Things to do in Mexico: 36 experiences worth the trip

1 to 2 hours per cenoteGo alone or with a tour

Swim inside the Yucatán limestone, in sinkholes like Suytun, where a shaft of light falls on a stone platform.

About 1 hourNo booking needed

Watch the taquero shave marinated pork off the trompo and flick a sliver of pineapple onto each small corn tortilla.

Half a dayFree

From dawn on a Sunday, farmers, butchers and mezcal producers fill the streets of Tlacolula, one of the region's oldest open-air markets.

3 to 4 hours on siteNo booking needed

Walk the Avenue of the Dead from the carved serpent heads of the Ciudadela, below the Pyramid of the Sun, to the Moon.

About 1.5 hoursTimed entry

Step into Frida Kahlo's Blue House in Coyoacán on a timed slot, with phone photos already included in the ticket.

Half a day at the lagoonBook ahead

In these Baja lagoons gray whales often come close enough to touch, while you sit still in a small boat.

A full dayFree

A silver town in a narrow ravine, its traffic sent underground, leaving the alleys above to walkers and balconies that almost touch.

Half a day by boatBook ahead

Float with the current over Cozumel's protected reefs, Palancar among them, and let the boat pick you up downstream.

1 to 2 hoursNo booking needed

Mariachi bands in charro suits wait in Plaza Garibaldi every night, ready to play your song for an agreed price.

2.5 to 3 hoursGo alone or with a tour

Walk in at 8:00 and have El Castillo, the Sacred Cenote and the Great Ball Court before the day-trip coaches arrive.

Three or four nights, 30 October to 2 NovemberBook ahead

On the night of 31 October, families in Xoxocotlán cover the graves in marigolds and candles and keep vigil into the early hours.

1 hour for the pyramid and the site museumNo booking needed

Stand at the foot of the Pyramid of the Sun, roughly 220 by 230 metres at the base, still dominating the Avenue of the Dead.

Half a day with the Templo MayorNo booking needed

Under the Zócalo lies Tenochtitlan; go down into the ruins of the Aztec main temple just off its north-east corner.

4 to 5 hours, from doors to closingBook ahead

Part nightclub, part stage show: acrobats, live bands and tribute acts perform above the dance floor through the night.

1.5-hour guided route, plus the trip thereBook ahead

Concrete towers, stairways that end in mid-air and plant-shaped columns, set among waterfalls and pools in the forest outside Xilitla.

A full day from Mexico CityNo booking needed

Watch monarch butterflies hang in clusters on the oyamel firs, then take flight as the midday sun warms them.

A morning or evening show, about 4 hoursTimed entry

Dance delegations from Oaxaca's regions fill an open-air auditorium above the city and end by throwing gifts into the crowd.

An afternoon on the equinox daysNo booking needed

Around the equinoxes, the late sun throws seven triangles of light down El Castillo's north stairway, joining the carved serpent head at its foot.

A long lunch, or a day trip from Mexico CityNo booking needed

Taste mole poblano in the city whose legend claims it, after seeing the Talavera-tiled convent kitchen where that story is set.

2 hours on the waterGo alone or with a tour

Float the canals that remain of the Aztec basin's lake on a trajinera, while mariachi boats pull alongside.

A full morning at seaBook ahead

Slip into plankton-rich water off Holbox, two by two with a guide, beside whale sharks gathering to feed.

Two days, with a night camping at La JoyaBook ahead

Climb the dormant volcano whose ridgeline Mexicans read as a sleeping woman, at 5,230 metres, linked by a high pass to the active Popocatépetl.

About 1.5 hoursTimed entry

Go upstairs to Frida Kahlo's studio: her easel and brushes, the urn with her ashes, a painted plaster corset on the bed.

1.5 to 2 hoursNo booking needed

Find Rivera's second version of the mural Rockefeller Center destroyed for its portrait of Lenin, among 17 murals in Bellas Artes.

A full day from XpujilNo booking needed

A Maya city deep in a forest reserve, where Structure II rises more than 45 metres above the canopy.

About 3 hoursBook ahead

Friday night at the arena most Mexicans call the cathedral of lucha libre, where the crowd loudly backs técnicos or rudos.

1 hour for lunch, another evening for a tlayudaNo booking needed

Pick your meat in the smoke aisle and have it grilled over the coals in front of you, then find a crisp tlayuda at night.

Half a day by boat, 30 minutes on the beachTimed entry

Swim through a rock tunnel from the open sea to a small beach at the bottom of a collapsed hollow.

Half a day with the El Tajín ruinsNo booking needed

Four men drop backwards from the top of a tall pole and spin slowly to the ground while a fifth plays flute and drum above.

Half a day at the adventure parkBook ahead

Fly a single 2,554-metre cable across the Copper Canyon at 80 to 100 km/h, then ride the cable car back.

1 to 2 hoursFree

The bay faces west, so walk the seafront in the hour before sunset, past bronze sculptures, ending with dinner across the Cuale.

3 hours for the ground floor aloneNo booking needed

A vast concrete umbrella over the courtyard, and at its far end the Sun Stone, the Aztec calendar stone about 3.6 metres across.

About 2 hoursNo booking needed

A walled Maya port whose El Castillo stands on a cliff directly above the Caribbean, the view most people come for.

3 to 4 hours with the site museumNo booking needed

See the temple where Pakal's tomb was found in 1952 and the Palace's four-storey tower, on the edge of the Chiapas rainforest.

Half a day including the shuttleNo booking needed

The Zapotec capital sits on a levelled hilltop, a vast plaza with the Oaxaca valleys spread out on every side.

A full day from GuadalajaraBook ahead

Follow the blue agave from the field, where a jimador cuts it to the heart, through ovens and stills to a tasting.