The grand colonial and Aztec heart around the vast Zócalo — the cathedral, the Templo Mayor ruins, Bellas Artes and the muralled National Palace, in a dense grid of old palaces and street life. The most historic and central base, thick with sights; busy and workaday by day, quieter at night, and mid-priced.
A look around
What you’ll be living next to. Swipe through.
€80–160
typical per night in Mexico
The sensible middle
Typical prices for Mexico City — neither steal nor splurge.
Where it sits
The circle is Centro Histórico and roughly a 10-minute walk around it.
How far is everything?
From the middle of this area to the city's headline sights — pick your own on the city page and these become your list.
- Lucha libre wrestling7 min taxi2.5 km
- Tacos al pastor & street food13 min taxi4.2 km
- Chapultepec Park & Castle16 min taxi5.3 km
- The National Anthropology Museum17 min taxi5.7 km
- Museo Soumaya23 min taxi7.5 km
- The Frida Kahlo Museum28 min taxi9.3 km
- Coyoacán plaza & market29 min taxi9.8 km
- Xochimilco60 min taxi19.9 km
On your doorstep
What you’re living next to if you stay here.
- 3.The Zócalo & Cathedral — One of the largest squares in the world, the vast ceremonial heart of the city and nation — flanked by the huge Metropolitan Cathedral and the National Palace, on the site of the Aztec capital's sacred centre. Come for the sheer scale, the flag-lowering ceremony, and the Aztec dancers on the flagstones.
- 6.Templo Mayor — The excavated ruins of the Aztecs' great double pyramid, unearthed right beside the cathedral — the sacred heart of Tenochtitlan, over which the Spanish built their city. Walk the raised paths through the layers, then see the astonishing carved stone deities and offerings in the superb attached museum.
- 7.Palacio de Bellas Artes — The city's dazzling white-marble arts palace — an Art Nouveau and Art Deco masterpiece topped with a stained-glass Tiffany curtain, its interior lined with epic murals by Rivera, Orozco and Siqueiros. Catch the Ballet Folklórico dance show, or just admire it, best from the café terrace of the Sears building opposite.
- 9.Diego Rivera's murals — Inside the National Palace on the Zócalo, Diego Rivera's vast, breathtaking staircase murals tell the entire sweep of Mexican history, from Aztec myth to revolution — one of the world's great works of public art, and free. Bring ID to enter; a powerful, unmissable hour with the nation's story on the walls.
When are you staying?
Booking.com & Airbnb open searched to Centro Histórico; flights via Google Flights.