Mexico City: best bits

Day 2
Morning: Rise early for a breakfast coffee with the white-collar commuters in the energetic Zona Rosa, before heading to the nearby refuge of Chapultepec Park. Among the lakes and hills are several superb museums, most notably the world-renowned National Anthropology Museum. A couple of hours among the varied exhibits, displayed as a chronology of Mexico's history, is time well spent.

Afternoon: Spend lunchtime at the remarkable La Merced, an impossibly vast covered market bursting with fruit and veg vendors – sensory assault is an understatement. Drink in the dizzying scale of the scene before grabbing fresh food from a street cart (anywhere with a queue of locals is a winner). Hop a cab south to the leafy Coyoacan quarter for a different, gentler flavour and take in two small but fascinating house museums which tell the stories of their respective former owners – Leon Trotsky and Frida Kahlo. If you're short on time, plump for the latter's.

Evening: Mexicans are passionate about sport. Football's the titan of the scene, but as post-dinner entertainment goes, nothing beats a spot of masked wrestling. It's high-octane, intense, and, most of all, fun to watch. The key bouts, which attract thousands, are held at weekends. And if the frenetic skirmishes in the ring leave you buzzing for more action, burn off your excess energy at one of the many up-tempo Latino nightspots. Just don't blame us for that tequila hangover the next day...

More info:
Country guide to Mexico
Build your own guide to Mexico City