Oaxaca and the central valleys
A colonial city the colour of green cantera stone, markets where tlayudas smoke on the grill, and three Zapotec valleys where every village has its craft: Oaxaca is the beating heart of indigenous Mexico.
Suggested stay — 3 to 4 nights
Oaxaca is earned through its kitchen first: twenty-ingredient mole negro, tlayudas charcoal-grilled in the smoke of the 20 de Noviembre market, crunchy chapulines and stone-ground chocolate. The city itself — gold-leafed Santo Domingo, patios, artists' lanes — is kept for walking; the car waits at the gates for the real show: the central valleys, where the Zapotecs weave, distil and carve as they did five centuries ago.
The eastern loop is the richest: the 2,000-year-old Tule tree, the weavers of Teotitlán del Valle dyeing with cochineal, the mezcal palenques of Santiago Matatlán where you taste tobalá beneath the still, the stone mosaics of Mitla, and Hierve el Agua, petrified waterfalls on the edge of the void where you swim facing the sierra. Above the city, Monte Albán, the Zapotec capital levelled onto a mountaintop, offers the country's finest archaeological balcony.
Don't miss
- Monte Albán early in the morning, before the heat and the groups
- Hierve el Agua and its cliff-edge pools (swim at sunrise)
- An artisanal mezcal palenque in Santiago Matatlán, tasting included
- Teotitlán del Valle and its cochineal-dye weaving workshops
Our tips on the ground
- Access to Hierve el Agua runs through a communal toll track (San Lorenzo Albarradas): keep small notes handy, and check the day before that the site is open — community disputes sometimes close it without notice.
- Buy mezcal at the palenque, not in the city-centre shops: half the price, better bottles, and the producer tells you about the agave.
- Park in a guarded estacionamiento in the centre (60-100 pesos a night) and forget the car: the city is lived on foot and the colonial streets are a wing-mirror trap.
Our flagship guide — €29
Guide available“Mexico on Your Own”, the complete edition, is out
10 chapters: day-by-day itineraries, driving and transport, a costed budget and checklists — the same method as our Namibia guide.
The guide is currently written in French — an English edition is in the works.
Before you go
Readers' questions about Oaxaca and the central valleys
Is Oaxaca safe by car?
Oaxaca state is one of the country's calmest for travellers: the vigilance is less about safety than about road blockades (bloqueos), a local protest tradition that can shut a road for a few hours. Check local news before long hauls and build in slack — and never drive at night, as everywhere.
When to aim for Oaxaca's festivals?
Two peaks: the Guelaguetza in July, the dance festival of the seven regions (book months ahead), and Día de los Muertos in late October-early November, overwhelming in the village cemeteries (Xoxocotlán). Outside the festivals, November to March brings dry skies and cool highland evenings — the city sits at 1,550 m.