Worth getting out of bed for
Highlights the best Mexico City has to offer, from art and culture to fun-packed activities; we've even found the most inspiring place to enjoy the views from.
- Viewpoint
- The Torre Mayor on Paseo de la Reforma (www.torremayor.com.mx) is Mexico’s tallest building and boast blinding views of the cityscape. Talk your way into Piso 51, a new members’ club with jaw-dropping panoramas of the city (www.piso51.com).
- Arts and culture
- Both the archaeology-based Templo Mayor Museum (www.conaculta.gob.mx/templomayor), and the National Museum of Anthropology in Chapultepec (www.mna.inah.gob.mx) are must-sees. With incredible collections of pre-hispanic sculpture, weapons, sacrificial objects and gold in each, you get just a small sense of the grandeur of the Aztec capital. For a more contemporary, experimental view of Mexico, visit the many independent galleries and exhibitions dotted around La Condesa. Trolébus, (mobile: +521 55 5402 4909), an installation project on a bus beside the Condesa DF hotel, is a good start.
- Something for nothing
- The nightly battle of the mariachi bands in Plaza Garibaldi is as pleasing to the eye as the ear as dozens of sombrero-toting strummers compete for the crowd’s approval.
- Shopping
- Polanco is the home to Mexico City’s big-name brand boutiques, with the Louis Vuitton/Armani ilk available all along Avenida Presidente Masaryk. In La Condesa, you’ll find a selection of quirky outlets from home-grown designers plus great homewares and jewellery. Guadalajara-based designers Julia y Renata have an outpost at the junction of Primavera and Verano in La Condesa, and six other local trailblazers share the Elegantes boutique on Tamaulipas. Xokawa, on Alfonso Reyes (+52 55 5025 9137), is a marvellous chocolatier, selling a range of native Mayan and Aztec variants. For reclaimed furniture and distinctly Mexican homewares, stop off at Méxclalo on Pasaje el Parián.
- Daytripper
- Take the day out to go to Teotihuacan, a vast pyramid complex left by a civilisation that predated the Aztecs by 500 years. Sign up for a bespoke tour, as navigating your way out of the city can be tricky at best, and you’ll have the added advantage of a guide to help you understand what you’re looking at. Try to go early in the morning before the heat of the day hits, and then finish off with a lunch of barbacoa (meat slow-cooked in a pit) or roast lamb in nearby San Juan Teotihuacan.
- Perfect Picnic
- Load up with tortillas, chilli and a flask of sangria and wander into the vast Chapultepec Park, where you can still see trees planted by the Aztecs nearly 1,000 years ago. Most visitors don’t make it much further than busy section one, but venture a little further into section three for a more peaceful atmosphere, surrounded by fascinating flora and fauna.
- Walks
- For an arty city tour, start from the zócalo (town square), visit the vast Cathedral and Palacio Nacional, where you’ll find Diego Rivera’s riveting murals of Mexican history. Then, head three blocks north on Monte de Piedad to the left of the cathedral, up to Plaza Santo Domingo, where clerks maintain the tradition of public scribes on ancient typewriters in the arcades. Also on the square is the Museo de la Medecina, once the home of the Spanish Inquisition and now housing a display of indigenous medicine and apothecary. From here head east on República de Cuba, passing the Ministry of Education building where Rivera painted his first mural, before heading south on San Juan de Letrán to the Palacio de Bellas Artes for more murals and a snack at the café.
- Children
- The zoo in Chapultepec Park is distinguished not only by being free, but also the first place outside China to breed giant pandas in captivity. Elsewhere in the park, pony rides, bike rental and the interactive children’s museum, El Papalote (+52 55 5237 1700) should keep the little ones entertained.
- Activities
- Head to Xochimilco in the south of the city and hire one of the trajineras – brightly decorated skiffs, complete with boatman, from which you can explore the pretty canals and the plant nurseries that line them. Go on a Sunday when extended Mexican families come to do the same and the whole place fills up with waterborne revellers and Mariachi bands. You can even buy beers and food from vendors on passing canoes – great fun.
Diary
17 January Everyone from farmers to children bring their garishly dressed pets and livestock to the cathedral in the zócalo to be blessed on the feast day of St Anthony. February/March The period before Lent brings the jubilant atmosphere of Carnaval to the city, as Mexicans celebrate by dressing up, drinking, dancing, drinking, feasting, playing games and drinking. 13 August Ceremonies and celebrations take place in the Plaza de las Tres Culturas, on La Reforma and in the zócalo to commemorate the defence of the Aztec city from the Spaniards. 1–2 November The infamous Day of the Dead – shops fill with chocolate skulls and relatives flock to cemeteries to spend time with their dear departed.
