If you wake up early enough, visit the beautiful Cathedral Church of Christ in the Lagos Island neighborhood for the early morning service. Ambitious, perhaps, after a big night out, but you won’t be alone: A fact of Lagos life is that both its dance floors and churches are full, and with many of the same people. The trip is worth it alone to see the cathedral’s grand exterior up close, right in the heart of Lagos Island’s bustling business district, which features some of the city’s Afro-Brazilian architecture. As a prominent church, it’s used to welcoming guests, but only go if you’re planning to stay for the whole service, usually about two hours.
12 p.m.Unwind by the sea
Recover from your night out with a day at the beach. Before you go, grab a local favorite snack: a subtly seasoned meat pie with fried minced beef or chicken, potatoes and vegetables, encased in flaky, buttery pastry. Head to your nearest Milk and Honey cafe (there is one in Lekki and one in Ikoyi) and fill a bag with meat or chicken pies (3,520 naira), sausage rolls (2,530 naira), and little doughnut-style bites known as puff puff (1,430 naira). With your goodies, head to Tarkwa Bay Beach, accessible via a 15-minute boat ride (9,000 naira) from a number of jetty locations in Victoria Island and Ikoyi. Stretch out, catch the sun and read the book you bought at Jazzhole while enjoying the vast Lagos coastline.
When Mexico City was still the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan, the district of La Merced, in the southeastern edge of the Historic Center, served as a dock for goods from the mainland. There’s no water anymore, but with its thousands of informal vendors and 11 or so covered markets, La Merced still feels like a port: raucous, heady and overwhelming. To avoid getting lost, the best way to visit is over a roving breakfast with Eat Like a Local, a small tour operator that directs part of its proceeds toward educational programming for young women in the neighborhood. The company’s flagship, four-hour walk ($120 per person) covers both La Merced and the Mercado Jamaica flower market, but it can organize shorter, custom tours focused on this Mexico City landmark.
1 p.m.Immerse yourself in art and craft in the Historic Center
Walking from La Merced to the spectacular ceremonial plaza known as the Zócalo, stop at Cerería de Jesús for handmade beeswax candles (24 pesos) and the Ex-Teresa Arte Actual (free), a museum set in a precipitously tilting former convent. From there, traverse the sunken ruins of the Aztec Templo Mayor (100 pesos) en route to the new flagship shop for FONART, the National Fund for the Development of Crafts, and, around the corner, the moving works of José Clemente Orozco at the Colegio de San Ildefonso (50 pesos), widely considered the birthplace of Mexican muralism. Finally, take in Diego Rivera’s dynamic suite of paintings — ranging from romantic depictions of Mexican folkways to giddy gibes at capitalist excess — in the former Secretariat of Public Education, open since 2024 as the Museo Vivo del Muralismo (free).
4:30 p.m.Sip a cocktail with a view
Opened in April 2025, the restaurant Charco, on the roof of the new, kid-friendly Museo del Cacao & Chocolate, overlooks the domes and buttresses of the Metropolitan Cathedral. Charco’s kitchen, run by the Chilean chef Ricardo Verdejo, turns out an inventive, seafood-heavy menu with a strong program of cocktails, mezcals and natural wines (cocktails from 190 pesos, dinner for two about 1,500 pesos, without drinks). On a clear day — admittedly few and far between — the twin volcanic peaks of Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl might appear on the horizon, but sunsets are spectacular in any weather. For a low-key drink with a bit of history, try one of the neighborhood’s classic cantinas like El Gallo de Oro (beers from 65 pesos), open since 1874 with décor that’s practically unchanged since the 1970s.
7 p.m.Enjoy rare mezcals
In 2022, after almost six years of collecting rare agave distillates across Mexico, the food writer Natalia de la Rosa and photographer Jason Thomas Fritz opened one of the city’s best tasting rooms, Ahuehuete, in the Historic Center. Receiving six visitors at a time, the owners pour a diverse range of high-quality spirits purchased from producers in remote villages from the highlands of Sonora to the tropical hills of Guerrero and the volcanic valleys of Michoacán. Two-hour tastings, $90, include at least six pours of mezcal that paint an incomparable picture of Mexico’s cultural and ecological diversity. For a more self-guided experience, Bósforo, also in the Centro neighborhood, remains the city’s standard-bearer for agave spirits and experimental music — still sexy and surprising more than 15 years after opening (one-ounce pours from 80 pesos).
10 p.m.Indulge in a late-night snack
In Mexico City, where lunches stretch well into the evening, late-night provisions, often served under fluorescent lights and a halo of smoke, make a common replacement for dinner. Options abound. Café La Pagoda, one of the Historic Center’s venerable cafés de Chinos — coffee shops opened by Chinese immigrants beginning in the 1930s — turns out enchiladas (149 pesos) and chilaquiles (94 pesos) 24 hours a day, the same punishing schedule kept at Caldos de Gallina Luis in la Roma, known for its warming bowls of chicken soup (from 65 pesos). In the Narvarte neighborhood, Tacos Tony turns out fragrant tacos de suadero (32 pesos), a block from El Vilsito, a mechanic’s shop by day and taquería by night, serving marbled petals of pastor (27 pesos) until 5 a.m.
The actor and new mother released her newest album on Friday, along with accompanying visuals written and directed by her.
“Big Boss” gives a look into Palmer’s experiences navigating a male-dominated music industry that pressured her to sacrifice more parts of herself than she was comfortable with. In the 10-track album, the 29-year-old explores her faith and the pressures of growing up “booked and bus.” She gives fans a peek into the personal struggles she has had to overcome in her 20-year career.
Palmer, an independent artist, said she “feels amazing” that this project is her directorial debut.
“It’s a huge thing for me in more ways than one, directing and writing for the first time as well as actually being able to tell my story,” she told HuffPost. In addition, she relished the fact that she “had the final say.”
She continued, “I didn’t budge on any aspect of putting this together. I really was fully sound and clear in my mind and what I wanted for this, and I followed through in a way that I never did before. I think it’s easy to just get sidetracked and just give up. And this time, I didn’t do that.”
The Robbins, Illinois, native released her first album, “So Uncool,” in 2007 under Atlantic Records. Since then, she’s released several other projects, including a two-part EP in 2020 called “Virgo Tendencies.”
In “Big Boss,” produced by Tricky Stewart, Palmer shines as she marries her two worlds of acting and singing in the film that follows her journey growing up as a child star. She was signed to three different labels at separate points in the past, worked on “Big Boss” for over a year, and filmed the visuals before meeting her partner.
She said doing it on her own terms was therapeutic. Though she didn’t go into great detail, Palmer recalls being in music business situations that didn’t feel right to her when pursuing music in the past. (One situation she’s been vocal about, however, has been when she accused Trey Songz of “sexual intimidation,” in which he tricked her into being a music video against her will.) She said she would feel like she had been knocked down after certain encounters, adding that her growth, spirituality and leaning into her “big boss energy” have carried her a long way.
“A lot of that stuff happened when I was like 19, 20, 21, 22. This is a collection of experiences that happened over the course of that time period of my life,” Palmer explained. She recalled feeling alone emotionally. Time and therapy helped her understand what she went through to find healing.
“I think a lot of it was like forgiving self. It’s not like I did something for me to be ashamed of, but it’s like self-betrayal. You don’t realize how it affects you until after the fact,” she said. “I think I had a lot of moments where I betrayed myself unknowingly, and the effects of this stuck with me. Coming to terms with a lot of that and being able to have compassion for myself is also what helped me to grow and move on.”
Palmer highlights her fellow former child stars in the visual album, including Skai Jackson, who plays a young Palmer, Robert Ri’card, and Kyle Massey, who both play creepy music producers. Palmer’s parents also make an appearance in the visuals. Her mom, Sharon Palmer, has an especially poignant scene in which she’s having a heart-to-heart with her daughter in the car about the weight she carries professionally. She said her parents and some introspection allowed her to have better work boundaries while staying true to her own uniqueness.
Musically, Palmer didn’t have a specific sound or inspiration she was aiming for. With “Big Boss,” she did what she felt was right and comfortable, working closely with Stewart. Palmer struts her vocals on upbeat bops like “Right Now,” “Frfr” and “Waiting” and reaches deep for “Lights Out” and “Standards.”
Palmer said “Big Boss” is her “setting the tone, writing the checks, going to the beat of my own drum.” After listening to the album, she hopes others are inspired to do the same.
“To get to this point, I didn’t just arrive here, and I didn’t always know what I know now. I had to go through things,” Palmer said. “When you’re going through stuff, and things aren’t going your way, know that there is something on the other side, and you’ll get through it. You can make it, and you can get the last laugh.”
Keke Palmer gets in her “Big Boss” bag on her new visual album.
Her album’s release isn’t the only thing Palmer has to look forward to. Palmer will be celebrating her first Mother’s Day two months after the birth of her son Leodis Andrellton Jackson. She called her son “the best blessing that I could have ever dreamed of.”
“I love being a mom,” she said. “My son gives me so much joy and so much strength, and it just makes me feel like I can really do the impossible. I just feel like it’s just really magical to be able to have experienced this. I’ve always wanted kids. I’ve always wanted to be a mom, and now the time is here, and I just feel like, honey, I am in the role. This is me. I’m going full method, honey.”
“Big Boss,” the visual album, is now streaming on Palmer’s streaming channel, KeyTV Network, on YouTube and Facebook. The album is also available on music streaming platforms.
