Mexico, Mexico City

Mexico City is enormous but luckily is easy to get around.
The metro is very efficient and cheap at 2 pesos a ride. It can get very crowded so bear this in mind if travelling with packs during rush hour.

Mexico City is not the safest place so watch your bags and pockets carefully especially on the crowded metro and around the city.

Our hotel was very central so we could walk to the Zocalo.

Visit the Catedral Metropolotana which is free. Also free is the Palacio National but bring your passport to be allowed in. There are great Diego Riviera murals and the one on the staircase is especially interesting. The Templo Mayor is nearby which was the center of the Aztec City. We didn't bother to pay to see it as you can see most of the temple from the street.

Also free is the Secretaria de Educacion Publica which also has murals everywhere. They have a pamphlet explaining them all which you get as you enter.

Avenue Madera is a big shopping street. Have a look at the Casa de Azulejos which has amazing tile work. You can go inside which is a Sanbornns restaurant and look around.

We took the metro to Chapultepec to see the Museo Nacional de Antropologia which is excellent and enormous. It has displays on all of Mexico's pre-columbian civilizations and indigenous tribes as well as displays on anthropology. You could spend forever here. We went on a Sunday which is free for Mexicans but not foreigners (not fair!) so it was very busy. The park around is also great and on Sunday is filled with lots of stalls. We also went to the Museo de Arte Moderno which was free for us on Sunday but didn't have any paintings by Diego Riviera and Frieda Kahlo which we wanted to see so glad we didn't have to pay.

Teotihuacan
We did a day trip out to the amazing archaeological site of Teotihuacan.
There were lots of tour companies offering trips but were at least 120 pesos just for transport.
We did it ourselves which was very easy and much cheaper. Take the metro (2 pesos) to Terminal Norte and then you can take a bus which runs hourly to the site. Buy your ticket from the Los Piramidos counter near Gate 8. The bus cost 50 pesos return.
Definately walk up the Piramide del Sol and Piramide de la Luna for great views. The Museo del Sitio was good as well.

Eating
We found most of Mexico City's retaurant and streetside eateries closed very early.
We had a great meal at Cafe el Popular on Av de Mayo. Had huge taco's which we took away at La Casa del Pavo. Very greasy but tasty!
Had breakfast at Churreria El Moro which is expensive but meant to have excellent churros. We were given the wrong hot chocolate so were dissapointed but the churros were good. Make sure you get the Spanish Chocolate.

Jugos Cañada had cheap tasty take-away or eat-in burgers.

You need to visit a cantina in Mexico City to see the local atmosphere. Drinks were not that cheap though but they do have specials.
There are mostly men but we went to two that didn't look strangely at you if you walked in and were female.
El Nivel on Moneda is the country's first cantina and was good as was Los Porteles de Tlaquepaque on Bolivar.

Definately visit Los Molinos, an excellent panaderia to pick up stuff for dessert or breakfast.

You can take the metro to the airport which is easy. The airport is very modern with lots of shops. There was an international departure tax but this was included in our ticket which we had to politely point out to the check-in person