1. Teotihuacan (“las piramides”), north of Mexico City — one of the world’s greatest ancient cities and archeological sites, about 2,000 years old; if you can only visit one tourist site, this would be my choice. Climb the Pyramid of the Sun, and also the Pyramid of the Moon, if you have the time and energy. There are some interesting side temples to see away from the main drag; my favorite is the one with all the frescoes/paintings (can’t remember what it’s called). There’s a cool 16th-century Spanish colonial monastery nearby at Acolman too; it’s pretty much a full day if you hit both places. You’ll need a car to visit this area, or join an organized tour.

2. Museo Nacional de Antropologia — a “can’t miss” sight, one of the world’s great archaeological museums. It’s right in/by the trendy area of Polanco, which has lots of great bars, restaurants and shops; it’s an interesting area to walk around in. Lots of good hotels there too. Also very close by is the very nice Chapultepec park, which is worth visiting. If you’re into the club scene, this is the best area for nightlife, there are tons of fun places in Polanco.

3. Zocalo and Catedral in the Centro Historico — try not to miss this either, this is one of the great city squares and cathedrals of the world. They offer (or at least they used to) a cool tour of the cathedral roof, including the bell towers, once a week, on Sunday mornings IIRC. There are lots of cool old buildings (mostly 16th & 17th century), streets, and plazas to see just walking around this area, like the Palacio de Bellas Artes, the Casa de los Azulejos, and the Post Office, and the statue of Carlos IV (I see this little plaza in Hollywood films all the time, standing in for all sorts of European cities, from Budapest to Salamanca). One of the colonial government buildings surrounding the Zocalo has some great Diego Rivera frescoes inside. The big open air market right off the Zocalo is very interesting too.

4. Ruins of Templo Mayor — right off the Zocalo, next to the Cathedral and the market, are the relatively-recently discovered ruins of the Aztecs’ main temple complex in their capital of Tenochtitlán, which was buried under the Zocalo. It’s a fascinating place to visit.

5. Coyoacan and San Angel neighborhoods — these are very nice, well-preserved, old colonial neighborhoods with lots of cobblestone streets, in the central-south part of the city. You can visit the very cool Frida Kahlo home (Casa Azul) in Coyoacan and/or the Diego Rivera-Frida Kahlo House-Studio in San Angel, if you are interested in art. The Soumaya Museum in San Angel is also very worth visiting if you are into art. San Angel has a great outdoor art market/fair every week, on Saturdays IIRC. Both areas are very cool to walk around in to just admire the buildings, colonial architecture, plazas, shops, etc, eat in the many restaurants and cafes, and to just people-watch.

6. Tepozotlan and the Museo Nacional del Virreinato — beautiful colonial monastery complex north of Mexico City that has been turned into a great museum that covers the colonial period. The monestery itself is one of the best preserved and most beautiful from the colonial period anywhere in the Americas, and the museum displays are outstanding too.

7. Paseo de la Reforma — one of the world’s great avenues, it is a beautiful, wide boulevard lined with trees, statues, and monuments that connects Polanco/Chapultepec park to the centro historico (Reforma continues up the hill from Polanco, toward Santa Fe, but that stretch is more residential; it’s very beautiful, however). The most famous monument is probably “El Angel” which is where soccer fans celebrate victories by the Mexican national soccer team. The “Zona Rosa” is an interesting shopping/dining area to walk around in just off Reforma, near the Angel.

8. Desierto de los Leones — a colonial monastery up in the mountains above the west side of the city. The monastery is cool, but the gardens, forests, mountains, and scenery really make it a nice area to visit. I believe it’s protected as part of a national park.

9. Xochimilco — these are the famous “floating gardens” that remain from Aztec times., in the south of the city. Basically you hire a boat to take you around the canals that remain from the huge lake that used to cover the valley floor in Aztec times. There’s music, food, pretty floating gardens and buildings, aquatic animals, and good people-watching. And tons to flowers. Kids will enjoy this activity, if you’re traveling with kids. If you visit this area, you can also check out some interesting stuff nearby: Estadio Azteca (maybe catch a soccer game there), the 1968 Olympic buildings/area, and the Univerisdad Nacional Autonoma (UNAM), which has a cool campus with some great modern architecture/buildings.

10. Basilica de Guadalupe — this is one of the most typically Mexican places to visit, the most important Catholic pilgramage site in Mexico. Faithful Catholics visit this church (in the northern suburbs) in droves, many of them bringing offerings and doing things like crawling on their knees or bellies for miles to show their penitence. This is where Mary appeared to an Indian shepherd boy in colonial times, and she is reputed to have appeared other times and performed many miracles for the faithful. Great place to people-watch.

11. Ballet Folklorico de Mexico (by Amalia Hernandez) — if you’re only going to hit one show in Mexico City, this is the one: http://www.balletfolkloricodemexico.com.mx . It’s excellent, and held in the beautiful Palacio de Bellas Artes in the Centro Histórico.

If you’re bored at night and don’t want to hang out in a bar, club, or restaurant, or hit a soccer game, then Mexico City has lots of great, cheap movie theaters. I would recommend going to one of the luxury cinemas, the main brands being Platino and VIP. They have recliners, pillows, blankets, real food, and waiters who take your order and bring your food and drinks out to you.

If you want to see some of the nice residential areas, I would drive around Lomas de Chapultepec, Bosques de las Lomas, Interlomas, and/or Polanco, all in the western suburbs— you’ll see some amazing neighborhoods there. The English-speaking ward meets in Lomas de Chapultepec, on Palmas avenue, not far off of Reforma. The LDS temple is on the east side of the city, in one of the ugliest and least-interesting parts of the city, kind of near the airport.

In terms of restaurants, Mexico City has tons of great places to eat. If you like seafood (and Mexican seafood is great, and fresh — they truck it in from the coast every morning). I loved Fisher’s, a small chain with restaurants in Santa Fe and a few other areas. Los Arcos is another good Mexican seafood place, in/near Polanco IIRC. Angus is a very good place for Mexican-style steak/beef; they have a place in the Zona Rosa, but other locations too, I think. Spanish, Argentine, and Japanese places tend to be very good, and there are many of them; there was a great Spanish restaurant in the Casa de los Azulejos in the Centro Historico, but I don’t know if it’s still there. Polanco has tons of great restaurants. For quick, cheaper food, you can get pretty good basic food in Sanborn’s or VIPS, which are big chains with dozens or hundreds of outlets (they’re kind of like a Mexican Denny’s, but better).

If you’re looking for outdoorsy activities, and you have a car, I would recommend heading up to the volcanoes: either the Nevado de Toluca (snow-capped, 15,400 ft, and you can drive into the crater) or the Popo-Itza national park, where you can park at ~15,000 ft. and hike one of the trails up 17,000 ft. Iztaccihuatl, if you can manage the thin air and steep slopes — bring warm, non-cotton clothing. If you want to make the summit, hire a guide, start very early, and bring crampons and an ice-axe for the glaciers on the upper slopes. Popocatepetl (18,000 ft) is closed to hikers, as it has been erupting for about 20 yrs now. It’s about a 2-hour drive (without traffic) from downtown to the highest parking area for Itza; it’s a bit closer to Puebla, I think. The Nevado de Toluca is the other direction (west of the city), and is a bit closer to Mexico City, but much further from Puebla.

Another outdoorsy alternative is to go to Valle de Bravo, on a scenic lake (reminds me of Lake Tahoe) up in the mountains west of Mexico City. It’s a very beautiful, heavily-forested resort area about 2 hours away. There’s lots of hiking, kayaking, zip-lining, horseback riding, and a cool colonial town on the lakeshore. If you’re there between about mid-November and February, you can also go see the Monarch butterflies that migrate from the US/Canada and winter in the mountains in that area. It was incredibly impressive when I saw them; there were billions of butterflies weighing down trees way up high in the mountains, in several protected areas. However, I have heard that in the last few years the number of butterflies has dropped dramatically; I don’t know if populations have recovered yet. If they have, this becomes a can’t-miss attraction.

This post is way too long, so I’ll stop now, except to say that Puebla is a great city to visit too, with a cool colonial center and great food (mmm, mole). There is a massive buried pyramid in the town of Cholula, between Puebla and the Popo/Itza volcanoes. It’s not nearly as impressive as Teotihuacan, but definitely worth visiting if you’re in Puebla and want to get out of town for a while.