Teotihuacán takes a morning. Mexico City takes the rest of the week.
Which pyramid day gets you to the gate before the coaches. What a balloon at dawn really costs. Whether the Xochimilco boat is worth a whole afternoon. Reviews of every tour you can book in and around the capital.
Pyramids, a trajinera, a blue house and a wrestling ring.
The four bookings a first week in the capital hangs off. What each one costs, and what the people who took it say.
01The first day outTeotihuacan, Guadalupe Shrine & Tlatelolco Day Tour with LunchTeotihuacán, the Guadalupe shrine and Tlatelolco in one run, with lunch. More travellers take this than anything else here.- 02Before sunriseTeotihuacan Hot Air Balloon Flight from Mexico City / VolareWheels up over the Avenue of the Dead while the light is still pink, breakfast in a lava cave after you land.
03The long afternoonXochimilco, Coyoacan and Frida Kahlo with Optional LunchA painted boat through the Xochimilco canals, then Coyoacán and the Casa Azul while the light goes.
04After darkLucha Libre Tickets & Tacos & Beer & Mezcal – BEST NIGHT EVER!Ringside at the lucha, tacos and a mezcal between bouts. The loudest three hours in the city.
Pyramids at nine, or a balloon over them at six. Pick your morning.
The City of the Gods is fifty kilometres north-east and it is the reason most people leave the capital at all. Three ways to do it, what each costs to board, and how early you are getting up.
South of the city the streets turn into canals.
Trajineras painted like fairground rides, poled through the last of the Aztec waterways with a mariachi boat pulling alongside. Coyoacán is fifteen minutes away: cobbles, a cantina, and the blue house Frida Kahlo was born and died in.
The Centro before eleven, when the Zócalo is still empty.
Everything in the Centro →
Aztec foundations under a baroque cathedral, Rivera murals up a stairwell in the Palacio Nacional, and a gold Art Nouveau dome at Bellas Artes. Walk it early, eat at the counters around it, and let the afternoon rain happen indoors.
- 1Historic Downtown Walking Tourfrom $26
- 2Historic Center Food Tour in Mexico Cityfrom $115
- 3Historic Downtown Walking Tourfrom $26
Zócalo, cathedral, Templo Mayor
The main square, the sunken Aztec temple beside it and the murals a block away, in the order a guide will actually walk them. Cool marble, empty plaza, no queue at the door.
Street-taco counters and a market lunch
Al pastor off the trompo, a quesadilla with squash blossom, a tlacoyo from a comal on the pavement. The good walks end in a market hall with a michelada in front of you.
Anthropology, or the Casa Azul
The Aztec Sun Stone sits in one room of the Museo Nacional de Antropología and you need two hours for that wing alone. Frida’s house is the other way, in Coyoacán, and it runs on timed entry.
The days out more travellers book than any other.
Every tour we have reviewed here →What the capital actually sells: the pyramid runs, the dawn balloons, the canals and the wrestling. Priced, timed, and ranked by what earns the slot.
1
Teotihuacan, Guadalupe Shrine & Tlatelolco Day Tour with Lunch
Spend about nine hours with an English-speaking guide such as Alicia, Gio, or Leonardo, visiting Tlatelolco, the Guadalupe Shrine, an obsidian workshop, and Teotihuacan. Round-trip transport and site admission are included. Add the buffet lunch, or choose the private option for hotel pickup.
From · $39
Read our review →
2
Xochimilco, Coyoacan and Frida Kahlo with Optional Lunch
from $34
3
Balloon flight + Breakfast in cave + Pyramids + Pick up CDMX.
from $172
4
Teotihuacan pyramids morning or afternoon without tourist traps
from $64
5
Teotihuacan Early Access Guided Tour with optional Lunch
from $39
6
Balloon flight + pick up in CDMX + Breakfast in Cave + Pyramids
from $169
7
Balloon Flight + Cave Breakfast + Pick Up from CDMX or We Fly
from $166
8
Teotihuacan Hot Air Balloon Flight from Mexico City / Volare
from $155
This city keeps more museums than any other in the Americas.
The Sun Stone at Antropología, Rivera on the walls of the Palacio Nacional, Frida’s bed and mirror in Coyoacán, and a castle on a hill in the middle of the park. Most run on timed entry and most close on Mondays.
Every museum visit →
Breakfast at a market counter, dinner off a pavement trompo.
This is a street-food city with a fine-dining problem of riches. Book the market walk for the morning, the class that ends as lunch, and a mezcal counter for after the rain.
What a day out of Mexico City actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by price. A museum ticket here costs less than a coffee at home, and the balloon is the one line on the trip worth blowing the budget on.
Museum entries, downtown walks, the Turibus and the standard Teotihuacán day with lunch thrown in.
Food walks, cooking classes, lucha libre with tacos, the Puebla run and the long day at Tolantongo.
Dawn balloon flights, private guides with their own vehicle, and the overnight runs to the monarch forests.
Six days out that start with a hotel pickup and end after dark.
The capital sits in a ring of volcanoes, silver towns and hot rivers. Every one of these leaves the city in the morning and has you back for dinner.
Puebla & Cholulatalavera tiles, the widest pyramid on earthfrom $49
Taxco & Cuernavacasilver workshops on a hillsidefrom $29
Tolantongoturquoise river, cliffside thermal poolsfrom $89
Tepoztlána pyramid up a cliff, a market of ice creamfrom $122
Monarch forestsbutterflies in their millions, November to Marchfrom $169
San Miguel de Allendepink sandstone and a long lunchfrom $119 Three nights out that only happen in this city.
Rooftop bars exist everywhere. A masked wrestler landing on a table, a hundred mariachis for hire on one square, and forty dancers under a Tiffany glass curtain do not.
Lucha Libre at Arena México
Técnicos against rudos, three falls, masks on the line, and a crowd that keeps up a running commentary you will not need Spanish to follow. Arena México wrestles to a fixed weekly card and the ringside blocks go first. The tours bundle the ticket with tacos and a beer beforehand, which is how most people end up in the right seats.
- 1Lucha Libre Tickets & Tacos & Beer & Mezcal – BEST NIGHT EVER!★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,077 reviews
- 2Lucha Libre Experience in Mexico City★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 595 reviews
- 3Lucha Libre Tour and Mezcal Tasting in Mexico City★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 519 reviews
Mariachi for hire, by the song
Bands stand around the square in full charro suits waiting to be booked by the song, and the price is negotiated on the pavement. Inside the Salón Tenampa the walls are painted with the singers who made the place famous. It is loud, it is late, and the guided nights exist mainly so somebody else does the haggling.
- 1Xochimilco Trajinera Party, Drinks, Mariachi & Tacos★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 56 reviews
- 2Garibaldi by Night – Mexico City★★★★★★★★★★ 4.3 · 38 reviews
- 3Garibaldi Night Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 3.0 · 28 reviews
The Ballet Folklórico de México
Sixty years of regional dances, staged under the Tiffany glass curtain of the Palacio de Bellas Artes: the deer dance from Sonora, the machetes from Jalisco, the ribbons of Veracruz. It runs on set nights only and the marble house is smaller than the photographs suggest, so the good seats are gone well before the door opens.
- 1Mexican Folklore Ballet★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 111 reviews
- 2Small Group: Discover the Folkloric Ballet of Mexico★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 101 reviews
- 3Folkloric Ballet in Mexico City★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 14 reviews
Four bookings in this city that will not wait.
Most of the capital can be arranged over breakfast for the same afternoon. These four run on timed slots, wind, a set weekly card and a calendar that takes no interest in when your flight lands.
- 01Balloon flight + Breakfast in cave + Pyramids + Pick up CDMX.Baskets inflate before dawn and the flight is scrubbed outright if the wind is wrong, so the good operators are booked out days ahead.
- 02Xochimilco, Coyoacan and Frida Kahlo with Optional LunchThe Casa Azul sells timed entry online and the walk-up window regularly runs out. It is the one museum here you cannot decide on at breakfast.
- 03Day of the Dead Guided TourTwo nights at the start of November, and nothing like it for the other three hundred and sixty three.
- 04Mexican Folklore BalletThe Folklórico dances on set nights only, in a theatre with fewer seats than its reputation suggests.
- 05Lucha Libre Tickets & Tacos & Beer & Mezcal – BEST NIGHT EVER!Arena México wrestles to a fixed weekly card, and ringside is gone long before the first bout.
It rains here at five, from May to October, almost on cue.
The mornings stay bright and the storm arrives in the late afternoon, hard and short. Plan around it rather than through it: pyramids and canals before lunch, then a museum, a kitchen, a cantina or a mezcal counter until it blows over. At 2,240 metres the first day is slower than you expect anyway.
By place — the city and its belt
By kind of day — ruin, canal, kitchen or ring
The newest reviews from around the capital.
The rest of the new ones →
Hot air balloon ride, guided visits to Teotihuacan and Guadalupe
Read our review →
Discover Xochimilco and Coyoacán: Tradition, Music, Culture
Read our review →
Discover the iconic Basilica of Guadalupe in Mexico City.
Read our review →
Cultural Ride: Historic center & Highlights of Mexico City
Read our review →
CMDX: Luis Barragan Legacy Exclusive Tour at Casa Pedregal
Read our review →
Coyoacan, history and life in a magical neighborhood
Read our review →
Chapultepec Museum: Plus Anthropology Museum Tour
Read our review →
Chapultepec Castle: Private tour with local guide, tickets included
Read our review →
Visit Chapultepec Castle and the Anthropology Museum
Read our review →