The best gay bars in Mexico City

To get yourself acquainted with the pinker side of Mexico City a good place to start is República de Cuba Street. Just a block away from sights including the Museo Nacional de Arte (MUNAL), the street is host to a number of welcoming gay bars, including Marrakech Salón. A microcosm of all the gay clubs in Mexico City have to offer, this place manages to meld the contralto vocals of Cher with the rather more pained sounds of early 90s alternative bands without missing a beat. A popular spot for local gay guys and gals to relax and be themselves, perhaps the only true nod to its status as a gay bar is the bevvy of topless bartenders preparing drinks – and that’s no bad thing.

Sitting on the same street, but a little more obviously loud and proud, La Purísima (The Purest) is one of the unmissable gay bars in Mexico City for anyone looking to dance the night away without having to take themselves too seriously. The ever-busy dance floor is twinned with a small chill-out zone of armchairs from which to take in the true magnificence of the mirrored black and crimson interior, low lighting, and (it has to be said) less than subtle artwork, between DJ sets and appearances from La Purísima’s gang of male strippers.

Almost next door is El Pecado or The Sin (although some older Chilangos might know it by its former name of El Otro Rio). The options available from behind the bar may be as modest as this exposed brick and stone wall space more generally, but the resident drag artistes go all out to create the buzz you’ll feel on entering and aren’t adverse to showing off their moves on the polished steel of the bar itself, whatever the monthly specials might be.

Continuing the religious theme is Divina (Divine, formerly Perra), a club with a playlist that roves effortlessly between the latest hipster favourites and classics from pretty much every genre going. Enter via the Teatro Garibaldi, a couple of blocks north of República de Cuba, and you’ll enter a series of high-ceilinged spaces which offer plenty of space for dancing. These include two stages from which the in-house dancers throw their shapes in front of an appreciative crowd and a downstairs bar area that is even less pretentious than that at El Pecado – here it’s either beer, vodka, or brandy.

Drift a little west of the historic centre into the Juárez neighbourhood and you’ll soon reach the area dubbed the Zona Rosa, or Pink Zone. The name predates the adoption of the area by the city’s LGBT+ community and stems from a description by local artist José Luis Cuevas who claimed this bohemian neighbourhood ‘precisely pink’ because it was too naïve to be socialist (red) and too frivolous to be conservative (white). Whatever the truth of this, today the Zona Rosa is very definitely one of Mexico City’s LGBT+ destinations. For one thing, it’s home to Nicho Bears & Bar, which does pretty much what its name suggests. A place where bears and those attracted to bears can hang out with a beer or two, the rather ordinary exterior hides a glam interior of glinting bottles of booze, matt black chandeliers, and more than a few leather-clad teddy bear soft toys. The Friday night karaoke is always a big hit, with a nice blend of Spanish and English hits sung with varying degrees of success.