Mexico 8 Day Itinerary: Mexico City, Teotihuacan and Oaxaca

90 minutes, with a ticket bought at the box office for the mural galleries; the lobby and facade are free. It is the ideal first stop after check-in: it sits on the edge of the Historic Centre and needs no booking.

Construction began in 1904 and only finished in 1934, straddling the Revolution, which is why the building is art nouveau outside and art deco inside. The upper floors hold the murals that define Mexican muralism, above all Man, Controller of the Universe, which Diego Rivera repainted here after the original was destroyed at Rockefeller Center in New York in 1934.

Look at the base of the outer steps: the palace is too heavy for the old lakebed the city was built on, and it has sunk several metres since it opened.

220 pesos, 45 minutes, across the Eje Central, two minutes on foot from Bellas Artes. It is open until 10pm, so go up late in the afternoon and watch the city light up below.

Completed in 1956, the tower came through the 1957 and 1985 earthquakes undamaged and became a symbol of earthquake engineering. On the way down, walk along the pedestrian Calle Madero to the Zócalo, lit up at night, which is the right way to reach the square for the first time.

Free, 40 minutes, opens at 10am and closes on Tuesdays. It stands on Calle Madero, on the natural route from the downtown hotels to the Zócalo, which is why it opens the day.

The building is La Esmeralda, a jeweller from 1892, and inside is the collection the writer Carlos Monsiváis built over his lifetime: political cartoons, photographs, toys, film posters and miniatures that tell the story of 20th century Mexico better than many large museums. Go up to the terrace for a view of the downtown domes.

Free, 45 minutes, 400 metres from the Estanquillo, right on the square. Go in quietly: it is a working church with Mass throughout the day.

Construction ran from 1573 to 1813, which explains the blend of Renaissance, baroque and neoclassical on a single facade. What you should not miss is the Altar de los Reyes behind the high altar, an entire wall of gilded carving.

A plumb line hangs in the middle of the nave, a cord with a weight at its end, showing how much the building leans: the cathedral was raised on top of Aztec ruins and the old lake, and it still sinks unevenly today.

Around 210 pesos, 2 hours for the ruins and museum, closed on Mondays. It lies behind the cathedral, 150 metres away: impossible to miss.

For almost 500 years nobody knew exactly where the main temple of Tenochtitlan stood. In 1978, electricians digging on the corner found the stone disc of Coyolxauhqui, and the excavation that followed uncovered seven temples built one on top of the other, each ruler covering his predecessor’s.

Do not skip the site museum: it holds the Tlaltecuhtli monolith, the largest Aztec sculpture ever found, and it helps make sense of what you just saw outside.

Free, 75 minutes, with your passport in hand at the entrance. It is the seat of government and sometimes closes without notice for official events, so check the day before and go in the early afternoon, when the queue moves faster.

The reason to visit is the main staircase, covered by The Epic of the Mexican People, painted by Diego Rivera between 1929 and 1935: from the founding of Tenochtitlan to the Revolution, with Marx at the top pointing to the future. Along the first floor corridor, the panels on the pre-Hispanic civilisations kept the painter busy until 1951.

210 pesos, 4 to 5 hours, open daily from 8am. Take the bus from the Terminal Autobuses del Norte, about an hour, and arrive at opening time: after 11am the sun and the tour groups take their toll.

One decision to settle now: since 2021 you can no longer climb the pyramids, neither the Sun nor the Moon. The visit is a walk along the 2 kilometre Avenue of the Dead, from the Temple of Quetzalcoatl to the Plaza of the Moon at the foot of the Pyramid of the Moon, where you see the whole avenue with the Pyramid of the Sun alongside.

The city was already in ruins when the Aztecs found it centuries later, and they were the ones who named it, the place where men become gods. Bring water, a hat and sunscreen: there is no shade.

Free, 45 minutes, in the north of the city, right on the way back from Teotihuacan: ask your Uber to stop here before heading to the hotel.

It is one of the most visited Catholic shrines in the world. The round new basilica dates from 1976 and was designed by Pedro Ramírez Vázquez, the same architect as the Anthropology Museum you will see tomorrow. Behind the altar, a moving walkway passes beneath the cloak bearing the image of the Virgin, and the old basilica next door visibly leans, sinking into the same soft ground as downtown.

Around 210 pesos, 2 hours, closed on Mondays. Start here at 9am: from Chapultepec metro station it is a 15 minute walk uphill, before the heat sets in.

It is the only castle in the Americas that actually housed monarchs: Maximilian of Habsburg and Carlota lived here during the brief Second Empire, from 1864 to 1867. It later became the presidential residence and is now the National Museum of History.

The furnished rooms are worth seeing, but the highlight is the terrace, with its view down the Paseo de la Reforma, the avenue Maximilian had built to link the castle to downtown.

Around 210 pesos, at least three and a half hours, closed on Mondays. It is 800 metres from the castle, across Reforma, and it is the anchor of the day.

There are 23 rooms and nobody sees them all. Head straight to the Mexica Hall at the back of the ground floor, home of the Sun Stone, a 24 ton basalt disc that became a national symbol. Then the Maya Hall, with its replica of King Pakal’s tomb, and the Oaxaca Hall, which prepares you for Monte Albán at the end of the trip.

The 1964 building is by Pedro Ramírez Vázquez. In the central courtyard, El Paraguas is a single carved column that holds up the entire roof and pours down a curtain of water.

Free, 1 hour, open daily until 6:30pm. It is 10 minutes by Uber from the Anthropology Museum and makes a light finish to a heavy museum day.

The 2011 building was designed by Fernando Romero and is clad in 16,000 aluminium hexagons, so the facade changes colour with the light. Inside is Carlos Slim’s collection, including one of the largest groups of Rodin sculptures outside France, on the top floor under the skylight.

Around 320 pesos for foreigners, 90 minutes, closed on Mondays. Buy only on the official website and days in advance: entry is by timed slot and sells out. Arrive at 10am for the first slot.

Frida was born here in 1907 and died here in 1954. The house is as she and Diego Rivera left it: the studio with the wheelchair in front of the easel, the yellow tiled kitchen and the garden with the stone pyramid Rivera had built.

The annex displays her Tehuana dresses and the orthopaedic corsets she painted on, kept for 50 years in a locked bathroom and only opened in 2004.

No ticket, 45 minutes, 250 metres from the Casa Azul. This is lunch: the tostada counters in the middle of the market have served the same recipes for decades, from pata de res to ceviche, and nobody leaves hungry.

On the way out, walk to the Jardín Centenario, the square with the coyote fountain that gives the district its name: Coyoacán means place of the coyotes in Nahuatl.

750 pesos per hour, per boat rather than per person, which is the official 2026 rate at every pier; up to 18 people fit. Two hours is enough. From Coyoacán it is 40 minutes by Uber to the Nuevo Nativitas pier.

The canals are what remains of the chinampa system, the farming islands that fed Tenochtitlan, and they are a World Heritage Site together with the Historic Centre. The trajineras are trailed by boats selling corn, drinks and music: mariachis charge per song, so agree on the price first.

On weekdays the ride is calm; at weekends it turns into a party, with whole families and loud music. Pick according to your mood.

The church is free; the Museum of Oaxacan Cultures in the former convent next door charges an INAH ticket. Allow 90 minutes. The flight from Mexico City takes 1h10 and the airport is 20 minutes from the centre, so you can land, check in and be here by 3:30pm.

Outside, cantera stone and a sober facade; inside, every inch covered in carving and gold leaf. Just past the entrance, look up: the ceiling bears a carved family tree of Saint Dominic’s lineage, its branches full of figures.

The museum holds the treasure of Tomb 7 at Monte Albán, Mixtec gold jewellery that will make more sense after you climb up to the site on the last day.

No ticket, 1 hour, 700 metres east of Santo Domingo. It is the right late afternoon for your first day in Oaxaca.

One of the oldest districts in the city, with cobbled streets, low houses painted in strong colours and walls covered in street art. At its heart is the Church of San Matías, surrounded by cafés and small mezcalerías for the first tasting of the trip.

A token fee, 20 minutes, 20 minutes from central Oaxaca. It is the first stop of the day in the Tlacolula Valley and the only one that works well early.

It is an ahuehuete, a Montezuma cypress, around 2,000 years old with a trunk more than 40 metres around, considered the widest in the world. Local guides, usually children from the village, point out the shapes hidden in the folds of the bark.

About 4 dollars, paid in cash as two fees, the community fee and the site fee; 2 hours; open 7am to 6pm. This is the decision that shapes the day: tours do Tule, Teotitlán and Mitla first and arrive here between 12:30 and 3pm. By reversing the order, you arrive at 10am with the place almost empty.

Mineral laden springs have trickled over the cliff for thousands of years and left white formations that look like frozen waterfalls. At the top, the natural pools are open for swimming, with the whole valley as a backdrop; the lower formations are slippery and off limits. Bring swimwear and shoes with grip.

210 pesos, 75 minutes, open 8am to 5pm. It is 30 minutes from Hierve el Agua on the way back, and by 1pm the tour groups have already left here for the waterfalls.

Mitla was the religious centre of the Zapotecs, the place of the dead. What makes it unique in Mexico are the grecas: panels of geometric patterns made from thousands of small cut stones fitted together without mortar, covering entire walls of the Palace of the Columns.

Notice the Church of San Pablo pressed against the ruins: the Spanish built it in the 16th century on top of one of the temples, using its stones.

A palenque visit is usually free with a tasting, 75 minutes including lunch, 10 minutes from Mitla along highway 190. The sign at the village entrance proclaims it the world capital of mezcal, and it is not just marketing.

At a palenque you see the whole process: agave piñas roasted for days in a pit dug into the ground, crushed by the tahona, a stone wheel pulled by a horse, fermented in wooden vats and distilled. Espadín is the farmed and most common agave; tobalá is wild, rarer and more expensive.

If you buy, look for the artesanal or ancestral category on the label: a bottle is much cheaper here than in the mezcal bars of the city.

No ticket, 75 minutes, 4 kilometres off the main road, already on the way back to Oaxaca. The family workshops welcome visitors until late afternoon, which is why it closes the day.

Almost every family in the village weaves. In a workshop you see the wool carded, spun and dyed with natural colours: red comes from cochineal, an insect that lives on the nopal cactus and releases carmine when crushed; blue comes from indigo. Then comes the treadle loom, where a medium rug takes weeks.

Buy directly from the families or from the village cooperatives, bargaining politely. A suspiciously cheap rug in a downtown shop is usually synthetic wool with industrial dye.

210 pesos, two and a half hours, opens at 8am. It is 25 minutes from the centre by taxi or tourist shuttle. Go at opening time: the site has no shade, and on departure day you still need time for lunch and the airport.

The Zapotecs founded the city around 500 BC and did something hard to believe on the spot: they levelled the top of a mountain 400 metres above the valley to build the Gran Plaza. From there you can see all three arms of the Oaxaca valley.

Make sure you pass the Gallery of the Dancers, stone slabs carved with human figures in contorted poses, among the oldest on the site.

No ticket, 75 minutes, three blocks south of the Zócalo and 20 minutes from the airport. It is the last lunch of the trip, and the most Oaxacan.

The Pasillo de Humo works like this: you pick raw meat at one of the stalls, tasajo, which is thin salted beef, pork cecina enchilada and chorizo, they weigh it and take it to the grill. Meanwhile vendors come by with tortillas, grilled spring onions and chillies, guacamole and salsas. You eat at one of the communal tables in the corridor.

On the way out, the shops nearby grind cacao to order: this is where you buy Oaxacan chocolate and mole paste to take home in your suitcase.