Aeropuertos
Sunday, August 6:
Depart LAX at 9:00 a.m. Arrive in MEX at 2:05 p.m.
Flight time: 4 hours 5 minutes. Distance: 1,548 miles.
Thursday, August 10:
Depart MEX at 9:05 p.m. Arrive in PRV at 10:53 p.m.
Flight time: 1 hour 48 minutes. Distance: 405 miles.
Sunday, August 13:
Depart PVR at 3:14 p.m. Arrive in LAX at 5:13 p.m.
Flight time: 2 hours 59 minutes. Distance: 1,221 miles.
CDMX
La Ciudad de México is the oldest (founded in 1325), highest (7,350 feet), and most populous (22 million) city in North America. From the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan on Lake Texcoco, to the colonial capital of New Spain, to the sixth-largest city in the world, CDMX is packed with history and culture.
The Hyatt Regency Mexico City is ideally situated between the city’s most exclusive neighborhood, Polanco, and the beautiful Bosque de Chapultepec. The 38-floor hotel provides elegant modern rooms, three restaurants, two bars, and a year-round pool. Next to the Auditorio Nacional and Auditorio metro station, the hotel is minutes away from Museo Nacional de Antropología and the exclusive Avenida Presidente Masaryk.
Polanco
The posh residential neighborhood of Polanco was built in the 1930s with ornate estates on tree-lined streets. Today the colonia is known for art galleries, luxury shopping, and fine dining. With Chapultepec Park as its southern border, Polanco also has Parques Lincoln, América, and Uruguay for refined urban green spaces.
Museo Soumaya, a private museum founded by Carlos Slim, comprises 66,000 works from Pre-Hispanic cultures, European artists including Henri Matisse, Salvador Dalí, and August Rodin, and Mexican masters like Diego Rivera and Rufino Tamayo.
Open daily from 10:30 to 6:30.
Colección Jumex is a private collection and one of the largest private contemporary art museums in Latin America with 2,800 works by Marcel Duchamp, Gabriel Orozco, Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons, Andreas Gursky, Olafur Eliasson, Donald Judd, Ed Ruscha, and others.
Open Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00 to 5:00.
Casa Luis Barragán was built in 1948 as the personal residence of the architect who defined Modernism in Mexico. The home is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and includes an art collection with works by Pablo Picasso, Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, and others from the 16th to 20th century.
Open Monday to Friday from 11:00 to 5:00; Saturday 11:00 to 2:00. Necesita reservas.
Reforma
Paseo de la Reforma is a wide, tree-lined boulevard that stretches from the historic el Centro to the Bosque de Chapultepec. It was first known as Paseo de la Emperatriz, a route for the emperor Maximilian, until it was renamed after the fall of the empire. Today the thoroughfare is a financial and business district with modern skyscrapers and historical monuments. Among them is the Monumento a la Independencia, el Ángel, a gilded, winged Victory that commemorates Mexico’s War of Independence and symbolizes the city.
Mucho Mundo Chocolate is a chocolate shop and cafe with a museum that presents the history of cacao cultivation and chocolate making.
Cafe open daily from 10:00 to 5:00; Museum from 11:00 to 5:00.
Chapultepec
Bosque Chapultepec, grasshopper hill in the Nahuatl language, is one of the world’s largest urban parks. Comprising 1,700 acres with a castle, zoo, museums, lakes, and gardens, the park is a cultural and historic area as well as an environmental one with wildlife and forests that include ancient ahuehuete trees, or Montezuma cypresses, that are more than 500 years old.
Museo Nacional de Antropologia is the largest and most visited museum in Mexico. Exhibitions represent all the pre-Columbian civilizations located on the current territory of Mexico, classified as North, West, Maya, Gulf of Mexico, Oaxaca, Mexico, Toltec, and Teotihuacan. The 1964 building contains 23 exhibition halls that are surrounded by gardens, covering nearly 20 acres.
Open Tuesday to Sunday from 9:00 to 6:00.
The Museo de Arte Moderno de la Ciudad de México is among the largest contemporary art museums in Latin America, with a collection that includes major works by Rufino Tamayo, Juan Soriano, José Clemente Orozco, Frida Kahlo, and Diego Rivera.
Open Tuesday to Sunday from 10:15 to 5:45.
The Castillo de Chapultepec, constructed from 1785 to 1864, has served as an imperial palace, presidential residence, military academy, observatory, and since 1939 the Museo Nacional de Historia. Along with Iturbide Palace, also in Mexico City, it is one of only two royal palaces in North America that were inhabited by monarchs.
Open Tuesday to Sunday from 9:00 to 5:00.
LagoAlgo is neither a gallery with a cafe, nor a restaurant that shows art, but something in between with a shared focus on sustainability, all within a restored 1964 Modernist building on Lago Mayor.
Algo (exposición) opens Wednesday to Sunday from 10:00 to 6:00. Lago (restaurante) opens Monday to Sunday from 8:30 to 7:00. Necesita reservas.
At the Museo Jardín del Agua, Diego Rivera’s a sculpture of Tlaloc, the Aztec god of water, lies partially submerged in the fountain in front of the Carcamo de Dolores, a 1940s water facility where Rivera’s underwater mural depicts the origins of life.
Museo Rufino Tamayo contains modern and contemporary art, including from the Oaxacan artist’s own collection, with works by Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró, Salvador Dalí, René Magritte, Barbara Hepworth, Georgia O´Keeffe, and Mark Rothko.
Open Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00 to 6:00.
Zócalo / Centro
In the historic center of la Ciudad de México, el Zócalo is bordered by the Catedral Metropolitana, Palacio Nacional, and Templo Mayor. It’s built on the site of the main ceremonial center of Tenochtitlan and has been a gathering place for Mexicans since Aztec times. It’s the largest plaza in Latin America with capacity for 100,000 people, the center of government of both the nation and the capital city, and a regular site of protests, celebrations, and major events.
The Catedral Metropolitana de la Asunción de la Bienaventurada Virgen María a los Cielos was built from 1573 to 1813 on the ruins of Tenochtitlan. It comprises Gothic, Baroque, Churrigueresque, and Neoclassical styles, and contains 16 chapels each dedicated to a saint.
Templo Mayor was the largest structure at the center of Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztec empire. Two 90-foot stepped pyramids, on a 180-foot platform, date to about 1325. Excavations that began in 1978 have recovered more than 7,000 objects that are now housed in Museo del Templo Mayor.
Open Tuesday to Sunday from 9:00 to 5:00.
The Gran Hotel Ciudad de México dates to 1526 and boasts an Art Nouveau interior with Tiffany stained-glass ceiling. Have a drink at La Terraza for a view of el Zócalo.
The Palacio de Bellas Artes has been called the “art cathedral of Mexico,” with an exterior that is Art Nouveau and Neoclassical, and an interior that is primarily Art Deco with murals by the great Mexican muralists. Bellas Artes hosts music, dance, theatre, and opera performances, as well as literature and visual arts exhibitions, and also contains the Museo Nacional de Arquitectura.
The Museo Nacional de Arte has a collection of 3,000 Mexican works of art from 1550 to 1954, spanning from the Colonial period to independence, the revolution, and up to the mid-20th century.
Open Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00 to 5:30.
Mercado San Juan is known for catering to chefs, restaurateurs, and foodies. It’s in two buildings a block apart, one with fresh and specialty ingredients, and the other with prepared foods and restaurant stalls.
Open daily from 7:00 to 5:00.
Teotihuacán
Teotihuacán was the largest city in the pre-Hispanic Americas, at its peak from 100 BCE to 450 CE comprising about 20 square kilometers with 125,000 inhabitants. The city was not only the capital of the Aztec empire, but also previous inhabitants that might have included the Nahua, Otomi, Totonac, Zapotec, Mixtec, and Maya.
Open daily from 8:00 to 5:00.
Just a few steps away from Teotihuacán, La Gruta Restaurante is located in an underground volcanic cave. The restaurant first opened in 1906 and features traditional cuisine with local ingredients and pre-Hispanic culinary heritage.
Open daily from 8:00 to 6:00. Necesita reservas.
Coyoacán
Coyoacán, place of coyotes, is an older colonia south of CDMX near Universidad Autónoma de México. It used to be on the edge of the city, with country houses and mansions, and now its narrow streets are a boho neighborhood with cafes and plazas.
Anahuacalli blends modern and pre-Columbian aesthetics for a unique architectural work that houses Diego Rivera’s collection of 45,000 objects from pre-Hispanic cultures.
Open Tuesday to Sunday from 11:00 to 5:30. Necesita reservas.
La Casa Azul was Frida Kahlo’s birthplace and childhood home, where she lived with Diego Rivera, and where she died in 1954. Museo Frida Kahlo contains a collection of works by Kahlo and Rivera, as well as the couple’s collections of Mexican folk art, pre-Hispanic artifacts, photographs, and personal items.
Open Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00 to 6:00; Wednesday from 11:00 to 6:00.
Necesita reservas.
Puerto Vallarta
Puerto Vallarta is tropical, artistic, and diverse. Between the Bahía de Banderas and mountainous jungles, the city comprises a traditional old town, the Zona Romántica, white sand beaches, a mile-long Malecón, a marina and cruise port, and a stretch of high-rises in its hotel zone.
Pinnacle 180 is a boutique, all suite, 5-star styled building with luxurious amenities and ocean views. Our one bedroom Jacuzzi suite offers ocean views from a private terrace. Located in Puerto Vallarta’s Zona Romantica just above Olas Altas Street, we’ll have easy access to the city and Playa Los Muertos.
The Vallarta Botanical Gardens, within the tropical forest of the Sierra Madre mountains, features a Cactus Garden, Tropical Fruit Orchard, and Conservatory of Orchids and Native Plants, with almost 300 species native to Mexico.
Open daily from 9:00 to 6:00.
Sayulita is about 24 miles north of Puerto Vallarta in Nayarit. The Pueblo Mágico was first known to surfers, then hippies, and now bohos for a popular but laid-back day trip. Also consider upscale Punta de Mita, low-key Bucerias, and smaller San Pancho.
Several mountain towns near Puerto Vallarta are Pueblos Mágicos. About 60 miles east is Mascota, a picturesque town with a couple of museums and a church by its main square. San Sebastián del Oeste is a quiet mining town, a little closer, and El Tuito is about 30 miles south, full of historic charm with adobe buildings and cobblestone streets.
Majahuitas and Yalapa are among many beaches south of Puerto Vallarta that are accessible by panga or water taxi from Los Muertos Pier, or on inclusive day tours from the Puerto Vallarta Cruise Port.
Ahora somos bronceados y felices, hablamos un poco de español, y somos parte de Chilango y Tapatío. Viva México! 🇲🇽