Oaxaca

1. 1

   Monte Albán

   The ancient Zapotec capital, perched on a flattened mountaintop 8 km from Oaxaca City, was founded around 500 BCE and dominated the valley for over a millennium. The enormous Grand Plaza — 300 meters long — is surrounded by pyramidal platforms, temples, a ball court, and the enigmatic Danzantes (carved stone figures once thought to be dancers but now understood as captive warriors). The site’s strategic position on a mountain ridge provided both defensive advantage and symbolic authority: standing on the North Platform looking south across the plaza, with the valley spreading below in every direction, you understand why 25,000 people once lived here. A UNESCO World Heritage Site.

2. 2

   Templo de Santo Domingo

   This 16th-century Dominican church and former monastery is Oaxaca’s architectural crown jewel. The exterior’s restrained baroque façade gives no warning of what waits inside: every surface of the interior explodes with gilded stucco decoration — vines, angels, saints, and medallions covering walls and ceiling in an unbroken field of gold. The adjacent monastery now houses the Museum of Oaxacan Cultures, with artifacts from Monte Albán including the treasures from Tomb 7. Behind the complex, the Jardín Etnobotánico de Oaxaca showcases the region’s extraordinary plant diversity, from cacti to tropical orchids.

3. 3

   Markets (Benito Juárez & 20 de Noviembre)

   Two interconnected markets near the Zocalo form the heart of Oaxacan food culture. Mercado Benito Juárez is the drier goods market: chocolate, mole pastes, chapulines (toasted grasshoppers), quesillo (string cheese), and mezcal. Mercado 20 de Noviembre centers on food — the Pasillo de Humo (Smoke Passage) is a corridor of charcoal grills serving tasajo (dried beef), cecina (chilli-rubbed pork), chorizo, and meats by the kilo alongside tortillas and salsas. The sensory overload is genuine: smoke, sizzle, color, shouting, and the constant motion of platters passing from grill to customer.

4. 4

   Mezcal Distilleries

   Oaxaca is mezcal’s ancestral homeland, and dozens of family-operated palenques (distilleries) in the surrounding valleys produce spirits using methods unchanged for centuries. Unlike tequila’s industrial scale, mezcal production here is elemental: agave roasted in underground pits, crushed by horse-drawn stone wheels, fermented in wooden vats, and distilled in copper or clay stills. The village of Santiago Matatlán — self-proclaimed ‘World Capital of Mezcal’ — is the concentration point, but the finest producers are scattered across remote valleys working with over 30 varieties of agave, each creating distinct flavor profiles.

5. 5

   Hierve el Agua

   Two hours southeast of Oaxaca City, these ‘petrified waterfalls’ are mineral-deposit formations created by calcium-carbonate-saturated spring water flowing over cliff edges for millennia, leaving behind rock curtains that mimic frozen cascades. The cliff-top natural infinity pools — filled with the mineral-rich spring water — overlook a valley of extraordinary depth and silence. The approach through Zapotec villages passes agave fields and mountain forests. The physical sensation of floating in warm, mineral-dense water at the edge of a cliff, with nothing but valley and sky beyond, is Oaxaca’s most surreal natural experience.

Editor-curated picks carried over from our original guide. Where a full place guide exists, the card links to it.