3 Days in Oaxaca | My Food + Mezcal Itinerary (23 Tastings!)

We gave Oaxaca a whole week in June 2026, mostly because we’d signed up for a week of Spanish school. The upside of staying that long is that the city stopped being a list of sights and started being a place we lived in for a bit… the coffee, the market lunches, the tacos after dark.

This itinerary squeezes the best of that week into three days. It’s lighter on churches than most Oaxaca guides and much heavier on eating and drinking, which feels like the correct balance for a city this obsessed with food (and rightly so).

A quick bit of geography before we start, because it matters to people here. Oaxaca is in Mexico, and Mexico is North America, not Central America. Lumping it in with Guatemala and Honduras is a reliable way to earn a polite correction.

Short version: spend day one on foot in the centro with a free walking tour and a market lunch, day two out in the valleys drinking clay-pot mezcal by colectivo, and day three on the ruins and Francisco Toledo’s galleries – and budget a bit more than you’d think, because Oaxaca isn’t as cheap as its reputation.

3 Days in Oaxaca at a Glance

• Day 1 – the centro on foot: free walking tour, lunch at Mercado de la Merced, a coffee stop, then dinner at Tacos Roy.
• Day 2 – mezcal by colectivo: a colectivo and the back of a ute (a pickup truck) south to Santa Catarina Minas, where mezcal is still distilled in clay pots, for tastings at Lalocura and El Conejo.
• Day 3 – ruins, art and smoke: Monte Albán in the morning, Toledo’s galleries in the afternoon, and dinner in the grill hall at Mercado 20 de Noviembre.

If you can, line day two up with a Friday. Ocotlán, where you change from the colectivo to a ute, holds a weekly market that spills out of its market hall and across several blocks, which turns a transit stop into a good reason to linger.

Day 1: The Centro on Foot

Oaxaca’s historic centre is compact, flat and made for wandering, all pastel walls, heavy wooden doors and streets of green cantera stone that glows a little gold in the late afternoon. You won’t need a single taxi today.

1. Join a Free Walking Tour

The free walking tour was a MUST for us. We went with Free Walking Tours Oaxaca, but several operators run tip-based tours around the centre, usually at about 10am and again in the afternoon, and any of them will set you up for the rest of your stay.

The route takes in the Zócalo, the cathedral, the Andador Turístico pedestrian street and the big stone bulk of Santo Domingo, whose thick, fortress-like walls give nothing away about the gilded ceiling inside. “Free” means you tip what it was worth at the end, so bring pesos in small notes.

It was on the walking tour that we first heard about Francisco Toledo, the artist who shaped modern Oaxaca, and his story sent us off to his galleries later in the week.

If you’d rather lock in a time, there are paid versions too, like this walking tour of Oaxaca’s culture and food.

Tip: Do the walking tour on your first morning, not your last. Everything you see afterwards makes more sense.

2. Lunch at Mercado de la Merced

Oaxaca’s markets are where the city eats, and the food advice I’d give you here is simply to eat at the mercados. We tried a few of them, and Mercado de la Merced was the best. It’s a few blocks east of the tourist core, smaller and calmer than the big central markets, with a row of comedores (family-run lunch counters) feeding the regulars.

Our favourite was Comedor Lupita, the best place we found for mole, though every vendor we ate with was good, so don’t stress about finding the exact counter. Mole is the dish to chase in Oaxaca: thick, dark, slow-cooked sauces built from chillies, spices, seeds and sometimes chocolate, ladled over chicken with a stack of warm tortillas on the side.

One thing to note at the comedores: tipping didn’t seem to be expected at the local places. In the more touristy restaurants it was, so it’s worth reading the room.

3. A Coffee Break (Budget for It)

There’s plenty of good coffee in Oaxaca, much of it grown in the mountains of the state itself, and Pabilo Café and Muss Café were our standouts. Just don’t expect it to be cheap. We were paying 60 to 80 pesos a cup (about US$3.30 to $4.40), which is what you’d pay at a decent café back home, and a good early warning, because Mexico was more expensive than we expected.

4. Dinner at Tacos Roy

End the day at Tacos Roy, which was a standout for us. Go for the al pastor, and try their mystery meat if you’re feeling adventurous. It’s a small local chain with several branches around the centro… and in the interests of thorough research, we went to all of them. Locals rate the pozole as well, if you somehow still have room.

Day 2: Mezcal by Colectivo

Mezcal is Oaxaca’s drink, and Santa Catarina Minas is one of the villages where it’s still made the slow way: agave roasted for days in rock-lined earth pits, crushed by hand, fermented in wooden vats and distilled in small clay pots over wood fires rather than in copper stills. It’s around 45 minutes south of the city, and getting there is half the fun.

1. Colectivo, Then the Back of a Ute

You can take a taxi to Santa Catarina Minas for about 450 pesos (roughly US$25), but we did it the local way. First a colectivo, one of the shared taxis that run between the valley towns, from the station just out of town down to Ocotlán de Morelos. Then, for the last stretch, we climbed into the back of a ute with a canvas roof and bench seats along the sides, for 40 pesos (about US$2.20).

It’s bumpy and breezy, and it’s a lot cheaper than the taxi… though you do arrive with slightly windswept hair.

If it’s a Friday, give yourself an hour in Ocotlán on the way through.

2. Mezcal Lalocura

Our first stop, Mezcal Lalocura, was incredible. This is the palenque of Eduardo “Lalo” Ángeles, who grew up making mezcal under his father, Don Lorenzo of Real Minero, one of the most respected names in the village.

We didn’t book anything, we just turned up, and we still got a private tour of the whole operation, from the agave fields and the roasting pit to the fermentation vats and the clay pots bubbling away over open wood fires, with the whole place smelling of smoke and cooked agave.

Then came the tasting. All 23 mezcals of it, for what I think worked out at around US$20. By the end the table was a small forest of empty glasses.

3. Palenque Ancestral El Conejo

From there we wobbled across town to the second stop (everything in Santa Catarina Minas is walking distance, which is just as well after 23 mezcals). This was Palenque Ancestral El Conejo, another palenque roasting its agave in an earth pit and distilling in clay pots over a wood fire.

They weren’t actually open. Nobody spoke any English, and the family were sitting around watching TV when we turned up. We still managed to try another six mezcals and have a peek into the production… which says a lot about Oaxacan hospitality, and probably a bit about our Spanish school progress too.

Tip: Eat before you start tasting, and keep the sips small. Clay-pot mezcal is strong, and you still have a ute and a colectivo to catch home. We were on the ute back a little after 6pm.

If you’d rather not wrangle colectivos, or you’d like to taste your way around without worrying about the trip home, a guided mezcal route through Santiago Matatlán and Mitla is the easy way to do it. It heads east rather than south, to the town that calls itself the world capital of mezcal, and nobody has to stay sober enough to find the colectivo. It’ll cost you more than a ute ride, but after 23 mezcals you may well call that money well spent.

Day 3: Ruins, Art and Smoke

1. Monte Albán in the Morning

Monte Albán was the Zapotec capital, a flattened mountaintop of pyramids, ball courts and grand plazas looking down over all three of Oaxaca’s valleys. It’s the classic way to start a day in Oaxaca, and the timing works neatly with an afternoon back in town. Go early, before the heat and the tour buses build up.

Entry is 210 pesos (about US$11.50) for foreign visitors, and the site is open from 8am to 5pm. The easiest way up is the shuttle van from Hotel Rivera del Ángel on Calle Mina, which leaves roughly every hour from about 8:30am. You come back on the same operator’s van, so check the fare and the return times when you buy.

Tip: Bring water and a hat. There’s very little shade on top of the mountain, and the midday sun up there is no joke.

2. Francisco Toledo’s Galleries

Back in the city, spend the afternoon following up on the walking tour’s best story. Francisco Toledo was Oaxaca’s most famous artist, but what really shaped the city was what he did with his money and his stubbornness.

He founded the Instituto de Artes Gráficas de Oaxaca (IAGO) in 1988, with a print collection in the thousands and an art library of more than 30,000 books, and he set up the Centro Fotográfico Manuel Álvarez Bravo a few streets away. We went to both. They’re small, quiet and easy to drift through, and after a morning in the sun on top of a mountain they’re a lovely, cool way to spend a couple of hours. Entry to the Centro Fotográfico is free.

Then there’s the best bit of the story. In 2002, McDonald’s was about to open on the Zócalo. Toledo and a crowd of artists fought it for months with “No McZócalo” signs and around 10,000 signatures, and their main weapon was handing out free tamales and atole outside the proposed site.

He even threatened to stand naked out the front until they gave up (which, thankfully for everyone, it never came to).

It worked. Go and sit in the Zócalo today and there are still no golden arches… just balloon sellers, shoe shiners and people in the shade, which feels like a much better use of a square.

3. Dinner at Mercado 20 de Noviembre

Finish where Oaxaca does its best work, at a market. Mercado 20 de Noviembre is a couple of blocks south of the Zócalo, and its famous grill hall, the Pasillo de Humo, is a long, smoky corridor where you choose raw meat from the butchers, hand it over to be cooked on the coals, then pick up tortillas, salsas and grilled onions and chillies on the way to a shared table. It’s loud and hazy, and you’ll leave smelling faintly of charcoal. We ate here too, though the Merced stayed our favourite.

Where to Stay in Oaxaca

We stayed at Ginger Banana, a cute hostel right in the centre, a short walk from the Zócalo and everything on days one and three. It’s leafy and colourful, and it was a great base, but it is a hostel.

Where we stayed · Oaxaca Centro

Ginger Banana Hostel

A leafy, colourful hostel with a courtyard pool and a rooftop terrace, about five minutes’ walk from the Zócalo.

Rated

9.0 (“Superb”) on Booking.com, from 149 reviews

Type

Hostel: dorms and private rooms

Best for

A cheap, sociable, central base

Check prices →View on Maps

If you’d like something nicer, the one I’d look at is Hotel Boutique Na’ura Centro. It’s a restored colonial building about two blocks from the Zócalo, with a pool, two restaurants and an 8.6 rating on Booking.com, so you’d have the same walkable location with a lot more comfort.

A nicer option · Oaxaca Centro

Hotel Boutique Na’ura Centro

A restored colonial building with a pool, two restaurants and a spa, two blocks from the cathedral and the Zócalo.

Rated

8.6 on Booking.com, from over 800 reviews (9.7 for location)

Area

Av. Hidalgo, inside the walkable centro

Best for

The same location as the hostel, with a lot more comfort

Check prices →View on Maps

Whatever you book, stay inside the walkable centro, or in Jalatlaco just east of it. You’ll want to be close to the markets when you’re hungry.

Getting Around and Practical Bits

Getting around

Use DiDi rather than Uber here, as Uber is patchy and contested here. In the city DiDi books licensed local taxis through the app, so you still get the price up front and the tracking, without the haggling at the kerb.

From the airport

Buy your ride at the official booth inside arrivals. A shared colectivo van to the centre costs about 135 pesos (roughly US$7.50) per person, and a private taxi costs more.

Money

Budget more than you’d expect. Oaxaca isn’t the cheap Mexico of backpacker legend, and the coffees, restaurants and tours all add up.

Food

Oaxacan food is rich. Gloriously, relentlessly rich. Finding a salad was close to impossible, so lean into the mole and the tlayudas and accept your fate. Oh, and it’s aguacate here, not palta.

Water

I drank the tap water for the week and didn’t get sick. That goes against almost all of the official advice, though, and most locals drink purified water from the big garrafón jugs you’ll see everywhere, so if your stomach is the sensitive type, do the same.

Safety

We felt super safe in Oaxaca, walking around the centre by day and at night. The one bad experience happened on the overnight bus out of town, not in the city itself.

If You Have More Time

We had a week because of Spanish school, and if you can spare the time it’s a lovely way to slow down here: classes in the morning, then afternoons free for markets and mezcal.

With a fourth day, Hierve el Agua is the classic add-on: mineral springs and “petrified waterfalls” on a cliff edge about 70km east of the city.

Heads up: Hierve el Agua has been closed on and off by long-running local disputes, so check it’s open the week you go.

And when it’s time to move on, the overnight bus to San Cristóbal de las Casas is the obvious next step. Read what happened to us on that bus before you book, then plan the onward run to Palenque via Agua Azul and Misol-Ha, which turned out to be a genuinely great day.