Mexico City

Mexico City rewards a stay organised around neighbourhoods and unhurried meals. In the historic centre, the excavated Templo Mayor and the Palacio de Bellas Artes place different chapters of the capital within the same itinerary. Chapultepec adds another scale: a hilltop castle, wooded parkland and the National Museum of Anthropology, whose collections deserve a substantial visit of their own. For a base, choose between the garden-centred calm of a grand Reforma hotel, Polanco’s residential polish and the smaller design-led addresses of Roma and Condesa. Restaurants make a persuasive reason to linger. The range runs from carefully orchestrated tasting menus to seafood lunches and cooking shaped by migration, regional traditions and close relationships with growers. Book the meals that matter first, then leave room between them. South of the centre, Coyoacán, the university district and Xochimilco reward separate outings. This guide also includes one expressly labelled excursion to Teotihuacán in the State of Mexico. Resist treating these places as additions to an already crowded day. A focused morning at a museum, a considered lunch and time to walk a single district will usually reveal more than a cross-city checklist.