You get plenty of bang for your buck in Mexico City, where many museums are free on Sundays, public transportation is dirt-cheap and affordable accommodations and food markets abound.

On the other end of the spectrum, the capital’s gourmet restaurants and luxury hotels may seem pricey by Mexican standards but not when compared to some of the gringo-friendly beach resorts.

For something in between these categories, you’ll find a vast array of mid-range eating and sleeping options in and around the city center.

• At the budget end (staying in hostels, eating market fare, visiting mostly free sights), you can get away with about M$700/person/day.

• A more average budget for most visitors (staying at standard hotels or B&Bs, eating out several times a day, going to the full range of sights and taking public transport) would run around M$1500/person/day.

• For the high-end experience consisting of upmarket hotels, meals at the full range of restaurants, guided tours and taking taxis around town, plan on spending at least M$3000/person/day.

Note that traveling solo will probably raise any of these per-person-costs by at least a third for all except budget travellers.