Mexico City

Zócalo, Chapultepec and Coyoacán in three unhurried days

Three days in Mexico City cover the historic centre, Chapultepec and Coyoacán. On the first, reach the Zócalo around 9 am, when the flag-ceremony crowds are thin, then walk through the Metropolitan Cathedral and spend an hour among the excavated walls of the Templo Mayor and its museum.

Cross to the Palacio Nacional for Rivera's murals (bring photo ID). After lunch, stroll west along pedestrianised Madero to the House of Tiles and the Palacio de Bellas Artes, then ride up the Torre Latinoamericana for the city at dusk.

Day two: Chapultepec and Polanco. Give the morning to the National Museum of Anthropology; the Mexica and Maya halls are the core, and three hours goes quickly. Walk through the park to Chapultepec Castle for its terraces and the view down Reforma. Eat in Polanco, or go back east to Roma Norte for an evening of mezcal bars around Álvaro Obregón.

Day three: the south. Take a car or the Metro to Coyoacán for the Frida Kahlo Museum at your booked time, then lunch at the Coyoacán market on tostadas. Afternoons suit San Ángel's Saturday art bazaar or the UNAM campus and its mosaic-covered Central Library. If you would rather float, go to Xochimilco instead, ideally with a group to share a trajinera, and return before dark.

A fourth day belongs to Teotihuacan: early bus from Terminal Norte, the Avenue of the Dead, and both pyramids before noon.

Pastor, tlacoyos and churros on Eje Central

Eating in Mexico City follows the clock. Breakfast is chilaquiles in green or red salsa, or a guajolota, a tamal stuffed inside a bread roll, sold from street carts with hot atole; by mid-morning, women at market doorways pat out tlacoyos, oval blue-corn cakes filled with beans or fava paste and topped with nopal.

Lunch, the main meal, comes late, usually between 2 and 4 pm. Fondas around the Centro serve a set comida corrida of soup, rice and a main. Evenings are for tacos: al pastor, pork shaved from a vertical spit with a sliver of pineapple, is the city's own, and you will see the trompo glowing on almost every corner of Roma and the Centro. Ask for a quesadilla and be ready for a twist: here it often comes without cheese unless you ask.

The markets are the best classroom. Mercado de San Juan sells exotic produce and insects such as chapulines, La Merced is huge and chaotic, and the Coyoacán market is easier to manage. For dessert, El Moro on Eje Central has fried churros with hot chocolate since the 1930s. In August and September, look for chiles en nogada, stuffed poblanos under walnut sauce and pomegranate seeds, in colours that match the flag.

Drink pulque, the fermented agave sap, in an old pulquería, or mezcal in Roma's bars. Street stalls with a steady local queue are your best guide to freshness.

Rainy afternoons, Day of the Dead and the Guadalupe pilgrimage

November to February is the driest, mildest stretch in Mexico City: highs of 22 to 24 C, nights around 9 or 10 C and barely any rain, with December averaging 5 mm. March to May warms to 26 to 28 C and is the haziest time, before the summer storms clean the air. Pack a sweater for evenings.

The rainy season runs June to September, with July and August near 175 mm each. That sounds daunting, but the pattern is predictable: bright mornings, a downpour from mid-afternoon, a damp evening. Sightsee early and keep a museum in reserve.

The calendar is packed. On the night of 15 September the president repeats the Grito de Dolores from the Palacio Nacional balcony to a Zócalo full of people. Day of the Dead brings a large parade, giant altars in the Zócalo and candlelit cemeteries in the south; the San Andrés Mixquic area is the classic choice for the night of 1 to 2 November. On 12 December millions of pilgrims arrive at the Basílica de Guadalupe in the north, many having walked for days, and the area is packed for nearly a week. Holy Week ends with the Passion play in Iztapalapa, one of the largest in the country.

January 6 brings the rosca de reyes, a ring cake with a hidden figurine; whoever finds it owes the tamales on 2 February.