Mexico City Highlights Guided Bicycle Tour

Roma and Condesa: Parque México and Plaza Río de Janeiro

The ride begins in Roma, a neighbourhood laid out in the early 20th century for the city's wealthy families, where Art Nouveau mansions, tree-lined boulevards and small plazas now host cafés, galleries and markets. Next door is Condesa, built on the grounds of an old horse-racing track; its oval streets still follow the shape of the track around Parque México, a 1920s park with Art Deco fountains, a duck pond and shaded paths.

Later in the morning you return to Roma Norte through Plaza Río de Janeiro, a peaceful square framed by elegant early 20th-century buildings with a large bronze replica of a Renaissance statue of David at its centre. These are the areas most visitors choose to stay in, and your guide points out the places that are worth coming back to during your trip.

Chapultepec Park, Chapultepec Castle and the Anthropology Museum

Chapultepec, whose Nahuatl name means grasshopper hill, is one of the largest urban parks in Latin America, covering more than 600 hectares of woods, lakes and museums. Near its entrance rise the Estela de Luz, a slim quartz-clad tower built to mark the bicentennial of independence, and the Altar a la Patria, a monument to the young cadets who died defending the castle in 1847.

Chapultepec Castle crowns the hill above, a former imperial and presidential residence that now holds the National Museum of History. Your ride continues to the National Museum of Anthropology, opened in 1964 and famous for the world's largest collection of pre-Hispanic art, including the great Aztec Sun Stone. The tour stops outside each building, so you can decide which museums deserve a full visit later and check their opening hours.

Paseo de la Reforma: Angel of Independence and Monument to the Revolution

Paseo de la Reforma is the grand avenue of Mexico City, laid out in the 19th century on the model of the boulevards of Europe and now lined with glass towers, sculptures and wide cycle lanes. Its most famous landmark is the Angel of Independence, a column of about 36 metres crowned by a gilded winged Victory, inaugurated in 1910 for the centenary of independence and the place where the city gathers to celebrate.

From Reforma you ride through the Juárez neighbourhood to the Monument to the Revolution, a massive domed arch completed in 1938 that holds a museum below and an observation deck under its copper dome. On Sundays part of Reforma is closed to cars for cyclists and runners, and your guide explains how cycling has changed the way residents move around the capital.

Historic centre: Palace of Fine Arts, Zócalo and Templo Mayor

The ride reaches the historic centre, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, at Alameda Central, the oldest public park in the Americas, laid out in 1592, and the white marble Hemiciclo a Juárez. Across the street stands the Palace of Fine Arts, completed in 1934 with an Art Nouveau exterior, an Art Deco interior and orange and gold domes. Beside it rises the Torre Latinoamericana, the 1956 skyscraper that survived the great earthquakes of 1957 and 1985.

The tour then heads along the pedestrian streets to the Zócalo, one of the largest public squares in the world, framed by the Metropolitan Cathedral and the National Palace. Just behind the cathedral you see the excavated ruins of the Templo Mayor, the main temple of Tenochtitlan, rediscovered in 1978. A Zócalo stop by bike gives you the scale of the square in a way walking rarely does.