Pujol opened in 2000 as a lone fine-dining experiment, elevating moles with white-tablecloth rigor in a city where nothing like it existed. Fast-forward 25 years: chef Enrique Olvera's restaurant has two Michelin stars (awarded when the guide first came to the capital in 2024), a place in the World's 50 Best top ten, and a bigger glass-fronted home in Polanco. It set the template for everything that followed.

What followed has been remarkable. Around 15.5 million visitors stayed in Mexico City hotels in 2025, up roughly five percent on 2024, making it one of Latin America's most-visited cities. Twenty years ago the capital scared people off; now demand is strong enough that concierge firms like Odysya, launched to handle requests from ultra-high-net-worth travellers, are steering clients away from Los Cabos and toward the capital itself. The draw: restaurants with world-class credentials, plus art and culture you simply can't get at a beach resort.

The hotel scene has matured to match. Alongside established names like the Four Seasons, a new crop of boutique properties trades in local character — Casa Polanco, opened in 2022 in a restored 1940s mansion facing Lincoln Park, and El Cortés, a 15-room Relais & Châteaux property in Roma filled with the hotelier's own art and Talavera ceramics, with a European-meets-Mexican restaurant from an ex-Pujol chef downstairs.

Art is the other big hook. The Museo Nacional de Antropología remains a heavyweight, but contemporary galleries like Masa and LagoAlgo are drawing collectors, and the February fair Zona Maco keeps pulling in American and European buyers. Luxury retail is following: Cartier staged a three-month exhibition at Museo Jumex in 2023, international brands are building local-artist collaborations into their store concepts, and homegrown labels are thriving — Montserrat Messeguer's artisanal cowboy boots now count Dua Lipa as a fan, while jewellery store Lengua and designer Patricio Campillo's first boutique (LVMH Prize finalist) have opened in recent years.

For travellers, the takeaway is that Mexico City has outgrown the single-restaurant pilgrimage. Yes, book Pujol or Gabriela Cámara's Contramar well ahead — but a trip now stretches across boutique hotels, gallery tours, design shopping and dining that rivals anywhere. The one caution: popularity has pushed up prices and changed some neighbourhoods fast, so book key restaurants and tables early.

Story via Robb Report Travel.