Museo Soumaya — Attraction in Mexico City

👍🏽👍🏽 One of the best private museums I’ve ever been to, worldwide. FREE to enter. Come when it opens (it gets crowded). 2-3 hours to complete. Cafe inside. Free bag check. ✅♿️ wheelchair accessible (read more below). Pro Tip: use bathroom on ground floor—it is STUNNING and the others are all quite small and not all accessible.

🖼️ The collection is superb—wide variety of Mexican, Italian, and French artists (e.g., Degas, Monet, Mary Cassat, Renoir, Rodin). Mostly paintings and sculptures from 1800s and 1900s. Plus antique telephones, watches, musical instruments and music players. Amazing Dalí sculptures! The Mexican floor was our favorite (4th floor)—national treasures I’ve never seen elsewhere.

⏰ It will take you 2-3 hours to look at everything and not read the signs—it is THAT large (5 floors). ❌👶🏽 Not kid friendly but children are welcome (steep ramps and quiet and not many places to sit). 📱Signs are in Spanish but google translate works well (just select the camera and point at the sign for a very good translation). 📸 you CAN take photos and videos but NO FLASH!! 🐶 No pets.

✅♿️ Bathroom on the first floor is the best. Others are very small and not wheelchair accessible. The ramps are VERY steep (see photo) with handrail. Elevators appear to be on 4 out of 5 floors (not the top floor). There are only a few benches on each floor.

⚠️ Note to Management: you have a superb museum. But more benches on each floor, more signs with larger print, and an extra handrail on the ramps between floors would be greatly appreciated. I would also love to buy art prints of the works in the gift shop (you currently offer only a few). And sound dampening in the cafeteria would be fantastic (but perhaps I just came on a very crowded day). And each floor really needs a water fountain. I got dizzy after a few of the ramps and really...

If you ever find yourself in Mexico City, a stop at Museo Soumaya is an absolute must. Located just a 20-minute Uber ride from the Centro Histórico, this iconic museum is as much a work of art on the outside as it is on the inside. Its striking architecture — a futuristic, shimmering façade of over 16,000 hexagonal aluminum tiles — makes it one of the city’s most recognizable landmarks, designed by architect Fernando Romero and funded by billionaire Carlos Slim. Best of all, admission is completely free.

Step inside, and you’ll be greeted by a bright, minimalist interior, predominantly white, that creates a serene backdrop for the treasures it houses. The museum boasts an impressive collection of more than 66,000 works of art, ranging from Old Masters to modern and contemporary pieces. You can admire European masterpieces by Rodin, Dalí, and Van Gogh, alongside an extraordinary selection of Mexican art that spans centuries of history.

The galleries are beautifully arranged across multiple levels, each offering a journey through time. You’ll find delicate ivory carvings, breathtaking Impressionist paintings, and one of the largest collections of Auguste Rodin sculptures outside of France. The top floor, with its sweeping open space and skylit ceiling, is particularly magical — a perfect spot to take in both the art and the architectural brilliance of the building itself.

Whether you’re an art enthusiast or simply someone who enjoys exploring beautiful spaces, Museo Soumaya delivers an unforgettable experience. It’s a place where Mexico City’s rich cultural heritage meets global artistic excellence, all wrapped up in a setting that feels both modern...

Free art museum in Polanco. Beautiful architecture outside, bad design inside, not well planned for visitors.

While it is commendable to have this pace open to the public it feels like the kudos end there because the actual experience inside is just not good.

The curation of each floor seems haphazardly planned and executed. Items are bunched up in areas with no clear flow and connection between pieces. Not clear how to move through the space or how to engage with the display. While an effort was made to offer descriptions in Spanish and English, translations are not totally accurate. On a piece of Diana with Cupid, the Spanish said Diana con Amor. People might not immediately understand the use of capitalization here to signify that Cupid is the symbol of Love. Another way in which it is clear this museum was not thought through the eyes of the visitor. In fact, I think it embeds a certain level of classism in its effort to not curate and write descriptions that are easy to understand.

But then we get to the flow. We had to take the elevator to any floor beyond 2, and there were 4 other floors. Now there’s only two small elevators for this. We waited half an hours just to get on. So we just saw one more floor and left.

I would say shame on Mr. Slim and anyone connected to Museo Soumaya for their lack of interest in the visitors to your museum and for making such a poor attempt at “bringing art to...