The 15 Best Things to Do in Mexico City (and Top Things to Avoid)
The 15 Best Things to Do in Mexico City (and Top Things to Avoid)
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https://www.fodors.com/world/mexico-and-central-america/mexico/mexico-city/experiences/news/photos/best-things-to-do-in-mexico-city
Everything you need to know before your first visit to Mexico’s bustling capital city.
What surprises most first-time visitors is how wildly cosmopolitan and cool Mexico City is. There is indeed history in spades, from ancient temples to sculpture gardens on centuries-old university grounds, but there’s also a pulse of reinvention through new restaurants, parties, and art projects that keep the city forever fresh. You could spend a month there and barely nibble at its edges.
Mexico City is a world of a place with so many superlative and unique feats. It is North America’s largest metropolis with the region’s biggest urban park, for instance. It has influences from everywhere while being thoroughly rooted in Mexican traditions. The city’s azulejo-tiled buildings take me back to my travels in Europe, and the countless museums tickle my inner historian. As a boutique hotel lover, every mansion stay I spy in Roma makes me want to check in, and nothing pleases me more than charting a hunger-slaying course around its street food stalls.
Here’s my distilled guide to seeing the best of Mexico City—what to do, where to eat, the hotels worth checking into, and what to skip, so you can experience CDMX wholeheartedly.
PHOTO: KATIEBORDNER [CC BY 2.0]/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
1 OF 27
Centro Histórico Walking Tour
WHERE: Centro Histórico
A walking tour of Mexico City’s Centro Histórico is the ideal way to experience its storied streets with context you simply wouldn’t get on your own. Wanting to go deeper than the blurbs I’d read, on my first Mexico City trip, I booked a “free” tip-based tour via Freetour.com, and it was the perfect informative yet relaxed introduction.
The tour typically winds through Zócalo, Latin America’s largest plaza (officially called Plaza de la Constitución), flanked by the Metropolitan Cathedral and the Templo Mayor archeological site. At Palacio Nacional, Diego Rivera’s mural The History of Mexico vividly charts the country’s past. We also visited Palacio Postal, an ornate post office-cum-museum, and marveled at Palacio de Bellas Artes, which is home to Diego Rivera and David Alfaro Siqueiros murals and is stunning both inside and out. You can, of course, visit these spots independently, but I personally love sightseeing with a bit of background.
2 OF 27
Binge on Museums
WHERE: Multiple Locations
Mexico City is a cultural buffet with more than 150 museums, one of the highest concentrations in the world. At Museo Nacional de Antropología, peruse over 20 rooms holding some of the most important Mesoamerican artifacts ever unearthed. History buffs should explore Museo Casa de León Trotsky for insights into the exiled Russian revolutionary who was assassinated in Coyoacán by Spanish Stalinist Ramón Mercader, and contemporary art fans should head to Museo Jumex to see works by Andy Warhol and Damien Hirst, all for free.
You don’t need to break the bank to feed your passion for history and art, as many Mexico City museums offer complimentary entry or free days. Museo Banco de México is always free of charge, as is the show-stopping Museo Soumaya with its twisting façade. It houses paintings by Claude Monet and Edgar Degas, two Impressionist artists whose work I never tire of admiring.
PHOTO: ESKYSTUDIO/SHUTTERSTOCK
3 OF 27
Dedicate a Day to Bosque de Chapultepec
WHERE: Bosque de Chapultepec
Bosque de Chapultepec (Chapultepec Park) is Mexico City’s sprawling green lung. At roughly 1,700 acres, it’s one of the largest city parks in the Western Hemisphere, far surpassing the size of New York’s Central Park. I recommend you set aside an entire day if you want even a glimpse of what’s on offer, as the highlights alone could fill an itinerary. There is the hilltop Castillo de Chapultepec, once home to European royalty and Mexican presidents, serene lakes for boating, jogging tracks, and a family-frequented zoo with elephants, kangaroos, and jaguars, as well as several museums. This includes Museo Tamayo, Museo de Arte Moderno, Museo Nacional de Historia (at Chapultepec Castle), and Museo Nacional de Antropología.
INSIDER TIP
On Sundays, Mexican nationals and foreigners residing in Mexico may visit Castillo de Chapultepec without cost. Therefore, you may be asked about your nationality or residence status at the gate near the castle entrance. There is no need to feel singled out if and when you’re questioned. You’ll simply be directed toward the ticket office.
PHOTO: ESKYSTUDIO/SHUTTERSTOCK
4 OF 27
Savor Tacos of Every Variety, Including Michelin-Starred
WHERE: Multiple Locations
If I could subsist entirely on tacos, I’d gladly do so, and Mexico City would happily oblige. It’s estimated that there are around 11,000 taco stands and shops there, ranging from family-run stalls with no signage to spots that don’t even appear on Google Maps. You simply can’t visit Mexico City and not indulge.
Any day of the week, one may find tacos of cow head (Tacos de Cabeza Los Gueros in Centro), beef tongue (Tacos Tony), chile relleno (Taqueria La Hortaliza by Chapultepec Park in Condesa), birria (El Compita or Birria “Don Rafa”), or gourmet super-sized, petal-adorned tacos (at Callejón del Taco in Roma Norte). One of my favorite Roma Norte taquerías is Tacos Beto, which is a stone’s throw from La Valise Mexico City. The tacos are sizeable and gift you those bites that make you instinctively close your eyes. You can devour tacos of all shapes and sizes while on a Mexico City Streets food tour, a delicious outing with long-time Mexico City resident and travel journalist Lydia Carey who knows Roma inside out and literally wrote a book on it.
INSIDER TIP
If you find yourself lusting after late-night tacos while in Condesa on a weekend, El Sirloncito Taqueria de Barrio stays open until 5 a.m. on Friday and Saturday.
5 OF 27
Toast at Top Tipple Temples
WHERE: Multiple Locations
The possibilities are endless when it comes to imbibing in this metropolis. Rooftops like El Mayor, Balcón del Zócalo, Balmori, and Toledo Rooftop offer an elevated outing, and the speakeasies are a thing of legend. Handshake Speakeasy was granted the esteemed title of The World’s Best Bar by 50 Best in 2024 and it serves up cocktail couture where even the humble biscuit becomes a branded showpiece entombed on a gargantuan ice cube. The adornments at Salón Palomilla are similarly impressive, though most come for the snazzy green sun roof.
You can also find playful and polished cocktails at Las Brujas at Calle Rio de Janeiro 56. This is a women-run bar with drinks inspired by iconic ladies throughout history, depicted on the menu in comic book style. Whether you’re into craft (Fiebre de Malta) or international beers (Frankfurt), mezcal (Tlecān or El Palenquito), Japanese bites to pair with your cocktails (Hiya Wine Bar), or a laid-back evening with a curated playlist (Shhh Condesa) or vinyl spinning in the background (Café de Nadie), the city will keep your glass full.
PHOTO: BORNA_MIRAHMADIAN/SHUTTERSTOCK
6 OF 27
Find a Xochimilco Trajinera With Your Name on It
WHERE: Jardines Flotantes de Xochimilco
Located about 40 minutes south of the center, Xochimilco is a living relic of the pre-Hispanic world. It is a maze of canals where the Aztecs once farmed on chinampas, or floating gardens. Today, it is a festive, colorful escape, where multi-hued trajineras (flat-bottomed boats) glide through the waterways. Each proudly bears a name like Sofia, Andrea, or Julieta at its arching bow. I found one named Rosamaria, which felt delightfully close enough to my own.
Locals typically venture out to Xochimilco to mark birthdays and anniversaries with music, food, and tequila. The trajineras have long tables for easy feasting, and vendors row right up to your boat selling everything from elote (corn) to floral headbands and cold beers. Essentially, a floating market comes to you. What you won’t find for sale there are speakers, so don’t be shy to bring yours. You might even end up in a dance-off with neighboring trajineras as I have.
PHOTO: BONDROCKETIMAGES/SHUTTERSTOCK
7 OF 27
Visit Frida Kahlo’s Old Stomping Grounds
WHERE: Coyoacán
If there’s one place you need to book well in advance in Mexico City (along with the eternally in-demand Michelin-starred restaurant Pujol), it’s the Frida Kahlo Museum. Located in the leafy Coyoacán neighborhood, this house-turned-museum is where one of Mexico’s most iconic artists was born, lived, created, and died. It is known as Casa Azul for its vivid cobalt blue walls, it opened as a museum in 1958, and it’s your chance to walk among her personal belongings, including her art, books, clothing, bed, and even the corsets she wore after the accident that marked her life and work. I missed out on visiting during my first trip due to poor planning, so don’t make my mistake and get your tickets ahead of time on the bilingual website (it’s closed on Mondays).
A ticket to Casa Azul also grants entry to Museo Anahuacalli, Diego Rivera’s darkly majestic temple to pre-Hispanic art and totems, just a short drive away.
PHOTO: NAN PALMERO FROM SAN ANTONIO, TX, USA [CC BY 2.0]/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
8 OF 27
Browse, Buy, and Bite
WHERE: Multiple Locations
I regard wandering local markets as one of the most immediate and joyful ways to immerse yourself in the culture of a place, taking in the chatter, the colors, and the scents. Mexico City has hundreds of markets where thousands work, live, eat, and thrive on a daily basis.
Mercado Jamaica is the city’s principal flower market, where fragrant aisles burst with lilies, roses, ferns, and, during Día de Muertos, it’s a place to find vibrant marigolds destined for ofrendas. Mercado Merced is a one-stop-shop kind of place that’s been serving the city since the 17th century. If you’re hunting for handcrafted treasures, head to Mercado de Artesanías La Ciudadela, where Oaxaca textiles, Chiapas ceramics, Guerrero silver, and colorful alebrijes (mythical figurines) line the aisles. This is a great place to pick up unique gifts for adored ones back home. For antique lovers, open-air La Lagunilla is your Sunday fix. For a more gourmet experience, Mercado Roma in hip Roma Norte is a sleek, three-story food hall where you can nibble on world cuisines or even get inked by tattoo artists who worked with Harry Styles.
PHOTO: BOBBY ESQUIVELZETA/SHUTTERSTOCK
9 OF 27
See the World Through Barragán’s Eyes
WHERE: Colonia Ampliación Daniel Garza
On an unassuming street in Colonia Apliación Daniel Garza, the Luis Barragán House and Studio is a pilgrimage point for design devotees from around the world. This UNESCO World Heritage Site was once the home and workspace of Luis Barragán, the celebrated Mexican architect born in Guadalajara in 1902. From the street, the façade is modest and grey, giving little away. But step inside, and you’ll see choreographed colors: vivid pink, cobalt blue, and a banister-free bone China white staircase.
Tickets must be purchased in advance (the house is closed on Sundays) and you’ll need to bring identification on the day. The 1,161-square-meter structure is just a short walk from the Constituyentes metro stop, or you can get a rideshare there.
PHOTO: NELSON ANTOINE/SHUTTERSTOCK
10 OF 27
Paseo de la Reforma on a Sunday
WHERE: Paseo de la Reforma
Paseo de la Reforma is Mexico City’s grandest avenue. Known simply as Reforma locally, this wide, elegant boulevard was originally constructed in the 19th century by Emperor Maximilian as a ceremonial route from his home at Castillo de Chapultepec to Palacio Nacional. It was called Paseo de la Emperatriz before being renamed to commemorate President Benito Juárez’s reforms.
Lined with modern skyscrapers, luxury hotels, and some of Mexico City’s most iconic landmarks—including the Angel of Independence, Diana the Huntress fountain, and a monument to Cuauhtémoc, the last Aztec emperor—Reforma is usually traffic-laden. But on Sundays, as part of the Muévete en Bici program, the avenue transforms. From 8 am to 2 pm, it closes to cars and opens exclusively to cyclists, walkers, runners, skaters, and skateboarders. Around 90,000 people take to the street to enjoy this liberating respite from the city’s congestion, and you can be one of them.
How driving the guest experience is about more than just customers
https://hotelsmag.com/news/how-driving-the-guest-experience-is-about-more-than-just-customers/
Story contributed by Daniel Hostettler, president & CEO, The Boca Raton.
One day, early in my career, I passed by an exhausted-looking housekeeper sitting alone, taking a break. I stopped and asked how she was doing. “Everything’s good,” she responded mechanically. Then, after a pause, she said something I have never forgotten. “We spend all day making people feel cared for. Sometimes I wish somebody remembered to care for us, too.”
Expecting someone to make guests feel cared for when they’re not being cared for themselves is, ultimately, an unsustainable situation. Giving great guest service requires your associates to remain patient under pressure, create calm for anxious guests, absorb frustration gracefully, regulate their own emotions, and make strangers feel comfortable, particularly, but not exclusively, in the luxury sector in which I have built my career.
LUXURY IS EMOTIONAL LABOR
A burned-out team will have a hard time creating an atmosphere of calm. A fearful team will have a hard time evoking warmth. An exhausted team will eventually stop noticing the little details, like whether the flowers are wilting, and so forth. A disengaged team is unlikely to focus on each and every guest, as luxury service requires. The experience of the employee eventually leaks into the experience of the guest.
RECOGNITION IS OPERATIONAL FUEL
One of the most effective leadership tools is a simple one: providing recognition. Not performative recognition. Not generic employee-of-the-month posters. Specific recognition. Thoughtful recognition. You will improve your success as a leader and of the company if you take the time to celebrate when employees show effort, personal and skills-related growth, emotional generosity, attentiveness, and quiet professionalism. This kind of recognition replenishes emotional energy and doesn’t cost anything except time and awareness.
…BUT IMPROVING EMPLOYEE LIVES REQUIRES MORE THAN RECOGNITION
If the food in the breakroom is stingily apportioned and poorly presented, this speaks louder than words. If the coffee maker there has been on the fritz for a month, and nobody has bothered to replace or fix it, this speaks louder than words. If you skimp on benefits, this speaks much louder than words. If you are inflexible in scheduling, this also speaks much louder than words.
THE MYTH OF DISPOSABLE LABOR
One of the most damaging ideas in modern business is the assumption that employees are easily replaceable. Every time an organization normalizes excessive turnover, it weakens the emotional consistency customers experience. Long-term employees carry memory, intuition, judgment, and operational wisdom, and that accumulated attentiveness becomes part of the luxury experience itself.
TOUGH LOVE
With some employees, performance is never going to reach the level that operating a luxury hotel requires. Or it will get there and then slip again over time. A successful reaction to this may involve some tough love. If an employee has a drinking problem, for instance, supporting them in bringing their “authentic self” (authentically hungover) isn’t going to cut it. This and other root-cause problems need to be addressed at the root, or improvement will never happen.
The perspective I’ve shared may sound unrealistic when you’re faced with making payroll and keeping costs under control. If you’re wondering, “How am I going to accomplish this?” take a deep breath: Most things that improve the employee experience aren’t expensive. Recognition, understanding, and flexibility are all places to start that won’t drain the bottom line and, in time, will improve that bottom line. Because a workforce that is giving its best is an essential part of an exceptional guest experience.
Summer momentum cools for US hotels
Rate growth falls below inflation for the first time in nearly four months
During the week of Aug. 16-22, San Francisco hotels achieved 26% growth in revenue per available room, leading the top 25 U.S. hotel markets. (Eli Tye/CoStar)
https://www.costar.com/article/171831202/summer-momentum-cools-for-us-hotels
While U.S. hotel revenue per available room (RevPAR) grew for a 20th consecutive week — up 4.4% year over year — and the industry has now sustained growth for nearly five months, the pace of expansion continues to cool.
The week ending Aug. 22 marked the fourth consecutive week of slowing RevPAR growth and the lowest weekly increase since early May.
The moderation was driven by lower average daily rate (ADR) growth. After peaking at 9.4% in the middle of summer, ADR growth slowed to 2.3% last week, marking the first time since early May that pricing growth fell below the rate of inflation. Demand remained comparatively stable, with room nights sold increasing 2.4% year over year and occupancy rising 1.3 percentage points. Although demand outpaced ADR growth for the first time in 18 weeks, the crossover was largely driven by weaker rate growth rather than stronger demand. Specifically, ADR growth slowed 1.3 percentage points week over week as compared to demand’s 0.6 percentage point slowdown.
Luxury and upper-upscale hotels lose some of their pricing power
Much of the slowdown can be traced to the industry's highest-priced segments. Luxury and upper-upscale hotels posted a 5% increase in RevPAR last week, well below their summer average growth rate of 10.8%. The lower RevPAR gains were driven by weaker ADR growth. Rates increased by just 3.5%, compared with an average weekly gain of 8.2% throughout the summer period. As a result, the segments' influence on overall U.S. performance declined substantially. Luxury and upper-upscale properties contributed an average of 215 basis points to total U.S. RevPAR growth throughout the summer but only 45 basis points last week.
New York and Las Vegas weigh on major-market performance
The softer industry performance was reflected in the nation's largest markets. Collectively, top 25 markets recorded RevPAR growth of just 2.7%, supported by an ADR increase of 2.4%. Both metrics were considerably lower than the roughly 10% RevPAR growth and 8.5% ADR growth these markets averaged during the summer.
New York recorded a 10.6% decrease in RevPAR, driven largely by a 6.8% ADR decline as the market lapped a stronger event calendar that included U.S. Open Fan Week in 2025. Meanwhile, Las Vegas saw RevPAR fall 20% as demand declined 17.9%. Together, these markets created a meaningful drag on major-market performance. Excluding New York City and Las Vegas, Top 25 markets would have posted a combined RevPAR increase of 7.2%.
Because New York and Las Vegas are the nation's two largest luxury and upper-upscale hotel markets, their performance also helps explain much of the segment-level slowdown seen last week. The outsized declines in these markets reduced the contribution that upper-tier hotels made to overall U.S. RevPAR growth, continuing the broader trend of moderating ADR gains that has emerged in recent weeks.
Even though New York and Las Vegas had an off week, strong pockets of hotel RevPAR growth remained. San Francisco, up 26%; St. Louis, up 23.1%; and Chicago, up 18%, recorded the largest RevPAR increases among top 25 markets last week. Chicago's performance was particularly notable because it continued a trend that has persisted throughout the summer, with the market averaging approximately 17% RevPAR growth over the period. These gains highlight how a handful of large-market declines, rather than widespread weakness, were responsible for holding back overall top 25 performance.
Markets outside the top 25 continue to provide stability
Outside the nation's largest markets, performance trends remained more consistent. Markets beyond the top 25 posted a combined RevPAR growth of 5.5%, outperforming larger markets despite experiencing the same moderation in ADR growth.
These markets were supported by stronger demand growth, with room demand increasing 3.3% year over year. Markets outside the top 25 accounted for 88% of all U.S. demand growth last week, underscoring their growing importance to the industry's overall performance.
Growth also remained broad-based. Three-quarters of markets outside the top 25 recorded RevPAR increases, indicating that positive performance was not limited to only a handful of destinations. However, the strongest-performing markets continued to share familiar themes. Large events, conventions, and expanding data center development remained common demand drivers among many of the week's top-performing markets.
While U.S. hotel performance remains firmly positive, the factors supporting growth have evolved from those that characterized much of the summer. ADR growth, particularly among luxury and upper upscale hotels, slowed substantially from its mid-summer peak, reducing the contribution those properties have made to overall industry performance. Demand growth remains stable and broadly distributed across the country, but last week's results suggest the moderation in national RevPAR growth is being driven primarily by easing ADR momentum rather than weakening demand.
RevPAR outside the US rebounds
After slipping in the previous week, global RevPAR on a comparable and constant USD basis, returned to the growth rate seen in late July and early August, rising 2.7% on ADR with occupancy also up. The occupancy increase was the first since the start of summer and driven by growth in China, the rest of Asia and across several European countries including France and Spain.
Like the rest of the world, China saw its first occupancy gain since June as the measure rose 1.5 percentage points, with occupancy achieving 77.1%, the highest level of the year. RevPAR increased 2.6% with ADR growing just0.6%. Nearly all the large markets saw occupancy grow, led by Beijing, Guangdong, and Guangzhou. One notable exception was Shanghai, where occupancy retreated 3.7 percentage points. More than half of all markets saw occupancy grow in the week, the most of the past 13 weeks.
Mexico continued to see RevPAR decrease, falling 13.7% this week and marking three consecutive weeks of double-digit declines in ADR. And while the Gulf Cooperation Council countries also continued to see double-digit RevPAR declines, occupancy was a respectable 60% this past week, down slightly from 61.3% in the previous week. This was only the third time that occupancy topped 60% since the start of the U.S. war with Iran.
Cole Martin is an Analytics and Insights Specialist at STR, and Isaac Collazo is a senior director of analytics at STR.
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