Four days exploring Mexicos cultural heart : Oaxaca

All prices in Mexican pesos ($). £1 = $24.43 at time of writing - Nov 2025

There are three main ways to get from CDMX to Oaxaca city, a plane, a coach or shuttle bus.

We went with the coach, not as expensive as the plane and more comfortable than the shuttle. The company we went with was ADO, and they had quite a few options - buses with toilets (ADO), buses without (AU) and their super fancy platinum option that had the added bonus of wifi and bigger seats (ADO P). For a 6 hour a toilet seemed like the best bet, so we went for the mid-tier option... a good things too as our 6 hour journey soon turned into an 8 after some accidents sent us round Mexico on a pretty alternative route. I spent most of the journey hiding under a blanket feeling motion sick, but Ben assured me there was some pretty stunning scenery along the way. Despite the rocking motion of the bus not leaving me feeling my best it was certainly comfortable and although still expensive at $750 each, got us to our destination in one piece.

Our first night in Oaxaca was a write off - once we had arrived to our Airbnb on the outskirts of the centre and gotten settled in most restaurants had shut - so we just headed to the shared rooftop terrace to eat the rest of our road-snacks and play a game of cards.

I started off our first whole day in Oaxaca with a tlayudas from a tiny little eatery called Mama Elenas. A tlayuda is a traditional dish from Oaxaca, consisting of a large, thin tortilla that is dried over heat before toppings are added and it's folded in half. Typically the toppings are asiento (pork lard), black bean paste, cabbage, avocado and then a choice of meat. To make mine vegetarian I had it without the asiento and meat but with some added cheese instead. As i'd never tried a tlayuda before I didn't know if I got a good representation of the dish. I did enjoy it, it was crunchy, savoury and had just enough variety in fillings but in the end it was also very large and it became a bit boring before I finished the whole thing.

From there, we explored. Oaxaca was vastly different from CDMX; the neo-classical and modern architecture of the capital gave way to solid, colourful structures that were typically only a few stories tall. Instead of wide, sometimes tree lined roads, the streets were bordered by thin pavements, cracked and warped by the roots of trees breaking free. Closer to the main plaza's the buildings replaced their vibrant colour with a more stately white plaster or stone, their more imposing nature was off set by the colourful flags fluttering in the air strung between them. Despite it being a popular tourist destination, the city didn't feel too crowded for the most part. The main square seemed to be the biggest social hub, not only were the restaurant surrounding it (with their 2nd story verandas) always busy, but groups of locals would hang out enjoying the music that seemed to be perpetually playing.

As we wandered we discovered art decorating the buildings, from more simple drawings to large intricate murals. We also arrived in time to see the last of the day of the dead decorations still on show. Unlike in CDMX here there were far more painted skull sculptures and fabulously dressed dead than fantastical beasts - not all of them at street level either, we had fun trying to spot all the skeletons that loomed over us during our walks. By the time we left Oaxaca five days later the large skeletons and skulls had been replaced with figures dressed in traditional garb making me confident the city is wonderfully dressed up no matter the season.

The many churches we found in the "Centro Historico" area dwarfed the buildings around them. Built using large stones and featuring grand towers and domes they stood at odd against the more modest architecture seem around them. Most of the churches had a large empty plaza in front of the doors, a place for people to congregate and a great place for us to grab a seat to admire our surroundings. My personal favourite was the Church of Santo Domingo in the north of the Centro district. The outside wasn't the most ornate but the inside sure made up for it. Every surface was carved or painted, and instead of overwhelming it was just awe-inspiring. The gold-work covering the inside of the church made the light reflecting from it appear to glow a warm amber, giving the space an other worldly feel.

Before we headed back to our digs to hide from the worst of the sun (the afternoon sun in Oaxaca seems hotter somehow) we dropped by a very popular street food stand called Memelas San Agustin to try their namesake dish. A memela is an oval shape corn tortilla which is toasted before a lip is formed round the edge and toppings are added. We spent a while at the stand just watching the constant stream of memelas being made before we worked out the ordering system. Although we were initially a bit intimidated, in the end it was pretty simple. We just shuffled close enough to be noticed then pointed out what we wanted to try, and before we knew it we were being handed our snacks. I had chosen a cheese memela and Ben had some vegetables (he thinks) and some cheese. They were delicious and worth the small amount of anxiety we faced with the ordered process. Once we tracked down the man who took the payments (this also needed a small amount of guesswork) we found out they were super cheap too ($50 for two).

Back to the rooftop for some drinks and cards. It was so lovely to have a space to decompress in that also still felt connected to the town around us. We watched hummingbirds sip nectar from the tulip tree flowers across the street, heard the sound of distant traffic from the city around us and could take in the view of the mountains surrounding the valley we were in.

That evening we did some research into the best way to visit Monte Alban (the local archaeological site) the next morning. We already knew that we didn't want to join an organised tour, so that just left how to get to the site that sits 9km from town. We could walk, there was a route that snaked up the mountains, but not only did that sound like quite a lot of hard work there a reports of people being mugged along the way - so maybe not. That left taxi or shuttle bus. A taxi would cost roughly $300 each way however a return for the shuttle bus was $120 each - a clear winner.

We were up bright and early, we had chosen to travel with "Transpotaciones Turisticas Mitla" and their first shuttle would leave at 8am. We hadn't pre-booked tickets but thankfully, they had plenty of space on the first bus and it only took a minute to organise this at the tour desk. This worked for us on a Friday during the shoulder season, however it might be best to prebook if the town is particularly busy or its the weekend. The bus wasn't overly busy when we left the tour office, but our driver sure knew a few people he wanted to pick up along the way - some who paid and some who did not. Despite his frequent stops, we still made it up the mountain in good time and well before crowds arrived. As we were flying solo, we also had to purchase tickets for the site when we arrived to Monte Alban itself, at $95 each these seemed ridiculously cheap.

Monte Alban was once the capital of the Zapotec civilisation who called this region their home. Their capital high up on mountain was their seat of power from 500 BCE to 850AD, when for some unknown reason they slowly withdrew and abandoned the site. The ruins were first rediscovered in 1931 and although many ruins of domestic buildings, tombs and the grand pyramidal platforms either side of the main plaza have been excavated it's estimated that over 85% of the ancient city still lies buried. I can't even imagine how impressive it looked during it's own time - many of the structures were carved out of the mountain itself and the whole of the main plaza shows evidence of being levelled.

As we entered the same time as a tour group, we decided to take the opposite path to them circling round the edge of the site. Although we may have missed out on the initial wow by not entering the main plaza via the north platform and seeing the plateaux laid out below, it still felt special to wander round a corner into a grassy field surrounded by huge stone building from an era past. Besides, by heading our own way we gained more time to explore in relative peace and made it up the many stairs of the south platform before anyone was around. I say relative peace because although there was only a few other visitors nearby, we seemed to draw the hawkers selling their stone animal figurines to us instead. Luckily they weren't persistent and a quick "no, gracias" was enough, but it still intruded on the vibe somewhat.

The views from the south platform were amazing, not only over the plaza with it's ancient structures and ruins, but over the Oaxaca valley far far below. Up there was a smaller pyramid that was had gras growing up three of it's sides. It felt a bit surreal, being allowed to climb up the ancient steps of a pyramid to get a viewpoint that would have been reserved only for priests and officials, in a spot where they preformed their sacred ceremonies. It's hard to picture what life among the Zapotec people would have like - with their adherence to religious ceremonies, their ball pit games to settle disputes and their wall carvings depicting either childbirth (according to a guide we overheard) or the castration of their enemies (according to the informational plaque).

Despite no longer being able to climb on and explore every structure, the site was still vast and there was plenty of different buildings and areas to admire. One building in particular caught our eye; instead of adhering to the north - south axis like the rest of the main plaza, this pentagonally shaped building was very slightly off kilter. It's thought that the building was reserved only for priests and that when it was erected it pointed towards the five brightest stars in the sky.

With the tickets not having a time limit we could have spent longer here, but after two and a half hours we had explored every nook and cranny we could and were ready to head back down to the city to grab some lunch. Despite finding shady spots to occasionally hide in, we were also getting unreasonably hot. Visiting first thing in the morning was definitely the best plan. It was starting to get a little too sweaty by the time we were done and i'm sure it can be absolutely unbearable in the heat of the summer. I'm also glad we brought water along with us as I didn't see anywhere to purchase any once we were past the barriers into the site itself.

The rest of the day was spent relaxing on our rooftop, playing cards and eating. For lunch we decided to once again give fish a go. it'd been hit and miss for us so far in Mexico but the unassuming "Marisqueria El Pescador" had us covered. We ordered prawn tostadas and a fish ceviche cocktail. The tostadas was amazing and although the ceviche cocktail was slightly too wet for our personal tastes it was still very delicious and it was nice to try another traditional dish. For dinner we had a series of vegan tacos at "Los Muchitos Comida Vegana" - not only were the different types we tried all unique and delicious, they were all only $15 each making it one of the cheapest meals out we'd had.

With only a few days left to in Oaxaca, we really got stuck in exploring the town. From other blogs I'd read, I knew there was a aqueduct trail we could follow just to the north of "Centro". The route itself started one street over from the Templo de Santo Domingo de Guzman and followed a single road along, crossing over into Barrio de Xochimilco, the city's oldest neighbourhood. Most of what's left of the aqueduct arches in the Centro neighbourhood have become fancy entryways for buildings and streets.

Once we crossed the road however the aqueduct we were following disappeared and we were left admiring the street art that adorned the houses along way instead. We we were on the lookout for a place to grab something to eat, however all of the cafes and restaurant along the way seemed to be on the bougier side of things... so we indulged ourselves and had a maple cinnamon roll from a local bakery instead. Once we finally came across it again, the rest of aqueduct itself wasn't as impressive as I imagined, just a large bridge over a slightly unloved park. Despite this, the walk itself was fun and it was interesting to explore another part of the city.

With the walk not taking half as long as we thought it would, we then headed through the nearby Reforma neighbourhood, a more modern part of the city. Gone was the colonial architecture, independent cafes and shops selling tourist focused items, and instead there was concrete buildings filled with chains eateries and international clothing shops. It wasn't my favourite area of the city lacking the charm of the Centro and arty-ness of Xochimilco, but we were only really there in search of more fish tacos... which this time were unfortunately just average.

Last on our list of historic spots to visit was the Museo de las culturas de Oaxaca (Oaxacan culture museum) which is housed in a labyrinthian 17th century convent next to the Templo de Santo Domingo de Guzman. Entry was $100 per person which seemed a little steep until we entered the museum and saw quite how vast it was. The museum really had a lot going for it: the building itself had stunning architecture, it housed some very interesting exhibitions and it also had beautiful views over the neighbouring botanic gardens. Although we perhaps didn't get as much out of the exhibitions as we would have if we could speak fluent Spanish, they were still informative enough and spanned a timeline from 10000 BC to the 20th century. I personally enjoyed the room containing the grave goods from a tomb located on Monte Alban the most - although I was slightly confused why this particular exhibition wouldn't have been on show at the small museum at the archaeological site itself.

On our last day we decided it was finally time to investigate the markets. Initially we had planned to stay in Oaxaca for the Sunday so we could head out to the Tlacolula markets that are just over hour away. But as Oaxaca City is itself is famous for its numerous "mercados" and we hadn't fully experienced them yet, we decided to explore those instead. The city features many purpose-built market buildings, but in addition to these, there are also numerous street-side markets and smaller shops that appear to house market stalls within them. There was also many regular shops too but visiting all of them would have taken far too much time.

We started the day at Mercado de La Merced, a food focused market that is popular with the locals. Like many covered markets we'd seen in Mexico, the stalls here (for cooked food at least) are more like mini restaurants with purpose built kitchens and specific seating areas. We circled the hall first, wanting to see what looked popular before we made our decision. On our first pass, Le Guerita, a small stall that mainly sold empanadas, was slammed but when came to it again a couple of minutes later some seats had become available so we quickly snagged them. The menu was vast so we split three between us: a cheese one for me, a cheese and nopales (a type of cactus) for sharing and a chicken tinga for Ben. When they arrived they were way bigger than we were expecting and although they don't look like much on the outside, they were really delicious too. Both of us thought the nopales empanada was the best, the fresh mildly tart flavour of the nopales worked really well with the slightly salty cheese and the added spice from the complimentary salsas made the whole thing sing.

We had planned to sample some more food here but after one stall we were stuffed. Never mind, we would just wander the craft markets instead to build back up an appetite. The range of items from market to market seemed very similar, leather goods, embroidered clothing, pottery, brightly coloured disturbing animal figurines and mezcal. In general the items we saw in shops seemed the most likely to be actually crafted (and not drop-shipped) but they also were the most expensive. The market we thought had the most varied range of items was a unnamed street market that ran along Calle Macedonio Alcalá just above the Cultural Museum. Unlike many markets we'd visited across the world, the vendors here weren't too pushy - some polite hellos to grab the attention of those passing but nothing overtly annoying. As we weren't really in need of clothes, mezcal or tat we didn't end up buying anything just enjoyed mooching around.

Ready for food again we headed to "Mercado 20 de Noviembre", another covered market just a few streets from city's main plaza. This market not only had a maze of street food stalls but also had a wide range of fresh options to purchase too, anything from dried bugs, pigs legs, sauce pastes to the more usual butcheries and greengrocers. Heading away from the more confronting areas of the market we again circled until one caught our attention. Eventually settling for a place that could do a mixed meat plate for Ben and a squash flower and cheese quesadilla for me. Both of our food was fine but we both preferred the more local feel of the market we had explored that morning.

We had thoroughly enjoyed our time in Oaxaca, the city was beautiful, the people were welcoming and there was more than enough to keep us occupied. Perhaps if we had allowed more time for our visit we would have ventured further afield to places like Tlacolula for the market, or to the hot springs and petrified waterfall of "Hierve el agua" - but i'm loath travel quite a long distance to a place to spend my time travelling away from it. Sometimes I feel that it's enough to fully immerse ourselves in the place that were in, rather than trying to check off boxes popular things to do.

After the more chaotic ups and downs of Mexico city I feel like we're starting to settle back into our traveling style... which has thankfully relaxed from the mad dash across India that we started at 6 years ago.