Mexico City In October: Weather, Travel Tips & Best Things To Do

Mexico City in October is a bit of a transitional period when the capital is just beginning to change from the wettest, most humid months of the year to the drier days of winter. In a way, it’s one of the most interesting times of year to visit Mexico City because you get to experience the distinct seasonal change and how the metropolis transforms as a result.

Since we began living in CDMX a few years ago, we’ve enjoyed several autumns here, so we’ve got a good idea of what you can expect to experience if you turn up in October. Stick around till the end of the month, and you’ll even get wrapped up in the glorious chaos of the Day of the Dead!

In this post, we’ll dig into what to do in Mexico City in October, as well as some of the main pros and cons to consider before booking your trip.

Is It Worth Visiting Mexico City In October? Our Opinion

Mexico City in October is a kind of middle ground in terms of the climate and the crowdedness, making it an intriguing time to visit.

We’ll get into more detail about the weather later on, but let’s just say upfront that it isn’t the driest or the warmest or the least humid time of year. On the flip side, it also isn’t the wettest or the coldest or the most humid time of year.

You might be thinking, well, why would I not go during the warmer, drier times of year then? The simple answer is that those times of year also attract more tourists. 

Late March and early April might be the most beautiful period to visit the capital, when the jacaranda trees lining the streets explode in clouds of purple, but we’ve also found noted how the prices shoot up and streets will with the influx of out-of-towners.

October is also a good time for a couple of interesting, less famous cultural festivals. First, there’s the annual Alebrije Parade, which celebrates a modern but distinctive Mexican sculptural handicraft. Chimerical creatures inspired by myth and pure imagination are constructed out of papier-mâché and then led down the Paseo de la Reforma avenue. 

A little further out in San Pedro Actopan, on the outskirts of CDMX, the National Mole Festival takes over for most of the month. We probably didn’t do it justice on our first trip, barely managing to sample a fraction of the stalls, but this should be on the radar of any self-respecting foodie. There is also a Formula One Event.

Pros & Cons Of Visiting Mexico City In October

October is overall a good time to travel to Mexico City, but here are a few pros and cons to consider before making your booking.

Pros Of Visiting Mexico City In October:

✅ Weather beginning to dry up. After the rainfall of the preceding months, the city starts to see more sunny days in October. There are still a few showers sprinkling down upon CDMX (check out our detailed guide to weather below), but far fewer than in September.

✅ Good time to visit other parts of the country. Just as the weather in CDMX is taking a turn for the better, other areas of Mexico are also perking up. Although October is still (barely) considered the tail end of hurricane season for the coast, it’s less crowded than in the subsequent months. Similarly, Copper Canyon experiences moderate temperatures during this period.

✅ Still low(ish) season. Compared to the tourist highs of March and April, it’s noticeably less crowded in October. Just don’t forget that the Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) takes place November 1-2. That tends to mean you’ll see lots of people packing into the capital a few days beforehand, towards the end of October.

Cons Of Visiting CDMX In October:

⚠️ Not the nicest time of year. It is far from the worst time to visit Mexico City in terms of weather, but it’s also not the best. Winter is much drier than October, while spring is sunnier and warmer. 

⚠️ No major festivals. October is sandwiched by two of the most vibrant fiestas on the Mexican calendar: Dia de la Independence (Independence Day) and Dia de Los Muertos. That kind of makes October itself a relative downer for culture enthusiasts. 

Mexico City Weather In October

You’ll get of a mixed bag in October in terms of weather, but here’s a general overview to give you a solid idea of what to expect.

☀️ Temperature In Mexico City In October

Elsewhere in the world it might start to get noticeably colder by mid-autumn, but the Mexican capital bucks the trend. You can expect average highs of 75 degrees Fahrenheit (24 degrees Celsius) and average lows of 50 degrees Fahrenheit (10 degrees Celsius) throughout October.

In other words, the temperature in CDMX in October is mild and pleasant. Only towards the very end of the month might you begin to feel a slight chill during the day. You’ll still need to pack a sweater and some ankle-length outfits for the evenings though.

☔ Rainfall

The first time we spent an autumn in CDMX, we were surprised by how much the rainfall decreases between September and October. The heavy showers almost completely disappeared, leaving us with a lot more sun to go and enjoy the day.

To put this in factual terms, October has, on average, 12 rainy days in October, down from 20 in September. We’re also talking less brutal downpours, with only 20 millimetres falling in October, down from a relatively whopping 90 millimetres of rain in September. 

It might not be as good as the dry season, which runs from around mid-November through to March, but October is still not bad in our book!

🥵 Humidity

Humidity is just beginning to drop off in October. Relative humidity still gets up to an average of about 64%, but you’ll definitely notice the difference in water vapour in the air between the start and the end of the month.

4 BEST Things To Do In Mexico City In October

There are plenty of ways to take advantage of the drier weather in October, but here are some of our absolute favourite things. 

📍 Teotihuacan Hot Air Balloon

One of the all-time best experiences we’ve had, not just in CDMX but in Mexico generally, was taking a hot air balloon over Teotihuacan. It’s important to go during a time of the year when the weather is fairly stable and predictable, as the length of your flight and the clarity of the view will depend on how windy and cloudy it is.

To give you a bit of context, Teotihuacan is a Mesoamerican city whose origins date all the way back to the 1st century CE. Although a lot has been lost to the sands of time, what remains is a fantastic collection of step pyramids, including one of the world’s largest, the Pyramid of the Sun, which reaches a height of 65.5 metres (215 feet).

Wandering along the Avenue of the Dead and climbing some of the temple platforms is thrilling enough, but being able to see the whole layout of such an important Mesoamerican ruin unfurling before you from the sky is just a whole other level of incredible. 

Most of the hot air balloon tours tend to set off early in the morning, so you’ll want to have something warm to wear. Mal had on a long-sleeved jacket and scarf while Robin had on a jumper, which felt about right for the Mexico City weather in October.

📍 Food Tour In Roma

We love our food tours. There’s just no better way to ensure you get to try a broad range of local delicacies while also picking up some cultural morsels from your guide. Plus, if you discover a place or dish that you particularly love, you can keep going back again and again!

There are a lot of different food tours we’ve tried since moving part time to CDMX, but one of our favourites covers the area around Roma. Full disclosure: we love Roma anyway and it’s a great place to book a hotel, so we were already a little biased even before we dug a little deeper into the boho eateries of the area with a local.

One of our favourite things about this food tour is that it took in a variety of different venues, from hole-in-the-wall coffee joints to trendy taquerias. Naturally, there are tacos, but we also tried different types of tamales, a soup, and more, alongside coffee, horchata, and a little local booze. 

In between chomping down on various specialities, the guide is great for providing a bit of historical flavour on the Colonia Roma so that you feel like you’re getting a walking tour with food rather than just a food tour.

📍 Bike Tour In Mexico City 

The weather in Mexico City in October is a good time for an e-bike tour because it’s slightly less hot and humid, but still nice enough that you can enjoy the sunshine. 

Bike tours generally are a great way to get your bearings, which is why we recommend doing them early on in your stay – perhaps even on the first day!

As with food tours (and for that matter walking tours), you’ll find that CDMX has no shortage of options when it comes to bike tours. The one we recommend follows a classic route through the capital, taking in a good chunk of the major sights.

Starting in Bosque de Chapultepec (Chapultepec Park), you get to pedal through the pretty greenery of the park, before heading along CDMX’s most vibrant avenue, Paseo de la Reforma, to the Historic Centre. Here, you’ll see some of the capital’s most famous sights, such as the Palacio Nacional and the Templo Mayor.

Bear in mind that you don’t get a lot of time to stop at each place. For us, that was perfect because it meant we could eliminate places that didn’t seem particularly interesting or worth exploring in more depth while doubling back later to see places that we felt had more to offer, like the Palacio de Bellas Artes.

📍 Chapultepec Castle & Anthropology Museum

We’ve just mentioned biking through the lush landscape of Chapultepec Forest, but there are two places within the park we want to zoom in on because they are worth taking a little more time to explore. 

First up is Chapultepec Castle, a great viewpoint from which to capture the Mexico City skyline. This substantial edifice was built near the end of the 18th century by a former Viceroy of New Spain who wanted to be able to look down on everyone else, literally. That’s why he decided to erect his residence on Chapultepec Hill.

Aside from the stellar views from the balconies, there are also some cool period rooms that you should definitely check out.

On the northern edge of Chapultepec Forest in a much less elevated position is the National Museum of Anthropology. This striking building has some design features that would make it worth visiting even if it didn’t have the most amazing collection of more than 600,000 Mesoamerican artefacts.

The halls are arranged according to different cultures, from the Olmec area with its giant heads to the Mexica room with its intricately carved sunstone.

We recommend trying to time your visit with one of the free tours, which contextualises the exhibits in a better way than the plaques. Even if you don’t go on a tour, however, the collection is still mind-numbingly impressive.

What To Wear In Mexico City In October

In general, you’ll need a mix of clothing for the weather in Mexico City in October. Remember that it can still get fairly warm during the day, especially during the beginning of the month, while evenings are going to be noticeably chillier towards the end of the month.

✅ Rainproof coats and jackets. Prepare for at least a couple of showers during your trip. It shouldn’t get very heavy, but particularly during the evenings it pays to be prepared. In any case, during the early mornings and late afternoons, you may want to have a warmer item of clothing to counteract the chill. 

✅ Short-sleeved tops and summery clothing. If you’re walking around a lot during the day, you’ll want to stay cool. October is still warm enough that most people will feel comfortable wearing short-sleeved tops. We’ve noticed the locals don’t tend to wear shorts at this time of year, but people from colder climates can probably get away with it.

✅ Jeans. If you don’t want to change between the daytime and the evening, October is a good time for jeans. The drop in humidity and temperature as you get towards the end of the month means you won’t feel uncomfortably sticky as you might in the heat of summer.

✅ Sneakers. In general, trainers are a good shout for most city breaks because they tend to involve a lot of walking. If you plan to spend your evenings dining and drinking in some of the city’s more chichi bars, you may want to bring a pair of fancier shoes, too. 

When Is It Rainy Season In Mexico City?

Rainy season in Mexico City runs from about June to September, though the end of May and the beginning October can also get their fair share of rainfall. 

How long the rainy season lasts varies from year to year, so we would always recommend preparing to experience a few (usually light) showers in October.

What To Do In Mexico City When It Rains?

Mexico City weather in October is a mixed bag, but the good thing is that the capital has a bunch of indoor stuff to do when the rain starts to fall. 

📍 Take a Mexican cooking class

If your Mexico City food tour got you thinking, hey, I want to make that for myself at home, the obvious solution is to take a culinary lesson from an expert.

For people who love the cuisine as much as we do, a cooking class is a no-brainer. Since we only live in CDMX part-time, it also means we can whip up a little Mexicana feast even when we’re in other parts of the world – although, don’t get us started on ingredient sourcing!

From our perspective, the best class is the one that taught us as broad a menu as possible, including assembling some different salsas, making tortillas from scratch, the essence of mole, and a wicked chicken tinga. 

Having said that, it is a lot to take in, so you might want to zero in on one particular skill if you’re not someone who picks up recipes immediately.

Pro tip: pick a cooking class that also includes a market visit. That way, you can also get some advice on how to select the best ingredients and dvelop a better understanding of the road from farm to table.

📍 Visit one of the fantastic museums in Mexico City 

One of the most underrated things about Mexico City is the huge breadth and depth of its museums. There are some must-see ones like the National Museum of Anthropology, but there are also some more unusual ones that are worth a short trip. For instance, at the Leon Trotsky Museum you can see the study where the communist thinker was murdered. Grim, but fascinating. 

Art-oriented museums alone are a big category. There is of course the absolutely essential Frida Kahlo Museum, located in her former home, but there’s also the more diverse Tamayo Contemporary Art Museum, filled with modern Mexican art.

You can check out our in-depth post on museums for more details, just so you’re prepped if the weather in Mexico City in October turns bad. The TL;DR version is that there’s no shortage of fantastic places to go to broaden your mind whenever the skies start to pour. No matter where you are in the capital, you probably won’t be far from a museum anyway!

📍 Visit one of the cool rooftop bars in Mexico City 

Mexico City in October weather is a nice time to enjoy a rooftop bar, even when it rains. That’s because many of them have covered spaces or, as at Balmori, a retractable roof.

There’s quite a bit of variety on offer, too. For example, Terraza Catedral and Supra Roma are both good spots to go in the evening if you want to party. Alternatively, CondesaDF and Terraza Circulo are stylish places to go during the day for a relaxed drink and views.

We’ve certainly spent enough of our time exploring Mexico City’s rooftop bars, which is why we’ve written a more detailed post that’s perfect for people who like a cocktail paired with scintillating city views.

What Is The Best Time To Visit Mexico City?

March and April are undeniably awesome for the mix of warm weather, low humidity, and infrequent rainfall. Plus, the end of March and beginning of April is when the jacaranda trees normally bloom, making the city’s parks and avenues seem colourful and bright.

For the driest weather, however, you’ll want to come during the winter, from December to February. Temperatures are slightly chillier but still mild, but you won’t have to worry much about downpours. 

What Is The Worst Time To Visit CDMX?

There’s no truly awful time to visit CDMX, but September is probably the worst month because there’s frequent, heavy rainfall. For the same reason, if you’re someone who likes it dry, don’t come during the summer!

On the other hand, the summer is when you’ll find the best deals, so it’s really a bit of a trade-off.

Mexico City In October: The Wrap-Up

Perhaps the most apt way to sum up Mexico City in October is with the phrase ‘everything in moderation.’ It has moderately good weather and moderately cheaper prices matched by moderately smaller crowds and moderately vibrant festivals. There are no extremes in any category, and that might make it the best overall choice for visitors hoping to strike a balance between different factors.