Fabulosa guía de museos CDMX

A city with around 170 museums. By most counts Mexico City is second in the world only to London, and the number is the problem rather than the attraction: nobody sees them all, and the usual result is three hurried visits in one day across opposite ends of the city. This is a guide to choosing.

If you see only one. The National Museum of Anthropology, in Chapultepec. Twenty-two galleries around a courtyard with a 4,467-square-metre canopy on a single column. The ground floor covers the pre-Hispanic civilisations region by region; the upper floor, which most visitors never reach, covers the living indigenous cultures of Mexico. Half a day minimum.

For art. MUNAL, Mexican art to 1954 in a 1911 palace. The Museo de Arte Moderno, holding Frida Kahlo's Las dos Fridas. The MUAC at the university for contemporary. The Jumex and the Soumaya, side by side in Polanco and both free.

For murals. The Palacio Nacional for Rivera's history of Mexico; the Palacio de Bellas Artes for Rivera, Orozco, Siqueiros and Tamayo on two floors; and the Antiguo Colegio de San Ildefonso, where Mexican muralism began.

The ones that need booking. The Frida Kahlo Museum, which sells out daily online, and Luis Barragán's house-studio, World Heritage and by appointment only.

Rules that apply to almost all of them. Closed on Mondays. Free on Sundays for residents, which makes Sunday the most crowded day. Admission otherwise is low, and student and senior discounts are widely honoured.