Chapultepec Park
The largest urban park in Latin America, with the anthropology museum inside it.
Duration
4 hrs – 7 hrs
Difficulty
●●○○○
Best time
At opening
Open
Museums closed Monday
Entry price
Free
Chapultepec has been a seat of power since the Aztecs, who had their baths and residences here; the castle on the hilltop was Maximilian's imperial palace, then the presidential residence until 1940. The park covers over six hundred hectares.
The National Museum of Anthropology, opened in 1964, is what justifies the day on its own: the Aztec Sun Stone, the colossal Olmec heads, the Maya rooms. Its courtyard is covered by a single concrete umbrella carried on one column.
Getting there
Metro line 1, Chapultepec station, or line 7, Auditorio for the anthropology museum. The park is huge: pick your section beforehand.
What to bring
- Swimsuit
Rules on site
The park and the museums close on Monday. The anthropology museum needs three hours on its own: do not combine it with the castle on the same day.
Other places in Mexico City
Zócalo and cathedralThe largest square in Latin America, built on the Aztec ceremonial centre.
Templo MayorThe great temple of Tenochtitlán, found under the colonial city while digging for electricity.
TeotihuacánThe Pyramid of the Sun and the Avenue of the Dead, a city abandoned a thousand years before the Aztecs.
Coyoacán and the Casa AzulThe colonial quarter where Frida Kahlo was born, lived and died, in a blue house.