Build your Mexico City trip

The long lunch that defines Roma — tuna tostadas and the half-red, half-green pescado a la talla. Loud, sunny, and worth building a day around.

Order: Tuna tostadas; pescado a la talla; flan to finish.

Enrique Olvera’s tasting menu — the mole madre, aged for years, is the dish people fly in for. The taco omakase at the bar is the move.

The Blue House where she lived and worked. Small, intense, and personal — the kitchen and studio say more than any retrospective.

One of the great museums anywhere. The Aztec and Maya halls alone reframe the whole country. Don’t try to do all of it — pick the Mexica room.

Churros and thick Spanish-style hot chocolate, open till late, since 1935. The after-dinner stop, or the 1am one.

Order: A churro order with chocolate especial for dipping.

The bar that put CDMX on the world cocktail map. The Margarita al Pastor — yes, taco-flavored — sounds like a gimmick and isn’t.

Order: Margarita al Pastor.

Late-night tacos done cleanly — al pastor and the gaonera steak taco, with a wall of salsas. Reliable, busy, open when you need it.

Order: Tacos al pastor; a gaonera; the green salsa.

Elena Reygadas’s all-day spot — wood-oven breads, a great breakfast, Condesa light pouring in. The slow start before a museum day.

Order: Eggs with the day’s bread; a cortado.

Cobbled colonial squares, the Sunday market, tostadas in the mercado. Pair it with the Frida house — they’re a few blocks apart.

The pyramids an hour outside the city. Go at opening before the heat and the buses; a balloon ride at dawn is the splurge version.

Art-deco facades, independent bookshops, design stores, and a café on every corner. The neighborhood to wander with no plan.