Coyoacán Free Walking Tour

Once its own town on the shores of Lake Texcoco, Coyoacán kept its village feel even after the capital swallowed it whole. This walk winds through cobblestone streets lined with colonial mansions to the twin plazas of Jardín Centenario and Plaza Hidalgo, anchored by the 16th-century Parroquia de San Juan Bautista — one of the oldest churches in the Americas.

Your guide fills in the neighborhood's other lives: the conquistador Hernán Cortés is said to have based himself here after the fall of Tenochtitlan, and centuries later Coyoacán became the refuge of artists, writers and exiles, from Frida Kahlo to Leon Trotsky. Expect a stop at the covered Coyoacán Market for a feel of daily local life before the tour wraps up.