reason to limit your mercado-visiting to Mexico City and surrounding areas. If you're willing to travel a little, you should take a look at our List of Notable Mexican Mercados.