10 travels · Feel good. Exercise. The city is greener than you think.

Green Mexico City: where the city actually breathes

Twenty million people and, still, more forest inside the city limits than most European capitals have outside them. These ten ideas cover the two ends of that: the urban parks you can reach by Metro, and the real pine forest that starts half an hour south of the centre, above 2,500 metres.

Inside the city. Chapultepec is the obvious one and fills a day on its own. Ámsterdam, the circular street that traces the Condesa's old racecourse, is where the neighbourhood runs; the Gandhi circuit in Chapultepec is where the rest of the city does. Ciudad Universitaria adds a World Heritage campus you can cycle through.

Out of the city, without leaving it. Los Dinamos, the Desierto de los Leones and the slopes of the Xitle volcano are genuine mountain forest inside the boundaries of Mexico City. Expect cold mornings, real altitude and a different landscape entirely.

Planning notes. Public parks are free and open early, often from 06:00 — the best hour, before the midday heat and the haze. The mountain parks are for the dry season and for early starts; from June to September it rains almost every afternoon. At this altitude the sun burns even when the air is cool, so a cap and sunscreen matter more than a jacket.