15 Best Things to Do in Oaxaca: Monte Albán, Santo Domingo & Moles

Few cities in the Americas layer ancient Mesoamerican archaeology, Spanish Baroque architecture, and living Indigenous culinary and textile artistry as densely as Oaxaca de Juárez. Within a single day, you can stand atop a 2,500-year-old Zapotec astronomical observatory. Step beneath a church vault gilded with 60,000 sheets of 23.5-karat gold leaf, and sit shoulder to shoulder with Zapotec families grilling spiced beef over mesquite smoke. Use our Oaxaca travel guide and 3-day itinerary to link these 15 essential experiences into a logical route.

01UNESCO Monuments & Zapotec Archaeology (1 to 5)

1. Walk the Grand Plaza of Monte Albán at 08:00 Opening: Founded around 500 BCE by levelling an entire mountain ridge 400 metres above the valley floor. Monte Albán served for thirteen centuries as the ceremonial capital of the Zapotec nation. Climb the monumental staircases of the North and South Platforms, inspect the carved relief slabs of the Los Danzantes ("The Dancers"). Gallery, and stand beside arrow-shaped Building J, an ancient astronomical observatory aligned with the stars.

2. Marvel at the Gilded Tree of Life Inside Templo de Santo Domingo de Guzmán. Anchoring the pedestrian spine of Calle Macedonio Alcalá, Santo Domingo (begun by the Dominican Order in 1572) is one of the supreme masterpieces of Mexican Baroque art. Step beneath the low choir vault at the entrance to see the polychrome stucco family tree of Saint Dominic and the Royal House of Guzman. Then walk into the adjacent former monastery, now the Museo de las Culturas de Oaxaca (100 MXN). To behold the solid gold, turquoise, jade, and rock-crystal treasures excavated by Alfonso Caso from Monte Albán's Tomb 7 in 1932.

3. Join the English Guided Tour of the Jardín Etnobotánico: Master artist Francisco Toledo led a 1993 campaign to save this 2.3-hectare monastery orchard from becoming a car park. Today the Ethnobotanical Garden showcases 1,400 native Oaxacan plant species, including 300-year-old organ-pipe cacti and wild ancestor corn (teocintle).

4. Decode the Geometric Stone Frets of Mitla (Place of the Dead): Forty-four kilometres east of the city in the Tlacolula Valley. Mitla (Lyobaa in Zapotec) became the religious seat of the Zapotec high priests after Monte Albán declined around 850 CE. Unlike any other ruin in Mexico, Mitla's palaces are adorned inside and out with over 100,000 tiny. Hand-cut interlocking stone mosaic pieces (grecas) fitted together without a drop of mortar in rhythmic step-fret patterns symbolising lightning, serpents, and sky.

5. Swim Above the Petrified Waterfalls of Hierve el Agua: Perched on a dramatic mountain cliff edge overlooking the Sierra Mixe. Hierve el Agua features two natural turquoise mineral pools perched right above 30-metre white calcium-carbonate cliff formations that look like frozen waterfalls. Hike the 45-minute loop trail to the base of the main petrified cascade before cooling off in the bubbling springs.

02Markets, Seven Moles & Mezcal Culture (6 to 10)

6. Grill Tasajo and Chorizo in the Smoky Pasillo de Humo: Inside Mercado 20 de Noviembre. Follow your nose into the famous "Smoke Alley", where you choose raw thin-cut ribbons of salted beef (tasajo). Chili-rubbed pork (cecina enchilada), and round Oaxacan chorizo from a butcher's counter to be grilled to order over live embers together with spring onions and fiery chiles de agua, wrapped in warm corn tortillas with guacamole.

7. Sample Tejate and Grasshoppers at Mercado Benito Juárez: One block north of 20 de Noviembre. Navigate the labyrinth of Benito Juárez Market to buy crispy lime-and-garlic toasted grasshoppers (chapulines). Watch balls of stretchy quesillo cheese wound by hand, and drink a cold red-painted gourd bowl of frothy Tejate at famous Doña Vale in the adjacent Abastos market.

8. Taste Oaxaca's Legendary Seven Moles: Sample smoky Mole Negro (charred chilhuacle negro chilies and stone-ground chocolate), herbal Mole Verde, and tomato-almond Estofado. Many restaurants offer tasting flights as well as morning Oaxacan cooking classes.

9. Visit an Ancestral Clay-Pot Mezcal Palenque: Travel to Santa Catarina Minas or Santiago Matatlán to watch master mezcaleros roast wild Tobalá and Tepeztate agaves in stone pits. The fermented mash is then distilled inside clay pots (ollas de barro).

10. Experience the Sunday Indigenous Tianguis at Tlacolula: Every Sunday since pre-Hispanic times, Zapotec. Mixe villagers from across the eastern mountains gather at the sprawling open-air street market of Tlacolula de Matamoros to trade embroidered huipil blouses. Pit-roasted barbacoa goat soup, and gigantic cartwheel breads (pan de cazuela), be sure to step inside Tlacolula's 16th-century Chapel of the Silver Lord (Capilla del Señor de Tlacolula) next door.

03Historic Barrios, Artisan Villages & Cloud Forests (11 to 15)

11. Stroll the Cobblestones and Murals of Barrio de Jalatlaco &. The Xochimilco Aqueduct: Walk ten minutes northeast of Santo Domingo into Barrio de Jalatlaco, whose riverstone lanes are painted with Day of the Dead street murals and lined with third-wave Oaxacan coffee roasters. Then continue north to walk beneath the 18th-century stone arches of the Acueducto de San Felipe in Barrio de Xochimilco.

12. Watch Cochineal Dyeing & Pedal-Loom Weaving in Teotitlán del Valle: In the Zapotec weaving village of Teotitlán del Valle, family studios demonstrate how they card raw sheep's wool and crush dried grana cochinilla scale insects from nopal cactus pads. They then add lime juice or limestone water to shift the natural dye from deep crimson to bright orange and royal purple.

13. See Black Clay and Carved Alebrijes in the Southern Valley: Visit San Bartolo Coyotepec, where quartz-burnished clay emerges jet-black from underground pit kilns. Pair it with San Martín Tilcajete, where families carve copal wood creatures painted in fine Zapotec patterns.

14. Stand Beneath the 2,000-Year-Old Árbol del Tule: Stop ten kilometres east of downtown in Santa María del Tule (20 MXN entry as of November 2026). To walk around the world's stoutest tree trunk, a Montezuma cypress (Taxodium mucronatum) measuring 14.05 metres in diameter and 42 metres in circumference.

15. Hike the Bromeliad Cloud Forests of the Sierra Norte (Pueblos Mancomunados): Escape 3,000 metres up into the cool pine-and-oak cloud forests of Cuajimoloyas. Benito Juárez to walk across suspension bridges and medieval-style royal stone trails managed by eight Zapotec eco-tourism villages.

If you have a spare afternoon in Centro Histórico between valley excursions, step into the quiet. Shaded courtyards of the Museo de los Pintores Oaxaqueños (MUPO) beside the Alameda de León and the Graphic Arts Institute (IAGO) opposite Santo Domingo. Both spaces showcase how 20th- and 21st-century Zapotec and Mixtec artists.