Mexico City's main sights fall into two clusters. The first is the Centro Histórico, a UNESCO World Heritage Site built over the Aztec capital. Here the Metropolitan Cathedral fills one side of the Zócalo and the excavated Templo Mayor lies right beside it, so the two make a natural morning together. A short walk west brings you to the Palacio de Bellas Artes, with its murals by Rivera, Orozco and Siqueiros. The second cluster is Chapultepec forest, where the Museo Nacional de Antropología and Chapultepec Castle can fill a long day.
Plan around Mondays, when the state museums run by INAH, including the Anthropology Museum, the Templo Mayor and the castle, are closed. The free Museo Soumaya in Nuevo Polanco opens every day and makes a good Monday alternative. Some places need booking ahead: the Museo Frida Kahlo sells tickets online only, and Casa Luis Barragán requires advance reservations and admits visitors aged 12 and over. A Frida Kahlo ticket includes a visit to the Museo Anahuacalli, Rivera's volcanic stone museum further south in Coyoacán, so it is worth seeing both on the same day. Allow half a day for the Basilica of Guadalupe in the north of the city, and arrive early at the most popular museums at weekends.
10 places · Updated October 27, 2026
Our top 3 attractions in Mexico City
Attraction
Mexico's national museum of archaeology and anthropology, a 1964 building in Chapultepec whose 23 halls hold the Sun Stone and treasures from every Mesoamerican culture.
View details — Museo Nacional de AntropologíaAttraction
The excavated remains of the Aztecs' great twin temple in Tenochtitlan, beside the Zócalo, with a site museum built around the giant Coyolxauhqui stone found in 1978.
View details — Templo MayorAttraction
Mexico City's great palace of the arts, begun in 1904 and opened in 1934, with murals by Rivera, Orozco and Siqueiros and a Tiffany glass stage curtain.
View details — Palacio de Bellas ArtesAttraction
An 18th-century hilltop castle in Chapultepec forest, once home to Emperor Maximilian and later presidents, now the National Museum of History with terraces over the city.
View details — Castillo de ChapultepecAttraction
The Casa Azul in Coyoacán where Frida Kahlo was born and died, kept with her studio, kitchen, garden and clothes; tickets are sold online only.
View details — Museo Frida KahloAttraction
The seat of the Archdiocese of Mexico on the north side of the Zócalo, built between 1573 and 1813, with the gilded Altar of the Kings and the baroque Sagrario.
View details — Catedral MetropolitanaAttraction
Mexico's great pilgrimage shrine at the foot of Tepeyac hill, where the 1976 basilica displays the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe beside the older baroque churches.
View details — Basílica de Santa María de GuadalupeAttraction
A free private art museum in Nuevo Polanco, opened in 2011, whose six levels run from Old Masters and Impressionists to a top-floor hall of Rodin sculpture.
View details — Museo Soumaya Plaza CarsoAttraction
The 1948 home and studio of architect Luis Barragán in Tacubaya, a UNESCO World Heritage Site visited on booked tours, preserved as he left it in 1988.
View details — Casa Luis BarragánAttraction
Diego Rivera's dark volcanic-stone temple to pre-Hispanic art in southern Coyoacán, opened in 1964 and holding about 2,000 pieces from his collection.
View details — Museo Anahuacalli