Mexico City

Upon arrival in Mexico City, you’ll meet your driver at the airport and transfer to our hotel along Paseo de la Reforma. This elegant, tree-lined boulevard is known for its grand monuments and striking architecture. After check-in, our tour leader will help you settle in, answer questions, and suggest places to explore if you feel like a first stroll.

That evening, we’ll gather for our welcome dinner at a beautifully restored hacienda, a traditional Mexican country estate. With its manor house, gardens, and stone archways, it provides an inviting setting for our first evening together. Over Mexican dishes and conversation, we’ll get to know the women we’ll be traveling with.

Our first full day will introduce us to Mexico City’s historic center on a private guided tour. Its history stretches back more than 700 years to Tenochtitlán, the former Aztec capital. We’ll explore the Zócalo, the city’s vast main square, and visit the Metropolitan Cathedral. Nearby we’ll also see the ruins of the Templo Mayor, the city’s main Aztec pyramid temple. As we walk through the surrounding streets, our guide will bring the buildings and lively public spaces to life with stories of the people who shaped them.

Along the way we’ll sample traditional sweets at Mexico City’s oldest candy shop, which first opened in 1874. We’ll also try pan dulce, the sweet breads and pastries that Mexicans often enjoy with breakfast or an afternoon coffee.

For lunch we’ll settle beneath the trees in the courtyard of a former colonial palace. Surrounded by historic stone walls, we’ll enjoy regional Mexican cooking that celebrates recipes and ingredients from across the country.

After lunch we’ll visit La Ciudadela, a market featuring traditional crafts made by Indigenous artisans from across Mexico. Its aisles bring together embroidered textiles, painted ceramics, carved wooden figures, and brightly colored glassware. There will be time to browse, discover the different regional styles, and perhaps choose a piece to bring home.

An early start will take us to Xochimilco, a district in southern Mexico City known for its network of canals. We’ll board a trajinera, a flat-bottomed wooden boat, and watch the morning light spread across the water. Along the way we’ll pass chinampas, fertile farming plots built up in the shallow lake and separated by canals. This pre-Hispanic farming system was used by the Aztecs and continues to provide fresh produce for the city.

At one of these farms, we’ll share a late breakfast featuring traditional corn dishes and seasonal ingredients grown nearby. We’ll also learn about the efforts to preserve the chinampas and keep this way of farming alive, connecting the surrounding fields with the food on our table.

We’ll then continue to Coyoacán, a neighborhood of leafy plazas, colorful houses, and streets lined with cafés and small shops. A visit to Frida Kahlo’s Blue House will give us a more personal look at the artist’s life. As we explore her home and garden, we’ll see her belongings and the spaces where she lived and worked.

For lunch we’ll visit Coyoacán’s Mercado de Antojitos, a food market specializing in traditional Mexican snacks and small dishes, such as quesadillas and tostadas. We’ll also try elotes, corn on the cob typically served with mayonnaise, crumbled cheese, lime, and chili. After lunch, we’ll return to our hotel for a relaxed evening.

We’ll set out early today for Teotihuacán, about a 1.5-hour drive from Mexico City. Here, the Pyramids of the Sun and Moon rise above a city that flourished between the first and seventh centuries AD. By the time the Aztecs founded Tenochtitlán, this once-powerful city had been in ruins for more than 600 years. As we walk along the Avenue of the Dead and through its ceremonial spaces, our guide will introduce us to the people who lived here. We’ll learn about their influence across the region and the questions that still surround their history.

Our exploration will continue with a hands-on cooking and tasting experience focused on the region’s food traditions. Using local ingredients, we’ll learn traditional techniques, help prepare dishes, and taste what we’ve made. It will be a chance to connect the history we’ve encountered with cooking practices that remain part of everyday life.

Back in Mexico City, we’ll gather for dinner at a taquería near our hotel. We’ll try tacos al pastor, a Mexico City specialty made with marinated pork cooked on a vertical spit. We’ll enjoy them in small corn tortillas with pineapple, onion, and cilantro, with other taco options available as well.

Our final full day will begin in Chapultepec, a wooded park about two and a half times the size of New York’s Central Park. We’ll visit Chapultepec Castle, once home to emperors and Mexican presidents, and explore its decorated rooms, gardens, and displays of Mexican history. From its terraces, we’ll take in views across the treetops toward the city.

For lunch, we’ll head to the park’s second section and settle into a lakeside restaurant overlooking the water. Housed in a modernist building that also hosts contemporary art exhibitions, it serves seasonal dishes featuring ingredients from local producers.

After lunch, you’ll have free time to explore at your own pace. You could visit the National Museum of Anthropology independently to discover its collections of ancient Mexican art and artifacts. You might also spend more time in Chapultepec, stroll along Paseo de la Reforma, or return to the hotel for a rest before dinner.

That evening, we’ll come together for our farewell dinner. Over one last Mexican meal, we’ll share our favorite moments from the trip and enjoy a final evening with the women we’ve gotten to know along the way.

As our time in Mexico City comes to an end, airport transfers will be arranged according to your flight schedule. Our tour leader will be on hand to help with departures as we say goodbye after days filled with Mexican food, art, history, and time together.