Mexico · 1 tour
Tacos al pastor and cantina botanas in Mexico City, then mole negro, market smoke and stone-ground chocolate in Oaxaca, with a day among the weavers and mezcal makers of the Central Valleys. One seven-day tour, small groups, a host who lives there.
Grill aisle, Oaxaca market
Overview
Mexican food is corn first. Nixtamalized, ground and pressed into tortillas, tlacoyos, tlayudas and tamales, it sits under nearly everything else, and the best cooks still grind it by hand. On top go chiles by the dozen, beans, squash, chocolate, herbs most visitors have never heard of and whatever the market has that morning.
Our tour pairs two places that show the range. Mexico City is the street food capital of the Americas, with a taco stand on every corner and cantinas that feed you for the price of a drink. Oaxaca, an hour’s flight to the southeast, is the home of seven moles, the best markets in the country and nearly all of the world’s mezcal. Ximena Ruiz, who lives in Oaxaca, hosts.
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1 tour · prices per person
Mexico City · Oaxaca · Teotitlán · Santiago Matatlán
MarketsSpiritsCooking
From$3,290per person, double room, most meals
View tour3 places
01
A city of more than twenty million people eats on the street, and it eats well. Tacos al pastor, pork marinated in chile and achiote and carved from a vertical spit with a sliver of pineapple, came from Lebanese immigrants and their shawarma. Mornings belong to the markets: La Merced is the largest, a maze of chiles, fruit and kitchen tools, and Jamaica is the flower market with food stalls. Lunch can be a cantina, where each round brings a free plate of botanas. Late in the day come churros with chocolate, and pulque, the milky fermented sap of the maguey, poured in pulquerías that have been open for a century.
Best monthsOctober to April
Tours that visit Mexico City
02
Oaxaca city sits in a high valley ringed by mountains, with a colonial center of green stone churches and courtyards. It is the food capital of Mexico for many cooks. Mole negro, dark with burnt chilhuacle chiles and chocolate, is the best known of its seven moles. Mercado 20 de Noviembre has a smoke corridor where you pick raw tasajo or chorizo and a grill cooks it in front of you, and Benito Juárez market next door sells chapulines, toasted grasshoppers with lime and chile. On Calle Mina, chocolate mills grind cacao with sugar and cinnamon while you wait. Our tour spends four nights here.
Best monthsOctober to April
Tours that visit Oaxaca
03
Santiago Matatlán, about fifty minutes southeast of Oaxaca, calls itself the world capital of mezcal, and the road into town is lined with palenques, the small family distilleries. Here agave hearts, called piñas, roast for several days in a stone-lined pit in the ground, which is where mezcal gets its smoke. A horse or donkey pulls the tahona, a stone wheel that crushes the roasted agave, before it ferments in wooden vats and is distilled twice. On the way, the tour stops in Teotitlán del Valle, a Zapotec village where families weave wool rugs dyed with cochineal, indigo and wild marigold.
Best monthsOctober to April
Tours that visit Teotitlán and Santiago Matatlán
Ways to go
01
Mexico City and Oaxaca is our full program: two nights in the capital for tacos, a market morning and a cantina, then four in Oaxaca with a mole class, the markets and a day in the valleys.
02
Many guests add two or three nights in Mexico City before the tour for the museums and Coyoacán. We book the same hotel at the group rate and move you onto the tour on day 1.
03
The coast of Oaxaca is a short flight away, and the city itself deserves extra days. Ximena can suggest a hotel and a Sunday at the Tlacolula market.
What’s included
The tour includes six nights in central hotels with breakfast, the flight from Mexico City to Oaxaca, all market tastings, four lunches and four dinners, the full-day mole class, the weaving and palenque visits, pulque, mezcal and cantina drinks for guests 18 and over, a van in the valleys, airport transfers at group times and Ximena or another host.
Not included: flights to the start city, travel insurance, the meals not listed, tips. Alcohol only for guests 18 and over, the legal drinking age in Mexico. Full list
When to go
The dry season, from October to April, is the time to go. Days are sunny and warm, nights in Oaxaca are cool, and rain is rare. The Day of the Dead, around November 1 and 2, fills Oaxaca with altars, marigolds and visitors; hotels book out months ahead. December and the weeks around Easter are busy with Mexican travelers. From June to September afternoon storms arrive most days, and July brings the Guelaguetza festival to Oaxaca.
Before you book
Ask Lena directly
Lena Ortiz in reservations replies within one working day, Monday to Friday.
Not for a short tourist stay on a US passport. Bring a passport valid for your whole trip. On arrival, immigration records your entry digitally and gives you a printed or electronic record; keep it until you leave.
Less than people expect. Most heat comes from the salsas on the table, and you add as much as you like. Mole is deep and smoky rather than hot.
Our hosts choose busy stalls where food is cooked in front of you. Ximena will tell you when to skip raw salsas or ice.
Mexico City is at about 7,350 feet and Oaxaca about 5,100. Drink water and go easy on the first evening.
Yes, with notice. Corn, beans, squash and cheese are at the heart of the cooking, though some beans and tlayudas are made with lard, so we ask each cook ahead.
There is one: Mexico City and Oaxaca, seven days with departures from October to April.
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Lena, Grant and Priya, Charleston
SubjectMexico City and Oaxaca: Tacos, Mole and Mezcal: dates and seats
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Lena Ortiz in reservations replies within one working day. No payment now. A $300 deposit per person holds seats on a multi-day tour; day tours are paid when you book.
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