Seven days is the point at which the city stops being a checklist and starts being a place. These twenty-four ideas assume you have time for the obvious things and for the ones that only make sense once the obvious ones are done.
The first half. The historic centre across two days rather than one — the Zócalo and Templo Mayor, then the museums and the cathedral roof. Chapultepec and Anthropology. Coyoacán and San Ángel in the south.
The second half. This is where a week pays: Xochimilco's canals on a Sunday, a lucha libre night, the Basilica of Guadalupe and Teotihuacán on the same northern axis, Tlatelolco, and a day trip out of the city to Puebla or Tepoztlán. Add Museum Night if your dates allow it.
Logistics for a long stay. Buy a Movilidad Integrada card on day one and use the Metro and Metrobús for everything. Keep Mondays for the neighbourhoods, since most museums close. Leave before 08:00 for Teotihuacán. And build in one slow day: at 2,200 metres, seven consecutive full days is more tiring than it sounds.
