5 Best Shopping in Mexico City, Mexico

It's worth visiting San Ángel on a Saturday just to visit the upscale artisan market that's been going strong there since 1960. Before you even make it into the grandiose colonial mansion, you'll encounter dozens of vendors selling crafts, wood carvings, embroidered clothing, leather goods, wooden masks, beads, amates (bark paintings), and trinkets at stalls just outside and around Plaza San Jacinto and adjacent Calle Benito Juárez. Inside, on two levels that encircle a beautiful courtyard, are the (generally) better-quality—and higher-priced—goods, including alebrijes (painted wooden animals from Oaxaca), glassware, pottery, jewelry, fashion, furniture and housewares, and a smattering of gourmet goods and beauty products. There's also a decent traditional Mexican restaurant in the courtyard, which has a massive tree looming over it. The bazaar is open only on Saturday, but if you're unable to visit in person, check out the website, where you can purchase many of the goods online (shipping is free in Mexico City for orders over MX$799 and can be arranged for international deliveries).

Enormous La Lagunilla has been the site of trade and bartering for more than five centuries. It's open every Sunday, when vendors set up along Confort Street and along the alley connecting to Paseo de la Reforma, selling everything from antique paintings and furniture to old magazines and plastic toys. Dress down, and watch out for pickpockets.

This market, a 10- to 15-minute walk from the Alameda, is your best bet for a one-stop shop for all the gifts, souvenirs, and keepsakes you might need. Loaded with stalls selling everything from hammocks to beaded Huichol jewelry to woven palm hats, Ciudadela is a mixed bag to say the least, both in terms of quality and prices. But with a little patience (and a high tolerance for bright colors), you will almost certainly find something that meets your needs.

This arcade on the Zócalo has attracted merchants since 1524. It's lined with jewelry shops selling gold (often by the gram) and authentic Taxco silver at prices lower than those in Taxco, where the overhead is higher. The best shop is Sombreros Tardán, which specializes in fashionable hats of every shape and style; it's more or less in the middle of the arcade.

This store is a mine of perhaps the best silverwork in Mexico—jewelry, flatware, candelabras, museum-quality reproductions of archaeological finds, and bold designs by young Mexican silversmiths. The Masaryk shop is one of several in the city, including locations in the Four Seasons and Presidente InterContinental hotels and in the upscale Centro Santa Fe. Outside this Polanco branch, you'll find an Instagram-famous bright pink wall with a neon sign that sums up most visitors' sentiments: Mexico mi amor.