Mexico City to Cuenavaca: Private day trip

Bask in the legendary year-round warmth of Mexico's City of Eternal Spring, where a mild climate that has attracted everyone from Aztec emperors to Hernán Cortés has shaped a city of exquisite gardens, sweeping Diego Rivera murals, and some of the most layered colonial and pre-Hispanic history in central Mexico.

• The Palacio de Cortés, the imposing medieval-style fortress built by the conquistador in 1535, whose upper floor is dramatically adorned with Diego Rivera murals tracing the history of Mexico from pre-Hispanic civilization through the Revolution
• The Robert Brady Museum, one of Mexico's most delightfully eccentric treasures — the former home of an American collector filled floor to ceiling with an extraordinary global haul of art, pre-Columbian pieces, African masks, colonial paintings, and folk art in a riot of color that rewards every glance

• Stroll through the terraced Jardín Borda, the lavish 18th-century botanical garden commissioned by Taxco's silver magnate, where Maximilian and Carlota once summered, and bougainvillea tumbles over baroque fountains
• Take a day trip to the Xochicalco archaeological zone, 36km south of the city, where the remarkable Pyramid of the Plumed Serpent and an ancient underground solar observatory testify to a mysterious pre-Columbian culture that connected Teotihuacán, the Maya, and the Zapotecs

• A long, unhurried lunch in one of the city's famous garden restaurants — Las Mañanitas and its peacock-filled grounds being the most celebrated — where Cuernavaca's eternally pleasant weather makes outdoor dining a year-round pleasure

• Cuernavaca is just 90 minutes south of Mexico City and fills with visitors from the capital on weekends — a mid-week visit offers a far more relaxed experience of this historically rich and wonderfully livable city