Mexico City 4 Day Itinerary (No Traps)

Four days is our 3-day plan plus a Polanco and lucha libre day, still without leaving city limits. For Teotihuacan and Puebla as separate day trips, see our Mexico City Mexico itinerary instead of trying to bolt one onto this route.

Book these before you go:

Day Focus
1 Zocalo, Templo Mayor, National Palace, Anthropology Museum, Roma Norte dinner
2 Casa Azul, Coyoacan plaza, Xochimilco trajinera, Condesa dinner
3 Chapultepec Castle, Bosque de Chapultepec, Palacio de Bellas Artes, Centro dinner
4 Polanco, Museo Soumaya, lucha libre at Arena Mexico

Day 1: Historic Centre and the Anthropology Museum

The Zocalo and the Metropolitan Cathedral beside it are free. Templo Mayor, the excavated Aztec temple a block northeast, runs roughly 100 MXN for the museum and archaeological zone (hours on inah.gob.mx ), home to the Coyolxauhqui stone construction crews found by accident in 1978. The National Palace across the square is free and holds Diego Rivera’s mural cycle around the main stairwell.

In the afternoon, get to Chapultepec Park for the Museo Nacional de Antropologia : 210 MXN for foreign visitors, 105 MXN for nationals and resident foreigners, closed Mondays. The Aztec Sun Stone and the Mayan hall alone justify a full afternoon here.

Dinner in Roma Norte, tacos first at 20-35 MXN each, then a sit-down table after 8pm, when the room actually fills.

Day 2: Coyoacan, Casa Azul and Xochimilco

Casa Azul is 320 MXN, includes the Museo Anahuacalli, and sells every slot through boletos.museofridakahlo.org.mx , booked two to four weeks ahead. Give the plaza and artisan market outside equal time to the house itself.

In the afternoon, take a trajinera through Xochimilco’s chinampas, the floating-garden system that fed Tenochtitlan. The regulated rate is roughly 750 MXN per boat per hour, split across your group, contracted only at an official embarcadero pier. Dinner in Condesa closes the day.

Day 3: Chapultepec Castle and Bellas Artes

Chapultepec Castle costs 210 MXN, up from 100 MXN before the January 2026 INAH increase, free Sundays for nationals and resident foreigners only. It was Mexico’s only real imperial residence and the terrace view over Paseo de la Reforma is the city’s best.

Back in the Centro, Palacio de Bellas Artes charges 75 MXN for seventeen permanent murals by Rivera, Siqueiros, Orozco and four other muralists; tickets are in-person only, per palacio.inba.gob.mx , and sales end at 5:30pm. Closed Mondays. Dinner stays in the Centro, near Alameda Central.

Day 4: Polanco and lucha libre

Polanco is CDMX’s upscale district, and Museo Soumaya, free to enter, holds Carlos Slim’s personal collection: 66,000 pieces, a heavy concentration of Rodin, inside a faceted silver building that is the most photographed piece of modern architecture in the city. Spend the morning here and lunch in the neighborhood before it fills with an expense-account crowd.

Is a day built entirely around Polanco worth it on a shorter trip? Only once you have covered the Historic Centre, Coyoacan and Chapultepec first. Polanco is genuinely upscale rather than essential, and a four-day trip has room for it as a change of register, not as one of the first two days.

In the evening, CMLL runs lucha libre at Arena Mexico three nights a week: Martes Populares Tuesdays at 7:30pm, Viernes Espectacular Fridays at 8:30pm, and the family-oriented Domingo Familiar Sundays at 5pm, tickets through Ticketmaster.mx. Time day four to land on one of those nights if the calendar allows; it is the single best evening on this itinerary that costs less than a Polanco dinner.

Before you go

Book Casa Azul the day your flights are confirmed. CDMX sits at 2,240m, so mild headaches or breathlessness on day one are normal. Uber or Didi beat a street taxi after dark, especially the ride back from Arena Mexico, and bottled water is sold at every OXXO you pass.