30 Best Sights in Mexico City, Mexico

The manicured gardens of the Alameda Central at the western edge of Centro Histórico have been the heart of Mexico City life since the height of the city's pre-Hispanic glory, when informal markets were held here. Strolling around the park today remains a great way to break up sightseeing in the neighborhood. During the week it's quite lively, but you'll be able to find a shaded bench for a few moments of rest before heading off to more museums. Food vendors throughout the park sell all kinds of snacks, from ice cream to grilled corn on the cob. In the early days of the viceroyalty, the Inquisition burned its victims at the stake here. Later, national leaders, from 18th-century viceroys to Emperor Maximilian and the dictator Porfirio Díaz, envisioned the park as a symbol of civic pride and prosperity. Life in Mexico, one of the quintessential texts on daily life in the colonial period, written by the British countess Frances Calderón de la Barca, describes how women donned their finest jewels to walk around the park even after independence. Over the centuries it has been fitted out with fountains and ash, willow, and poplar trees; through the middle of the 20th century, it became a popular gay cruising ground. Today, the Alameda is one of the best places in town to see people from all walks of life, mingling in the shadow of some of the city's most iconic buildings.

One of the city's most interesting museums, Centro de la Imagen shares the old Ciudadela building with the Biblioteca de México. Remodeled just a few years back, the extensive gallery spaces work cleverly to transect and interact with the historic structure and are devoted to reflections on photographs as both historical documents and art. The library near the entrance has a significant collection of photobooks. Guided tours in English can be arranged for free via the website with several weeks' notice.

A devoted collector of pre-Hispanic art, Diego Rivera built his own museum to house the more than 45,000 artifacts he collected over his lifetime—which, sadly, came to an end several years before this impressive volcanic-rock building with a design inspired by ancient Mexican pyramids was completed in 1964. The third-floor studio, with its massive wall of windows, displays sketches for some of Rivera's most celebrated murals. Be sure to make your way to the rooftop, which affords sweeping city and mountain views, especially if it's a clear day; look out for the museum's small adjacent nature reserve, which you can also walk through. During the weeks surrounding Día de Muertos, you can view a remarkable altar in honor of Rivera himself. Although located in the larger delegación of Coyoacán, the museum is in the neighborhood of San Pablo Tepetlapa, about a 15-minute Uber ride south of Coyoacán's historic center; it's also a short walk from the Nezahualpilli light rail station.

Architect Pedro Ramírez Vázquez's outstanding design provides the proper home for one of the finest archaeological collections in the world. Each salon on the museum's two floors displays artifacts from a particular geographic region or culture. The collection is so extensive that you could easily spend days here, and even that might be barely adequate.

The 12 ground-floor rooms treat pre-Hispanic cultures by region, in the Sala Teotihuacána, Sala Tolteca, Sala Oaxaca (Zapotec and Mixtec peoples), and so on. Objects both precious and pedestrian, including statuary, jewelry, weapons, figurines, and pottery, evoke the intriguing, complex, and frequently warring civilizations that peopled Mesoamerica for the 3,000 years preceding the Spanish invasion. Other highlights include a copy of the Aztec ruler Moctezuma's feathered headdress; a stela from Tula, near Mexico City; massive Olmec heads from Veracruz; and vivid reproductions of Mayan murals in a reconstructed temple. Be sure to see the magnificent reconstruction of the tomb of 7th-century Mayan ruler Pakal, which was discovered in the ruins of Palenque. The nine rooms on the upper floor contain faithful ethnographic displays of current indigenous peoples, using maps, photographs, household objects, folk art, clothing, and religious articles.

Explanatory labels have been updated throughout, some with English translations, and free tours are available at set times from Tuesday through Saturday.

Condesa's other green lung, the 22-acre Parque México lies just southeast of its slightly smaller and slightly older sister, Parque España. Among its many enchanting features, you'll find a gracious duck pond, a large children's playground, fountains, a strikingly ornate art deco iron clocktower, and dozens of footpaths passing by emerald gardens, topiary shrubs, and towering specimen trees. The park was constructed in 1927 on the site of a former racetrack, which explains the circular road, Avenida México, looping its perimeter and the name of the colonia in which its officially located, Hipódromo (hippodrome) Condesa. The park is lined with handsome buildings, including some of the best examples of art deco in the city. Dozens of cafés, taquerias, and bars are within a couple of blocks of the park, making it a great spot to enjoy a casual bite to eat.

At the time of its completion in 1956, after eight long years of construction, the 44-story Torre Latina was Latin America's tallest building, a marvel of local engineering that proclaimed Mexico City as the most important metropolis in the Spanish-speaking world. Some of the best views of the city can be seen from the museums, restaurants, and cafés on floors 37 to 41 while the observation deck is on floor 44. Stop off at floor 38 to visit a museum that focuses on the history of the tower and the city or on the 40th floor for a drink at Bar Nivel 40, which gives you basically the same view for just the cost of a drink. In addition, the Bicentennial Museum on the 36th floor has documents from the early independence era.

This Mexico City attraction has been a hit since it opened, attracting long lines of people eager to see the largest aquarium in the country. A visit to the site starts four stories underground, at the "bottom of the ocean," and moves upward toward the surface. Thousands of species of fish, sharks, rays, eels, jellyfish, and more swim among the ruins of a sunken ship, vibrantly colored coral, and gracefully swaying kelp, all dramatically lit in huge tanks. The "rain forest" exhibit is home to reptiles and amphibians such as Mexico's endangered, curious-looking ajolote salamander.

The smaller and less polished of the city's two lucha libre arenas, the Coliseo is (as its name suggests) round and (belying its grandiose namesake) has seen better days. But the space allows proximity to the crowd, which means the fighters ramp up spectators to compensate for the lack of bright lights and spectacle in their other home, Arena México. The fights start on Saturday at 7:30 pm; tickets are available at the box office or through Ticketmaster.

In operation for more than 80 years, this is Mexico's biggest venue for lucha libre. Pyrotechnic matches, complete with big screens and grand entrances, are held every week on Tuesday at 7:30 pm, Friday at 8:30 pm, and Sunday at 5 pm. Tickets range from MP60 to MP600 depending on quality of seats and the day of the week, with the more expensive matches typically held on Friday and Sunday. Tickets are available through Ticketmaster or at the venue.

This museum tells the history of chocolate, referencing archaeological evidence of the magical substance from different locations across Mesoamerica. You will see what a fresh cacao pod looks like, and will be able to taste toasted seeds. Learn about the cultural significance that chocolate has played in Mexico over a millennia, as well as the role it plays in the world today. From a room dedicated to sculptures made of chocolate to utensils used to prepare chocolate to the insects that dominate its growing regions and cultivation, there is little you’ll be lacking in chocolate knowledge once you spend an afternoon here.

Six theme sections compose this excellent interactive children's discovery museum: My Body, Living Mexico, My Home and Family, My City, the Ideas Laboratory, and the Little Ones Zone, all together comprising more than 200 exhibits. There are also workshops, an IMAX theater (note that tickets are discounted if purchased with museum tickets), a store, and a restaurant. Although exhibits are in Spanish, there are some English-speaking staff on hand.

Although open only on weekends, this palatial former home of Emilio "El Indio Fernández"—one of the greatest directors in Mexican cinematic history—is well worth a visit any time of year, but is especially a must-see during the weeks around Día de Muertos, when its rooms and gardens abound with remarkably extensive and colorful ofrendas (altars). The fortresslike home, built in the 1940s of volcanic rock with a design influenced by prehistoric temples, is filled with movie memorabilia, and vendors sell crafts, food, and other goods in the house's tree-shaded front courtyard. There are also theatrical presentations and other events throughout the year, some with additional admission charges. 

In this small, slightly quirky museum and aquarium inside Parque Ecológico Presa Tarango, in a hilly west-side neighborhood between Santa Fe and San Ángel, you can learn about one of Mexico's strangest and seemingly unlikely creatures, the axolotl. This small (averaging about 10 inches in length) and entirely aquatic relative of a tiger salamander once proliferated in the lakes beneath Mexico City, but rampant urbanization has almost entirely destroyed their natural habitats and axolotls have become nearly extinct in the wild. Lake Xochimilco and Lake Chalco, on the southeast side of the city, are the only places in the world where these underwater animals are still found. In the three geodesic-dome buildings and surrounding gardens that make up this museum, you can view exhibits about these unique amphibians and their conservation, and view them up-close in aquariums. The easiest way to get here is by Uber---it's a 15- to 20-minute ride from Santa Fe and San Ángel (or its nearest Metro stop, Barranca del Muerto).

Housed in the 16th-century Hospital de San Juan de Dios, this museum houses thousands of works collected by Franz Mayer, who emigrated from his native Germany to Mexico in 1905 and went on to become an important stockbroker. The permanent collection includes 16th- and 17th-century antiques, such as wooden chests inlaid with ivory, tortoiseshell, and ebony; tapestries, paintings, and lacquerware; rococo clocks, glassware, and architectural ornamentation; and an unusually large assortment of Talavera (blue-and-white) ceramics. The museum also has more than 700 editions of Cervantes's Don Quixote. The old hospital building is faithfully restored, with pieces of the original frescoes peeking through. You can also enjoy a great number of temporary exhibitions, often focused on modern applied arts. 

The collections of the National Art Museum occupy one of Centro's most impressive neoclassical buildings, designed by Italian architect Silvio Contri in the early 20th century. The works in the permanent collection, organized in galleries around a gracious open patio and grand central staircase, span nearly every school of Mexican art, with a concentration on work produced between 1810 and 1950. José María Velasco's Vista del Valle de México desde el Cerro de Santa Isabel (View of the Valley of Mexico from the Hill of Santa Isabel) is on display; the collection also includes artists such as Diego Rivera and Ramón Cano Manilla. Keep an eye out for temporary exhibitions of works by Mexican and international masters. 

A huge arbol de la vida (tree of life) sculpture stands in the courtyard of this museum devoted to popular culture and regional arts and crafts and located just a few steps from Plaza Hidalgo. Its exhibits rotate (there's no permanent collection), and the variety of events include children's workshops, traditional music concerts, and dance performances. On certain weekends the courtyard becomes a small crafts-and-sweets market with some worthwhile exhibitors from throughout the country displaying their wares. The museum shop stocks an exceptional selection of books on everything from Mexican art to anthropology as well as high-quality crafts.

The San Carlos collection occupies a handsome, 18th-century palace built by Manuel de Tolsá in the final years of Mexico's colonial period. Centered on an unusual oval courtyard, the neoclassical mansion became a cigarette factory in the mid-19th century, lending the colonia its current name of Tabacalera. In 1968, the building became a museum, housing a collection of some 2,000 works of European art, primarily paintings and prints, with a few examples of sculpture and decorative arts ranging in styles.

It's perhaps unsurprising that in a city where disused hydroelectric and garbage heaps have been reimagined as parks and new neighborhoods, a badly polluting former oil refinery has been converted into a stunning, family-friendly green space with seven sections to replicate different climate-vegetation zones. The 136-acre preserve in the north of the city opened in 2010 on the bicentennial of the country's independence from Spain (hence the park's name). Key features include a lake that's lovely to walk around, picnic areas, playgrounds, jogging tracks, sporting fields and courts, an orchid greenhouse, and a gorgeous botanical garden that's definitely the highlight of any visit. Food stalls are located throughout the park, and there's even a little bar and grill with outdoor seating next to the lake. Concerts, festivals, and other noteworthy events take place here throughout the year—check the online calendar for what's coming up next. The park is a 15- to 20-minute drive north of Polanco (the vehicle entrance is at Av. F.F.C.C. Nacionales 221, on the east side of the park) and easily accessed from the Estación Refinería metro stop, which is at the park's northeast corner.

This was the first center for the Ashkenazi Jewish community that arrived in Mexico after fleeing eastern Europe in the first decades of the 20th century; the synagogue fell out of regular use just two decades after its founding in 1941, when the community starting moving out to more prosperous districts of the city. Restored in 2010, it's now once again a community center, open daily to the general public and hosting frequent cultural activities, from seminars to musical performances to lending studio space to local artists. Guided tours of the synagogue are available on the third Sunday of each month at 11:30 am (MP100) and tours of the surrounding neighborhood, where many Jewish migrants once lived, are offered the second Sunday of each month at 10 am (MP200). For guided tours outside those dates contact the synagogue directly by email ( [email protected]).

Amusement park giant Six Flags operates this enormous, well-designed park in the south of Mexico City, near Tlalpan and about 18 km (11 miles) from the city center. You'll find acres of both extreme and fairly mild rides (nine rollercoasters in all), plus live entertainment and other diversions, including multiple restaurants and souvenir stands. Areas have colorful themes, such as DC Super Heroes, Bugs Bunny Boom Town, and Polynesian Village. It's possible to get here cheaply via the Insurgentes Sur Metrobus, but Uber is more efficient. The company also operates Six Flags Hurricane Harbor Oaxtepec, a similarly popular water park near Cuernavaca, about a 90-minute drive southeast of Mexico City.

In the early 16th century, Mexico City's zoo in Chapultepec housed a small private collection of animals belonging to Moctezuma II; it became quasi-public when he allowed favored subjects to visit it. The current zoo opened in the 1920s, and has the usual suspects, as well as some superstar pandas. A gift from China, the original pair—Pepe and Ying Ying—produced the world's first panda cub born in captivity (much to competitive China's chagrin). Today, a descendent of those original pandas, Xin Xin, is one of only three pandas in the world not owned by China. Chapultepec is also home to a couple of California condors plus hippopotamus, giraffes, and kangaroos. The zoo includes the Moctezuma Aviary and is surrounded by a miniature train depot, botanical gardens, and two small lakes. You'll find the entrance on Paseo de la Reforma, across from the Museo Nacional de Antropología.