M Visita México Find a hotel
Home/ Areas/ Oaxaca Valleys and markets · Oaxaca

Oaxaca

A green-stone city at fifteen hundred metres, ringed by three valleys full of markets, mezcal distilleries and looms that are still working.

0 central valleys 39 m above sea level 0 indigenous peoples 0 moles
In two minutes

What it is, and what it is not

You do not visit Oaxaca so much as base yourself in it. The city itself fits into four pedestrian streets, and everything else — the valley markets, the mezcal palenques, the looms of Teotitlán, Monte Albán on the ridge opposite — sits under an hour away by shared van.

What almost nobody says before you book: in July and at the end of October the city fills up and prices double; from June to September it rains most afternoons; and the Oaxacan coast is not a day trip but a second journey, six or seven hours over the sierra.

State Oaxaca Airport Oaxaca (OAX) Best time Nov – Mar Avoid Jun – Sep Minimum days 4 Currency Peso (MXN)
The places

Six stops, from the centre out into the valleys

Read them in order: it is the order you leave the city in, nearest first.

Historic centre The centre and Santo Domingo
01 / 06
01 Historic centre The centre and Santo Domingo Four pedestrian streets of green stone around the zócalo, and the former convent of Santo Domingo with the cultures museum and its ethnobotanical garden behind it. All on foot Museum and botanical garden
02 Markets Benito Juárez and 20 de Noviembre Two markets against the zócalo: one of fruit, grasshoppers and string cheese; the other a corridor of smoke where you buy the meat and they grill it in front of you. Open daily The smoke corridor
03 Valley and mezcal Tlacolula and Santiago Matatlán The Tlacolula market runs on Sundays and has done for centuries. Beyond it, Matatlán is where the palenques distil mezcal in clay pots and copper stills. Sunday market only 45 min by shared van
04 Weaving village Teotitlán del Valle A whole village given over to wool rugs dyed with cochineal, indigo and moss. The workshops are people's houses and you can watch the loom without buying anything. Natural dyes 40 min from the city
05 Mineral springs Hierve el Agua Mineral pools on the lip of a cliff and two petrified carbonate waterfalls. Despite the name the water is not hot, and the last stretch of road is unpaved. The water is not hot Last km unpaved
06 Sierra Norte Pueblos Mancomunados Eight Zapotec villages at twenty-six hundred metres that jointly run their cloud forest, their trails and their community-owned lodging. 2,600 m altitude Community-run tourism
When to go

The valley has four seasons

Here the month decides the rain, the colour of the valley and whether you find a room.

The best November to March Dry and clear, with twenty-five-degree days and nights that drop to ten. The best light of the year over the valley. —Pack something warm —Christmas and New Year fill up
With a caveat April and May The hottest and driest months: thirty-two degrees at midday and the whole valley burnt brown. —No shade at the ruins —Prices still low
Risk June to September The rainy season. It comes down most afternoons, September is the wettest month of all, and the dirt roads wash out. —Guelaguetza: July is packed —Deep green in the mornings
Good value October The rain eases off, the valley is still green and prices have not climbed yet. The exception is the last week of the month. —Muertos: book months ahead —Prices double at month end
Getting around

Legs, times and prices

Almost all of this is done by shared van out of the city, and it costs next to nothing. A car only earns its keep for the Sierra Norte.

Oaxaca (OAX) → Centre 25 min $8 shared van The airport is thirteen kilometres out. Book the shared van at the arrivals desk. Mexico City (TAPO) → Oaxaca 6 h 30 $35 ADO First-class bus on the toll road, leaving every two hours. The flight takes an hour and ten. Oaxaca → Teotitlán del Valle 40 min $2 shared van They go from the wholesale market. You are dropped on the highway, two kilometres short of the village. Oaxaca → Mitla → Hierve el Agua 1 h + 40 min $4 + $6 Shared van to Mitla, then a pick-up. The last stretch is dirt road and is a daylight job. Oaxaca → Puerto Escondido 45 min $60 – $110 A twenty-seat prop plane. By road it is six or seven hours of switchbacks over the sierra.

Reference prices in dollars gathered in 2025, per person, one way. Colectivos leave from fixed stops beside the wholesale market and sell no ticket: you pay as you board.

Where to sleep

Four bases, four different trips

See hotels →
From $55 Historic centre Courtyard houses inside the pedestrian grid, two streets off the zócalo. For walking out to dinner and never taking anything.
From $45 Jalatlaco A cobbled barrio to the east, with murals and far less night noise. For stays over three nights, and for actually sleeping.
From $40 Reforma Residential, flat, and twenty minutes on foot from the zócalo. For families who want floor space over location.
From $35 The valleys Village guesthouses in Teotitlán and Tlacolula, among the workshops. For people here for the looms and the mezcal, not the city.
Before you book

What everybody asks

Four at a minimum: two for the city and its markets, one for the Tlacolula valley with Teotitlán and Mitla, and one for Monte Albán and Hierve el Agua. Six lets you add the Sierra Norte without rushing.

Yes, if you do not mind paying double and booking three or four months out. For those two weeks in July and the last week of October the city is full, the markets overflow and there is not a spare room left.

Not as a day trip. Puerto Escondido and Zipolite are on the far side of the sierra: six or seven hours of switchbacks by bus, or forty-five minutes in a small plane. It is a second trip, not an excursion.

Not for the valleys: shared vans run from the wholesale market to every village and cost a couple of dollars. A car only pays off for the Sierra Norte and for reaching Hierve el Agua early.

At the palenques in the valley and around Matatlán, where it is distilled and you can see the roasting pit. In town, the good mezcalerías tell you the agave, the village and the maker; if they will not, walk out.

June to September, nearly always in the afternoon and in short storms. Mornings stay clear. What does suffer are the valley's dirt roads, which wash out after a downpour.