Morning
Land at MEX
Benito Juárez International. Take an authorised airport taxi from the sitio booth rather than the curb; 40 min to the Centro in traffic.
Afternoon / Day
Check in: Círculo Mexicano
República de Guatemala 20, one block behind the Cathedral. Twenty-five Shaker-spare rooms; the rooftop pool looks straight onto Templo Mayor.
Lunch at El Cardenal
Palma 23. Trading since 1969 and still grinding its own chocolate — order the nata with hot chocolate and a basket of sweet bread.
Zócalo and the Metropolitan Cathedral
Plaza de la Constitución. The Cathedral sits on the flattened Aztec precinct and visibly tilts where the lakebed sank beneath it.
Evening
Torre Latinoamericana at dusk
Av. Francisco I. Madero 1. The public deck is on the 44th floor — the one place you see how far the valley city runs.
Churros at Churrería El Moro
Eje Central Lázaro Cárdenas 42. The churreria opened in 1935 and this is the original counter — four churros and a chocolate espanol, standing up.
Morning
Museo del Templo Mayor
Seminario 8, beside the Cathedral. Closed Mondays. The excavated Mexica temple plus the Coyolxauhqui stone; allow two hours.
Mercado de San Juan
Ernesto Pugibet 21. The chefs' ingredient market — escamoles, chapulines, wild mushrooms, and a cheese counter that will make you a plate.
Afternoon / Day
Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes
Av. Juárez, facing the Alameda. Closed Mondays. Rivera's repainted Rockefeller mural sits on the third floor with Orozco and Siqueiros.
Late lunch at Contramar
Durango 200, Roma Norte. Tuna tostada then the pescado a la talla, half red and half green. The kitchen stops at 8 PM, so book for 3.
Evening
Roma Norte walk
Plaza Río de Janeiro to Álvaro Obregón. Porfirian mansions, jacarandas and bookshops — the flat, easy end of a long day.
Mezcal nightcap in Roma
The bars along Álvaro Obregón pour Oaxacan espadín by the copita with orange and sal de gusano — a preview of week two.
Morning
Out to Teotihuacán
Autobuses Teotihuacanos leave Terminal Norte every 20 min; about an hour to Gate 1. Ask for "los piramides", not the town.
Teotihuacán archaeological zone
40 km northeast of the city. Enter at Gate 1 and walk the Calzada de los Muertos north to the Pyramid of the Moon; three hours, no shade.
Afternoon / Day
Temple of the Feathered Serpent
Inside the Ciudadela at the south end. The carved serpent heads are the best surviving stonework on the site — go before the bus groups.
Lunch at La Gruta
In a volcanic cavern 200 m from Gate 5, behind the Pyramid of the Sun and serving since 1906. Open 8 to 6 daily; reserve, especially on weekends.
Evening
Back to Mexico City
Return bus to Terminal Norte, then Metro Line 5 and 3 or a taxi south to Roma for dinner.
Dinner at Máximo Bistrot
Av. Álvaro Obregón 65 Bis, Roma Norte. Closed Sundays. Eduardo García cooks whatever the market gave him that morning; reserve online.
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Morning
Museo Nacional de Antropología
Paseo de la Reforma at Calzada Gandhi, in Chapultepec. Closed Mondays. Do the Mexica and Oaxaca halls first — they set up the whole trip.
Afternoon / Day
Lunch at Pujol
Tennyson 133, Polanco. Enrique Olvera's mole madre has been fed and re-fed for years; book weeks out, and take the taco omakase bar if the dining room is gone.
Parque Lincoln and Polanco
Ten minutes from lunch. A long reflecting pool, an aviary, and the city's calmest afternoon walk after a tasting menu.
Evening
Dinner at Azul Condesa
Nuevo León 68, Condesa. Ricardo Muñoz Zurita cooks the regional canon — this is where to eat a Oaxacan mole negro before you meet the real thing.
Parque México after dark
Two blocks from dinner. Art Deco Condesa loops around an old racetrack; the dog-walkers own it at night.
Morning
Museo Frida Kahlo (Casa Azul)
Londres 247, Coyoacán. Closed Mondays. Timed tickets sell out days ahead, so buy on the museum's own ticket site before you travel.
Afternoon / Day
Mezcal lunch at Corazón de Maguey
Jardín Centenario 9-A, on the Coyoacán plaza. Artisanal mezcal flights and contemporary Mexican plates on a terrace over the laurel trees.
Jardín Centenario and Plaza Hidalgo
The twin squares at the heart of Coyoacán — coyote fountain, balloon sellers, and the church Cortés's men built.
Taxi to MEX
Coyoacán to the airport is 45 min without traffic and well over an hour on a Friday afternoon. Leave three hours before the flight.
Evening
Fly MEX to OAX
About an hour in the air on Aeroméxico or Viva. The road takes six through the Sierra, which is why nobody drives it.
Check in: Casa Antonieta
Hidalgo 911, three blocks off the Zócalo. A restored townhouse with a café downstairs and a handful of rooms.
Mezcal at In Situ
Vicente Guerrero 413, Monday to Saturday from 2 PM. The reference mezcaleria in Oaxaca: wild-agave bottlings you will not find outside the state — ask for a flight.
Morning
Monte Albán
Above Santa Cruz Xoxocotlán, 9 km west of the city. Be at the gate when it opens — the Zapotec Gran Plaza sits on a levelled ridge with no shade.
The Danzantes gallery
On the west side of the plaza. The carved slabs of contorted figures are the oldest writing at the site; the originals are under cover.
Afternoon / Day
Pasillo de Humo, Mercado 20 de Noviembre
Pick your tasajo or cecina at a butcher's counter, hand it to the grill, and eat it in the smoke with tortillas and salsa.
Mercado Benito Juárez
The block next door. Quesillo pulled to order, chapulines by the cup, drinking chocolate ground with almond and cinnamon while you wait.
Santo Domingo and Museo de las Culturas
Macedonio Alcalá, half a kilometre north of the Zócalo. Closed Mondays. The Mixtec gold from Tomb 7 at Monte Albán is upstairs in the old convent.
Evening
Dinner at Casa Oaxaca
Constitución 104-A. Alejandro Ruiz's terrace looks at Santo Domingo; the guacamole is finished at the table over a molcajete. Reserve.
Andador Alcalá at night
The pedestrian street from Santo Domingo down to the Zócalo fills with brass bands and calenda puppets most evenings.
Morning
Car and driver east on Highway 190
Hire a car and driver for the day through the hotel. Everything today is strung along one road, the furthest stop about 50 km out.
Árbol del Tule
In the churchyard at Santa María del Tule, 9 km east. The stoutest tree trunk in the world — over 40 m around, and well over a thousand years old.
Tlacolula Sunday tianguis
Sundays only, 30 km east. Over a thousand traders close eight blocks — mezcal, dyed wool, copal, live turkeys, and mountains of chiles.
Afternoon / Day
Barbacoa and tejate at the market
Eat where the traders eat: barbacoa de borrego with consomé, and tejate, the cold maize-and-cacao drink with foam on top.
Zona Arqueológica de Mitla
San Pablo Villa de Mitla, 44 km east. The grecas are thousands of cut stones fitted without mortar — nothing else in Mesoamerica looks like it.
Palenque visit in Santiago Matatlán
The self-declared world capital of mezcal, 8 km past Mitla. Palenques along the main road show the stone tahona and clay stills, then pour.
Evening
Tlayuda supper back in Oaxaca
Mercado 20 de Noviembre runs into the evening. A tlayuda is a metre-wide tortilla with asiento, beans, quesillo and tasajo, folded and charred.
Morning
Casa Crespo cooking class
Jacobo Dalevuelta 200, by Jardín Conzatti. Chef Óscar Carrizosa teaches in his own house; ask when you book whether your class opens with a market run for the chiles and herbs.
Afternoon / Day
Cook and eat: mole from scratch
Four hours, in English or Spanish. You toast, grind and simmer a mole, then sit down to it. Book the date ahead on the site.
Museo Textil de Oaxaca
Hidalgo 917, the same street as the hotel. Free entry; check the day's hours before you walk over. Cochineal reds and indigo blues, with the loom techniques explained piece by piece.
Textiles on Macedonio Alcalá
The pedestrian stretch between Santo Domingo and the Zócalo. Ask which village a rug came from — Teotitlán wool should say so.
Evening
Dinner at Boulenc
Porfirio Díaz 207. Sourdough bakery turned restaurant, fermenting and preserving Oaxacan produce since 2014 — the lightest meal of the week.
Walk Barrio de Jalatlaco
Ten minutes east of the centre. Cobbles, murals and the quietest bars in town, on the far side of the Periférico underpass.
Barro Negro and the Flight Home
Morning
Breakfast at Casa Antonieta
Hidalgo 911. Breakfast downstairs before the drive south — Oaxacan coffee, pan de yema, and eggs with salsa de chile pasilla.
Drive south toward the airport
San Bartolo Coyotepec is 15 km south, roughly on the way to OAX. Agree the stop with the driver before you set off.
Afternoon / Day
Barro negro at San Bartolo Coyotepec
The village where Doña Rosa worked out the burnished black finish in the 1950s. Workshops demonstrate on the wheel and sell at the door.
MEAPO folk art museum
The state popular-art museum in the same village. The best single room of Oaxacan craft anywhere, and it takes half an hour.
Evening
Fly home from OAX
Oaxaca airport sits at Santa Cruz Xoxocotlán, 15 min from the pottery village. Most routes home connect through Mexico City.
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