Things to do in Oaxaca
-
A
Amigos del Sol
Professional, good-value school popular with travelers. Begin classes any weekday – call the director ( [tel] cell phone 951-1968039) between 8am and 9am, 3pm and 4pm, or after 8pm, or send an email the day before you want to start. No minimum duration and no registration charge. Students starting on Monday should arrive at the office at 8:30am.
reviewed
-
B
-
C
Instituto Cultural Oaxaca
ICO's popular seven-hour-a-day program includes intercambios and workshops in arts, crafts and culture; many classes are held in the school's spacious gardens and terraces. There's a US$55 registration fee.
reviewed
-
D
Restaurante Los Danzantes
Delicious Mexican fusion food and a spectacular architect-designed setting make Los Danzantes one of Oaxaca’s most special dining spots. An old colonial patio now sports high patterned walls of adobe brick and cool pools of water in a highly contemporary configuration, half open to the sky. Welcoming young staff serve up a small but first-class selection of food: try one of the excellent duck dishes. The only gripe is that servings are not on the generous side. Desserts are very good too, and the restaurant has its own brand of mezcal.
reviewed
-
E
La Brújula
This is a great stop for good coffee; fruit smoothies; breakfasts (including waffles with fruit); salads; and home-baked bread, cakes and cookies. It is rightly popular among artists and expats.
reviewed
-
F
Café Central
The social hub of Oaxaca’s artsy, bohemian, alternative scene, the Café (or Bar or Colectivo) Central is owned by one of Oaxaca’s innovative painters, Guillermo Olguín. It hosts rarely seen live-music acts (often on Thursday), dance and independent films, and uses its wall space as an alternative gallery for celebrated and unheard-of artists. On Friday and Saturday it leans toward being a nightclub with an unpredictable, eclectic music mix. There are cover charges for a few events.
reviewed
-
G
Cenaduría Tlayudas Libres
Drivers double-park along the entire block to eat here. The filling, tasty tlayudas are large, light, crisp, hot tortillas folded over frijoles, quesillo and your choice of salsa. Half the fun is taking in the late-night scene as motherly cooks fan the streetside charcoal grills, raising showers of sparks. Sit on benches around the range or at tables in the adjacent building.
reviewed
-
H
María Bonita
Come here for economical and tasty traditional Oaxacan food. Precede your fish, steak or mole with a good appetizer or soup, such as the sopa Xóchitl (squash, squash blossom and sweet corn). There’s a good breakfast range too. The old building is on a noisy corner, but the tasteful art and relaxed service make it all OK.
reviewed
-
Academic Tours in Oaxaca
Academic Tours in Oaxaca offers recommended customized tours geared to clients’ personal interests, with full-day trips for two to four people typically costing M$3575 to M$4290. Particularly fascinating tours visit the religious sites in Yanhuitlán, Coixtlahuaca and San Pedro Teposcolula.
reviewed
-
I
Advertisement
-
J
La Biznaga
Patrons jam the hippest of Oaxaca’s eateries for bold fusion dishes in an atmospheric courtyard. The nouveau-Oaxacan dishes in inventive preparations (tortilla horns stuffed with seasoned hibiscus, mushroom soup with chilies and bacon, mole with goat cheese) use local ingredients and are likely worth the dodgy service.
reviewed
-
K
Museo de las Culturas de Oaxaca
The beautiful monastery buildings adjoining the Iglesia de Santo Domingo house, the not-to-be-missed Museo de las Culturas de Oaxaca. One of the best regional museums in Mexico, this takes you right through the history and cultures of Oaxaca state up to the present day. Explanatory material is in Spanish, but you can rent good audio guides in English for around $50. Also here is a good book and souvenir shop.
A gorgeous green-stone cloister serves as antechamber to the museum proper. The museum emphasizes the direct lineage between Oaxaca's pre-Hispanic and contemporary indigenous cultures, illustrating continuity in such areas as crafts, medicine, food, drink and music. …
reviewed
-
L
La Casa de Mis Recuerdos
A marvelous, aesthetic décor prevails throughout this 10-room guesthouse. Old-style tiles, mirrors, masks and all sorts of other Mexican crafts adorn the walls and halls. The best rooms overlook a fragrant central garden; two have air-con and two have a shared bathroom. The large breakfast, a highlight, is served in a beautiful dining room. Host Nora Valencia also offers cultural tours and cooking classes. There’s a minimum stay of three nights. The owners also offer a B&B with similarly excellent breakfasts in two beautifully decorated smaller houses not much further from the center: Encanto Jalatlaco (Niños Héroes 115; singles/doubles including breakfast M$1170/1560; [n…
reviewed
-
M
Rancho Buenavista
Based at a ranch west of Monte Albán, Rancho Buenavista is perfect for active travelers interested in regional rock-climbing, mountaineering, hiking and mountain-biking expeditions, with varied grades of difficulty. Durations are from half a day up, and the guides are professional, friendly, qualified and experienced. There are accommodations for 20 people at the Rancho in ecocabins with private bathrooms and communal kitchen, costing M$300 per person including breakfast. Most half-day activities cost M$500 to M$600, one-day outings are around M$600 to M$800, and two days’ hiking, biking or climbing around Apoala is M$1100 to M$1400. The ranch also staffs a contact offic…
reviewed
-
N
Tierraventura
The very well-organized Tierraventura, run by a multilingual Swiss and German couple, offers a big variety of trips and activities focused on hiking, nature, meeting locals, traditional indigenous medicine and cooperating with local community tourism projects. Local guides accompany travelers wherever possible. Tierraventura can take the logistical work out of visiting places like the Pueblos Mancomunados. It also offers rare opportunities to learn about traditional medicine though a partnership with CECIPROC, an NGO working to improve health in indigenous communities, and the traditional medicine center at Capulálpam. On most trips prices range between M$700 and M$1100 p…
reviewed
-
O
Centro de Esperanza Infantil
The Centro de Esperanza Infantil is a nonpolitical, nonreligious center that sponsors and cares for kids who, without assistance, could not attend school. Many of these children shine shoes or sell gum to help with their families’ daily survival. The center has a dining room, a library, computers, classrooms and a small kindergarten, and has helped some kids continue education right through to university. The staff does a great job and welcomes donations, sponsors, volunteers and visitors. Volunteers can help with meals, the on-site medical center, admin work and classes such as art, crafts and English, and even a half-day of assistance is helpful.
reviewed
-
P
Palacio de Gobierno
On the south side of the Zócalo stands the former Palacio de Gobierno, a wonder of marble and murals that houses a lovely, modern Museo del Palacio. Its stairway mural by Arturo García Bustos depicts famous Oaxacans and Oaxaca history, including Benito Juárez and his wife, Margarita Maza, and José María Morelos, Porfirio Díaz, Vicente Guerrero (being shot at Cuilapan) and Juana Inés de la Cruz, a 17th-century nun and love poet. The exhibitions upstairs are stunningly modern and high tech, looking at Oaxacan (and indeed world) history with lots of hands-on displays for kids. It also houses the world’s largest tortilla!
reviewed
-
Q
Museo Casa de Juárez
One of the few Mexican national heroes with an unsullied reputation, the great reforming president Benito Juárez (1806−72) was born a humble Zapotec villager in Guelatao, 60km northeast of Oaxaca. His parents died when he was three. At the age of 12, young Benito walked to Oaxaca and found work at the house of Antonio Salanueva, a bookbinder. Salanueva saw the boy's potential and decided to help pay for an education he otherwise might not have received.
Salanueva's simple house is now the interesting little Museo Casa de Juárez. The binding workshop is preserved, along with memorabilia of Benito.
reviewed
-
R
Museo Textil de Oaxaca
Of the many colonial-era museum renovations, this new textile museum is one of the city’s best, focusing on preserving Oaxaca’s traditional textile crafts through exhibitions, educational programs, bilingual lectures and weaving workshops. The elegant collection of global weaving traditions is world class. Entry, lectures and workshops are free, though some classes have a materials fee and a limit of 15 students. Travelers hunting for one of the region’s brilliant textile pieces should inquire here for advice on weavers who use sustainable methods and endangered natural fiber dying processes.
reviewed
-
S
Basílica de la Soledad
The image of Oaxaca’s patron saint, the Virgen de la Soledad (Virgin of Solitude), resides in the 17th-century Basílica de la Soledad, 3½ blocks west of the Alameda. The church, with a richly carved baroque facade, stands where the image is said to have miraculously appeared in a donkey’s pack in 1543. The Virgin was later adorned with enormous worldly riches – but lost her 2kg gold crown, a huge pearl and several hundred diamonds to thieves in the 1990s.
reviewed
Advertisement
-
T
1254 Marco Polo
Marco Polo’s popular Pino Suárez branch occupies a long, shady garden patio, and has attentive waiters and good-value food. The large breakfasts come with bottomless cups of coffee; from noon until closing, antojitos (tortilla-based snacks like tacos), ceviches and oven-baked seafood are the main draws. The downtown branch ([tel] 514-43-60; open 8am to 10:30pm Monday to Saturday) at Calle 5 de Mayo 103 has the same excellent menu and good service.
reviewed
-
U
Museo Rufino Tamayo
This top-class pre-Hispanic art museum was donated to Oaxaca by its most famous artist, the Zapotec Rufino Tamayo (1899−1991). In a fine 17th-century building, the collection focuses on the aesthetic qualities of ancient artifacts and traces artistic developments in preconquest times. It has some truly beautiful pieces and is strong on the pre-Classic era and lesser-known civilizations such as those of Veracruz and western Mexico.
reviewed
-
V
Hotel Monte Alba\'n
This hotel presents a 1½-hour version of the Guelaguetza nightly, usually to recorded music.
In a grand old high-ceilinged building smack on the Alameda de Leo\'n, the Monte Alba\'n is an atmospheric place all in all, though the fluorescent lighting and somewhat threadbare rooms diminish the romance. The cheaper, interior rooms are no great shakes, but the exterior rooms are large and have balconies or views of the cathedral.
reviewed
-
Itanoní Antojería y Tortillería
Though you’re certain to eat a pile of fresh-off-the-grill tortillas in Oaxaca, this humble eatery, dedicated to exploring and exploiting the unique taste of pre-Hispanic varieties of native corn, takes the craft of tortilla-making to new heights. There are plenty of options for vegetarian tetelas (a pre-Hispanic tortilla wrap) and a divine ‘spiritual egg’ dish, which deep-fries a whole egg encased in hierba santa.
reviewed
-
W
Central de Abastos
This enormous main market is a hive of activity all week, with Saturday the biggest day. If you look long enough, you can find almost anything here. Each type of product has a section to itself, and you can easily get lost in the profusion of household goods, CDs and artesanías, and the overwhelming quantities of fruit, vegetables, sugarcane, maize and other produce that’s grown from the coast to the mountaintops.
reviewed
