Mexico City

This populous capital wears its cultural heart on its sleeve, offering museums and cuisine that delight the senses.

The ever-changing metropolis of Mexico City may be home to an estimated 22 million people, but the issues of density (traffic, sprawl, pollution) do not distract from the Mexican capital’s cultural offerings. Diving straight into the superlatives, Mexico City is second only to Paris for the highest city count of museums (most of which are free), hosts more than 40,000 restaurants, has the largest city park in the Americas (Bosque de Chapultepec is double the size of New York’s Central Park) and the highest concentration of Latin American wealth (counting 86,700 millionaires), which spills onto the streets with a colour-saturated, sensory abandon. It is a city of exotic extremes: an ancient, anarchic place where the avant-garde makes no room for the middle ground and the people engage with incomparable warmth. EXPERIENCE Casa Luis Barragán, built in 1948, is the only individual property in Latin America to be acknowledged on UNESCO’s World Heritage list. As both home and studio to its radicalising creator, architect Luis Barragán, the immaculately maintained Modernist icon (merging both the international and regional vernaculars in colourful high-key) is one of the most visited museum sites in Mexico City. Reserving tickets online in advance is highly recommended. casaluisbarragan.org

The Museo Frida Kahlo, also known as the Blue House, is a historic house-museum dedicated to the life and work of the inimitable Mexican artist. Seek out the flutter of blue butterflies under the canopy of Kahlo’s bed, supposedly given to the artist by Isamu Noguchi, one of her many admirers. They were so placed to salve the pain in Kahlo’s tortured body and promise flight from its grip. The rooms resonate with her presence. museofridakahlo.org.mx/ en/the-blue-house

To get a sense of the history and tumultuous hearts that informed the work of Kahlo and her husband, Diego Rivera, visit Rivera’s murals (considered his greatest work) at the grand colonial-style Palacio Nacional, seat of the federal executive in Mexico. historia.palacionacional.info

Ranked at 13 on the 2018 list of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants, Pujol has recently changed location but not its trailblazing concept of Mexican fine dining. Find the city’s most famous chef, Enrique Olvera, continuing to innovate in his new Mid-Century Modern home, though Mole Madre, Mole Nuevo remains the in-demand house dish featuring an outer ring of mole more than 1000 days old. pujol.com.mx

STAY

Condesa DF is a 40-room boutique hotel housed in a 1928 French Neoclassical building, overlooking the picturesque Parque Espana and Chapultepec Castle in Mexico City’s trendy Condesa neighbourhood. Architect Javier Sánchez and interior designer India Mahdavi have nuanced the prevailing Neoclassicism with cool contemporary comfort. condesadf.com

Another Javier Sánchez project in collaboration with designer Ignacio Cadena of Cadena + Asociados Concept Design, Hotel Carlota is a 36-room establishment that edges towards the fun and funky in service and style. Think Brutalist bunker, contemporary Mexican artwork, cool communal spaces and a glass-walled swimming pool, all positioned at the young, budget-friendly but fashionable end. hotelcarlota.com ››