Mexico
Mexico City
An Aztec capital, a viceregal city and a modernist metropolis stacked on one lake bed, with world-class museums and street food on every corner.
Mexico City is built on the drained lake bed of Tenochtitlan, and the layers still show: an excavated Aztec temple beside a colonial cathedral on the vast Zocalo, Diego Rivera murals inside the national palace, and the Museo Nacional de Antropologia holding the finest pre-Hispanic collection anywhere. Around that historic core sit leafy early-twentieth-century barrios thick with taquerias, mezcalerias and galleries. It is huge, high and loud, and one of the great eating cities on earth.
Suggested stay
4–6 days
Language
Spanish
Currency
MXN
Timezone
UTC-6
Why you'll love Mexico City
Food dawn tacos al pastor, market tlacoyos and weekend barbacoa, plus tasting menus that rank among the world's most talked-about
Layers Aztec foundations, baroque palaces and Luis Barragan modernism sit within a few metro stops of each other
Museums more of them than any other city in the Americas, from the Anthropology Museum to Frida Kahlo's Casa Azul
Barrios Roma, Condesa and Coyoacan trade skyscrapers for jacaranda-lined streets, plazas and terrace cafes
Best time to visit
Oct-May
Dry & mild · 21-27° days
19.321° N, 99.151° W
UTC-6 · America/Mexico City
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Weather & when to go to Mexico City
Month by month: typical highs and lows, rainfall and rain days.
✓ Best Oct-May
Conditions Jan Dry & mild · Feb Dry · Mar Dry & warm · Apr Warm & dry · May Warm, wet starts · Jun Wet afternoons · Jul-Sep Wet · Oct Drying · Nov Dry, Day of Dead · Dec Dry & mild
Watch for Dec-Mar smog risk
Cards tinted by verified verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
When to avoid Mexico City
No bad season here, but the rains run Jun-Sep and most afternoons end in a hard downpour that floods streets and stalls the traffic, though mornings usually stay bright. Air quality is at its worst in the dry, still weeks before the rains break. At over 2,200 m the altitude catches almost everyone out on day one.
Top things to do in Mexico City
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Museo Nacional de Antropologia - the pre-Hispanic world in one building
culture arts history 👍 PopularGive it half a day at minimum: the Sun Stone, the reconstructed Teotihuacan and Maya halls and Pakal's jade mask make it the best collection of its kind anywhere.
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Zocalo and Templo Mayor - the Aztec city under the square
history 👍 PopularOne of the largest public squares on earth, with the Metropolitan Cathedral sinking slowly into the lake bed on one side and the excavated Aztec Great Temple on the other.
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Palacio Nacional - Diego Rivera's history of Mexico
culture arts history ⭐ Highly recommendedRivera spent years covering the main stairwell and corridors with a mural cycle that runs from the Aztec market at Tlatelolco to the Revolution. Bring photo ID and expect a queue.
-
Museo Frida Kahlo - the Casa Azul in Coyoacan
culture arts 👍 PopularThe cobalt-blue house where Kahlo was born, painted and died, kept as a home rather than a gallery. Tickets sell out days ahead, so book before you fly.
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Xochimilco - the last canals of the lake city
history scenic ⭐ Highly recommendedPainted trajinera barges poled through the surviving Aztec canals and chinampa gardens, with mariachi and food boats pulling alongside. Best with a group and a long afternoon.
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Palacio de Bellas Artes - marble outside, murals inside
culture artsAn art nouveau pile finished in art deco, with a Tiffany glass stage curtain, Rivera and Siqueiros murals on the upper floors and the Ballet Folklorico on its stage.
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Chapultepec - the castle, the park and the museums
history nature wildlifeTwice the size of Central Park, with the only castle in the Americas to have housed an emperor on its hill, plus lakes, a zoo and a cluster of the city's best museums.
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Arena Mexico - a night of lucha libre
nightlife music culture artsMasked wrestling in the sport's cathedral: flying tecnicos, villainous rudos, and a crowd that heckles with genuine craft. Buy a mask outside and join in.
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Eat the city - stalls, markets and tasting menus
foodTacos al pastor carved off the trompo, quesadillas and tlacoyos at market comales, weekend barbacoa, and dining rooms in Roma and Polanco that draw people across the world.
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Coyoacan and San Angel - the villages the city swallowed
culture arts historyCobbled colonial plazas well south of the centre, with churro stalls, the Saturday craft bazaar at San Angel and the Rivera studio museum a short ride apart.
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Basilica de Guadalupe - the Americas' great pilgrimage site
history culture artsThe most visited Catholic shrine on the continent, where the old basilica tilts alarmingly on the soft ground beside the modern round one built to replace it.
Best areas to stay in Mexico City
$ Budget $$ Mid-range $$$ Premium
Roma Norte
First-time visitors $$Art deco streets, cafes and galleries
Explore hotels in Roma Norte →
Condesa
Leafy & relaxed $$Leafy parks, terrace dining, easy nights
Explore hotels in Condesa →
Centro Historico
History on foot $Grand colonial blocks, loud and historic
Explore hotels in Centro Historico →
Polanco
Upscale & quiet $$$Upscale avenues, embassies, fine dining
Explore hotels in Polanco →
Coyoacan
Village charm $$Cobbled colonial village, plazas and markets
Explore hotels in Coyoacan →
Live nightly prices from Booking.com, Agoda and others, centred on Mexico City
Getting to & around Mexico City
Getting there
Fly into MEX on the city's eastern edge; a second airport, AIFA, sits far to the north
Flight
Mexico City International (Benito Juarez) (MEX)
Barely 6 km east of the Zocalo, but reckon on 30-60 min in traffic. Authorised airport taxis and app rides run door to door, Metrobus Line 4 crosses into the historic centre, and metro Line 5 stops at Terminal Aerea.
Coach
Terminal del Norte, TAPO, Terminal Sur, Observatorio
Comfortable long-distance buses reach the city from everywhere in Mexico and land at one of four terminals, each on a metro line
Drive
Toll highways run in from Puebla, Queretaro, Cuernavaca and Toluca, but driving inside the city is best avoided and cars face day-of-week restrictions
Getting around
Metro
Cheap, vast and fast, with a pictogram for every station; jammed at peak and awkward with big bags
TBC
Metrobus
Articulated buses in dedicated lanes along Insurgentes and other main axes, with women-only front sections
TBC
Walking
Roma, Condesa, the Centro and Coyoacan are each a pleasure on foot, rarely to each other
Free
App rides
Uber and Didi are the default at night and for awkward cross-city hops; skip hailed street taxis
TBC
Ecobici bikes
Docked bikes across the central barrios, plus car-free Sunday mornings on Paseo de la Reforma
TBC
Day trips from Mexico City
Teotihuacan
Full dayAncient pyramid city
The Avenue of the Dead runs between the Pyramids of the Sun and Moon through a city already ruined and legendary when the Aztecs found it. Balloons go up at dawn.
Getting there
bus | tour | car
1 hr by bus from Terminal del Norte, or by tour
Puebla and Cholula
Full dayColonial city
Talavera-tiled facades, a baroque chapel lined in gold leaf, and at Cholula the largest pyramid on earth by volume, buried under a grassy hill with a church on top.
Getting there
bus | car | tour
2 hr by coach or car
Tepoztlan
Full dayMountain village
A weekend town under sheer cliffs, with a small Aztec pyramid at the top of a steep hour's climb, a good market and a long-standing reputation for strange energy.
Getting there
bus | car
1.5 hr by coach or car
Taxco
1-2 daysSilver town
White houses stacked up a mountainside around a rose-stone baroque church built on silver money, with near-vertical lanes full of silversmiths. Worth the overnight.
Getting there
bus | car
3 hr by coach or car
A little history of Mexico City
The Mexica founded Tenochtitlan on an island in Lake Texcoco in 1325, and within two centuries it was among the largest cities in the world, fed by causeways, canals and floating chinampa gardens. Cortes and his indigenous allies destroyed it in 1521 and raised the capital of New Spain directly on the rubble, setting cathedral and viceregal palace around the old ceremonial precinct.
Independence in 1821 left a capital that went on to lose half the country's territory, endure a French-imposed emperor, and from 1910 fight a revolution that filled its walls with murals. The twentieth-century city spread explosively across the drained lake bed, soft ground that made the 1985 earthquake catastrophic and still tilts its oldest buildings. It is now one of the largest metropolitan areas in the Americas and, after decades as a byword for smog and sprawl, among its most creative.
The Mexica found Tenochtitlan on an island in Lake Texcoco
Cortes and his allies take the city after a siege; the capital of New Spain is built on its ruins
Work begins on the Metropolitan Cathedral over the Aztec sacred precinct
Independence turns the viceregal capital into the capital of a republic
US troops storm Chapultepec Castle and occupy the city in the Mexican-American War
The Mexican Revolution begins, and with it the mural movement that reshaped the city's public art
The Olympic Games open days after the Tlatelolco massacre of student protesters
Electricity workers strike an Aztec monolith by the cathedral, uncovering the Templo Mayor
An earthquake kills thousands and remakes the city's politics and civil society
Know before you go
Payment
Cards & cash mixed
English
Widely spoken
Wifi
Reliable
Power
Type A / B
127 V, 60 Hz
Dialing
+52
Smog risk in this window; check current conditions before you go.
Mobile network & SIM card
Get an eSIM before you fly
A Mexico eSIM installs in minutes and works the moment you switch off flight mode. No SIM swap, no roaming bill.
FAQs about Mexico City
▸ When is the best time to visit Mexico City?
The dry months from around October to May are the easy ones, with bright days and cool nights. June to September brings a reliable late-afternoon downpour, though mornings usually stay clear and the city is at its greenest. Early November, around Day of the Dead, is the most atmospheric time of all.
▸ How many days do you need in Mexico City?
Four days covers the Centro, the Anthropology Museum, Coyoacan and Xochimilco without sprinting. Six lets you add Teotihuacan and a second day trip, and leaves room for the long lunches the city is built around.
▸ Does the altitude affect visitors?
The city sits well above 2,000 m, high enough that most people notice it: breathlessness on stairs, broken sleep the first night and rougher hangovers. Take day one slowly, drink more water than usual, and go easy on the mezcal until you have adjusted.
▸ Is Mexico City safe for visitors?
The central barrios visitors actually use are busy and ordinary, and standard big-city habits cover most of it: use app rides rather than hailed street taxis, keep your phone out of sight on the metro, and do not wander unfamiliar streets late. Petty theft, not violence, is the realistic risk.
▸ Can you drink the tap water?
No. The city runs on bottled and filtered water, and hotels, restaurants and offices all supply it as a matter of course. Established places use purified water for ice and washing produce, so drinks and salads there are fine.
▸ Is Mexico City expensive?
It is one of the better-value big cities anywhere: street food, museums and the metro cost very little. The fashionable restaurants and hotels of Polanco, Roma and Condesa can match any world capital, and both extremes sit a few blocks apart.
More in Mexico
Cancun
A beach strip built from nothing on the Caribbean, doubling as the front door to the Maya world and the second-longest barrier reef on earth.
✓ best Nov-AprTulum
A walled Maya city on a Caribbean cliff, a jungle full of cenotes behind it, and a beach road that turned barefoot bohemia into a global address.
✓ best Dec-May