Oaxaca Travel Guide

The entirety of Oaxaca City is designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which gives you a hint of the rich culture and history there is to encounter and explore in Oaxaca State. Just around the main square, there is the Neoclassical Catedral de Oaxaca, the Baroque Basilica de Nuestra Senora de la Soledad, and the Renaissance-style Santo Domingo de Guzman, to name a few churches. There are also many museums, most notably the Centro Cultural de Santo Domingo, and markets, parks, theatres, and so much more. Travelling there in late July ensures a glimpse of the celebration of Guelaguetza, too. The women of Oaxaca take to the street in full costume for dancing and parades, and street food is served up all over town. Local delicacies include Oaxacan cheese and an alcoholic drink made from maguey, the American aloe plant. And the mole here is the best in Mexico. Older than the historic colonial buildings and traditions in Oaxaca City are the thousands of sites built by the Zapotec and Mixtec peoples that are millennia old. Just as old are some of the colossal Montezuma Cypress trees. The largest Cypress is the world-famous Arbol de Tule, or Tule Tree, in the town of Santa Maria del Tule. Planted on a sacred site, this tree has the largest trunk of any tree in the world and is estimated to be nearly 2000 years old. See how many people it takes to wrap around the trunk hand-in-hand, or see if you can find the shapes of animals hidden in its gnarled wood.