MEXICO CITY · MEXICO
Pyramids, canals, and tacos after dark.
Teotihuacán at dawn, the painted boats of Xochimilco, Frida’s blue house and a taco crawl through the centro. Every great day in Mexico City, and every road out into the valley.
Only here
Three things you can only do here.
Museums and food tours fill every big city. Floating over a vanished pyramid city at dawn, poling a painted boat through the last Aztec canals, and roaring at a masked wrestler from the cheap seats do not.
Sunrise over the pyramids
Teotihuacán by Balloon
An hour before dawn you lift off the valley floor and the Pyramids of the Sun and Moon come up out of the haze below you, lit gold along the Avenue of the Dead. You drift over a city that was the largest in the Americas, land for breakfast, then walk the ruins before the coaches arrive. Few skies on earth open onto a vanished civilisation like this one.
- 1 Balloon flight + Breakfast in cave + Pyramids + Pick up CDMX.
- 2 Balloon flight + pick up in CDMX + Breakfast in Cave + Pyramids
- 3 Balloon Flight + Cave Breakfast + Pick Up from CDMX or We Fly
The last of the Aztec lake
The Canals of Xochimilco
Mexico City was built on a lake, and Xochimilco is the last of it — a maze of canals and floating gardens the Aztecs farmed, now poled by flat boats painted in every colour there is. You drift past chinampa plots and floating cantinas while mariachis pull alongside to play for a song. There is nothing left like it anywhere in the world.
- 1 Xochimilco Barco Fiesta Tentacion 18+ with Open Bar and Tacos
- 2 Xochimilco & Mexican Party with Guacamole & Unlimited Drinks
- 3 Mexico City: Xochimilco Boat Party with Unlimited Drinks
Masks and folding chairs
A Night of Lucha Libre
Under the lights of Arena México the masked técnicos and rudos fly off the top rope while the whole hall roars and the beer vendors never stop. Part sport, part pantomime, wholly Mexican, lucha libre is the city’s great Tuesday and Friday night out, and a local guide gets you to the right seats with the right snacks.
- 1 Lucha Libre Tickets & Tacos & Beer & Mezcal – BEST NIGHT EVER!
- 2 Lucha Libre Experience in Mexico City
- 3 Lucha Libre Tour and Mezcal Tasting in Mexico City
Begin here
The day most first trips are built around.
More Mexico City itineraries start with this one outing than anything else on the list.
The classics
Mexico City's Most Popular Tours
Teotihuacán, the Zócalo, Frida’s blue house and a taco crawl after dark. The days most travellers come to Mexico City for.
Where to begin
The trips a first week is built around.
Teotihuacán and Xochimilco, the Casa Azul, a taco-and-mezcal night, the great square of the Zócalo and the treasures of the Anthropology Museum. The handful of days most trips are planned around, and the best way to do each.
The big day out
How to do Teotihuacán.
It is an hour north to the pyramids and an hour back, so the how matters as much as the if. Three ways to reach Teotihuacán from the city, depending on the time you have.
Tacos & mezcal
Dinner is three tacos at a steel counter.
Mexico City eats on the street. Al pastor shaved off the spinning trompo, a quesadilla pressed to order, esquites in a cup, then a mezcal poured neat and sipped slow. The best meals in the city have no menu, no walls, and a queue of locals who know exactly which corner to stand on.
Read the guide: the best taco, tequila & mezcal tours →After the sun drops
The city only gets going after dark.
Mexico City saves its best living for the evening. Mariachis tuning up in Plaza Garibaldi, cantinas that have poured the same tequila for a century, rooftop bars looking down on the lit-up cathedral, and the roar of a lucha libre crowd a few blocks away.
See the evening experiences →The heart of it
It all begins at one enormous square.
The Zócalo is one of the largest squares on earth, and the Aztecs put their world at the centre of it. The cathedral leans on the soft lake-bed soil along one side, Diego Rivera’s murals fill the Palacio Nacional on another, and the dug-out ruins of the Templo Mayor sit just behind. Every walk through the old city starts here.
Historic centre tours →Coyoacán
Frida’s blue house, and the village around it.
South of the centre, Coyoacán keeps its cobblestones, its leafy plazas and its market stalls. At its heart stands the Casa Azul, the cobalt-walled house where Frida Kahlo was born, painted and died, now hung with her work and her wheelchair still at the easel. Most tours weave in the Trotsky house and the old village squares nearby.
- 1 Frida Kahlo VIP [Museum Tickets Included] Bike, Markets & Churros
- 2 Frida Kahlo VIP [Museum Tickets Included] Walk, Markets & Churros
- 3 EXCLUSIVE TOUR Frida Kahlo Museum – SMALL GROUPS
Plan by distance
Pick how far you want to go today.
Mexico City sits in a high valley with the country looped around it. Stay in the centro for an afternoon, push an hour out to the pyramids, or commit a whole day to Puebla, the hot springs or a volcano.
In the city
Stay in the centro.The Zócalo and the cathedral, Coyoacán’s cobblestones, the museums of Chapultepec and a taco crawl after dark. Days you never leave town.
An hour out
Out to the pyramids.Teotihuacán and back, by coach or at dawn in a balloon, with the Basilica of Guadalupe often folded into the same day.
A full day there and back
Beyond the valley.The tiled streets of Puebla and Cholula’s buried pyramid, the turquoise pools of Tolantongo, or the snow line of a volcano. The big days that need an early start.
The painted city
The history is painted on the walls.
After the revolution Mexico put its story on its public buildings, and Diego Rivera, Orozco and Siqueiros filled the Palacio Nacional and Bellas Artes with it. The muralists never really stopped — today the colour spills into the street art of Roma, Doctores and the rooftops, and a guide reads the whole century of it off the walls for you.
See all 32 mural & street-art tours →By place
The city, and the valley around it.
The Centro for the great square. Coyoacán for Frida and the cobblestones. Xochimilco for the canals. Teotihuacán for the pyramids. Puebla for the tiles. Tolantongo for the turquoise pools.
By activity
Pick what kind of day you want.
A food tour if you want to eat the city. A bike if you want to move through it. A cooking class if you want to take it home. A lucha libre night if you want the loudest seats in town.
Plan it
Three days that cover the essentials.
First time in Mexico City? Here is how three days plays out without a wasted hour.
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