Mexico City

Wide, tree-lined avenues, stylish boutiques, bohemian cafés and unique galleries: Mexico city offers a surprisingly ideal city break.

The cutting-edge Condesa DF boutique hotel is a design beacon which transformed the city's reputation from a polluted urban mess to a fascinating, surprising trove of hidden gems (of the bar and restaurant variety) and hip underground culture.

Designer India Mahdavi uses simple designs, swathes of colour, minimalistic spaces and funky custom-designed furniture - think retro seats and moulded tables. From the airy central courtyard to the room's terraces and rooftop lounge overlooking the city's treetops it's a breath of fresh air in the city, which blends old and new.

As well as the refreshing design, the infallible location makes it the perfect bolthole for a weekend of culture, glamour and discovery. See Frida Kahlo's original sketches at her eponymous museum, which was also her birthplace. As well as Diego Rivera's enormous murals at the Palacio Nacional, built from the ruins of an Aztec temple.

Just out of the city you'll find the walled region of Teotihuacan, home to enormous crumbling Mayan pyramids dating back to pre-Colombian America. These giant structures lie in what was an ancient city, arranged in place according to the Sun and Moon, around a main strip known as the Avenue of the Dead, which leads up to the 63 metre-high pyramid of the sun. Climb up the stepped platforms of this monumental structure for an incredible view of the The Ciudadela, the city's central area large enough to fit over 10,000 people at once.

Throughout Teotihuacan you'll find incredibly well-preserved, colourful murals and ancient palaces decorated with large sculptural heads. Simply incredible.