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Mexico City's principal sights fall into three areas. Allow a full day to cover each thoroughly, although you could race through them in four or five hours apiece. You can generally cover the first area—the Zócalo and Alameda Central—on foot. Getting around Zona Rosa, Bosque de Chapultepec, and Colonia Condesa may require a taxi ride or two (though the Chapultepec metro stop is conveniently close to the park and museums), as will Coyoacán and San Angel in southern Mexico City.
These infectiously festive plazas function as Coyoacán's zócalo and are barely separated from each other by a narrow, slow-moving street. The Jardín, with its shading trees, an oft-photographed fountain with two snarling coyotes, and a fringe of lively patio bars and restaurants (of varying culinary repute), is the more commercial—but also arguably the prettier—of the two. The larger Plaza Hidalgo hosts children's fairs, musical and dance performances, clowns, bubble blowers, and cotton candy and balloon sellers, especially on weekends and holidays. It's anchored by an ornate old bandstand and the impressive Parroquia de San Juan Bautista, one of the first churches to be built in New Spain. Each afternoon of September 15, before the crowds become suffocating at nightfall, these delightful plazas are perhaps the best place in the capital to enjoy Independence Day celebrations. More recently, they've become the city's must-go for Día de Muertos in early November, with throngs of people of all ages cavorting about in costume and face paint. Both plazas are filled with landscaped courtyards, public art installations, and dozens of park benches, and they're a memorable destination for people-watching. You'll see passersby of all ages and backgrounds, from multigenerational families and young couples of all sexual orientations cuddling, kissing, and holding hands, to tourists from all over the world, and locals walking their dogs (who are often gussied up in sweaters and bows).
From the house's original entrance on Calle Morelos (around the corner from the current museum entrance) with its forbidding high walls and turrets for armed guards, you get a sense of just how precarious life was for its final resident, Leon Trotsky, one of the most important figures of the Russian Revolution. Living in exile, Trotsky moved his family here in 1939 at the behest of his friends Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo (whose own Casa Azul is just a few blocks away). Less than a year later, he would be assassinated. The house and adjoining exhibit galleries make for an eerily fascinating glimpse of Trotsky's later life and death. As you walk through the house, which looks largely as it did the day of his death, you'll see bullet holes still in the walls from the first assassination attempt, in which the muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros was implicated. The rooms include his bedroom, his wife's study, the dining room and kitchen, and the study where assassin Ramón Mercader (a man of many aliases) drove a pickax into Trotsky's head. On his desk, cluttered with writing paraphernalia and an article he was revising in Russian, the calendar is open to that fateful day: August 20, 1940.
The Casa Azul (Blue House), where the iconic artist was born in 1907 (not 1910, as she wanted people to believe) and died 47 years later, is both museum and shrine. Kahlo's astounding vitality and originality are reflected in the house itself, from the giant papier-mâché skeletons outside and the retablos (small religious paintings on tin) on the staircase to the gloriously decorated kitchen and the bric-a-brac in her bedroom. The house displays relatively few of Kahlo's original paintings, but you can admire her early sketches, diary entries, tiny outfits, and wheelchair at her easel, plus her four-poster bed fitted with a mirror above, and in a separate exhibit space across the garden, a collection of her dresses presented in the context of her physical disabilities. The relaxing garden also has a small but excellent gift shop and café. The museum has become astoundingly popular in recent years and carefully limits ticket sales to avoid the house becoming too crowded at any given time—you'll be thankful for this once you're inside, but perhaps less thrilled when you encounter the line to get into the building, which extends down and sometimes around the block daily, especially on weekends. It's highly advisable that you purchase your tickets online in advance, or arrive as early as possible on a weekday.
The place where the Aztec emperor Cuauhtémoc was held prisoner by Cortés is often alleged to have been rebuilt in the 18th century from the stones of the conquistador's original house, although historians agree that Cortés himself lived not here but several blocks away by La Conchita Church. Topped by two coyote figures, this long, single-story building on the north side of Plaza Hidalgo houses Coyoacán's municipal government offices and a small tourism visitor center (as well as the local library in the adjacent building). You can wander through the wide arches to see the handsomely tiled courtyard.
A devoted collector of pre-Hispanic art, Diego Rivera built his own museum to house the more than 45,000 artifacts he collected over his lifetime—which, sadly, came to an end several years before this impressive volcanic-rock building with a design inspired by ancient Mexican pyramids was completed in 1964. The third-floor studio, with its massive wall of windows, displays sketches for some of Rivera's most celebrated murals. Be sure to make your way to the rooftop, which affords sweeping city and mountain views, especially if it's a clear day. During the weeks surrounding Día de Muertos, you can view a remarkable altar in honor of Rivera himself. Although located in the larger delegación of Coyoacán, the museum is in the neighborhood of San Pablo Tepetlapa, about a 15-minute Uber ride south of Coyoacán's historic center; it's also a short walk from the Nezahualpilli light rail station.
A huge arbol de la vida (tree of life) sculpture stands in the courtyard of this museum devoted to popular culture and regional arts and crafts and located just a few steps from Plaza Hidalgo. Its exhibitions and events are nicely varied, including children's workshops, traditional music concerts, and dance performances. On certain weekends the courtyard becomes a small crafts-and-sweets market with some worthwhile exhibitors from throughout the country displaying their wares. The museum shop stocks art books and high-quality crafts.
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