Women-only Mexico: Mexico City, Puebla and Oaxaca

Arrive in Mexico City, an easy first evening

Mexico City International Airport to your hotel in the centre

• Light welcome supper
• Nuit : Mexico City
• Environ 45 min de route

Après-midi

Nothing is planned for the afternoon: check in, rest, or take a slow walk near the hotel. Mexico City sits at about 2,240 m, higher than most visitors expect, so drink plenty of water and go easy. At about 6:30 pm your See Sight Tours guide, who is a woman, meets the group for a short, frank briefing on the week: what local women wear in town and in churches, how to handle street comments, which taxis to use, how rooms are shared and how the days are paced. We stay for a light welcome supper of tacos and regional dishes at a restaurant a short walk from the hotel and finish early, so the first full day starts rested. Plan to land by about 3 pm; later arrivals are met and briefed in the morning.

Compris

• Pick-up at Mexico City International Airport (MEX)
• Welcome briefing with your guide on dress, conduct and getting around
• Light welcome supper near the hotel

Anthropology at opening, Frida's Casa Azul

Chapultepec Park to Coyoacán, then the centre

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Mexico City
• Environ 1.5 h de route

Après-midi

Late morning we drive about 30 to 45 minutes south to Coyoacán for lunch at the stalls of its covered market: tostadas, quesadillas and fresh juices at the counters. In the early afternoon we enter the Casa Azul, the blue house where the painter Frida Kahlo was born, worked and died, on a timed ticket booked ahead: her studio, her bedroom and the exhibition of the dresses she wore. Afterwards there is time to walk the plazas and the Jardín Centenario before we drive back to the centre at about 4 pm.

Soir

The evening is free, with the hotel close by.

Compris

• National Museum of Anthropology at opening with your guide
• Lunch at Coyoacán market
• The Casa Azul (Museo Frida Kahlo) on a timed entry, with the camera permit for phone photos where it is sold
• A walk through Coyoacán's plazas

Activités en option

• Lucha libre at Arena México on the evenings it runs (ticket price shown when you book; we go as a group with the guide)

Teotihuacan at opening

Mexico City to Teotihuacan, then the Centro Histórico

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Mexico City
• Environ 2 h de route

Après-midi

We leave the hotel at about 7:45 am and drive about 50 km north-east, an hour or a little more in morning traffic, to reach Teotihuacan at opening, while the air is cool and before the tour coaches and the midday sun. The city was built centuries before the Aztecs, who found it already in ruins and gave it the name it still carries; UNESCO listed it in 1987. With a local site guide, a woman where one is available, we walk the Avenue of the Dead from the Ciudadela and the Temple of the Feathered Serpent past the Pyramid of the Sun to the Plaza of the Moon, about 4 km on uneven stone with little shade. The Pyramid of the Sun has been closed to climbers since about 2020 and Moon access varies, so we confirm before you travel. After a sit-down lunch near the site we drive back to the Centro Histórico for a short walk at about 3 pm: the Zócalo, the Metropolitan Cathedral and the excavated Templo Mayor of Aztec Tenochtitlan with its museum.

Soir

The evening is free.

Compris

• Teotihuacan at opening with a local site guide: the Ciudadela, the Temple of the Feathered Serpent, the Avenue of the Dead, the Pyramid of the Sun and the Plaza of the Moon
• Sit-down lunch near the site
• The Zócalo and the Metropolitan Cathedral
• Templo Mayor ruins and museum

Activités en option

• A sunrise hot-air balloon flight over Teotihuacan, weather permitting, with an earlier pick-up (price shown when you book)

Cholula and a night in Puebla

Mexico City over the Río Frío pass to Cholula, then Puebla

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Puebla
• Environ 2.5 h de route

Matin

After breakfast we drive east over the Río Frío pass, about two hours and a little over 120 km, to Cholula. On a clear morning Popocatépetl, an active volcano, and Iztaccíhuatl stand to the south as we come down into the valley. The Great Pyramid of Cholula looks like a hill because most of it is buried, with the yellow church of the Santuario de Nuestra Señora de los Remedios on top. We walk up to the church for the view and through the tunnels when they are open.

Après-midi

Lunch in Puebla is mole poblano, the dark sauce of chiles, spices and chocolate. Afterwards we visit the former convent of Santa Rosa, now a museum of Puebla folk art, whose tiled kitchen is where tradition says the nuns created mole. Your guide then walks you through the historic centre, listed by UNESCO in 1987: the cathedral, the gilded Rosary Chapel, the Palafoxiana Library founded in 1646, a Talavera pottery workshop and Calle de los Dulces.

Soir

The evening is free among the tiled facades.

Compris

• The Great Pyramid of Cholula and the Santuario de Nuestra Señora de los Remedios
• Mole poblano lunch in Puebla
• The former convent of Santa Rosa and its tiled kitchen (Museo de Arte Popular Poblano)
• Puebla historic centre walk: the cathedral, the Rosary Chapel and the Palafoxiana Library
• Talavera pottery workshop visit
• Calle de los Dulces

South to Oaxaca and the grill aisle

Puebla to Oaxaca on the toll highway

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Oaxaca
• Environ 4.5 h de route

Après-midi

We reach Oaxaca at about 1:30 to 2 pm and go straight to the Mercado 20 de Noviembre for a late lunch in the Pasillo de Humo, the smoky grill aisle: choose your meat, have it grilled in front of you and eat at long tables with tortillas and salsa. After checking in, an easy walk takes in the Zócalo, the cathedral, the pedestrian Andador Macedonio Alcalá and the church of Santo Domingo de Guzmán. Oaxaca sits lower, at about 1,550 m.

Soir

The evening is free.

Compris

• Drive from Puebla to Oaxaca with your guide, with two stops
• Late lunch in the Pasillo de Humo at the Mercado 20 de Noviembre
• Orientation walk: the Zócalo, the cathedral, the Andador Macedonio Alcalá and Santo Domingo de Guzmán

Monte Albán and black pottery

Oaxaca to Monte Albán and San Bartolo Coyotepec, then back to Oaxaca

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Oaxaca
• Environ 1 h de route

Après-midi

Lunch is a sit-down Oaxacan meal before we return at about 2 pm. The afternoon is free: the Museo Textil de Oaxaca, a café in Jalatlaco or a rest.

Compris

• Monte Albán at opening with a local site guide
• Black pottery (barro negro) workshop in San Bartolo Coyotepec
• Sit-down Oaxacan lunch

Tule, women weavers, mezcal and Mitla

Oaxaca through the Tlacolula Valley to Santa María del Tule, Teotitlán del Valle, Santiago Matatlán and Mitla

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Oaxaca
• Environ 2.5 h de route

Matin

Further on, in Santiago Matatlán, we spend the late morning at a family palenque, a small mezcal distillery, run or co-run by a woman mezcalera where we can confirm one: agave hearts roasted in an earth pit, crushed under a stone wheel and distilled in copper or clay.

Après-midi

A tasting comes with a long lunch at the palenque or in the village. In the afternoon we visit Mitla, the Zapotec religious centre whose walls are covered in geometric stone fretwork.

Soir

We are back in Oaxaca by about 5 pm, with time to rest before a farewell dinner together, and your guide walks the group back to the hotel.

Compris

• The Árbol del Tule in Santa María del Tule
• A women's weaving cooperative in Teotitlán del Valle
• Mezcal palenque visit and tasting in Santiago Matatlán
• Lunch at the palenque or in the village
• Mitla with your guide
• Farewell dinner in Oaxaca

Activités en option

• In place of this day: a guided village hike in the Sierra Norte (Pueblos Mancomunados) with a community guide, about 2 hours each way by road and 3 to 4 hours on forest trails at around 3,000 m (price shown when you book)

Market, cooking class and home

A Oaxaca market and kitchen, then Oaxaca International Airport

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Environ 30 min de route

Matin

Your last morning is in the kitchen. A Oaxacan cocinera, a woman cook trained in her family's kitchen, meets the group at a city market to buy what the class needs: dried chiles, herbs such as hoja santa, fresh masa and quesillo, the local string cheese. We confirm the cook and her kitchen with your dates. Back in the kitchen you toast chiles and seeds for a mole, press and cook tortillas on a clay comal and grind salsa in a molcajete, a stone mortar, while she tells you how the dishes are made at home and for village fiestas.

Après-midi

Lunch is what you have cooked, with the recipes to take home. Your bags wait at the hotel, and after lunch we drive you about 10 km south to Oaxaca International Airport (OAX), around 20 to 30 minutes. Your guide checks your flight before saying goodbye. If your flight leaves before about 4:30 pm, skip the class and we take you to the airport when you need to go. Many routes home connect through Mexico City; ask us about extra nights there when you book.

Compris

• Market visit with a Oaxacan cocinera
• Cooking class, with the lunch you cook
• Drop-off at Oaxaca International Airport (OAX)