April 2025 . 10 min read . By Voyex Travel Team
You’ve decided you want to take a cruise from the United States. You want warm weather, blue water, great food, and a different port every day. You’ve narrowed it down to two options: the Caribbean or the Mexican Riviera. Both are spectacular. Both depart from major US ports. And both will require you to make a choice.
Here is everything you need to know to make the right one.
Morning: El Zócalo & Templo Mayor
Start at El Zócalo — Mexico City’s vast central plaza, one of the largest public squares in the world, ringed by the Metropolitan Cathedral (the largest cathedral in the Americas, 250 years in construction), the National Palace (inside which Diego Rivera painted his extraordinary 1,200-square-metre mural of Mexican history), and the excavated ruins of Templo Mayor — the great pyramid at the heart of the ancient Aztec capital of Tenochtitlán, discovered accidentally in 1978 during electrical works and now one of the most important archaeological sites in the world.
Arrive at Templo Mayor at 9am when it opens — before the tour groups arrive. The on-site museum contains extraordinary Aztec artefacts including the giant Stone of Tizoc and the recently excavated offerings from the Temple of Huitzilopochtli.
Afternoon: Street Food on Correo Mayor
Mexico City is arguably the street food capital of the world. Lunch should be on foot — tacos de canasta (basket tacos) from a street vendor on República de Uruguay, tlayudas from the Oaxacan market on Mercado Jamaica, or a torta ahogada (sandwich drowned in chilli sauce) from any of the dozens of stands on the Correo Mayor.
Evening: La Merced & Mezcal Bar
Walk through La Merced — Mexico City’s vast, chaotic, overwhelming traditional market, where every herb, chile, spice, and ingredient used in Mexican cooking is sold alongside piñatas, santos, and plastic toys. Then find a mezcalería in the Doctores neighbourhood — Mexico City’s most underrated barrio — for your first glass of smoky Oaxacan mezcal as the evening begins.
Morning: The Pyramids of Teotihuacán
Leave your hotel by 7am for Teotihuacán, 50km northeast of the city — one of the largest and most impressive ancient cities ever built, with a population of over 100,000 at its peak in 400 AD. Arrive early (it opens at 9am) to climb the 248 steps of the Pyramid of the Sun before the heat and the tour groups arrive. The view from the summit — across the 2km Avenue of the Dead to the Pyramid of the Moon and the mountains beyond — is one of the great panoramas of the ancient world.
Afternoon: Frida Kahlo Museum in Coyoacán
Return to the city and take the metro to Coyoacán — Mexico City’s most charming and bohemian neighbourhood, where the streets are cobblestoned, the bougainvillea overflows every wall, and the central market serves the best tostadas in the city. The Casa Azul (Blue House) — Frida Kahlo’s vivid cobalt-blue childhood home, now a museum — is unmissable: her paintings, her diary, her extraordinary wardrobe of Tehuana dresses and pre-Columbian jewellery, and the intimate details of one of the most fascinating artistic lives of the 20th century.
Morning: Chapultepec & National Museum of Anthropology
Spend the morning in Chapultepec Park — at 686 hectares, the largest urban park in Latin America — and its extraordinary National Museum of Anthropology, the finest pre-Columbian collection in the world. Allow a minimum of three hours. The Aztec Sun Stone (commonly called the Aztec Calendar), the giant Olmec heads, the reconstructed Mayan temple facades, and the Aztec room are essential. The museum restaurant serves excellent tlayudas for lunch.
Afternoon: Polanco & Roma
Walk north to Polanco — Mexico City’s most glamorous neighbourhood, with the air of Parisian grands boulevards and the energy of New York’s Upper East Side. Then south through the tree-lined Art Deco streets of Colonia Roma — the city’s most celebrated neighbourhood for independent restaurants, mezcalerias, craft coffee, and street life. Dinner should be at a Roma terrace restaurant at 9pm — Mexico City dines late and the evenings, warm and electric with energy, are when the city truly comes alive.
Our 12-day Mexico package includes 3 nights in Mexico City (with Teotihuacán and Frida Kahlo Museum), plus Cancún, Chichén Itzá, Isla Mujeres, Tulum, Cobá, and Gran Cenote — from $2,490 per person.
