# Oaxaca: map, what to do and when to go

In Oaxaca, each town in the valley has its market on a set day of the week, and that calendar organizes the trip. The state capital sits at 1,555 m, in a Zapotec valley, with green stone churches and the most elaborate regional cuisine in Mexico.

Canonical: https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/oaxaca/
Language: en. Extended author commentary and itinerary notes may remain in Portuguese. Dates below belong to individual sources; this is not live availability.

## Direct answer
- **Oaxaca: How do you get from the airport to downtown?** There are three options, with 2026 prices: authorized taxi bought at the hall counter, 200 to 300 MXN; shared van sold at the same counter, about 100 MXN for zone 1 and 160 MXN for zone 2 per person; and BinniBus route RC-11, from 6am to 10pm, for 8 MXN.
- **Oaxaca: Where does a card work, and where is it cash only?** Contactless cards are accepted at restaurants, hotels and shops downtown, but markets, tlayuda stalls, shared vans, taxis and valley artisans run on cash.
- **Oaxaca: What's the climate like throughout the year?** The climate is mild year-round, at 1,555 m, with a big swing between day and night.

## The green cantera center
Start at Santo Domingo at 10am, when the Museo de las Culturas opens: it's closed Mondays. Set aside two hours: the gilded church, the Guzmán family tree above the choir loft, and the fourteen rooms with the Tomb 7 collection.
- Church and Former Convent of Santo Domingo de Guzmán
- Museo de las Culturas de Oaxaca
- Jardín Etnobotánico de Oaxaca
- Zócalo, Alameda de León, and Cathedral
- Andador Macedonio Alcalá and Teatro Macedonio Alcalá
- Mercado Benito Juárez and Mercado 20 de Noviembre

## Monte Albán and the neighborhoods
Take a van or taxi to Monte Albán right at opening, 8am: 10 km, about 25 minutes, admission 210 MXN for foreigners in 2026.
- Monte Albán
- Cerro del Fortín and the Xochimilco arches

## Market, chocolate, and mezcal
Start early at the Central de Abastos, preferably on a Saturday, the big day: sections for dye, herbs, clay, basketry, flowers, and broth kitchens.
- Basílica de Nuestra Señora de la Soledad

## Church and Former Convent of Santo Domingo de Guzmán
https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/oaxaca/#g-lugar-templo
Oaxaca de Juárez
Dominican complex built between 1575 and 1608, with a green cantera façade between two low towers. The interior is entirely covered in gilded plaster, and above the choir loft is the Guzmán family tree, with relief figures rising from a trunk that grows out of a reclining man's chest. The convent became an army barracks in 1866, after the Reform Laws, and was restored through the 1990s.
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## Museo de las Culturas de Oaxaca
https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/oaxaca/#g-lugar-museo-de-las-culturas-de-oaxaca
Oaxaca de Juárez
It has occupied the convent's cloister since 1998, in fourteen rooms that trace the valley from the pre-ceramic period through the 20th century. The centerpiece is the collection from Monte Albán's Tomb 7: more than 400 objects of lost-wax gold, jade, turquoise, rock crystal, and carved bone, deposited by Mixtecs and excavated by Alfonso Caso in January 1932. Closed Mondays.
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## Jardín Etnobotánico de Oaxaca
https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/oaxaca/#g-lugar-jardin-etnobotanico-de-oaxaca
2.3 hectares in the convent's old orchard, opened in 1998 on the initiative of Francisco Toledo and biologist Alejandro de Ávila, after the land narrowly escaped becoming a hotel and parking lot. Entry is only by guided tour with a scheduled time; the plants are all native to the state, arranged by region and by use: dye, food, fiber, construction, ritual.
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## Zócalo, Alameda de León, and Cathedral
https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/oaxaca/#g-lugar-zocalo-alameda-de-leon
Half a day or more
The central square is closed to cars, shaded by Indian laurels, and occupied all day by bands, balloon vendors, and café tables. The cathedral of Nuestra Señora de la Asunción was begun in 1535 and rebuilt several times because of earthquakes; the current structure dates from 1702, with a baroque green cantera façade and deliberately low towers.
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## Andador Macedonio Alcalá and Teatro Macedonio Alcalá
https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/oaxaca/#g-lugar-andador-macedonio-alcala
Oaxaca de Juárez · Up to half an hour
A pedestrian street about 800 m long linking the Zócalo to Santo Domingo, with 18th-century mansions converted into galleries and shops. It's named after the composer of the waltz “Dios nunca muere” (1868), the state's unofficial anthem. The theater, opened in 1909, has a marble staircase, a Louis XV-style hall, and a painted dome, and keeps a regular schedule of performances.
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## Basílica de Nuestra Señora de la Soledad
https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/oaxaca/#g-lugar-basilica-de-nuestra-senora-de
Oaxaca de Juárez
Built between 1682 and 1690 over the hermitage where, according to tradition, a mule appeared carrying the image of the state's patron saint. The screen-shaped façade, packed with niches, is one of the most elaborate in colonial Mexico.
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## Mercado Benito Juárez and Mercado 20 de Noviembre
https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/oaxaca/#g-lugar-mercado-benito-juarez
Two covered blocks one block from the Zócalo. At Benito Juárez you buy quesillo, chapulines, ground chocolate, herbs, knives, and mezcal by weight. At 20 de Noviembre is the pasillo de humo, a corridor of charcoal grills where you pick raw meat at a stall, hand it to the grill, and sit at a shared table. It's the cheapest and most Oaxacan meal downtown.
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## Monte Albán
https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/oaxaca/#g-lugar-monte-alban
Santa Cruz Xoxocotlán Municipality
Zapotec capital founded around 500 BC atop a ridge leveled by hand, 400 m above the valley, 10 km west of the city. The Gran Plaza measures about 300 by 200 m; the Building of the Danzantes holds more than 300 slabs carved with human figures from the earliest period, and Building J, arrow-shaped, is rotated relative to everything else for astronomical alignment. In 2026 admission costs 210 MXN for foreigners and 105 MXN for Mexicans, 8am to 5pm, last entry at 4pm.
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## Francisco Toledo's institutions
https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/oaxaca/#g-lugar-as-instituicoes-de-francisco
Up to half an hour
Francisco Toledo, a painter born in Juchitán (1940–2019), set up and funded a network that is still running: IAGO, a graphic arts institute with a free-access library, opened in 1988 on Alcalá itself; the Centro Fotográfico Manuel Álvarez Bravo, from 1996; and the Museo Textil de Oaxaca, from 2008, devoted to the state's textiles and dyes. Nearby, MACO has occupied the colonial house known as the Casa de Cortés since 1992, and the Museo Rufino Tamayo holds the pre-Hispanic collection the painter donated to the city in 1974.
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## Cerro del Fortín and the Xochimilco arches
https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/oaxaca/#g-lugar-cerro-del-fortin
Municipio de Oaxaca de Juárez
The city's only high ground, to the west, with a staircase, a lookout over the valley, and the Auditorio Guelaguetza, built in 1974 on the slope and renovated in 2010, where the July performances take place. Going down the north side you reach Xochimilco and the arches of the 18th-century San Felipe aqueduct, today with homes fitted into the arches.
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**Oaxaca: How do you get from the airport to downtown?**
There are three options, with 2026 prices: authorized taxi bought at the hall counter, 200 to 300 MXN; shared van sold at the same counter, about 100 MXN for zone 1 and 160 MXN for zone 2 per person; and BinniBus route RC-11, from 6am to 10pm, for 8 MXN.

**Oaxaca: Where does a card work, and where is it cash only?**
Contactless cards are accepted at restaurants, hotels and shops downtown, but markets, tlayuda stalls, shared vans, taxis and valley artisans run on cash.

**Oaxaca: What's the climate like throughout the year?**
The climate is mild year-round, at 1,555 m, with a big swing between day and night. The dry season runs from November to April, with days of 24 to 28 °C and dawns of 6 to 10 °C in December and January; April and May are the hottest, with highs of 30 to 33 °C. From May to October it rains almost every day in a late-afternoon downpour, and September is the rainiest month.

**Oaxaca: What do you say when passing a table of people eating?**
When passing a table of people eating, or getting up from a shared market table, say “provecho”.

**Oaxaca: Is it safe to walk around the city?**
Yes: Oaxaca de Juárez is among the calmest state capitals in Mexico for walking, and the historic center is safe on foot until late.


## In the Nilo app
- Plan these 3 days on the map: https://nilopelomundo.com/en/app/guide/oaxaca/?utm_source=llm&utm_medium=markdown&utm_content=door-itinerary
- Mark your hotel on the map: https://nilopelomundo.com/en/app/map/oaxaca/?utm_source=llm&utm_medium=markdown&utm_content=door-stay

## Full editorial guide (Portuguese)
https://nilopelomundo.com/llm/oaxaca.md