25 travels · Ideas to keep on exploring. Know the city like a local. 

Twenty-five places most visitors never reach

Once the Zócalo, Chapultepec and Coyoacán are done, the city still has most of itself left. These twenty-five ideas are the second layer: smaller museums, house-studios, viewpoints and oddities that locals know and guidebooks compress into a line.

Houses and studios. Luis Barragán's house-studio, a World Heritage site and one of the great works of twentieth-century architecture, visitable by appointment only. The Toy Museum, four floors of obsessive collecting. Siqueiros's murals, which hit harder in person than in reproduction.

Landscapes and strange places. The Espacio Escultórico, where sculpture sits on volcanic lava at the university. The Island of the Dolls in the Xochimilco canals. The Garden of Art, an open-air market of paintings on Sundays. And viewpoints that are not the obvious tower.

How to use this list. Several of these need booking ahead — Barragán's house above all — and several are far enough out to need half a day. Check opening days before travelling across the city: small museums close on Mondays and sometimes on Tuesdays too.